The market is full of unlikely claims about low carb versions of bread, pasta and chocolate. I see no reason to take these marketing claims at face value. Like the debacle with Dreamfields fraudulent “low carb” pasta shows, these claims do not necessarily have anything to do with reality.
Next up for testing: Julian Bakery’s delicious Smart Carb bread.
The marketing
Interestingly the Smart Carb #1 bread is baked on whole grains, yet it is claimed that only 1 gram out of 13 grams of carbs are digested. Sound familiar?
The words “Net carb” on the packaging is enough to make me suspicious. “Net carb” usually means that someone is trying to sell you stuff by telling you a fairy tale.
Is Julian Bakery’s bread an exception?
Jimmy Moore’s n=1 experiments
Jimmy Moore took the challenge and tested the bread in different ways. Not surprisingly his blood sugar went straight up, even though he ate the bread with coconut fat and cheese.
Like the decent man he is, mr Moore allowed a marketing guy from Julian Bakery to respond. Amazingly that guy blamed the cheese, and claimed that the minimal amount of lactose was the problem. Their bread couldn’t be the reason. That sounds a bit… unlikely.
Anyway, Jimmy Moore did a new test, eating only the bread and nothing else. This is the result on his blood sugar:
Without the cheese the effect of the “Smart carb” bread was even more drastic… exactly the way usual bread acts.
Smart Carb bread FAIL
This is just another confirmation of what should be obvious. If it looks like bread, feels like bread and tastes like bread, that means it is bread. Bread made from grains turns into glucose in your gut, raises your blood sugar and can lead to weight gain.
Lots of people still want to believe that they can eat “Low Carb” bread without the problems of other bread. They will say that experiments by one man proves nothing, that everybody has to test every new product for themselves to see.
To that I say: bollocks. Test for yourself, sure, why not. But if you blindly believe in the “Net Carb” marketing that means you’re living in fantasy land. If you keep having a weight problem it may be time for a reality check.
Better health and weight loss is achieved by eating real food low carb. Not by eating fake LC products.
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162 Comments
You put the nutritionals down but not the ingredients. Have you ever baked any bread? Well I have. Thousands and thousands of loaves of bread. Managing a bakery for a restaurant & catering company will do that for you.
Last I knew, you couldn't make bread with just flaxseed meal, rye meal, gluten, water, yeast and salt. Am I missing something here? Yes...FLOUR.
To produce any rye bread with acceptable volume, not more than 20 percent dark rye flour, 30 percent medium rye flour, and 40 percent light rye flour can be used in the formula. White bread flour must be used in the formula so enough gluten can be formed to hold the gas during fermentation, and to form the structure of the texture.
As a diabetic or low carber you had better educate yourself with the lists of ingredients and know what needs to go into something before you blindly buy it. There are so many fraudulently labeled low carb products as to boggle the mind. They are either blatantly and falsely mis-labeled as in the case of Julian Bakery or the lists of ingredients are not correct and whoever labels the products can just put anything they want. (Again, think Julian Bakery)
Seems a lot of the the falsely labeled breads are made somewhere in New York city. Hmmm.
Deborah Krueger
http://www.julianbakeryinfo.com
503-282-1299
I have a question for you Issac. I notice that the Omega Power Bread is the only bread you have for sale but you talk about other breads on your website. I am wondering if they are for sale also.
Is the Omega Power Bread your own original recipe as you say, or are you perhaps purchasing 44 lb. sacks of PowerFlax Golden Low Carb Flax Rye Bread Base from Red Square in Vancouver, BC and adding your own water and yeast?
Deborah Krueger
http://www.julianbakeryinfo.com
503-282-1299
Heath Squier of Julian Bakery may be up to his old tricks…again. He has come out with a “new” “new” SmartCarb #1 bread as of February (this is at least his third try) and with the reputation of Julian Bakery in the proverbial toilet he has put his original high carb ingredients back into his bread. All I can say is: BEWARE.
That said, the Omega Power Bread sent to me by Issac Sander in New York seems to “pass” the low carb test as far as I am concerned. You Celiacs out there cannot eat this bread-it is full of gluten. It arrived Friday and I set myself up to test it this morning. My readings were a bit strange as they went up, down, up and then down again but hey, our bodies can do strange things on any given day. For me, this is a pretty tight blood glucose range.
My assessment of the bread: The loaf weighed 20.25oz. which is under-weight by 1.75oz. or 49g. Not good but easily remedied. The bread is extremely dry and a bit crumbly but very dense and is probably a result of the low fat content. The loaf has a complete ring 1/4 “ of very dark, rather tough crust. I did not particularly care for the taste of the bread but taste is one of those things that is extremely subjective. Maybe if you toasted the bread and slathered it with butter that would help. Butter on anything helps.
My readings were as follows:
5:15am 107 Fasting-Consumer 2 slices or 77g
5:45am 117 2g net carbs
6:15am 106
6:45am 121
7:15am 109
7:45am 104
Issac never answered the question about whether he buys this as a mix and adds his own water and yeast or whether he indeed did come up with the formula himself for his diabetic grandmother. So we don’t know and he will need to answer this question himself. I do know you can purchase this exact product from Red Square in Canada. Their web address is http://www.rsquare.com and their toll free number is: 1-888-274-2181. You may talk with Angela or Mark.
Remember: No one is ever going to die by not eating bread.
To Ronnie61,
If you find bread you like, then stay with it. I find it strange that you are not a diabetic and you test your blood sugar but whatever. My advice is to buy raw ingredients and cook from scratch. That way you know what you are putting into your body. If you can’t cook learn to-it’s fun and I am all about fun.
Here is a link to see what the FDA will do to you when you mislabel your products. This was a bakery in New Jersey and the key word is was. http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/sugar-free-bakery-closes-after-...
This is a video of an interview I did with Arnold Diaz of FOX5 TV in New York regarding Carb Krunchers breads. http://www.myfoxny.com/category/233240/shame-shame-shame This was aired March 13th, 2013
And this is another story-video Arnold Diaz did regarding EatRite products. http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19507533/false-food-label-information This was aired Sept 10th, 2012
Deborah Krueger
503-282-1299
http://www.julianbakeryinfo.com
quiltmaker@kingsizequilts.com
Anyways I'm curious about the effect of the Paleo Bread.
demand for it...with POSITIVE results. no one product works for everybody. i say, if something isn't working for you, don't use it. i also would be willing to bet that if the majority of products on the market are subjected to lab tests, the results would be considerably different from what is stated on the package. in an ideal world, this would not be the case, but guess what.....