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Low carb and vegetables

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
    edited March 2016
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    senecarr wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    If one ate fewer veg before going low carb (and limiting veg), one ate a ridiculously poor diet and is not a good example.

    Yes, lots of Americans eat a poor diet. This is not a recommendation.

    Nope. It's not. That said, many folks vastly improve their diets when they begin eating low carb. And, yes, many eat more plant foods than the folks who tell them a low carb diet isn't healthy. That's part of the irony.

    I just think it's weird to eat so few veg that you eat more by going low carb. Super weird.

    I agree. Yet MANY folks on here eat virtually no vegetables.

    Agreed, but that's an issue with the SAD. Not a reason to promote low carb.
    True, but the same thing could be said about a CICO model. Actually, I think you could make an argument that by eliminating some food choices, you are in effect promoting others.

    Nope. I eat lots of veg on normal carbs. If people didn't it is because they ate a bad diet.

    And I eat a lot more veggies on low carb. If other low carb dieters do not, it is a matter of their personal choice.

    It's weird to increase consumption of foods that are mostly carbs on a low carb diet. Presumably due to eating a poor diet before.

    It may be weird to you, but I don't think it's weird at all. At some point, we all have huge changes in our diet. And for each of us, there is a turning point for that change. And for many LCHF, switching to that lifestyle so happens to be that point. This is very common with other restrictive diets (Paleo, Whole 30, Vegan, etc...). It one reason why restrictive diets work for some.

    Start a low carb diet increase carbs isn't weird conceptually at all to you? Not what happens, just conceptually.
    It's like saying
    I joined a literary club, so I could read leas.
    I joined the grym, so I could exercise less.
    I moved to a smaller house, so I had more room for stuff.
    I got my PhD, so I could be less knowledgeable.
    I turned on spellchecker, so I could have more errors in my final drafts.

    Sure, you could manage all those, but typically we'd assume someone was using the literary device of irony for most of those sentences.

    You aren't increasing total carbs, you are refocusing your carb consumption. As already mentioned by many members, you are replacing high carb foods (breads, rice, starches) with low carb options (i.e - low sugar, low carb veggies).

    And trust me, I know a ton of PhD's who are very smart in one area, but they are dumb as crap in many other areas. Over 20% of my work force has a PhD. And I keep saying, these are some of the smartest dumb people I know.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    According to the CDC about 10% of US respondents hit their veg intake target http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6426a1.htm#tab

    The target is about 3 cups of veg for a man http://www.choosemyplate.gov/vegetables

    a cup is 100 - 150g or so.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    According to the CDC about 10% of US respondents hit their veg intake target http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6426a1.htm#tab

    The target is about 3 cups of veg for a man http://www.choosemyplate.gov/vegetables

    a cup is 100 - 150g or so.

    Well then, I guess I have manly dinners. Or something.

    I often roast a fair amount of vegetables for the two of us, and we split them. The packages of brussel sprouts I buy are a pound, so I get about 225g when we eat those. Carrots are in a 2lb bag, and we usually split those in thirds, so I get around 300ish grams of those. Tonight we're having cabbage. I put 300g in as a place holder since I haven't weight the head yet. I eat about a quarter of that, but it's usually 1000g or more.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    That particular snack is not the point. I mentioned it to demonstrate how easily you can eat your entire allowance of carbs in vegetables in a single meal, or even a snack. I know my vegetable intake is atypical (I'm one of those people who eats a whole head of cauliflower as a side dish like you mentioned). My point, again, is that 20 net carbs is not really 20 net carbs in vegetables. Unless a person lives on steak and coconut oil, almost everything has a bit of carbs. If you eat a couple of large eggs, that's +1.2 carbs. 1 oz of Swiss cheese, that's 1.5 grams of carbs. Each single almond has about 0.2 grams of net carbs...etc. So while it's theoretically possible to consume a pound of vegetables (the minimum daily recommendation is 400 grams), you would need to be very careful with your choice of vegetables, limiting the variety and "worrying" about using too much onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, pepper, leeks...etc.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    kuranda10 wrote: »
    I eat more fruits (berries/melon/grapefruit) and veggies following LC than I normally did following a SAD.

    That always wondered me. By definition you have less of a window to allow for fruit and veggies on LC yet so many say they only started really eating them once they started LC.

    Well, for most people transitioning into LCHF, I assume they were eating carbs in places of vegetables to feel more full. Personally, I eat way more vegetables doing Keto/LCHF because I'm not stuffing my face with potatoes or rice. :)

    funny I get 40 to 50% of my diet from carbs and I have no issues getting in fruits and vegetables daily ...

    Good to know, but on some days your veg intake would also fit on Atkins Phase 1 :smiley:

    that is just about 200 grams of vegetables in one sitting and I take a daily multi-vitamin to supplement....so no, I am not on anything close to Atkins...
  • Gianfranco_R
    Gianfranco_R Posts: 1,297 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    That particular snack is not the point. I mentioned it to demonstrate how easily you can eat your entire allowance of carbs in vegetables in a single meal, or even a snack. I know my vegetable intake is atypical (I'm one of those people who eats a whole head of cauliflower as a side dish like you mentioned). My point, again, is that 20 net carbs is not really 20 net carbs in vegetables. Unless a person lives on steak and coconut oil, almost everything has a bit of carbs. If you eat a couple of large eggs, that's +1.2 carbs. 1 oz of Swiss cheese, that's 1.5 grams of carbs. Each single almond has about 0.2 grams of net carbs...etc. So while it's theoretically possible to consume a pound of vegetables (the minimum daily recommendation is 400 grams), you would need to be very careful with your choice of vegetables, limiting the variety and "worrying" about using too much onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, pepper, leeks...etc.

    400g of garlic and onion would really be unresonable :smile:
    I think that tomatoes and pepper are compatible with keto.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    That particular snack is not the point. I mentioned it to demonstrate how easily you can eat your entire allowance of carbs in vegetables in a single meal, or even a snack. I know my vegetable intake is atypical (I'm one of those people who eats a whole head of cauliflower as a side dish like you mentioned). My point, again, is that 20 net carbs is not really 20 net carbs in vegetables. Unless a person lives on steak and coconut oil, almost everything has a bit of carbs. If you eat a couple of large eggs, that's +1.2 carbs. 1 oz of Swiss cheese, that's 1.5 grams of carbs. Each single almond has about 0.2 grams of net carbs...etc. So while it's theoretically possible to consume a pound of vegetables (the minimum daily recommendation is 400 grams), you would need to be very careful with your choice of vegetables, limiting the variety and "worrying" about using too much onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, pepper, leeks...etc.

    400g of garlic and onion would really be unresonable :smile:
    I think that tomatoes and pepper are compatible with keto.

    Especially since if you log it in a recipe on MFP that would likely be around 423200 calories...
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    That particular snack is not the point. I mentioned it to demonstrate how easily you can eat your entire allowance of carbs in vegetables in a single meal, or even a snack. I know my vegetable intake is atypical (I'm one of those people who eats a whole head of cauliflower as a side dish like you mentioned). My point, again, is that 20 net carbs is not really 20 net carbs in vegetables. Unless a person lives on steak and coconut oil, almost everything has a bit of carbs. If you eat a couple of large eggs, that's +1.2 carbs. 1 oz of Swiss cheese, that's 1.5 grams of carbs. Each single almond has about 0.2 grams of net carbs...etc. So while it's theoretically possible to consume a pound of vegetables (the minimum daily recommendation is 400 grams), you would need to be very careful with your choice of vegetables, limiting the variety and "worrying" about using too much onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, pepper, leeks...etc.

    400g of garlic and onion would really be unresonable :smile:
    I think that tomatoes and pepper are compatible with keto.

    You know what I mean :/
    When I did keto I was very wary of onions and garlic because they added too many net carbs per gram, carbs that I could save for a tomato. A teaspoon of sugar would still be compatible with keto just because it has only a few net carbs, but it doesn't look good per weight consumed and some would rather save those carbs for something else. To reach the minimum recommended daily amount of vegetables, here is how pepper looks:

    zex6dbykt8yn.png
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    In the U.S., the USDA has somewhat vague recommendations for serving size, such as "1 cup cooked, or two cups raw, chopped vegetables." I wish they would make recommendations based on raw weight. For one thing, two cups of raw spinach does not end up being 1 cup of cooked spinach. Depending on how you cook a vegetable, the weight can change drastically. I usually consider a 1/4 pound of a raw vegetable to be a serving size. That's about 113 grams, and usually about 1 cup steamed or boiled. Many frozen vegetables in the US come in a one pound package, and it's convenient. My 5-a-day works out to about 560 grams of a variety of vegetables a day.

    I don't think anyone will go wrong going over the recommendation with non-starchy vegetables. All this talk of vegetables is reminding me of how long it's been since I had butternut squash, one of my faves. I need to see what that's going to do to my carb plan.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    The WHO say a portion is 80 grams and that's what 5 a day is based on. Large portions of the population eat less than that. Look up the median for your country or state it's quite an eye opener.

    I would probably have 160 - 240 g of vegetables with dinner, but I wouldn't eat a whole cauliflower (but I do know volume eaters that would).

    Good to know! (I could totally eat a whole cauliflower. It's only with great effort that I stop myself, most of the time).
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    The WHO say a portion is 80 grams and that's what 5 a day is based on. Large portions of the population eat less than that. Look up the median for your country or state it's quite an eye opener.

    I would probably have 160 - 240 g of vegetables with dinner, but I wouldn't eat a whole cauliflower (but I do know volume eaters that would).

    Make a good cauliflower salad and you'll have to stop yourself from eating less than two.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    edited March 2016
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    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    The WHO say a portion is 80 grams and that's what 5 a day is based on. Large portions of the population eat less than that. Look up the median for your country or state it's quite an eye opener.

    I would probably have 160 - 240 g of vegetables with dinner, but I wouldn't eat a whole cauliflower (but I do know volume eaters that would).

    Make a good cauliflower salad and you'll have to stop yourself from eating less than two.

    Does not compute.

    150458007-big-green-barf-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=hmW3mz4s1zPtEsUZSQq9WqAYL0NxhJUQqJqk0JP5fJfM8O9w7Y0QmKS5iN7PXde7
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    The WHO say a portion is 80 grams and that's what 5 a day is based on. Large portions of the population eat less than that. Look up the median for your country or state it's quite an eye opener.

    I would probably have 160 - 240 g of vegetables with dinner, but I wouldn't eat a whole cauliflower (but I do know volume eaters that would).

    Make a good cauliflower salad and you'll have to stop yourself from eating less than two.

    Does not compute.

    150458007-big-green-barf-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=hmW3mz4s1zPtEsUZSQq9WqAYL0NxhJUQqJqk0JP5fJfM8O9w7Y0QmKS5iN7PXde7

    Blasphemy!
    Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lots of black pepper, it's delicious.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    lithezebra wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    In the U.S., the USDA has somewhat vague recommendations for serving size, such as "1 cup cooked, or two cups raw, chopped vegetables." I wish they would make recommendations based on raw weight. For one thing, two cups of raw spinach does not end up being 1 cup of cooked spinach. Depending on how you cook a vegetable, the weight can change drastically. I usually consider a 1/4 pound of a raw vegetable to be a serving size. That's about 113 grams, and usually about 1 cup steamed or boiled. Many frozen vegetables in the US come in a one pound package, and it's convenient. My 5-a-day works out to about 560 grams of a variety of vegetables a day.

    I don't think anyone will go wrong going over the recommendation with non-starchy vegetables. All this talk of vegetables is reminding me of how long it's been since I had butternut squash, one of my faves. I need to see what that's going to do to my carb plan.

    If you look throughout the thread, their are recommendation equivalents given by the USDA for it. The thought is that the USDA recommendations are food for thought (sorry bad pun, intentional) and not a strict cookie cutter program that they expect someone to follow down to grams. Putting their baseline recommendations in grams is more likely to get people to go "well I'm not weighing everything I eat, that's obssessive and excessive" (and yes, I'm aware it makes it self deprecatory and kind of contrasts the idea of calorie counting working, conceptually) then they are go to go "well, let's go buy a food scale and start weighing." The idea behind it is to encourage eating more vegetables than most people are, and most people eyeball things in volume, more so than picking things up and guessing a weight, and people are probably far more sucessful at eyeballing weight than handballing (wait, that's not a term) the weight (now that last wait is an unintentional pun) of an item.
    I generally only becomes a problem if someone takes it semi-seriously and grabs cups after cups of lettuce with very little weight. Even that is hardly a problem if it is still cups of lettuce they weren't eating before.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    @senecarr I can see the rationale, and I doubt Americans will go wrong by overindulging in vegetables. I'd just like official reassurance that I'm meeting the minimum, and not deluding myself when I think that 1/4 of the package of green beans is a serving. I love obsessing over things I can measure, like the weight of my food, and hate obsessing over not having enough information, like not knowing if my green beans are really less than a cup because they're coarsely chopped and less densely packed into the cup. Doing servings by mass would make it so easy.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    lithezebra wrote: »
    @senecarr I can see the rationale, and I doubt Americans will go wrong by overindulging in vegetables. I'd just like official reassurance that I'm meeting the minimum, and not deluding myself when I think that 1/4 of the package of green beans is a serving. I love obsessing over things I can measure, like the weight of my food, and hate obsessing over not having enough information, like not knowing if my green beans are really less than a cup because they're coarsely chopped and less densely packed into the cup. Doing servings by mass would make it so easy.

    That which gets measured gets improved?
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    senecarr wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    @senecarr I can see the rationale, and I doubt Americans will go wrong by overindulging in vegetables. I'd just like official reassurance that I'm meeting the minimum, and not deluding myself when I think that 1/4 of the package of green beans is a serving. I love obsessing over things I can measure, like the weight of my food, and hate obsessing over not having enough information, like not knowing if my green beans are really less than a cup because they're coarsely chopped and less densely packed into the cup. Doing servings by mass would make it so easy.

    That which gets measured gets improved?

    Yes! Data, I love having accurate data, that enables me to evaluate what I'm doing, objectively, so that my changes are intentional.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    edited March 2016
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    It's hard to find the WHO 5-a-day recommendations. According to Wikipedia, the WHO recommendation is a minimum of 400 grams of vegetables a day, excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers. And then there is a recommendation from a study out of University College, London, to double that recommendation, to 10-a-day.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_A_Day

    Oh, and here's the American iteration of 5-a-day, "More Matters," which adjusts the recommendations to anywhere from 2 to 6.5 cups of veggies/fruits a day, dependent on your caloric needs.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruits_&_Veggies_–_More_Matters
    http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
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    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    I find this discussion really interesting to read. If someone asked me how to do a low carb diet I'd say: protein (meat) and veg with every meal.

    I wouldn't go as far as "with every meal". At least not in any reasonable portions. There simply is not enough carbs in the typical 20 net carb keto plan to accommodate a reasonable portion with every meal, unless you severely limit the vegetable choices or their portions. Now a 50 gram net carbs plan would be more reasonable. Here is a snack I had today:

    2z18k4euysci.png

    Clearly eating a tomato and a green beans would not be the best choices for vegetables since that would consume 16 grams of net carbs, even though they are not starchy or high carb per se. If you had cheese or a few nuts on that day, you're basically done for the day and can't fit in any more vegetables.

    230 grams of green beans isn't a reasonable portion as a side vegetable, it's almost three WHO "5-a-day" portions. A 300g bag split between three of us would be our size of portion ie 100g each with 3.2g of carbohydrate.

    In fact you ate the whole 5-a-day allocation in that "snack" anyway.

    Oh, good to know. I'm an unreasonable vegetable eater. Most of my dinners at home involve 200-300g of vegetables.

    I also feel like that isn't that much, is that really the recommendation? Or just "absolute minimum"?

    The WHO say a portion is 80 grams and that's what 5 a day is based on. Large portions of the population eat less than that. Look up the median for your country or state it's quite an eye opener.

    I would probably have 160 - 240 g of vegetables with dinner, but I wouldn't eat a whole cauliflower (but I do know volume eaters that would).

    Make a good cauliflower salad and you'll have to stop yourself from eating less than two.

    Does not compute.

    150458007-big-green-barf-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=hmW3mz4s1zPtEsUZSQq9WqAYL0NxhJUQqJqk0JP5fJfM8O9w7Y0QmKS5iN7PXde7

    Blasphemy!
    Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lots of black pepper, it's delicious.

    And roast the cauliflower with garlic to kick it up a notch.
  • Gianfranco_R
    Gianfranco_R Posts: 1,297 Member
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    lithezebra wrote: »
    It's hard to find the WHO 5-a-day recommendations. According to Wikipedia, the WHO recommendation is a minimum of 400 grams of vegetables a day, excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers. And then there is a recommendation from a study out of University College, London, to double that recommendation, to 10-a-day.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_A_Day

    Oh, and here's the American iteration of 5-a-day, "More Matters," which adjusts the recommendations to anywhere from 2 to 6.5 cups of veggies/fruits a day, dependent on your caloric needs.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruits_&_Veggies_–_More_Matters
    http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/

    I also cannot find the original resolution, but here is an excerpt of the current recommendations:
    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs394/en/
This discussion has been closed.