Veggies and carbs - jaws dropped.

angelique_redhead

Ok! Thanks for your answers. I was mistaken by some friends who are doing low-carb diets because they train like crazies and eat MAINLY MEAT (LIKE REAL MEN YOU KNOW!!!). So I wrongly thought that ALL carbs were bad.

I'll then be okay with eating good carbs and trying to reduce bad carbs I guess.... Apart from white pasta and bread where can we find bad carbs? (newbie, sorry)

Unless you have issues with Insulin resistance there is NOTHING WRONG WITH CARBS. Avoid cookies and cakes of course, but as long as you're under for your calories and eating whole, healthy foods, quit spazzing so much.

This^ I have to be careful of my carbs or my blood sugars spike. I mostly eat green vegetables. I did discover thanks to a challenge I'm going with Fab-N-Fit where they REQUIRE you to eat 2 servings of fruit per day that 2 1/2 cup servings of raw cranberries are only 12 grams of carb. 6 grams each. THIS I can do. Most fruits are much higher than that in carbs. Good luck with your diet, OP.

Melroxsox

i am insulin resistant, so i have to be a pro at low carbing:) message or friend request me if you want some advice outside the forums. good luck!!

Firefox7275

Okay, this morning, my jaws dropped when I saw that one cup of carrot was like 12 carbs! Wait, I thought it was good for you to eat vegetables and reduce the carbs! How am I supposed to reduce carbs while eating vegetables? There is something somewhere that I don't understand........

Any clues?

Cups is a measure of volume, carrots are solid little beasties compared with, say, spinach so you will get more carrots in a cup. In the UK we measure servings by weight - using this method raw carrots are just ~5% carbs, similar to yellow peppers and red cabbage. Sweetcorn is 16%, mixed berries perhaps 12% and red onions 7% ... hopefully you are not going to start avoiding all these foods!

lovechicagobears

I have insulin resistance, but even I can eat 80-100 carbs per day. I had corn and green beans for lunch, and corn has carbs. I don't sweat it. I'd rather get my carbs from vegetables and fruit (fructose "floods" the blood stream a lot slower than glucose) than from white starches and such. You CAN look up "low-glycemic" fruits and vegetables so you know which ones are best.

TheCaren

Pretty sure most of us aren't on here because we eat too many vegetables....

imarlett

Not all vegetables are created equally. It also depends upon what the veggie is made of. The Atkins website has a list of veggies and their carb count. Carrots are on the no-no list.

Trechechus

Vegetable = Plant matter.

Photosynthesis = CO2 + H20 = C6H12O6 = glucose = SUGAR

Plant cell walls = C6H10O5 = cellulose = SUGAR

Carbohydrates = COMPLEX SUGARS

Sugars = ATP

ATP = cellular ENERGY

Eat your carbs

waronmyfat

steer clear of veges like carrots, corn and potatoes... they are high in carbs, startch and sugar... Sweet potatoe is a good alternative and stick to brocoli, cauliflower, beans ... greens are your new best friend:)

rml_16

steer clear of veges like carrots, corn and potatoes... they are high in carbs, startch and sugar... Sweet potatoe is a good alternative and stick to brocoli, cauliflower, beans ... greens are your new best friend:)

I love when people completely contradict themselves.

Trechechus

steer clear of veges like carrots, corn and potatoes... they are high in carbs, startch and sugar... Sweet potatoe is a good alternative and stick to brocoli, cauliflower, beans ... greens are your new best friend:)

Beans are legumes and have a very high carbohydrate concentration. So do sweet potatoes.

Hellguy76137

You might want to research carbs a little more, before cutting them out completely. In a nutshell, there are good carbs and bad carbs. Vegetables and whole grains are the good kind.

This is true.

WendyTerry420

Not all vegetables are created equally. It also depends upon what the veggie is made of. The Atkins website has a list of veggies and their carb count. Carrots are on the no-no list.

Which is another reason to avoid Atkins.

Melroxsox

Not all vegetables are created equally. It also depends upon what the veggie is made of. The Atkins website has a list of veggies and their carb count. Carrots are on the no-no list.

Which is another reason to avoid Atkins.

nothing wrong with atkins if done properly

VeganZombie13

I eat carbs all the time.

hkry3250

I'm not sure why no one has said this yet, but FIBER IS A CARBOHYDRATE. That is why vegetables are high in carbohydrates (though carrots are also relatively high in sugar, which is why people make juice from them).

Short version: There are two kinds of carbohydrates, sugar and fiber. Fiber is good for you because it helps you feel fuller longer and it keeps you pooping on a regular schedule. When people suggest reducing carbohydrate intake, they mean reducing the other kind of carbohydrate, i.e. sugar. This can be done by eating fewer desserts and reducing portions of starchy foods, such as bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. (Science note: starches are basically just long chains of sugar.)

Carbohydrates of any kind are not inherently "bad." After all, your brain runs on carbohydrates. However, it is possible to eat a lot of sugar and starch before you feel full. I was in the same boat as you, where I had to reduce carbs in order to keep under my calorie goals. But that isn't stopping me from eating the occasional piece of cake.

The brain prefers to run on fat, not carbs.

No, the brain will adapt to ketones if glucose is absent, but glucose is still the preferred fuel for the brain. We can adapt a paleo lifestyle and a low carb lifestyle, or any lifestyle for that matter but creating a confirmation bias to make yourself or other people believe something that isn't true is kinda defeating, it achieves nothing.

Yes, the brain needs glucose, but as my Endrocrinologist and a couple of other Doctors has explained to me that the body actually runs better on ketones being converted to glucose rather than having glucose run freely from the liver metabolizing carbohydrates.

That is why the research is coming out about how eating higher fat is better for the brain, especially for those that are at risk for dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinson's, etc.

I go with the research that my Endocrinlogist presents to me as he is a research Dr at Washington University here in St Louis which is one of the top research centers in the Country.

Agree, the brain function better on fats than carbs. Every trainer I know makes jokes of how the need to take more fish oil whenever they forget something. But for reference, http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/brain-foods?page=last, http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/eat-smart-healthier-brain?page=2

pickledginger

A handy rule of thumb is to divide your plate into quarters. Two quarters (half) should be non-starchy vegetables. One quarter should be whole-grain pasta or bread, corn, sweet potato, or other starchy stuff. One quarter should have your protein.

(Yes, it falls apart if your protein dish is beans, bit it's a start.)

Remember, one dietetic serving of pasta is half a cup -- the size of one of those tiny tubs of gelatin or applesauce. One serving of bread is a not-very-big slice (a big bagel might have four servings or more).

So if you're following advice that calls for "X servings" of carbs per day, remember that a regular sandwich is at least two and a big restaurant plate of pasta is about a zillion.

But -- if you don't have iffy blood sugar or other mmetabolic issues -- after you get your 5 to 7 servings of veg per day and your 2 or so of fruit, and enough protein, you probably don't need to worth much about where the rest of your calories cone from.

sleepytexan

Um . . . it's ok to eat carbs.

dnd20124

I know how you feel!!!

WendyTerry420

Not all vegetables are created equally. It also depends upon what the veggie is made of. The Atkins website has a list of veggies and their carb count. Carrots are on the no-no list.

Which is another reason to avoid Atkins.

nothing wrong with atkins if done properly

Anyone telling you to NOT eat vegetables needs their head examined, imo. Carrots are very healthy and nutrient dense.

Ivyzmama

My old Weight Watchers leader always said, "nobody ever got fat eating carrots." I know a lot of people nowadays are frenzied about the alleged sugar in carrots, but I believe my old Weight Watchers leader. I think carrots are an important part of a balanced diet.