So I came across this “Carbquick” stuff on Amazon…
Has 16g carbs but only 2g “net carbs” because of all the fiber. Ok, so by that logic if I add some wheat grass (or any fiber) to my smoothies, blend it all up, won’t I effectively lower the “net carbs” of the total drink?
*btw anyone have any experience with that carbquik stuff? Or can anyone recommend a better pizza dough alternative?
Thanks!
Nope. Adding fiber doesn’t transform non-fiber carbs to fiber carbs, it just adds fiber carbs to the total carb content. All the non-fiber (net) carbs will still be there.
We didn’t like it at all. Tasted nasty to us. My husband likes pancakes, so he found some Birch Bark paleo mix at Costco he uses for that.
In terms of pizza dough, there are many recipes in the recipe forum here. Fathead, Carl’s fathead, Chicken, etc. Also premade frozen pizza that doesn’t suck is
I recently tried this one and it’s pretty good.
http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/low-carb-pork-rind-pizza-crust-282073
Hmm ok thanks for the info. So what makes a carb a magical “fiber carb”? What exactly do they use in this carbquik stuff anyway…
All fiber is carbohydrate. Because it’s unabsorbed by the body, though, it doesn’t count the same way and you can ignore it if you are only counting net carbs. I’m not sure what fiber source this product uses, you’d have to look at the ingredients.
Net carbs is just total carb grams minus fiber carb grams. If you look at the nutritional label for this product (or any product), if you subtract fiber grams from total carb grams, it will be the net carbs.
That’s why adding fiber to a smoothie, for example, won’t decrease net carbs. However many grams of fiber you’re adding will not only raise the grams of fiber but also the grams of total carbs by the same amount. You’ll be getting more fiber, which could be a good thing, but the net carbs will be the same. Hope that makes sense!
Thanks for the link - anyone else vouch for those “Real Good Foods” frozen pizzas? Their website has a store locator and I’m thinking of taking a long drive to pick up a couple…
I’m really interested in the science behind this now… What makes a “fiber bound” carb so special (high carb, but when you factor in the fiber, has a low net carb)? If I tossed such a carb in my blender would it alter the composition? What about when it hits my stomach acid, won’t the fiber eventually get stripped from the “normal part of the carb” and spike my blood sugar?
There are several threads on here, go to the search field, type in Real Good Foods and a list of threads talking about it will come up. Many like them. I do want to add, cook them in the oven not the microwave, packages say either but it is much better texture when oven cooked.
I am not 100% sure what you mean by a fiber-bound carb. If you mean the way they compare whole fruit (which has a lot of fiber in it) with fruit juice (which doesn’t have fiber), they are only talking about the fact that the presence of fiber when you eat the orange can slow down intestinal absorption of sugars in that orange. To the best of my knowledge, at a molecular level there is no binding of fiber to other carbs like sugar.
So the number of net carb grams in one orange is the same as the number of net carb grams in the fiber-free juice of that orange. You’re just getting more fiber from the whole orange. For the purposes of counting your intake of net carbs, there is no such thing as a fiber-bound carb that’s different in any way.
I know it sounds complicated but really the only thing you need to know when looking at nutritional analysis is Total Carb Grams - Fiber Grams = Net Carb Grams. Doesn’t matter what combination the carbs come in.
I hope that helps!
Some carbs can be digested, some carbs can’t be digested. The easy way of thinking about it is that the fibre carbs are the ones that can’t be digested, and that’s why so many of us don’t count them.
When I read this again, I think maybe it’s the fact that fiber is a carbohydrate that is getting in the way here.
If you took 10 g of sugar, that would have 10g of total carbs, but because of all of it is sugar and there’s no fiber, it’s 10 g net carbs.
If you took 10g of sugar and added 10g of fiber (any fiber) to it, you’d have 20g of total carbs, but because 10 of it is fiber, you still have 10 g net carbs.
The 20g carb product looks higher in carbs at first but it’s not the same because 10g of it doesn’t get absorbed by the body. But also, the presence of the fiber doesn’t in any way negate the presence of the sugar.
When I say “fiber bound card”, I am talking about these magical carbs used in products like this carbquick stuff. Super high “total carb”, but because it has fiber, it is a low “net carb”.
Compared to “regular carbs” (white bread/sugar), which doesn’t seem to have much fiber, thus high “net carb”.
According to the ingredients for Carbquick (hidden as the last image on the amazon page), it is made of something called “Carbalose flour”, which looks to just be “Enzyme enriched WHEAT”… I thought “wheat” (even “whole grain”) was bad at spiking blood sugar…
So in this case, 16g of carbs (coming from Wheat), but because it is magical “fiber bound” wheat (however they do that), it really only counts as 2g net.
It’s not magical, it’s just that they formulated a product that is high in fiber and low in digestible carbs. Look at the nutritional label. If they magically could take all the fiber out, the total carb count would drop to 2 g. The total carb count is high because of all the fiber in it.
Ah ok so you’re saying they just found a way to engineer a strain of wheat that is 90% fiber? *or maybe there is nothing special about it, and they are just mixing a tiny amount (2g) of regular old wheat in with a lot (14g) of regular old fiber?
Although to add even more confusion - they say 16g carbs, but then say 14g dietary fiber, and 14g insoluble fiber, which seems to total more than the “total” 16g…
They process it (after harvesting, I mean) in such a way to reduce the digestible carb content, it’s from the same wheat that is in everything else.
Soluble and insoluble fiber are both types of dietary fiber, so dietary fiber is like a “total fiber” listing. I’m guessing there’s no soluble fiber in this product if both dietary and insoluble are listed as 14 g, right?
And this thread is one of the reasons why I basically stick to total carbs, too much factory foods come into play with net carbs. Only net carbs I go by are the naturally grown ones in some fruit and veggies.
Correct. Ok so even though they list dietary and insoluble twice, they are the same. so 14g fiber + 2g wheat carbs = 16g total carbs.
Think this makes sense now, thanks for your help!
Ding ding ding!!! Ha ha!
Great job! I think understanding nutrition labels is super important whether you count net or total carbs in your keto journey, so I’m more than happy to help!
I’ll add that now you can look at any nutrition label and know the net carbs for yourself. Plus for all the great food without labels, you can just google the nutrient analysis and do the same. And now you can tell why food like avocados are considered so great for keto:
