Low carb vegetarians

skanabar

Hi Everyone,

I am a vegetarian and trying to figure out how to be successful at eating low carbs.

Like I have a homemade chili with beans and lot of good veggies, but its like 45gm of carbs to about 14 g of protein.

What do you do for something like this ? Do you not calculate some of the carbs from beans , lentils etc ?

Wondering what the approach is..

thanks in advance

EricCowperthwaite

I'll be interested to hear from others on this. It's really hard for me to provide what I consider really good input because I am Paleo/Primal .... no grains or legumes, and everything else in line with what a hunter-gatherer in the Paleolithic era circa 40,000 years ago could have eaten. So,green vegetables, root vegetables, nuts, fruits and so forth in season, and heavy on the fats and meats year round.

That said, a few thoughts that may be helpful

- you have to count all the carbs, but you get to subtract all the fiber from the carbs. I quickly took a look, and Trader Joe's organic vegetarian chili has 27g of carbs, but 10g fiber, so it is really a net carbs of 17g ... that's per cup. A cup is not a huge serving.
- Good nuts, like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc. are a quite effective way to get a lot of fat and calories without overloading on carbs.
- There are some pretty awesome superfoods in the vegetable/fruit arena: avocado and coconut, for example. Hardly any carbs, tons of good fats in them.
- Stay away from "oils" that are made from grains: Corn, Canola, Vegetable, Shortening .... these are not good dietary fats. They are industrial oils that are just a different way of packaging carb heavy grains.
- Good to great oils, take a look at these: Olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil .... great sources of dietary fats that your body really needs.

Remember, when you are eating a low carb diet, you will be getting your energy from ketones in your blood instead of glucose. Ketones are generated from dietary fat. You have to really push your fat intake way up. Getting your carbs down means avoiding the legumes that are traditionally a big part of the vegetarian diet.

Not sure if dairy or eggs are okay for you. IF they are, you are in luck. Heavy cream, butter, etc are great sources of dietary fat and calories. Pasture-fed would be a really good idea since the cream and butter contain CLA, a very good Omega-3 that you are almost certainly not getting in your normal diet otherwise. Eggs are a great source of protein and fat, but likely present a problem?

Anyhow, my thoughts for what they are worth

JenniTheVeggie

I usually net at less then 50 carbs (some days more, some days less). I make vegetarian chili normally once a week. I put fat free plain greek yogurt on it and that boosts the protein a bit.

Are you figuring the NET carbs?

Oh and I consider myself "lower" carb not low carb.

EricCowperthwaite

Oh, one other thing .... Low carb, as opposed to a ketonegic diet, is generally in the 50-100 grams of net carbs per day. That's significantly different from trying to get down to the Atkins, South Beach, Taubes levels of roughly 20g of net carbs per day that many of us are looking at.

Also, my food diary is an open book for all to read. Ignore the meat products, the other stuff may give you ideas ;-)

KatieHall77

When I make chili, I use diced zucchini, onions, bell peppers, and plain no sugar added tomatoes. I also add meat, but you could maybe use edamame beans instead of others, they have more protein and much less carbs. Maybe diced eggplant would be a good addition too.
I subtract fiber from my daily carbs, as someone mentioned.
Good luck with your journey

GloMash710

Try adding tofu and seitan to dishes. Tofu has lower carbs than seitan, but I like the taste and texture of seitan better. You can crumble both of them and add to your chili to up your protein.

Tofu is extremely versatile and works great in stir frys. I recently made a zucchini noodle stir fry with broccoli, jalapeños, bok choy, green onions and tofu with a ginger sesame sauce (1 carb from The Ginger People)