Grissini Breadsticks on the HCG Diet
Dieters may be somewhat surprised when they look at the HCG food list and learn that eating a grissini breadstick* is in order each meal (2 meals per day) while on the HCG Diet. However, the breadstick you will eat is not made of soft dough and the size and shape of a hot dog bun. It is a grissini breadstick having the consistency of a porous cracker and the size and shape of a pencil. A single grissini breadstick has about 10 calories, 2 carbs, .17g fat and 0g sugars. With such little nutritional benefit, you may wonder why the good doctor included breadsticks in his HCG menu. His reasoning --- the “crunch factor”. HCG Diet participants don’t eat much while on the low-calorie phase of the diet, but they have a need to chew and to crunch, much like a baby’s need to suck. A baby gets a pacifier and an HCG Dieter gets a breadstick!
Another thing about breadsticks that surprises HCG Dieters is that when you read the ingredients, oil is listed. Dr. Simeons didn’t allow fats and oils to be eaten or even touched by dieters but he did make this exception since a tiny bit of oil is crucial in making these breadsticks. When I say “tiny”, I mean tiny! There is .17g of fat in each grissini breadstick; that’s not even 1/5th of a gram! I’m telling you all of this because we occasionally get a call from a confused customer who says, “I purchased breadsticks on your website because you guys are the HCG Diet experts but there is oil in these breadsticks!”
Our response…”Don’t panic! The breadsticks we sell on our site, DIYDietStore.com, available in flavors plain, garlic and multigrain, are imported from Italy, the country where Dr. Simeons resided while formulating the protocol and, though much time has passed, the method used to make these grissini breadsticks hasn’t changed much. The breadsticks we sell are just what the doctor ordered! Fear not!
As previously stated, 1 breadstick is allowed at each of the 2 meals per day. While it is permissible to break the breadstick away from the meal, for example, you may eat 1 breadstick at 9am with a cup of coffee instead of with your lunch that afternoon, but you may not eat 2 breadsticks at the same time. There should be at least 3 hours between eating them.
Occasionally, dieters will ask us if eating the breadstick is mandatory. It is not. Skipping it will not have a negative effect on the rate of weight loss. Eating a breadstick, according to Dr. Simeons, helps to fulfill a psychological need to chew rather than a nutritional need.
*A suitable replacement for a grissini breadstick is 1 melba toast (rectangle), 2 melba rounds (circles) or, for a GLUTEN FREE substitute, 2 Mary’s Gone Crackers – Original, (circles).