Well, Phoo. Too Much Starch.

Remember that ham I roasted for my birthday party? It didn't get completely eaten at the party. I mean, it was nearly seventeen pounds to start with, and there was a lot of other food. We ate leftover ham for a few days -- sliced, scrambled in eggs, whatever. Finally we were down to a meaty ham bone. So I did the traditional thing: I made soup.

And against my best judgment, I made split pea soup, just because That Nice Boy I Married and I love the stuff. I did puree and add three cans of green beans, to increase the volume and dilute the carbs. However, one pound of split peas contains 274 grams of carbohydrate. 116 grams of that are fiber, but still, that's 158 grams of usable carb in the pot. We got about 8 servings out of it, so that's about 20 grams per bowl, not including the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, etc.

Split peas have quite a low glycemic index -- about 32. That gave my soup a low glycemic load, somewhere between 7 and 9. Plus the soup was pretty nutritious, and reasonably filling. As carb foods go, it has to be classed as a fairly "good" carb.

So why are my jeans tight? Argh. Back to meat, eggs, and veggies.

And did I mention the effect on my gut? Not to be graphic, it made overdosing on polyols seem benign.

I won't do that again any time soon.