Today we’re answering a reader question:
“Are saltine crackers bad for diabetics?”
If you’ve got a question, you can send it in here. We’re always more than happy to help.
Let’s take a look at saltine crackers and determine their nutrition quality.
Saltine Crackers Ingredients
Ingredients list: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Soybean Oil, Salt, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Malted Barley Flour, Yeast, Baking Soda, Vegetable Monoglycerides (Emulsifier).
Let’s talk about a few of these.
Enriched Flour
I always laugh how everything is so ‘enriched’ these days. If it had quality nutrition would we really need to ‘enrich’ it?
You don’t see us injecting vegetables and calling them ‘enriched’ broccoli, do you?
They are ‘enriching’ so many foods because even though we eat SO much in the modern world, we are all nutrient deprived – hard to imagine, but it’s true.
Soybean Oil and Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil
Toxic oils that promote inflammation in your body and increased inflammation only makes controlling blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure more difficult.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
We’ve all been led to believe that fat is a big problem in our diet, but sugar is far worse, and high fructose corn syrup is the most evil kind.
Fructose only gets metabolized by the liver and when the liver gets clogged up with fructose, it causes the liver to get fatty. This promotes insulin resistance and basically we can only use so much fructose – which isn’t a lot. The rest…well it goes directly to fat storage, promoting rapid weight gain.
All in all these saltine crackers don’t offer us any real value for nutrition.
Saltine Crackers Nutrition
That brings us to the nutrition of saltine crackers.
How many crackers would you eat in a sitting?
Maybe 5? Or it might be hard to stop at 5 so you’d probably eat 10. It’s easy to do.
If you ate 10 saltine crackers that would be a whopping 70 g of carbohydrates!
If you’re looking to lower blood sugar and A1c, that’s not a good thing because this will send your sugars soaring.
These crackers also contain almost zero other nutrients, just a tiny bit of iron, and no fiber either. The whole point of eating is to provide fuel to the body in the way of nutrients, that’s what the body needs. So as you can see this is a low quality food item.
Many of these types of products try to push ‘selling’ points like ‘low calories’ or ‘low fat’, but these are really the least of your worries.
Your main focus needs to be carbs, and as you can see from what we’ve discussed, these are really not a good option. And getting quality nutrients is very important too.
So are saltine crackers bad for diabetics?
Yes.
High in carbs, crappy ingredients, no nutritional value. That equals bad for anyone, let alone a diabetic!
Diabetic Friendly Crackers
When buying crackers you want to stick to products that predominantly use low carb flours like flax, chia, coconut flour, or nut flours.
It’s often difficult to find low carb crackers in the supermarket, so buying them online from places like Amazon or Netrition is usually the best way to go.
Low Carb Cracker Options From Amazon
Dr in the Kitchen Flackers flaxseed crackers
Inside the Diabetes Meal Plans Members Club, we’ve got our own flax/sesame cracker recipe. It’s easy to make but if you want an option that’s similar, these Dr in the kitchen crackers are the ones.
$5.69 for a 5 oz / 142 g pack.
Ingredients: Organic Flax Seeds, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Bragg Liquid Aminos (Vegetable Protein from Non-GMO Soybeans and Purified Water), Organic Garlic, Organic Onion, Organic Red Chili Pepper, Organic Basil.
6 crackers = 1 g net carbs.
Zero carbs.
$8.38 for 1 8 oz/ 226 g pack.
Ingredients: Organic cracked flax seed, organic chopped flax seed meal, salvia Hispanic L. milled chia seed grains, chia seed meals, and natural dietary vegetable plant fiber.
This company has really good low carb products but they are very expensive, out of the price range for most people I’d imagine.https://diabetesmealplans.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5643&action=edit
Even a bulk pack of 12 will cost you $11.50 per 8.5 oz/ 241 g box.
Ingredients: Almond Flour, Organic Flax, Chili Powder, Onion Powder, Sea Salt
20 crackers = 4 g net carbs.
Blue diamond nut thin cracker snacks
A bit higher in carbs but if you have 8 crackers it would be 11.5 g so that’s not too bad I guess.
$3.29 per 4.29 oz/ 120.5 g box.
Ingredients: Rice flour, pecan meal, potato starch, expeller pressed safflower oil, salt, natural pecan flavor and natural butter flavor.Contains: Milk. Produced in a facility that also makes products containing: Soy, almonds, hazelnuts and wheat.
Health Maven Gluten Free Crackers, Low Carb crackers
$9.25 for 4 oz/ 113 g pack.
8 crackers = 2 g net carbs.
Ingredients: Almond Meal, Whole Eggs, Garlic, Salt. Contains Eggs and tree nuts (Almonds)
Kitchen Table Bakers Mini Crisps
$6.99 1.75 oz/ 50g pack.
Made entirely with cheese makes the crackers/ crisps come in at zero carbs.
As you can see, there are low carb option for crackers, but saltines are definitely not one of them. Even if you stick to the recommended 5 saltine crackers, you’re still looking at 35 g carbs per serve, which is way too many carbs.
The Dr in the Kitchen Flackers flaxseed crackers are the most popular and cost effective option. Also consider looking in your local health food store to see if they have other options.
Low Carb Cracker Options from Netrition
Netrition is another online store that is perfect for US residents, with low shipping rates. They also ship Internationally but just make sure you check the shipping policy for your country.
These are a great price of just $3.99 for a 4 oz/ 113 g box and they come in a range of flavors from plain, Parmesan, garlic, sesame, and even a sweet cinnamon.
They are a larger cracker that is well suited to lunches – stack them up with your favorite tasty ingredients.
3 crackers = 4 g net carbs.
Ingredients: Soy, almond, hazelnut flour, water, canola oil, natural cheddar flavor, xanthan gum, salt.
These come in a variety of flavors from plain, onion, garlic, and Parmesan.
They are a little more expensive that Andre’s Crackerbread at $4.95 for a 4 oz/ 113 g box but they are also lower in carbs – meaning you can eat more of them.
3 crackers = 1 g net carbs
Ingredients: Flour (Soy/Almond/Hazelnut/Gluten), Water, Soybean Oil, Cinnamon Powder, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn starch, Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Sucralose.
Always read the labels!
Or better yet, make your own. We use a combo of flax seed meal and sesame flour to make our crispy crackers.
Flax seed meal/ flour, is not expensive. For a 12-16 oz/ 340-450 g pack of flax meal it will only cost around $3.50. And sesame flour is just $15.39 for a 2 lb/ 4.4 kg bag. So making your own definitely turns out more cost effective.
In any case, you’ll want to steer clear of saltine crackers and look for a healthier option.
If you want access to all our low carb diabetic recipes,
CLICK HERE to join our mailing list. The doors to the DMP Members Club will be open very soon.
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I just got diagnosed with pre diabetes I was just wondering what foods I can eat
Heidi, you have come to the right place for a wealth of information about the best foods for prediabetes and diabetes! Based on research, we encourage a low carbohydrate diet for best glucose control. I would suggest starting with this Food List for the simplest breakdown of what foods you can eat on a low carb diet. You may also find this Diabetes Food Pyramid helpful as well.
If you have further questions about your prediabetes diagnosis, then this article is another great one to check out. Keep exploring the blog and let us know what questions you have along the way.
Ok so regular saltine crackers are bad for a diabetic. So my question is if your making something like salmon patties and your company is a diabetic what crackers would you use in making the patties. Not interested ingratiate n based foods. Just what would be a good replacement for saltines in a recipe
Vicki, I don’t have a specific recipe for salmon patties, but you may consider trying a combination of nut flours (such as almond, coconut, or flax) instead. These types of flours will probably work best if there is egg already in your recipe to help bind the nut flour. Please let us know if you develop a yummy, low carb alternative to your salmon patty- we would love the recipe!
Why cant u answer a question instead of goi g around in circles. All i want to know is can i east salad biscuites.
Hi Erika, I am not familiar with salad biscuits so I am not going to be able to give you the direct answer you are looking for.
My best advice is that generally grain-based foods are excluded from a low carb diet for better glucose control, so if these salad crackers/biscuits are grain based (made from flour, wheat, etc.) then you would not want to pick these as snack. (Check the ingredient label if you are unsure.) The article includes several other alternatives that would be much better choices! On the other hand, if the salad biscuits are made with nut flour, coconut flour, chia seeds, or flax seeds then that is something that would likely be a better choice.
Let me know if there is anything else I can clarify.
Are triscuits good for diabetics? And how many can i eat?
Triscuits are not a food we’d encourage Ashleigh as generally grain-based foods are excluded from a low carb diet for better glucose control.
I have a question:
Are oranges ok for diabetics?
Ruthie
Find info on best fruits over here Ruthie.
Oranges have too much sugar for me. I know its listed as a fruit diabetic can eat but each diabetic is different what spikes their sugar.
We agree with you Marty! Since we recommend a lower carb approach, we typically recommend berries as your go to fruit! Definitely avoid fruit juice and dried fruit at all costs.
Why can’t I just get a straight answer . I still don’t know if crackers is bad for a diabetic
The reason you can’t get a straight answer for all crackers Randy is they are all made with different ingredients and have different nutritional values. White crackers like Saltine crackers are not a good option, brown, wholewheat may be better but still high in carbs so you won’t be able to have many. On the other hand, something like Dr. In The Kitchen flaxseed crackers are very low in carbs so you could eat more of them. Or swapping to cucumber crackers you could eat lots. Hope that helps.
That was answered as plain as could be. Yes they are bad for you. Look at what is in them. You were given alternative crackers you could buy off the internet.