I learnt how to calculate the wholeness of whole-grain foods from the book Is Butter a Carb? by Registered Dietitians, Rosie Saunt and Helen West. I’m paraphrasing here for brevity:
- Look at the food label (either per 100 grams or per portion). Multiply the grams of fibre by 10.
- Aim for the result to be larger than the grams of total carbohydrates. This signals that you’ve got pretty “whole” food.
Take this Hovis Thick Sliced Wholemeal Bread. The carbs (per 100g) are 37.8g. Fibre is 6.8g.
6.8 x 10 = 68. The result is greater than 37.8 so I'd assume it's reasonably whole
In my quest to find examples, I came across Duchy Organic Wholemeal Seeded Half Bloomer from Waitrose. It has (per 100g) 29.7g of carbs and a whopping 12.4g of fibre.
12.4 x 10 = 124. The result is far greater than 29.7. If 12.4 isn't a typo then this bread has an impressive amount of fibre. I can practically feel my bowels rejoicing.
It's worth checking labels regularly. The Jasons loaf I bought weekly suddenly changed due to supply issues. The carb to fibre ratio went from 52/44 to 36/44.8. I've switched to their Wholemeal Ciabattin loaf, which is no hardship as it tastes gloriously tangy (65/37.3).
Why does this matter? Well, fibre is important. I prioritise it for all the reasons listed in those Arnold Schwarzenegger links (I still love and recommend his newsletter) but also because Col is Type 1 diabetic.
In terms of diet, this means that he counts the amount of carbohydrate in his food and takes the appropriate amount of insulin. We eat the same food - nothing is restricted - but we try to be mindful and eat balanced meals. We also try to walk after each meal, if only around the block, as this helps to control blood glucose spikes.
An extra carb to fibre calculation
Type One Talks is a YouTube channel created by Tom, who's been Type 1 diabetic for over 30 years. It's great and I learnt even more about carb to fibre ratios. Tom divides the carbs by the fibre and takes the added sugar into account. He aims for a result of around 5 and minimal added sugar.
For Tom (and Col, and me too) the blood glucose spike should be more gentle than if we ate a highly processed, low-fibre bread with lots of added sugar*.
The calculation for Jasons Ciabattin loaf is 37.3 / 6.5 = 5.7. It has 2.2g of added sugars.
The numbers aren't quite as good as the organic wholegrain bread that Tom buys in Switzerland but they're close enough.
Learning about fibre has changed my relationship with food. Not in a dramatic way; it's just made me more thoughtful about what we eat. A new-ish macronutrient on my radar is protein (inevitable when reading Arnie newsletters). We've seen good results by adding more of it to our plates and I'll share some high-protein recipes on the blog soon.
* I'm not demonising this kind of bread; I'd eat it but in moderation.
