Inject for buckwheat?

Does anyone know whether I should be injecting for Kasha (buckwheat groats)? I saw somewhere that they are actually a type of seed. Also wondering about quinoa and pearl barley...

Hi Adrienne,

I have done a bit of a search on Kasha, and it is in fact a grain - a staple grain often used to make porridge in Eastern European countries. The nutritional information that I was able to find on the web is American based and in 1 cup of Kasha there is 33.5g of carbohydrate. According to the glycemicindex.com, buckwheat groats are low GI, they have a GI of 47-49, so similar to that of rolled oats....... (note, this is not as low GI as legumes, cherries, grapefruit, barley & fructose powder)... I would advise you to inject for them, based on the amount of carbohydrate calculated in your serve, as you would for oats. However, as everyone is different, monitor your BGLs after eating to determine the effect they have on you.

As for pearl barley, it is one of those super low GI foods (GI of around 22-29) and in DAFNE, we advise you that you may not need to inject at all if only consuming a small amount. If consuming in larger amounts then you may need to inject some QA, but not as much as you normally would for that carbohydrate amount. The only way to determine this is with trial and experimentation.

Quinoa is similar to the Kasha, has a similar GI and is also a grain. As per the advice for the Kasha, inject for Quinoa based on your calculated carbohydrate amount and monitor your BGLs for that individual response.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Adele (DAFNE dietitian)

Thanks Adele, that helps a lot :-)