Lin Carson, Author at Eat Bread 90

April 22, 2017June 28, 2017 by Lin Carson

White Bread is Bad: Day 20

Great Seed Bread.

I love the bakers at Franz Bakery. I walked into my office and there was a box full of fresh bread just sitting on my chair waiting for me. Today, I choose Whole Grain White and Great Seed. These are just amazing tasting breads.

Many people have lectured me about not eating white bread because it is bad. Now, before any of you condemn this white bread, remember: not all white breads are created equal. The recent surge on the market shows a new line of bread that is made from white wheat.

Whole Grain White Wheat by Franz.

Did they bleach the wheat?

No, this flour is from whole grain white wheat.

Is this white wheat GMO?

No. it’s been around for a long time (Wait, before you go there, remember, there is no GMO wheat!). Red wheats are more common, and whole grain red wheats color the bread brown, which is traditionally your brown whole wheat bread.

Now that I’ve explained the difference between white and red wheat, you should feel comfortable eating a whole grain white bread, because it is as nutritionally good for you as the regular whole wheat bread. Go eat your bread white!

Here’s what I ate on Day 20 of EB90:

Franz® Whole Grain White	5 slices (40g)	500
Franz® Great Seed	6 slices (43)	660
Tilamook® Butter (Salted)	1 Tbsp	100
Ham	2 oz	60
Tillamook® sliced cheddar	1 Slice	45
Apple	1	95
Kale and sausage soup	1C	200
Quesadilla	1 Slice	400
Fried homemade dumplings	5 pieces	300
Smucker’s Sugar Free Strawberry Jam	2 Tbsp	20
Run		-300
Bike		-200
Total		1880

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April 21, 2017June 28, 2017 by Lin Carson

No Need for a Sugar-high: Day 19

Sprouted diabetic lifestyle bread from Alvarado St. Bakery.

I’m really digging this Sprouted Diabetic Lifestyle bread from Alvarado St. Bakery. Their organic grains are sprouted and directly made into bread sweetened by only organic dates. This produced a bread that was clinically proven by the Glycemic Research Institute in Washington DC, to be low glycemic.

A low-glycemic diet is one that selects foods on the basis of minimal alteration of circulating glucose levels. Glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) are measures of the effect on blood glucose level after a food containing carbohydrates is consumed. Remember, a low glycemic diet is helpful to diabetics managing their blood sugar. Whether it applies to the rest of us or not is arguable. The push that all carbs are not created equal, and the creation of the low GI diet has propelled the South beach and high protein diets.

I believe this bread would suit those diets very well. However, I still like eating this bread because it has a very low sugar content, and yet, it was very palatable when eaten by itself. I have a lot of respect for Alvarado St. Bakery who has put so much work into producing this type of bread. Today is unusually sunny and in the 70s in Portland. I ended this long crazy week with w 5K run down the waterfront corridor. Portland weather is turning amazing and I may eat more bread because of this.

Here’s what I ate on Day 19 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted California Style	7 slices (34g)	630
Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Diabetic Lifestyle	6 slices (34g)	480
Apricot preserve	3 Tbsp	150
Salami	6 Slices	180
Barney Â® Almond butter Vanilla + Espresso	1 Tbsp	95
Orange	1 orange	45
Quiche	1	250
Run		-444
TOTAL		1386

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April 20, 2017August 6, 2017 by Lin Carson

Sprouted Grain Bread Nutrition is AMAZING! Day 18

With more and more sprouted grain bread popping up on grocery store shelves, you may be wondering, is it really THAT much more nutritious? Yep. Not only are you getting more vitamins and minerals by the sprouting process, but you’re also getting a uniquely delicious bread!

Sprouted multi-grain bread.

Alvarado St. Bakery is serious about their spouted grain bread. So serious that they sprout their grains in filtered water for several days until they begin to grow, then they grind it down and make it into bread. By using this special process, they make their special sprouted line without the use of flour.

Alvarado St. Bakery is the nation’s oldest and largest cooperatively-owned organic bakery. Today, I had the opportunity to taste their Multigrain and Diabetic Lifestyle bread. It was slightly sweet, and very moist.

Why sprouted grain bread?

Sprouted grains helps to increase the availability of some nutrients. Sprouted whole grains are also easier to digest and contain essential vitamins, minerals and fiber. After I ate 4 slices, I felt so full I couldn’t eat anymore for another couple of hours. I really think this really is the best kind of bread, and being so high in protein, you feel full forever!

sprouted grain bread nutrition healthy diet

Breakfast sandwich with fried egg and skyr topped with romesco on Sprouted California Style bread from Alvarado Street Bakery.

My days’ worth of bread.

Here’s what I ate on Day 18 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Multigrain	7 slices (34g)	630
Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Diabetic Lifestyle	6 slices (34g)	480
Nutella	2 tbsp	200
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam	2 Tbsp	40
Dickinson’sÂ® Lemon Curd	4 Tbsp	240
Siggi’sÂ® Skyr Vanilla	1/2 C	60
Grilled Pork	2 oz	150
Coconut Cardamon Almond Cashew Butter	1 Tbsp	95
Egg	1	78
Orange	half	23
Romesco	2 Tbsp	100
Bike		-200
Total		1896

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April 19, 2017June 28, 2017 by Lin Carson

Keep it Simple: Day 17

Today, I just wanted something simple. A plain whole wheat bread from Franz®. It was organic as well. It was a slightly sweet bread with all the nutrition of whole wheat. The bread was lighter compared to the artisan breads I ate yesterday, so I had to eat 11 slices of it.

I am actually getting very skilled at getting down all this bread by 5 p.m. So that when I get home, I can still have dinner with my family. Tonight, we had Salmon and green beans. I also had a little Pistachio gelato left in the freezer. Consider that gone!

Here’s what I ate on Day 17 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Franz® 100% Whole Wheat	11 slices (43g)	1100
Deli Chicken Breast	3 slices	50
Strawberries	1/2C	24
Berry whipped cream cheese	2 Tbsp	50
Dickinson’s® Lemon Curd	4 Tbsp	240
Siggi’s® Skyr Vanilla	1/2 C	60
Pan Fried Salmon	6 oz	371
Green Beans	1 C	50
Green Apple	1	80
Gelato	1C	400
Run and Bike		-450
Total		1975

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April 17, 2017May 9, 2017 by Lin Carson

A 5K Every Other Day: Day 15

Good+Seed+Thin-Sliced+White

I remembered running my first 5K seven years ago, after my third child was born. It was a horrid experience; I wanted to puke my guts out after the race. I found running to be extremely tedious and today it’s still my weakest leg in a triathlon. Why? Because I was never a runner. I swam extensively in high school, and my husband taught me how to ride 20 miles on the flat roads in Kansas. I’ve never done cross country, so running is all self-taught. I find the best way to kill time, is to have my friend, Diane, run with me. We’ve worked up to an easy 5K since we started running together last season. Now I challenge myself to run a 5K every other day to build my stamina for my next triathlon.

Why Triathlons? Because I can’t do marathons. I’m envious of people who can run half marathons but I just don’t have the capacity to do it. I’ve done six sprint triathlons between Ohio and Oregon. It gives me a good goal to train towards at the end of fall.

Love for the sport

I can’t really explain the triathlon spirit, but every triathlete I’ve met on course has always been helpful and inspiring. Well, it’s not inspiring when a 30-year-old over takes you at running or biking (for those unaware, participants in triathlons have their ages written on their legs, so we can see each other’s age).

However, there is something to be said about running up to an 80-year-old woman, and encouraging her to keep going. Then hearing her story of how she has run 40 Triathlons starting in her 40s. True story! I’ve been in situations where I’m almost out of gas and triathletes would just slow down and encouraged me. These athletes are about the nicest people in the world.

Triathlons, as a sport is very inspiring and rewarding, and that is why I will keep doing it. However, for me to not crash and burn on race day, I have to keep doing my 5K every other day, and swim or bike once or twice a week.

Fuel up!

What better way to fuel this activity than with a loaf of Good Seed Thins from Dave’s Killer Bread®! On checking its nutritional statement, I was pleasantly surprised that its protein was higher than its sugar content. This is good. All the nutritious grains and seeds that would meet my dietary needs for the day is in 16 slices of bread. I’ve also learned that it is a lower calorie version of one of their best-selling breads. Although it may be low-cal, it is still packed with whole grains, protein, fiber, and omega-3. So, I laid it all out below to show you what a day’s worth of consumption looks like.

My day’s worth of bread laid out.

I did leave two slices untouched, for dinner to accompany my home made spaghetti meat sauce.

I folded them onto a pile that sat next to my desk the whole day.

Here’s what I ate on Day 15 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Dave’s Killer Bread® Good Seed	16 slices (28g)	1120
Weight Watchers® Whipped Cream Cheese Spread	2 Tbsp	60
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam	2 Tbsp	40
Lox	2oz	120
Artichoke Bruchetta spread	2 Tbsp	67
Pine nuts	0.5oz	90
Capers		5
Nutella®	2 tbsp	200
Apple	1 pc	95
Skippy® Peanut Butter	1 Tbsp	95
Orange	1 pc	45
Ice cream	1/2 Cup	210
Home made spaghetti meat sauce	1 Cup	350
Run		-340
Total		2157

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April 16, 2017May 31, 2017 by Lin Carson

Week Two Weigh-in

To all of you out there who have said I am going to gain weight on the challenge, here’s my answer:

Weigh-in at Day 7:

weigh-in - week 1 - eat bread 90

Weigh-in at Day 14:

Yep, all that bread, for 14 days. Still haven’t gained a single pound!

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April 16, 2017May 9, 2017 by Lin Carson

Why Raw Kale Can Make You Fat: Day 14

Sonoma Sun from Alvarado St. Bakery.

I woke up feeling very hungry, so I made a ham egg and cheese sandwich with Sonoma Sun from Alvarado St. Bakery for breakfast this morning. That really hit a spot. Sometimes it takes a good hearty sandwich to start the day right.

Someone critiqued my menu choice and said I don’t eat enough salad and raw green vegetables. I personally am not a salad person. I just find it too troublesome to prepare salad for my whole family, where I could prepare the same amount of nutrients and antioxidants by just blanching some green vegetables and serving it with delicious butter.

“But eating raw vegetables are good for you, all the fresh vitamins and antioxidants are killed in the cooking process.”

I hear this and see kale and spinach salads and smoothies gaining popularity these days. Did you know that eating raw broccoli and kale or other cruciferous vegetables could be harmful to your thyroid? These raw vegetables contain chemicals that block the production of thyroid, and can be harmful to people struggling with their weight, not knowing that they could have hypothyroidism. If you love eating raw kale and arugula, and you’re having weight and depression issues, go check out your thyroid hormone level, and stop eating these raw.

In addition, raw spinach contains oxalic acid which blocks iron and calcium absorption. In order for you to reap the benefits of iron from spinach, you have to cook it. Yes, that is why Popeye got his spinach from a can! I don’t know which health guru started this eating-raw-vegetable trend, but obviously, they didn’t study the science of nutrition. I did try to get a green smoothie the other day, but the lady behind the counter told me she couldn’t blanch my spinach before putting it into a smoothie. So I moved on.

Some other raw veggies that I turn and run from:

Edamame: Yikes! Protease inhibitors! They reduce your digestibility of proteins.
Mushrooms: Gross. Do you know what these are grown on? Horse manure.
Sprouts: Food safety alert!! The water that sprouts grow in are the best medium for E.coli. Why? Because the workers don’t clean their hands when they plant these sprouts. My stomach churn for people who eat organic sprouts because they are not chemically sanitized!

I truly believe that is why humans grew bigger, stronger and lived longer when fire was discovered. We physically used fire to make more nutrients available to us, and this killed all the necessary bacteria that made us sick. So let’s use some heat and logic, to make food more nutritious.

Now, back to bread eating. Bread, a perfectly safe food to eat that is rich in nutrients that are readily available.

My dinner tonight included steak, caramelized onions, portabella mushroom, asparagus and Puratos O-tentic Baguette. Note: my steak is always well done because its proteins are more easily digestible.

Steak, veggies and O-tentic Baguette.

Here’s what I ate on Day 14 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Alvarado St. Bakery® Sonoma Sun	5 slices (43g)	600
Puratos O-tentic Baguette	285g	750
Tillamook® Salted Butter	2 Tbsp	200
Mango		200
Egg	1	78
Tillamook® sliced cheddar	1 Slice	45
Smucker’s Sugar Free	1 Tbsp	10
Dickinson’s® Lemon Curd	2 Tbsp	120
Skippy® Peanut Butter	1 Tbsp	95
Orange	1 orange	25
Asparagus	1 C	27
Steak & Onions	3oz	271
Almond Breeze® Chocolate Almond Milk	1 C	40
Easter Candy		250
Run		-200
Total		2531

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April 15, 2017May 9, 2017 by Lin Carson

You Must be Cheating: Day 13

Sonoma Sun from Alvarado St. Bakery.

You only eat bread all day? How can you finish so much bread in a day? I don’t believe it, you must be cheating on your diet. There’s no one who can eat so much bread and not gain weight.

Honestly, these are some of the more common remarks that come at me every day. Yet when I started this challenge, I knew it would be controversial and turn people’s heads. Which brings up the real reason I’m eating so much bread: I did this to make a point! I’m showing others (the doubters and believers) that anyone can eat this amount of bread, and still not gain weight.

For those who don’t believe that I am eating this large amount of bread, just hang out at NedSpace—the co-working space where BAKERpedia is headquartered at. You’ll see me stuffing my face all day. I place a portion and calories table at the end of each blog to show all my followers that eating bread can be fun, and it can be done with a variety of bread. So no cheating is needed.

Open faced cheese and egg sandwich to launch my spring training day.

It was a beautiful day in Oregon, and we had to clear some brush (due to the windstorm that came by last week), so we started a campfire in our backyard. Today is also the start of my Spring training. As you can see, I expanded quite a lot of calories, so I treated myself to roasted marshmallows tonight.

Roasted marshmallows on a slice of Sonoma Bread.

Yes, I ate that with bread too (as you can see in the picture). Honestly, it didn’t taste that great, but some chocolate would have pushed the envelope on calories. I really did this because I had to finish the last slice of the day.

Here’s what I ate on Day 13 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Alvarado St. Bakery® Sprouted Wheat Coffee Pumpkin Cranberry Bread	4 slices (32g)	400
Alvarado St. Bakery® Sonoma Bread	8 slices (43g)	960
Kraft® Marshmallows	8pc	200
Egg	1	78
Tillamook sliced cheddar	1 Slice	45
Nutella®	2 tbsp	200
Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Strawberry Jam	2 Tbsp	160
Skippy® Peanut Butter	1 Tbsp	95
Apple	1	95
Green Beans	1 C	31
Hebrew National® Beef Hot Dogs	2	340
Bike & Run		-550
Total		2054

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April 14, 2017May 9, 2017 by Lin Carson

The Queen of Sweet Bread: Day 12

Craquelin, you must be the queen of sweet breads! I received an awesome tasting bread called Craquelin, made by the bakers at Puratos® using Tegral Soft’r Sweet Bread and pearl sugar.

Craquelin is a sweet and moist brioche from Belgian. Chunks of pearl sugar bits are added to the dough. As the dough bakes, the sugar melts, creating little pockets of sweetness throughout the brioche. And because real butter and eggs are used in this recipe, it’s a velvety and rich bread. It was a great bread by itself. Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat a whole loaf of it in a day (calorie overload). I needed to mix it up with other bread like the Oroweat® Whole Grain and Birotes.

Grilled chicken, squash, potatoes with a slice of Birote.

Birotes, originally from Mexico, look like small pointed baguettes. This unique loaf is made with eggs, lime and beer, giving it a distinctive flavor. The recipe dates back to mid-19th Century when Belgium baker Camille Pirotte was tasked with promoting French bread in Mexico under Maxmillian. After the war, he stayed and opened his own bakery, developing the “pan de Birote.”

These Birotes have a thick and crunchy crust with a chewy and salty interior. Made using O-tentic Durum and Sapore Fidelio, this bread had a great fermented aroma. It paired well my roasted chicken dinner tonight. A wonderful savory bread without any sugar, these Birotes had a resilient and chewy crumb, making it similar to the texture of sourdough.

Birotes

I have been feeling under the weather with a head cold these couple of days. Therefore, I’ve toned down on the exercise significantly. My expenditure of calories has suffered because of this. Well, I’m not concerned because I lost weight last week, and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be the same weight this week as last week’s weigh in.

Here’s what I ate on Day 12 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Oroweat® Whole Grain	2 slices (38g)	160
Puratos® Craquelin	200g	800
Puratos® Birotes	200g	600
Kroger® Whipped Greek Cheese Spread	1 Tbsp	22.5
Siggi’s® Skyr Vanilla	1/2 C	60
Mango	1	200
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam	2 Tbsp	40
Boar’s Head Smoked Ham	2 oz	60
Tilamook Butter (Salted)	2 Tbsp	200
Roasted chicken dinner		400
Walk		-150
Total		2392.5

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April 13, 2017May 11, 2017 by Lin Carson

Happy to Eat Whole Wheat: Day 11

100% Whole Wheat from Oroweat®.

I was on the go again today, baking at the Wheat Marketing Center and making it to meetings. My pile of sandwiches was packed into the bread bag and went with me wherever I went. It’s Day 11 now, people around me should be comfortable with me eating bread and talking at the same time.

Today’s bread of choice is Oroweat® 100% Whole Wheat. I love whole wheat bread because it is made from whole wheat flour. Yes, the whole wheat! Many have forgotten that the wheat grain is one of the world’s most nutritious grain. It is an excellent source of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, and highly bioactive phytochemicals, which are antioxidant compounds that fights cancer.

We all need more wheat

We are truly lucky to have wheat grow in abundance in America, yet it puzzles me why there are so many people who are anti-wheat these days. Besides providing excellent nutrition, whole wheat has many benefits like reducing the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

With so much research showing whole wheat flour as a super food, I want to bring awareness that this can be taken advantage of by consuming whole wheat products like this 100 % whole wheat bread.

Here’s what I ate on Day 11 of EB90:

Food	Portion	Calories
Oroweat® 100% whole wheat	12 Slices (38g)	1080
Justin’s® Nut Butter	2 Tbsp	190
Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Strawberry Jam	4 Tbsp	80
Favorit Cherry Preserve	1Tbsp	50
Philadelphia strawberry cream cheese	1 Tbsp	35
Apple	1	95
Beef Noodles	1 C	200
Crackers	1 pkt	390
Total		2120

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