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Low carb and vegetables

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Replies

  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    edited March 2016
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).
  • snikkins
    snikkins Posts: 1,282 Member
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    Right. Within the constraints of a low carb diet, in which you're allowed to eat more fat, you've found a way to make veggies more palatable to you. I don't do low carb at all but I've never not allowed myself to have olive oil or cheese or any of those other things with my veggies.

    I don't think we're disagreeing. Your mentality about what was healthy changed.
  • lisawinning4losing
    lisawinning4losing Posts: 726 Member
    edited March 2016
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    You see, that makes so much sense to me. I love butter on my steamed veggies. And yum, cheese and cream. I want to look up some low carb, high fat salad dressing recipes. It will be nice to use stuff like that without having to worry too much about the extra calories, and it satiates your hunger so much better than carbs. Especially since I'm growing a lot of my own lettuce and spinach, it will be so much easier to eat it when I can actually use dressing.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    Right. Within the constraints of a low carb diet, in which you're allowed to eat more fat, you've found a way to make veggies more palatable to you. I don't do low carb at all but I've never not allowed myself to have olive oil or cheese or any of those other things with my veggies.

    I don't think we're disagreeing. Your mentality about what was healthy changed.

    I think we're disagreeing about my mentality, though we seem to agree that veggies are important and tastier with some fat. I was paying attention to my diet all along, even logging. I didn't think that eating more than moderate amounts of foods containing flour and sugar was healthy. I couldn't stop myself from craving carbs, so I ate less fat to compensate. Cooking my cauliflower in a few tablespoons of olive oil didn't meet my CICO. When I consciously decided to have fat instead of carbs, I suddenly needed ways of getting fat, preferably monounsaturated fat, that were not just adding coconut oil to my coffee or having olive oil by the spoonful. What I'm saying is that the decision to stop eating a high carb diet freed up a lot of calories to use for other things.

    *Also, I had a great roasted vegetable dish in Iceland, with plenty of oily marinated goodness, came home, and started being a lot more creative with my roast veggies.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    yarwell wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I think it's weird to worry abut how many veg you eat. If someone low carb eats veg, though, good for them.

    Who's "worrying" about it. Some people seem to get stressed about what others eat, others are just making personal choices.

    I'm a special case, but I was one of the people who "worried" about them when I tried the diet because almost everything has at least a gram or two of carbs (like tea, coffee, cheese, cream, nuts, some types of cold cuts and sausages..etc) which left me with about 10 grams or less of net carbs for vegetables. That's the amount of vegetables I'm accustomed to consuming for a single snack, let alone a full meal. No wonder I felt neurotic about having to limit my vegetables and felt hungry all the time.

    Curious: how do people on low carb handle these stray carbs in stuff? Or do they tend to consume things that don't have them in order to fit in vegetables? Or was I being too obsessive counting each cup of tea (large 16 oz cup) as a gram of carbs?

    Probably the latter, TBH. I wouldn't count tea or coffee not least because I can't see a reliable analysis of the beverage.

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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.

    You would be promoting "anything that is not what you're cutting out". Which is not just vegetables but also for more than just a few people stuff like pouring coconut oil in their morning coffee and bacon with everything.

    Agreed, I think.

    Bacon is good, yes?

    Well the saturated fat might increase the risk and rate of development of diabetes, which is what a lot of people seem to be going on low carb to try to avoid.

    r = something not worth bothering about and even then measured in a high carb diet ?
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »

    So one can eat 200 grams of veg (half of the WHO's "five a day") and take in less than 10g of carbohydrate, with a blood sugar impact equivalent to 2 grams of glucose or less. My n=1 experience of this is that a typical "meat and two veg" low carb meal accompanied by a glass of dry wine has literally zero effect on my blood sugar level measured continuously.

    I propose that eating a low carbohydrate diet, even a ketogenic diet, is entirely compatible with vegetable consumption although obviously one has to avoid / limit the higher starch or sweeter root veg.

    You know you're cheating with the wine, right?

    No, the effect is the same with or without the wine, but I'm aware that alcohol is even higher than in the "*kitten* I need to dispose of fast" list than carbs as far as the liver is concerned.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    OP mentioned sugar alcohols and net carbs.

    and sugar alcohols aren't really artificial sweeteners to most people's understanding.

    They only arise because labelling rules call (say) erythritol a carbohydrate but give it zero or small calorie value as it isn't digested. So there is a logic to subtracting something that will never become blood sugar or calories from the label value, although personally I would want to see testing of said foodstuff to validate that.
  • snikkins
    snikkins Posts: 1,282 Member
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    Right. Within the constraints of a low carb diet, in which you're allowed to eat more fat, you've found a way to make veggies more palatable to you. I don't do low carb at all but I've never not allowed myself to have olive oil or cheese or any of those other things with my veggies.

    I don't think we're disagreeing. Your mentality about what was healthy changed.

    I think we're disagreeing about my mentality, though we seem to agree that veggies are important and tastier with some fat. I was paying attention to my diet all along, even logging. I didn't think that eating more than moderate amounts of foods containing flour and sugar was healthy. I couldn't stop myself from craving carbs, so I ate less fat to compensate. Cooking my cauliflower in a few tablespoons of olive oil didn't meet my CICO. When I consciously decided to have fat instead of carbs, I suddenly needed ways of getting fat, preferably monounsaturated fat, that were not just adding coconut oil to my coffee or having olive oil by the spoonful. What I'm saying is that the decision to stop eating a high carb diet freed up a lot of calories to use for other things.

    *Also, I had a great roasted vegetable dish in Iceland, with plenty of oily marinated goodness, came home, and started being a lot more creative with my roast veggies.

    So, you were eating vegetables before low carb but you now eat more vegetables after low carb because you find them tastier? Is that what you're saying?
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    snikkins wrote: »
    So, you were eating vegetables before low carb but you now eat more vegetables after low carb because you find them tastier? Is that what you're saying?

    I read it as saying that the ability to add oils or butter to the veg made them more tasty, where previously the calories of the oils/butter got in the way when carbs were on the plate.

    Take away the beige stuff and there's more space on the plate and you can spend some beige calories on nice fats.
  • neohdiver
    neohdiver Posts: 738 Member
    edited March 2016
    yarwell wrote: »
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »

    So one can eat 200 grams of veg (half of the WHO's "five a day") and take in less than 10g of carbohydrate, with a blood sugar impact equivalent to 2 grams of glucose or less. My n=1 experience of this is that a typical "meat and two veg" low carb meal accompanied by a glass of dry wine has literally zero effect on my blood sugar level measured continuously.

    I propose that eating a low carbohydrate diet, even a ketogenic diet, is entirely compatible with vegetable consumption although obviously one has to avoid / limit the higher starch or sweeter root veg.

    You know you're cheating with the wine, right?

    No, the effect is the same with or without the wine, but I'm aware that alcohol is even higher than in the "*kitten* I need to dispose of fast" list than carbs as far as the liver is concerned.

    It is not likely the same with or without the wine. The liver has a one-track mind and prioritizes processing alcohol. While it is processing alcohol, it is NOT engaged in gluconeogenesis (turning stored glycogen into glucose) and dumping it into your bloodstream. That background level of glucose, added by your liver to keep you from having hypos when you aren't eating, vanishes temporarily.

    (Here's a start for you: "In the fasting state the body has two major mechanisms for maintaining blood glucose levels. The first is the breakdown of glycogen (glycogenolysis) and the second is the production of glucose or gluconeogenesis. Glycogen is stored in the tissues particularly the liver. It serves as the first line of defence against hypoglycaemia as it is broken down into glucose and is secreted by the liver into the blood to maintain normal blood glucose levels. Glycogen stores may be depleted in someone with type 1 diabetes particularly if they have repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia. Gluconeogenesis also occurs primarily in the liver and it involves the formation of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.

    As 90-95% of alcohol is metabolised in the liver it shuts down the process of gluconeogenesis and thus the bodies second line of defence against hypoglycaemia. Therefore, alcohol tends to increase the risk of hypoglycaemia by impairing hepatic glucose release." https://www.inmo.ie/MagazineArticle/PrintArticle/11463) {In other words, alcohol drops your blood glucose level, and it is already too low you may become hypoglycemic}

    I discovered it accidentally - when I had a very sweet wine that should have sent my blood glucose spiking, but lowered it instead. Twice. So I started researching to figure out what the heck was going on (and have tested it in more detail since then - normally I can tolerate ~20 carbs; with a glass of wine I can tolerate ~50).
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    edited March 2016
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    Right. Within the constraints of a low carb diet, in which you're allowed to eat more fat, you've found a way to make veggies more palatable to you. I don't do low carb at all but I've never not allowed myself to have olive oil or cheese or any of those other things with my veggies.

    I don't think we're disagreeing. Your mentality about what was healthy changed.

    I think we're disagreeing about my mentality, though we seem to agree that veggies are important and tastier with some fat. I was paying attention to my diet all along, even logging. I didn't think that eating more than moderate amounts of foods containing flour and sugar was healthy. I couldn't stop myself from craving carbs, so I ate less fat to compensate. Cooking my cauliflower in a few tablespoons of olive oil didn't meet my CICO. When I consciously decided to have fat instead of carbs, I suddenly needed ways of getting fat, preferably monounsaturated fat, that were not just adding coconut oil to my coffee or having olive oil by the spoonful. What I'm saying is that the decision to stop eating a high carb diet freed up a lot of calories to use for other things.

    *Also, I had a great roasted vegetable dish in Iceland, with plenty of oily marinated goodness, came home, and started being a lot more creative with my roast veggies.

    So, you were eating vegetables before low carb but you now eat more vegetables after low carb because you find them tastier? Is that what you're saying?

    I was buying vegetables before low carb, and not eating most of them, because I'd run out of calories and not want low fat vegetables or salad with vinegar. Now I'm buying a couple pounds of veggies a day, cooking them the way I like them, and eating them first.

    For example, today I'm having two servings of cauliflower roasted in olive oil with a little parmesan, asparagus roasted in olive oil, half an avocado, and a large serving of stew that is about 1/3 meat and 2/3 vegetables. (And my diary is open).
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »

    So one can eat 200 grams of veg (half of the WHO's "five a day") and take in less than 10g of carbohydrate, with a blood sugar impact equivalent to 2 grams of glucose or less. My n=1 experience of this is that a typical "meat and two veg" low carb meal accompanied by a glass of dry wine has literally zero effect on my blood sugar level measured continuously.

    I propose that eating a low carbohydrate diet, even a ketogenic diet, is entirely compatible with vegetable consumption although obviously one has to avoid / limit the higher starch or sweeter root veg.

    You know you're cheating with the wine, right?

    No, the effect is the same with or without the wine, but I'm aware that alcohol is even higher than in the "*kitten* I need to dispose of fast" list than carbs as far as the liver is concerned.

    It is not likely the same with or without the wine. The liver has a one-track mind and prioritizes processing alcohol. While it is processing alcohol, it is NOT engaged in gluconeogenesis (turning stored glycogen into glucose) and dumping it into your bloodstream. That background level of glucose, added by your liver to keep you from having hypos when you aren't eating, vanishes temporarily.

    (Here's a start for you: "In the fasting state the body has two major mechanisms for maintaining blood glucose levels. The first is the breakdown of glycogen (glycogenolysis) and the second is the production of glucose or gluconeogenesis. Glycogen is stored in the tissues particularly the liver. It serves as the first line of defence against hypoglycaemia as it is broken down into glucose and is secreted by the liver into the blood to maintain normal blood glucose levels. Glycogen stores may be depleted in someone with type 1 diabetes particularly if they have repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia. Gluconeogenesis also occurs primarily in the liver and it involves the formation of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.

    As 90-95% of alcohol is metabolised in the liver it shuts down the process of gluconeogenesis and thus the bodies second line of defence against hypoglycaemia. Therefore, alcohol tends to increase the risk of hypoglycaemia by impairing hepatic glucose release." https://www.inmo.ie/MagazineArticle/PrintArticle/11463) {In other words, alcohol drops your blood glucose level, and it is already too low you may become hypoglycemic}

    I discovered it accidentally - when I had a very sweet wine that should have sent my blood glucose spiking, but lowered it instead. Twice. So I started researching to figure out what the heck was going on (and have tested it in more detail since then - normally I can tolerate ~20 carbs; with a glass of wine I can tolerate ~50).

    That's fascinating. What exactly happens to the carbs, though? Do you think it may cause a delayed sudden response or is the process simply slowed down and stretched out to where it causes little response?
  • snikkins
    snikkins Posts: 1,282 Member
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    lithezebra wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    moe0303 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    moe0303 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 think you're kind of overlooking the fact that many vegetables are low carb. So when shifting to a low carb plan, you would naturally shift to low carb options.

    It seems unlikely that going low carb by itself is going to lead to increasing vegetable intake, given carb limits means vegetables will push out other items people usually prefer. This doesn't mean people going low carb don't ever increase vegetables - I don't know the statistics. I would just imagine that the drive behind the increase is not that they have less carbs available to them (seems contradictory) but either they are trying to improve their health (both with increased vegetables and low carbing to reduce weight) or improve satiety.

    I can tell you that I have no love for veggies, nor do I feel compelled to eat veggies for health reasons. I do it to add a little bit of variety to my meals and honestly to fit in a little bit better at the dinner table. I often eat with extended family and people tend to question why you only have one item on your plate.

    I do concur that from what I see, there do appear to be low carbers that take up low carb as a rational for avoiding vegetables. Which it is their body, they can do what they want, but I don't think the science backs up the notion of it being a particularly healthy WOE at that point.
    That might be the case. I don't think it is indicative of the general low carb community. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if those individuals saying that end up eating more veggies than they did previously.

    I think it is indicative of the general low carb community, but maybe not the MFP low carb community, though there are some posters that don't eat veggies either.

    I saw a poster brag about how as long as she took the bun off her Baconator from Wendy's, it was healthy because low carb and she could have it all the time! She continued to discuss how meat and cheese now made up almost all of her food, now. She wasn't the only one who has said this.

    Most of the people in my real life who used to low carb now seem to have shifted to Paleo and they all seem to eat more veggies now than then. But, of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

    I'm personally guessing that the people who say they eat more veggies now that they low carb are forgetting the part where they're now paying a lot closer attention to their diet than they used to; this is true for me as well, even though I'm not low carb.

    Do you mean that they were eating the veggies all along and didn't notice it, or that since they are paying attention to their diet, they are trying to eat healthier?

    The latter - now that they're paying attention to their diet, they're trying to eat healthier.

    ETA: Within the constraints of their low carb diet, which many people have pointed out can include lots of the veggies since they're both low carb and low calorie.

    I've been trying to eat healthily since my teens. I even lost 20 pounds without eating as many vegetables as I should. What happened when I went on a ketogenic diet is that I allowed myself to make my vegetables more delicious by adding olive oil, cheese, cream, coconut flakes and other high fat ingredients, since I'm no longer eating several servings of grains and more sugar than I should, every day. (I'm treating veggies like food now, instead of trying to choke them down like nasty little green supplements).

    Right. Within the constraints of a low carb diet, in which you're allowed to eat more fat, you've found a way to make veggies more palatable to you. I don't do low carb at all but I've never not allowed myself to have olive oil or cheese or any of those other things with my veggies.

    I don't think we're disagreeing. Your mentality about what was healthy changed.

    I think we're disagreeing about my mentality, though we seem to agree that veggies are important and tastier with some fat. I was paying attention to my diet all along, even logging. I didn't think that eating more than moderate amounts of foods containing flour and sugar was healthy. I couldn't stop myself from craving carbs, so I ate less fat to compensate. Cooking my cauliflower in a few tablespoons of olive oil didn't meet my CICO. When I consciously decided to have fat instead of carbs, I suddenly needed ways of getting fat, preferably monounsaturated fat, that were not just adding coconut oil to my coffee or having olive oil by the spoonful. What I'm saying is that the decision to stop eating a high carb diet freed up a lot of calories to use for other things.

    *Also, I had a great roasted vegetable dish in Iceland, with plenty of oily marinated goodness, came home, and started being a lot more creative with my roast veggies.

    So, you were eating vegetables before low carb but you now eat more vegetables after low carb because you find them tastier? Is that what you're saying?

    I was buying vegetables before low carb, and not eating most of them, because I'd run out of calories and not want low fat vegetables or salad with vinegar. Now I'm buying a couple pounds of veggies a day, cooking them the way I like them, and eating them first.

    For example, today I'm having two servings of cauliflower roasted in olive oil with a little parmesan, asparagus roasted in olive oil, half an avocado, and a large serving of stew that is about 1/3 meat and 2/3 vegetables. (And my diary is open).

    I think we are po-ta-to, pot-ah-to ing still, but that definitely sounds yummy!
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    yarwell wrote: »
    snikkins wrote: »
    So, you were eating vegetables before low carb but you now eat more vegetables after low carb because you find them tastier? Is that what you're saying?

    I read it as saying that the ability to add oils or butter to the veg made them more tasty, where previously the calories of the oils/butter got in the way when carbs were on the plate.

    Take away the beige stuff and there's more space on the plate and you can spend some beige calories on nice fats.

    I missed your response earlier. Exactly. You said it much more concisely than I did!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    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.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    moe0303 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.

    You would be promoting "anything that is not what you're cutting out". Which is not just vegetables but also for more than just a few people stuff like pouring coconut oil in their morning coffee and bacon with everything.

    Agreed, I think.

    Bacon is good, yes?

    Bacon is okay but not particularly healthy.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    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.

    Agreed. I don't think I've ever seen it as a reason to promote low carb. Rather, I've seen it as a surprise result of going low carb for individuals.

    If someone eats so few veg that one increases by going low carb one is not health conscious and has a terrible diet.
  • moe0303
    moe0303 Posts: 934 Member
    edited March 2016
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    moe0303 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.

    You would be promoting "anything that is not what you're cutting out". Which is not just vegetables but also for more than just a few people stuff like pouring coconut oil in their morning coffee and bacon with everything.

    Agreed, I think.

    Bacon is good, yes?

    Bacon is okay but not particularly healthy.

    Blasphemy!

    But seriously, to more adequately address @stevencloser 's comment. Yes, by removing one of the options, you essentially increase the probability of the remaining options becoming the chosen food for a given meal. Of course, someone who is particularly adverse to veggies might still choose to abstain from them, but others who are veggie-agnostic (you know what I mean) are more likely to make use of that remaining option rather than abstaining from them unnecessarily.

    ETA: And I also agree that someone with a particular fondness for other non-excluded foods would not be specifically limited by the parameters of most low carb diets from eating them in excess (although most recommend that you can eat as much as you want and not necessarily as much as you can).
  • moe0303
    moe0303 Posts: 934 Member
    lemurcat12 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.

    Agreed. I don't think I've ever seen it as a reason to promote low carb. Rather, I've seen it as a surprise result of going low carb for individuals.

    If someone eats so few veg that one increases by going low carb one is not health conscious and has a terrible diet.
    What is the standard veg consumption to take your diet from "terrible" to "acceptable"?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    moe0303 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 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.

    Agreed. I don't think I've ever seen it as a reason to promote low carb. Rather, I've seen it as a surprise result of going low carb for individuals.

    If someone eats so few veg that one increases by going low carb one is not health conscious and has a terrible diet.
    What is the standard veg consumption to take your diet from "terrible" to "acceptable"?

    I think eating the recommended veg consumption is acceptable -- something like 5 servings per day. It's weird so few do.
  • neohdiver
    neohdiver Posts: 738 Member
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »
    neohdiver wrote: »
    yarwell wrote: »

    So one can eat 200 grams of veg (half of the WHO's "five a day") and take in less than 10g of carbohydrate, with a blood sugar impact equivalent to 2 grams of glucose or less. My n=1 experience of this is that a typical "meat and two veg" low carb meal accompanied by a glass of dry wine has literally zero effect on my blood sugar level measured continuously.

    I propose that eating a low carbohydrate diet, even a ketogenic diet, is entirely compatible with vegetable consumption although obviously one has to avoid / limit the higher starch or sweeter root veg.

    You know you're cheating with the wine, right?

    No, the effect is the same with or without the wine, but I'm aware that alcohol is even higher than in the "*kitten* I need to dispose of fast" list than carbs as far as the liver is concerned.

    It is not likely the same with or without the wine. The liver has a one-track mind and prioritizes processing alcohol. While it is processing alcohol, it is NOT engaged in gluconeogenesis (turning stored glycogen into glucose) and dumping it into your bloodstream. That background level of glucose, added by your liver to keep you from having hypos when you aren't eating, vanishes temporarily.

    (Here's a start for you: "In the fasting state the body has two major mechanisms for maintaining blood glucose levels. The first is the breakdown of glycogen (glycogenolysis) and the second is the production of glucose or gluconeogenesis. Glycogen is stored in the tissues particularly the liver. It serves as the first line of defence against hypoglycaemia as it is broken down into glucose and is secreted by the liver into the blood to maintain normal blood glucose levels. Glycogen stores may be depleted in someone with type 1 diabetes particularly if they have repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia. Gluconeogenesis also occurs primarily in the liver and it involves the formation of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.

    As 90-95% of alcohol is metabolised in the liver it shuts down the process of gluconeogenesis and thus the bodies second line of defence against hypoglycaemia. Therefore, alcohol tends to increase the risk of hypoglycaemia by impairing hepatic glucose release." https://www.inmo.ie/MagazineArticle/PrintArticle/11463) {In other words, alcohol drops your blood glucose level, and it is already too low you may become hypoglycemic}

    I discovered it accidentally - when I had a very sweet wine that should have sent my blood glucose spiking, but lowered it instead. Twice. So I started researching to figure out what the heck was going on (and have tested it in more detail since then - normally I can tolerate ~20 carbs; with a glass of wine I can tolerate ~50).

    That's fascinating. What exactly happens to the carbs, though? Do you think it may cause a delayed sudden response or is the process simply slowed down and stretched out to where it causes little response?

    The carbs are still there, doing their thing in the normal time frame. No slow down - they are normally processed via the mouth, stomach, and small intestines (not the liver - the carb interaction with the liver comes later as glucose not needed for energy gets stored in the liver as glycogen for future use). That part of the process doesn't change. What changes is the additive effect of the liver's contribution.

    Simplifying it a bit, the glucose in your bloodstream comes from (at least) two sources: glucose sent out by your liver via the process of gluconeogenesis (Quantity A) and the conversion of carbs into glucose via digestion (Quantity B ). The first source (the liver) just shuts off for a while, while the liver "enjoys" the alcohol. The second source (digestion of carbs and absorption into the bloodstream via the stomach and small intestines) just keeps on truckin' at its normal pace. So, as long as your liver is otherwise occupied, what you have circulating is only Quantity B (rather than Quantity A+B). It's sort of like you already have a cup 2/3 of water (the liver puts out enough all the time to keep it at that level to keep you from going hypo). You normally can pour in another 1/3 cup before it spills over the top (your BG goes too high). Drinking alcohol is like shutting off the liver's glucose spigot - you can not only pour in the 1/3 cup of water you normally can (carb-created glucose) - but you can also pour (eat) another 2/3 cups of water) carb=created glucose on top of that before it spills over. {This is a simplified analogy being used to explain a fairly complex process - so please don't go bananas about the precise details.)

    That's what the research suggested - and I tested for 5 hours after the first sip of wine, just to make sure I hadn't missed something - and I never had the spike I expected from consuming around 50 carbs (when my normal limit is 20).

    If this intrigues you, and alcohol is not contraindicated for other reasons, try it and see. Your numbers may not match mine -but the effect should be similar. I rarely drink - but I do plan on taking advantage of this effect to occasionally have a piece of bread on a special occasion. (I also took advantage of it about a month ago when I was traveling, and the group I was with chose to eat at a small restaurant with no nutritional information. It gave me a bit of leeway in case I underestimated the carb content of the meal.)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    moe0303 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    moe0303 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.

    You would be promoting "anything that is not what you're cutting out". Which is not just vegetables but also for more than just a few people stuff like pouring coconut oil in their morning coffee and bacon with everything.

    Agreed, I think.

    Bacon is good, yes?

    Bacon is okay but not particularly healthy.

    Blasphemy!

    But seriously, to more adequately address @stevencloser 's comment. Yes, by removing one of the options, you essentially increase the probability of the remaining options becoming the chosen food for a given meal. Of course, someone who is particularly adverse to veggies might still choose to abstain from them, but others who are veggie-agnostic (you know what I mean) are more likely to make use of that remaining option rather than abstaining from them unnecessarily.

    ETA: And I also agree that someone with a particular fondness for other non-excluded foods would not be specifically limited by the parameters of most low carb diets from eating them in excess (although most recommend that you can eat as much as you want and not necessarily as much as you can).

    My impression is that those drawn to low carbing are those who tend to be anti veg. Eating more veg after adopting a low carb diet demonstrates that you were eating a ridiculously low level of veg before.
  • frankiesgirl21
    frankiesgirl21 Posts: 235 Member
    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.

    +1 I follow lower carb just because I feel better when I eat. for me, that's lots of vegetables and lean meat with some lower carb fruit. if you substitute broccoli for a baked potato that's lower carb... potatoes are not bad for you in and of themselves but all things in moderation right?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    If you had to cut out potatoes to eat vegetables, you had a crap diet and don't eat right.
  • moe0303
    moe0303 Posts: 934 Member
    edited March 2016
    @lemurcat12 I find that an interesting impression. I would say that most are probably anti-grain and sugar.

    I can eat 10 servings in a day of veggies from the list posted by @yarwell even if I were on a 20g/day limit. A lot of lower carb diets allow up to 100g with a bit of a blured line up to 150.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    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.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    kuranda10 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.

    If I have bacon, eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast that doesn't leave much room (volume) for anything else. So now that I cut out the carbs from the hashbrowns I replaced them with the carbs from fruit. Instead of cake for dessert I'll have 100g of strawberries with whipped cream.

    Instead of mashed potatoes I have cauliflower mash, rice was replaced with cauliflower rice mixed with konjac rice. When Pasta is needed to carry a dish, I use zoodles etc.
    If I'm still hungry and have no calories/macros left, I'll have lettuce with vinegarette to fill me up.

    lettuce and vinaigrette still have calories though.
  • oedipuss
    oedipuss Posts: 51 Member
    I eat a lower carb diet.
    Have wholegrain basmati rice in a meal after a heavy lifting session but always lots of varied stir-fries with my tuna or steaks. Stir-fries cooked with coconut oil (refined version) and a dash of teriyaki sauce...yum!
    I love potatoes but I need to hold back on the starchy carbs, the leafy veg you can eat mountains of, or mega salads.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    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.
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