Small But Mighty LivLife Bread

A couple of weeks ago I was informed about a new bread coming onto the food market. Now, in itself bread didn’t seem something to write home or rather a blog about… until I tried this one. I feel that LivLife bread is as intelligently designed as some of the protein shakes I take post training, read on to find out why…

The bread that I tried is called LivLife and is advertised as being specifically low GI. GI short for glycaemic index is an abbreviation of the term that describes the speed at which carbohydrates are broken down during digestion and often the effect that it can have blood sugars. If a food is low GI then it means that the carbohydrates it contains, take a longer length of time to be digested. And on the opposing side high GI foods are those that are high in sugar, giving short bursts of carbohydrate that don’t stay in the system for very long. In turn the types of carbs that you consume especially for someone who has diabetes can have an effect on blood sugar behaviour. Generally speaking carbohydrate that digests more consistently over a longer period of time prevents blood sugar spikes after a meal.

How this relates to the Livlife bread is that they’ve replaced some of the wheat flour ingredients usually found in bread, with proteins instead. This is especially good for me for two reasons, the first is that through choice I’ve decided to cut down on my gluten intake. This is because I was finding that after consuming some processed carbohydrate heavy meals such as pasta dishes, my blood sugars would spike massively. And secondly protein is integral when training because it not only helps muscles repair, allowing you to train better next session. But also with diabetes I’ve found that taking on protein after training reduces the speed of carbohydrate being digested and helps keep my blood sugars even overnight.

When I had the LivLife bread I ate it as part of my lunch with some vegetable soup, upon checking the packing to carbohydrate count (match insulin to take to carbohydrate value of the food). I was amazed at how low the bread was in carbohydrate and also by the fact that my blood sugars were consistently less than 10mmol after eating it. Right up until training later that evening and beyond. I always tend to eat wholemeal bread anyway, but usually I would see a spike in my blood sugars and a heavy feeling in the two hours after, but not with LivLife. Hence why I would describe it as small, mighty and tasty too!