You can be low-carb or you can eat sandwiches. You can't do both. There are exceptions, I'll grant you. I'd stretch the concept of low-carb to embrace the occasional cheat with your favorite sandwich. Or pizza. Especially pizza. Or you can eat sandwiches and still be on the low-carb playing field if it's specifically low-carb bread.
But to my mind, you can't talk a low-carb story and pack school lunches with sandwiches, soda, chips and a jelly doughnut. Which, much to my bemusement, is something I'm seeing on the net.
I'd planned to write about low-carb school lunches, particularly for children with gluten sensitivity, celiac disease or type-2 diabetes. But as I read further, I was dismayed.
There were low-carb articles, alright. Some were excellent. But many suggested macaroni and cheese, the ever-present sandwich and your child's favorite processed, sugary, enriched flour time-bomb.
Sorry, unless packaging specifies that it's a low-carb product, none of those things qualify.
This by the way, also goes for low fat -- something else I saw repeatedly in an unholy union with low-carb. Eating fat is NOT detrimental to low-carb. It's fat combined with too many carbohydrates that causes problems. Then, the fat from low-fat may be replaced with starch or sugar. Hmm. They're both carbohydrates.
So low-fat food removes healthy fat (and low-carb considers saturated fats like butter to be healthy, with no apologies) replacing it with undesirable carbs. Where is the logic in this? I don't see it.
Here's what I do see. It can take a major mental overhaul to step away from the sandwich, especially when planning your child's school-lunch. But make the move, and possibilities begin to open up.
Send your child to school with sliced meat like chicken. Roll it in lettuce and you have a tidy chicken wrap.
Cheese is alright, conditionally. It should be full-fat, and not rubbery cheese slices. And not every day because cheese is somewhat carb-y.
Send cut-up vegetables, maybe with full-fat sour cream dip and herbs. Toss in some dill pickles.
Cut-up berries like blueberries or strawberries are lower on the glycemic index than other fruit. Dip them in cream cheese. Full-fat. Don't wimp out now!
If your school lets kids heat their food, any low-carb leftovers work nicely. Put stews or soups in a thermos.
Moral of the story -- Calling a diet "low-carb" doesn't make it so. If you're sneaking in low fat and carbohydrates, it just isn't low-carb.
Visit Jody's website and blog at http://www.ncubator.ca and http://ncubator.ca/blogger