Confused.

[SpookCity_USA]

I've heard so many times that coffee actually has carbs? Same with tea. When someone goes to explain this they assume I'm asking about sweetened tea or coffee with milk or sugar, which I'm not. I mean plain black coffee and herb tea.


I'm just maintaining at the moment and I ONLY drink water. Since it's so cold out, I'd really, really love a cup of tea or coffee once in a while. I have had a few cups of tea here and there. It doesn't seem to have an effect. I am obsessed with knowing the carb count of everything so I NEED to know the awnser.
Someone help and put me out of my obsessive complusive misery?

[Brook]

Plain, black coffee (regular and decaf) has a carb. - About 1 carb per 10oz.

I count tea the same way.

The water is being steeped through tea leaves/coffee beans, and by virtue of the fact that the water comes out the other side darkened and flavored it means it's got it in the water, right? If it's not a fat or a protein, it's a carb.

I believe that, generally speaking and depending on how strong your coffee or tea is, the 1 gram per 10oz is an over-estimation, but I'd rather over than under estimate it.

Fitday says that coffee is 1 gram and switches to 2 grams at a 14oz.

HTHS!
~Brook

[cleochatra]

You want to stay away from caffeine, at least initially. It does wonky things with blood sugar.

Also, check ingredients always, even for tea. Some of the things I didn't expect to find and found were pretty amazingly bad.

[Analog6]

Why not just have a decaff. I use Douwe Egberts Moccona brand (I'm assuming you can get it there). Tastes pretty much like the real thing and you can have a teaspoon of cream in it if you want. I count each cup as 2 carbs. It's a treat.

[Elizellen]

Hot water is nice too!

[Moochiecat]

Are you using www.fitday.com to follow your numbers? Here's a link to help you with it:
http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5235
Yes, plain coffee and tea have carbs....also important is to switch to decaf. Look up caffiene in DANDR ...it messes with you and can cause stalls and/or cravings, so best to make the switch.

[SpookCity_USA]

Yep, I don't drink caffinated drinks. I haven't in over two years, I definitely lost even more weight when I stopped with the caffine. (started without taking it out of the diet at first.)
If I was to have tea or coffee it would not be caffinated.
Thanks to you all for the carb count!
Happy Holidays and good luck everybody.

[Analog6]

I bought a book at the weekend about the GI (Glyceamic Index). The doctor who wrote it said that caffeine switches on insulin production, something you don't want to do when trying to lose weight (see explanation below).
He said that when you eat a foodstuff that makes the body produce insulin, that is when the food is converted to fat. He went on to explain that food low in carbs (and low GI, under about 30) do not make the body produce insulin, unless you eat huge amounts, and it would take you so long to eat and digest them they'd never make you produce insulin anyway.
All our allowed veges fall into his low GI group - except I was startled at carrots, they are a 70, so will always make you produce insulin. Once you do this, all the fat you digested with that carrot is going to be stored (that was my understanding, anyway).
Moderate GI (30-50) may make you produce insulin, but only small amounts.
I am going to scan this section, so if anyone wants to read about it - and it is good knowledge to have to complement our Atkins WOE - send me a PM. Will be a week or two though, I'm busy at work.

[canuck]

Is the book called THE GI REVOLUTION??? It was written by Oz and Cdn doc and is good to follow, especially for diabetics. But you have to read the whole book to follow as some foods are worse cooked than raw etc.

[sadie147]

Here's a link to GI information/explanation as well, and a GI index list (click on foods menu on left)

http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm

Atkins.com also discusses it:


http://www.atkins.com/research-libra...0Carbohydrates