I know that some of you out there don't support the low carb lifestyle. I'm not "low carbing" anymore, so to speak... but I'm still limiting my "bad carb" intake. Avoiding things like non whole-grain flour, potatoes, and bad sugars like high fructose corn syrup is always a good idea.
I realized that I can probably still eat French Toast as long as I make it with a whole grain bread (not just wheat bread, or "made with whole grain", but a bonafide 100% whole grain bread). But I can't exactly eat french toast without syrup (my wife does).
So while in the syrup aisle at the grocery store, I was investigating my options. Pure organic maple syrup can't be that bad - it comes out of a tree after all and is completely unprocessed. But it's EXPENSIVE. And still loaded with calories. And it tastes vastly different from your run of the mill fake maple syrups (we usually buy Hungry Jack, in the microwavable bottle).
I decided to give the "sugar free" syrup a try, and I picked up a bottle of Log Cabin sugar free syrup. Unlike the Hungry Jack syrup, which has a primary ingredient of corn syrup and then water, with less than 2% of everything else, the Log Cabin sugar free syrup is made of water and then sorbitol ... and less than 2% of everything else. Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol, so it doesn't really affect your blood sugar. The sugar free syrup also has only 35 calories per serving, as opposed to 210 calories in the same 1/4 cup serving of the Hungry Jack syrup.
And here's the best part - it's a reasonably tasty substitute. My friend Mike tried a splenda sweetened brand of "low carb" syrup and said it was so nasty they threw the bottle away. But I've found the log cabin sugar free syrup to taste pretty much like regular syrup.
That's one product that I'll continue to buy - even when I'm not low carbing.
Another one is the "Flat-Out" brand flatbread wraps. Particularly, the lite, low carb Italian Herb version. You can see an example nutrition information for the non-lite version here if the image is broken.
15 grams of fiber, 11 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fat, with only 110 calories? That's a LOT more good stuff than you're going to get out of 2 slices of any whole grain bread! And this bread is a bit thicker than your average whole wheat tortilla shell that people often use for sandwich wraps. They're quite suitable for pizza crusts as well.
The lite version of the same bread has only 15 carbs - 9 grams of which are fiber, and only 80 calories (the same number of calories found in your standard slice of bread).
On a side note, the flat out bread bread is apparently manufacturered in my home town of Saline, Michigan. They have a web site too that describes all of their varying products - only some of which are available in the stores around here.
www.flatoutbread.com
