On your next trip to the grocery store, take a look at your favorite bread. Turn the loaf over and read the nutrition label. Compare the serving size first. It should be one slice. Reduced calorie breads are not your best choice. There's no reason to pay them extra money to slice your bread thinner or throw in more air. Bread is a place to get high fiber. Fiber has no calories. And when you get up from the table when you've had high fiber, you will say, "Wow, I feel comfortable. I feel well fed." When you eat reduced calorie bread, you get up from the table and say, "I'm hungry." There's no reason to get up from the table having just eaten and still feel hungry.
Next, look at the first ingredient. Your first ingredient should say the word whole or bran. It doesn't matter if it says unenriched and unbleached or unbromated. Those things don't matter. You want it to say whole or bran. If it doesn't say that, put it back on the shelf.
The next place to look is under carbohydrates — the amount of fiber. A good choice is 3 or more grams of fiber. As you'll see, some things that sound healthy like 7-grain, 12-grain, or flax seeds, aren't necessarily your best choice.
Rye has 0 -2 grams of fiber, same thing with pumpernickel. Just because some things are dark doesn't mean they're OK choices.
You may ask: "What about oat bran English muffins?" Same applies for English muffins as with bread, the first ingredient should say whole, and you want 3 grams of fiber in one slice.
Let's say sourdough bread is your favorite. Have some, but most of the time have a higher fiber bread.
As for bagels, the serving size for diabetes is about _ of a bagel. But the bagel that we are talking about is the small frozen Lender's size. When you go to the grocery store bakery, bagels are about the size of 4 servings. When you go to Dunkin Donuts, it's 5 servings. Most people with diabetes only get about 5- 7 servings in a day. So if you eat all of that in one shot, first of all, you overload your system with carbohydrates and second, there's not much left for the rest of the day.
You want to spread things out evenly over the day. So if you're going to have a bagel, keep your serving size to the small frozen Lender's size. Whether you eat the whole bagel or half depends on how many servings of carbohydrate you're allowed at a meal. Some people will only have one serving of carbohydrate at a meal. Most people will have 2, so it would be the whole small frozen Lenders Bagel size.
