I’ll be honest with you – I’m not sure who to believe, either. I am a picky eater, and DON’T LIKE veggies, but I try to eat at least some every day. The reason is that in all the nutrition stuff I read, there are NO reports of people never eating plant food. The Inuit even ate the contents of the stomach, as wild cats and dogs do.
I guess I’m hedging my bets – I’m eating more fat and trying to eat more protein than I used to, and my BGs have really shown the difference, but I’m just not ready to give up on veggies. EVEN if I don’t like them.
You know, sadly, I really love some veggies. I get hankerings even for bitter greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Yum! It’s too bad we can’t trade diets.
Have you read GCBC? I’m about a third of the way through it, so I don’t know if he advocates giving up the veggies – I doubt it, though. But from what he has to say, it looks like the very most important thing is to give up the grains and starches. We’ve both done that, and my guess is that we’ll live longer for it.
Coincidentally, I’m about half-way through it. It’s fascinating. So far, he hasn’t said anything about veggies, but it seems to me that the points he makes about sugar and high-carb, low-nutrition foods are compelling. So it seems pretty clear to me that eliminating the “6 baddies” (bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, corn and peas) along with sugar can’t be a bad idea. Whereas with low-carb veggies, I really haven’t seen anything that would convince me that there was more bad than good. Veggies are the one food that it seems that ALL sides of the nutrition controversy agree on. So I do as best as I can with them!
my problem with nuts has been that they are SO good that I eat too many of them at one sitting. after losing a bunch of weight over the year before I was diagnosed, I gained some back (a good thing since I was skeletal), but now I am gaining more than I want. I attribute this to nuts. We bought almonds in bulk at Costco (so much less expensive) and so constantly had them on hand at home, and I would use this as my after-dinner-in-front-of-the-tv-I’m-pissed-that-I-can’t-have-a-bowl-of-ice-cream-snack. Over the months, I gained weight steadily and my clothes just didn’t fit right. Decided to stop buying the almonds and peanuts, and, although I haven’t weighed myself (I avoid that at all costs), my clothes fit better now. That’s the only thing I’ve changed.
having said that, I just now had a little packet of nuts that I bought at the snack bar at work for lunch (heh heh). Although it’s easier (albeit more expensive) to buy a small package and know how many calories I’m consuming. I kid you not, I think it was 20 nuts and it was 250 calories, which makes me gasp in retrospect about how many calories I likely consume when I binge on them at night.
I was in love with pork rinds soon after my diagnosis and after I started following Dr. B’s diet, but I’m over them now. They leave a weird film on the roof of my mouth that I don’t like. I wish there was another alternative, something salty and crunchy that I could eat a lot of that fulfilled that snacky role that tortilla chips and popcorn used to fill!!
I don’t really eat anything else. But I made up the rules, so you should figure out what works for you. I do have a jar of macadamia nuts in the house just in case I really need something and I have had some twice. It hasn’t seemed to mess me up. But I really like eating one or two discreet meals with no snacking. It’s very hard to figure out what is actual hunger and what is habitual snacking, so I assume if it’s not mealtime, then I’m not really hungry. And I think that’s usually true. And when it’s not, and I sense that I am actually hungry, then I usually wait for my meal anyway. When I’m eating this way, I don’t get the same kind of hunger that I did when carbs were involved, which was much more insistent.
It’s hard, but I kept sweets and “crap” carbs out of the house for the first year and it really helped me get a good foundation. Now they can have chips or something around here - which they only do occasionally because they had to learn to eat better - and it does not bother me at all. I really got a worse reaction when I threw the TV away, which I saw as high carb for the mind.
Andrea, I was eating a whole package of spinach every day for lunch and ended up being slightly anemic. Spinach has iron, but it has an acid that keeps your body from using iron or something. I cut back to half a package a day and added a little more meat and now it’s fine. How do you manage with almonds? Nuts are the only thing I eat that I have a problem with. I’ll count out 20 and just eat that many, but half an hour later I’m back sniffing around cupboard looking for more. My mind thinks a serving of almonds is whatever the entire package is.
Snacky thing I love - celery and peanut butter I make myself that has nothing but peanuts it in. But I don’t make much at a time, or I’d eat it all. Nuts are just too handy.
My mind pretty much thinks a serving is the whole package of ANYTHING. I keep telling myself I should get a scale and actually measure out servings, but then they look so pitifully SMALL!!!
The acid in spinach is oxalic acid. And you’re right, it prevents the body from absorbing iron. But spinach does have other good nutrients in it, so I’m glad you didn’t give it up altogether!
People do seem to think spinach is healthy, don’t they? I don’t think we really know, though.
I’m not saying spinach is bad for you or that it doesn’t have nutrients (though there are some people who believe it is). I’m more in the mode of questioning where we got this info and whether we think about it or it is just so ingrained now that we can’t see things any other way, kwim? Like all my vegan friends who like to keep their fat under some magic percentage and are worried about cholesterol. It’s so ingrained in them. They could read GCBC and still act like it’s a proven indisputable truth that cholesterol is bad.
I feel in my gut that spinach is good for us. But I am pretty certain that’s just because I’ve believed it my whole life. I still feed it to my children though. More out of fear than some scientific knowledge.
I did spend years saying, “I eat low carb, but I eat more veggies than I ever had before LC’ing,” like that made low carb more virtuous or something. I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea and think I was sitting around eating bacon and cheeseburgers for every meal. But now I am. And I feel more comfortable with that because it is really working for me, so I’m not doubting myself.
So, today I did eat something else. I was fasting today, so I ate once at 5 pm and I had buffalo chicken with blue cheese dressing. It was pretty yummy! I am actually feeling really sick of bacon and cheeseburgers! lol But for me, right now, that’s okay. I am going to stick to it because I’m getting a lot out of it.
There are some people on the dirty carnivore forum that cook really impressive all-meat meals, but I kind of like not thinking about my food and being able to rely on automatic pilot for my meals.
i spent a three day weekend eating cheeseburger patties and bacon. i lost 2 pounds! last night for dinner i had some veggies and it actually made my stomach hurt. i like your way of eating. and you are right about the fullness. it was very satisfying. thanks.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon this thread as I just recently started the all meat/carnivore diet to help my stabilize my BGs. However, I have been experiencing some fatigue and headaches and weakness and was wondering if this is due to detoxing from carbs and how long it will last if anyone has experienced it on 0 carb diets as well?
Whatever you do, avoid sugar drinks like Gatorade. Hydrate well and often. I also use another product called BioSteel High Performance Sports Drink Powder.
I was thinking that too… I drink about 3 gallons of water a day because I’m a long distance runner and avid exerciser but that not must be enough since going 0 carb.
You can over hydrate and that can also upset your electrolytes. I’d measure your pee output for a few days. You may surprise yourself and find it’s on the high side…
After a marathon etc, you are supposed to be a bit dehydrated and slowly rehydrate, some can even over hydrate during the run.
read anything from Noakes.
I’m a bit concerned you may go the other way and over salt. You can do a DIY electrolyte. I’d use standard sea salt, as it has a lot of other trace stuff in it.
I don’t think we really know, though.