Unsweetened may not be enough.
This morning I woke up with a flat tummy, which felt like a miracle as I am surfacing from a flare. (I am SO looking forward to the day whey I wake up and I'm just, like, ho-hum, my belly is flat, *yawn*.) The sun was streaming in the window and it's Sunday, so I decided to take advantage and make myself some nice, gingery chai from scratch using my favorite Chai Wallah herbs-only mix, one teabag and a cup of organic, unsweetened almond milk.
When the chai was done, I drank a mugful and it was totally yummy. An hour or so later, boom! I’m back to the maternity look. WTH?
Didn’t add any honey or coconut sugar to the chai, so it wasn’t that. But something was definitely feeding the minions. So I checked the Unsweetened Original Almond Milk box. Bingo.
You can see from the above photo of this product (which, btw I think is a great product, for normal people) that there are 0 sugars in one serving and 2 g of carbs. A clue.
Almonds themselves contain a little carbohydrate, but so does RICE STARCH, which is clearly identified down below in the ingredients list. Rice, starch and rice starch are all GAPS and SCD illegal. Ditto for CARRAGEENAN, a seaweed-based thickener and inflammatory agent that is high in polysaccharides. Seaweeds are also considered high in FODMAPS.
Convenience be damned. If I want almond milk in the future, I’ll go back to making my own. If you’d also like to try, here’s a recipe from my other blog, Eat to Evolve! Just leave out the “1 teaspoon honey, maple syrup or agave” for the ultimate SIBO-friendly version.
