I'm Not Getting Enough Calories From Carbohydrate

[Luann]

Hi everyone,

I keep coming up short on calories, especially sugar. I've tried a couple different sources of carbohydrate...maybe someone can give me advice on how they are meeting their needs? Thanks everyone!!

Here's what I tried so far:

White rice (I would need rather large amounts of it)

Potatoes (they don't agree with me, plus don't really have time to prepare them often)

Soft drinks (too much liquid, hard on my teeth)

Candy (either filled with lots of cornstarch, or else gelatin which makes me feel off)

So as you can see I could really use another perspective! Thank you awesome Peatists

 

[DDK]

White Flour!

I make homemade white bread, pancakes, cake, cookies, etc... I also eat lots of pasta and noodles. High carb/calories, moderate protein, low fat, at least for the bread, pancakes, pasta and noodles.

Some days I just eat milk & sugar with the white bread and maybe meat and potatoes for dinner. If I eat a whole loaf of white bread and maybe 1-2 quarts of milk + 1/4-1/2 cup sugar I usually hit about 500 grams of carbs/3,000kcal.

Just make sure the flour is refined white flour, unbleached and unfortified. There are a few organic flours that meet these requirements.

Candy, soda, fruit & fruit juice also make my teeth really bad. Milk, white sugar and white flour do not.

Ice cream and chocolate are also good if you don't mind the fat, you didn't mention if you were looking for high carb/low fat options.

 

[theLaw]

Started making this choc syrup, and adding it to milk or ice cream. Boosted my calories easily. Milk + sugar always tasted too simple for me.

How to Make Homemade Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

1/2 gallon fat free milk = 666 calories
1/2 gallon fat free milk + 1 cup choc syrup = 1357 calories

I also drink apple juice with meals or mix AJ + Red Bull.

 

[Luann]

Hey thanks @DDK and @theLaw!

This is what I meant when I needed a second opinion! Never would have thought of good old white flour.
The Law I love chocolate milk, need to get back into it!
How bad is cornstarch exactly? As an additive to cooking, or in snack food? Thanks guys.

 

[kiran]

Potatoes (they don't agree with me, plus don't really have time to prepare them often)

You might try adding a few cloves of garlic to the boiling water.
Antibacterial Effect of Garlic Aqueous Extract on Staphylococcus aureus in Hamburger

 

[tara]

What I currently eat. Not sure if it's all ideal, but I think better than previous schemes:
Most:
Potatoes
fruit - fresh and dried
white rice (but not as much as potatoes or fruit)

Much:
other roots/veges/vege fruits: eg sweet potato, pumpkin, taro, artichokes, parsnip, onions, peppers, ...

Sometimes, but not much:
Juice
Fruit juice jellies - I'd probably benefit from having more of this - I'm just short of tuits (round ones)
Baked stuff using non-gluten flours, various forms of sugar, etc.
Oat porridge
Little bits of random confectionaries, baked things.

Past:
Have tried in the past but try to avoid ATM because they doesn't seem to do me good (but may be fine in suitable quantities for some people):
milk
cheesecake - made an easy home made version that could be made as high or low fat as I chose.
For a while I tried coffee milk and sometimes chocolate milk with sucrose. Occasionally mixed with OJ too.
lots of juice (some is fine, but not as a staple, at least in the commercial forms I've had access to)
lots of refined sucrose, eg added to coffee milk, juice (little bits are fine)
confectionaries, gummy sweets, etc
chocolate - I'd eat it if I didn't suspect it of being a possible trigger for me. I know it's got a lot of fat in it too, but significant stearic acid, so maybe not a bad way to get some fat in.
Wheaty bread. My own long-leavened bread seemed better than commercial stuff, but giving it a break because I think I'm better without it ATM.

How bad is cornstarch exactly? As an additive to cooking, or in snack food?

My hunch is that it's not great dry-baked, but might be fine if it's well-gelatinised, as used to thicken sauces etc.
So you could use it to make delicious custards, thicken up stewed fruit, etc. Or other starchy flours, eg tapioca if you want to go for root instead of grains.
Not much in the way of useful minerals etc with it though, so I wouldn't make it a major staple unless the rest of the diet is nutrient dense and you can afford the relatively 'empty' calories.