BS meaning blood sugar. 
Here’s something that mystifies me to no end: whenever I eat KFC fried chicken (original recipe), my blood sugar shoots to the sky. This mystifies me because what is there in the chicken that would make my BS sky-rocket? I am diabetic, so I try to watch for this, but to my knowledge there’s nothing that bad in the chicken - lots of fat and protein. Does the skin really have so many carbs?
WRS
It ain’t the chicken, it’s the coating made with (among other things) flour and brown sugar. The extra crispy is dunked in the coating mix twice, so you get an extra dose.
Do you eat the coleslaw? The KFC coleslaw has an astounding amount of carbs --more than the mashed potatoes if I recall correctly – I’d have to presume it’s nearly all from sugar since cabbage and mayo on their own have very few.
Are you sure the extra crispy s just a double dip, it does seem like a different consistancy?
We yanks are a sweet-toothed people. Many of our favorite brands are a little sweet. Our wines are generally sweeter than Euro wines. Even things that don’t seem sweet, like KFChicken and marinara sauce have some sugar.
WeR-
I’m diabetic (let’s see… 19-1/2 years now!), and I’m with you, something about the KFC does it. I don’t think there’s any sugar in their coating, though (bet you anything it’s just flour and spices). Seems to me just about any chicken recipe makes my BS level jump :rolleyes: Pizza is just about the only other “normal” food that has the same effect on me.
When I cooked at KFC, which was over thirty years ago, the coating came in three bags that were mixed at the resturant. One was 25 lbs of flour, one was about 2.5 lbs of salt, and the last was about 2.5 lbs of spices which was mostly black pepper. I am pretty sure there was no suger, brown or otherwise in that bag but, if there was it was a tiny amount.
I can WAG this one, because we make something like Extra Crispy here at home, and stumbled upon the secret quite by accident. We blend whole-wheat flour (so it doesn’t screw with BS levels), and spices, in two bowls. To one bowl, we add eggs and buttermilk to make a batter. We dip the chicken in the batter, then in the dry flour mix, then fry. IOW, the flour and spicing is exactly the same, but one is a batter, the second, a dredge. This makes excellent fried chicken, btw.
Well, flour is carbohydrates and carbs=sugar even if there is no sugar in the coating mix (which is a dark secret). Imitator recipes that I’ve found have sugar added. Dipping in a milk-based batter would just aggravate the problem.
Pizza? You shouldn’t be surprised there. Cheese and crust equals carb overdose. For me, it’s rice and pasta that spike the BS even in small amounts.
Nitpick: just crust equals carb overdose. Cheese really doesn’t have that much.
This is why we use buttermilk in our home-made batter; for some reason, fermented milk doesn’t seem to have the same effects that regular milk does, and whole milk doesn’t set off my cravings as badly as skim, probably because the fat offsets the absorption of the lactose a little bit.
Oy, pizza.
I love pizza. It is divine food. And as other people with diabetes have said, it makes one’s BS soar. I have, to this date, not been able to shoot enough insulin. I always go hyper, and have to test and shoot some more. I’ve even done 60 units at once. (Maybe the fact that I eat so many pieces might contribute to why this is.)
<hijack> My sister is diabetic too. It’s soooooooooooo nice to be able to talk about diabetic experiences with someone who knows exactly what I’m talking about. Like the relief and ecstasy of going to the washroom when one’s hyperglycemic. </hijack>be lots of flour
I had no idea there was flour in the batter. That kind of makes me understand why my BS would go up, but wouldn’t there have to be lots and lots of flour to have the affect it has on BS?
WRS
When I switched my insulin routine from Humulin R/Humulin N to insulin glargine/insuline aspart, I suddenly had to start counting carbs in everything I ate every time I ate something, just to make sure I wasn’t bursting over the twenty carbs limit. I suggest that you purchase a carb counter book so you know exactly how many carbs you’re getting. I actually got mine for free from my specialist when I switched my insulin, though they love handing out free stuff and I’m always getting weird things like SpongeBob band-aids. (I still go to a children’s endocrinologist.)
I was completely surprised by a how many carbs are in things like pizza and KFC and other fast food. A slice of Pizza Hut pizza has somewhere between 45 and 65 carbs, depending on how many and what kind of veggies you ladle onto it.
I don’t eat KFC often, but according to this site, an extra-crispy breast has 19 carbs, so if you’re eating two of those, then it’s 38 carbs. Add in cole slaw (26), a couple biscuits (20 each), and mashed potatoes (17), and you’ve got a grand total of 121 carbs, which is a lot. It’s amazing how quickly they rack up. If you drink a small regular soda, you can add another fifty carbohydrates.
Since I’ve started counting my carbs, I’ve cut way back on the fast food and my milk drinking, which I was horrified to discover totalled over 60 carbs a day, if I ate cereal for breakfast. I can go through a gallon in four days by myself, if I don’t watch out.
When William Poundstone (who writes the “Big Secrets” books) did his analysis of KFC’s coating, he found it was essentially flour, salt, pepper, and MSG. KFC’s chicken is cooked in a pressure-cooker, which is key to getting that flavor and texture.
Many people believe KFC’s coating has sugar in it, but I don’t think its ever been demonstrated to. This charge is also levied at french fries from Burger King and McDonald’s; they’re supposedly sprayed with a sugar solution, though I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this is also bunk.
Don’t know whats up with the “11 herbs and spices”; Poundstone didn’t find any, though there are likely trace amounts added to the coating mix KFC Inc. sends out to the restaurants.
What, pray tell, did you think batter was? Fried chicken batter is milk and flour with salt and pepper to taste. By volume, it’s over half flour. Same with the pizza – the crust is bread, which again is over half flour, and tomato sauce, which is sugary. The only low-carb part of the pizza would be cheese and most of the meat toppings.