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Diabetes Diet

Sandwiches Without Bread

If you want to control your carbs, then sandwiches are one of your biggest food problems. Using bread for making sandwiches was a wonderful idea to keep our hands from getting greasy from the good stuff inside.

But using bread is a bad idea when we want to cut back on our carbs. And now we have even better ideas.

Most bread comes from wheat flour, which is one of the highest glycemic foods there is. Few foods will spike our blood glucose more and faster than wheat flour.

Corn tortillas are a substitute for some of us. Corn is only moderately high glycemic. Rye is the only other bread that I can think of that is reasonably low glycemic. Still, all tortillas and rye bread are made from grain, which I completely avoid on my very low-carb diet.

But each of these breads still has too many grams of carbohydrate for anyone following a very low-carb diet. Sometimes people use a lettuce leaf to wrap their sandwich or burger. But I’ve never been a fan of a lettuce sandwich.

The best sandwich solution that I have ever found are soy wrappers. My low-carb vegetarian friend, Barry, turned me on to them.

Made from non-GMO soybean protein, these thin wrappers have as little as half a gram of carbohydrate each. One flavor, sesame, has one gram of carb. These wrappers are so thin — and have so few carbs — that I often use two of them for one of my favorite lunches, bratwurst (or meat or tofu hot dogs) with Dijon mustard and sauerkraut.

The American branch of Yamamotoyama Japan, which Kahei Yamamotoyama established in 1690, markets these useful “Sushi Party Soy Wrappers.”They come in two sizes. I prefer the smaller “half sheet” size, because the half sheets come in a resealable package and the bigger ones (the “full sheets of 7 1/16″ x 7 7/8”) don’t.

Some East Asian markets carry them. Yamamotoyama also offers them online. It’s an idea that would have made the Earl of Sandwich proud.

This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.

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  • Walter Ecker at

    Holly. I like to warm them in the microwave for about 10 sec. But depends on what you like. Great post by the way, on how to control carb intake. Thanks..

  • David Mendosa at

    Dear Linda,

    Yes. Fiber has some, but very little, impact on our blood glucose level. The Julian Bakery low-carb bread is advertised as only one gram of net carbs per slice. That’s great. But you need to check your blood glucose levels just before eating a slice and then 75 minutes after your first bite and see the difference for yourself. No other food or no exercise in the meantime. We would be interested in your results!

    Best regards,

    David

  • LindaCC at

    I am going to buy these soy wrapers…
    I am also wondering about the Julian Bakery Low Carb Bread. I have read about it. However,
    does the “net carb theory” work for diabetics?

  • michael at

    Has anyone tried Julian Bakery Breads from La Jolla, California? I ordered and tried their Low Carb bread #1 which has 13 grams of carbs and 12 grams of dietary fiber (net 1 gm.). Maybe I am fooling myself but it tastes as good as any low carb bread that I have tried. If this is legit, maybe the wrappers become a good second option?

  • Nancy at

    I found these wrapers in my local grocery store – they are great – thanks for the heads up !

  • David Mendosa at

    Dear Holly,

    Good point! You use them just as is out of the package!

    Best regards,

    David

  • Holly at

    How about telling us how to prepare the wrappers for use? Do they require steaming? Baking?…