What foods and meat substitutes can be eaten that have little carbs?

I want to become a vegetarian but I’m afraid my blood sugars will become too high. I found out that many of those meat substitutes are full of soy products and have massive amounts of carbs. What can I eat that will make me full and not have so many carbs in it?

You’ll find a lot of strong opinions about soy. I personally think that a moderate amount, especially in whole foods, is not a problem. I like to eat edemame, tofu, and tempeh. These are all soy foods, but they aren’t highly processed the way Boca and Morning Star Farms products are. The benefit of soy products for people with diabetes is that they are very low in carbs, about the same as any other green vegetable. Edemame are whole soy beans, and you should be able to get them in the freezer section of your grocery store. I just eat them heated with a bit of salt (you don’t eat the pod though). Tofu and tempeh may be a bit harder to find, and they require some preparation. Beans, lentils, nuts, and eggs should fill you up as well without making your bloodsugar soar. And of course pretty much every kind of vegetable.

What do you usually like to eat? Do you like to cook, or do you mostly eat prepared foods or at restaurants?

I love vegetables, each kind
i like cook very much, and then i know what i prepare, which ingrediens have high or low of carbs
i hardly ever eat in restaurant, because then you can’t know exacly what you eat :stuck_out_tongue: (but i love The Green Way restaurants - it’s for vegeterians and diabetics coincidentally
also when you prepare your meals alone, you can manage efficiently your disease, the sugar in your blood
i have a great clue for these of you, which are not a vegans but vegeterians - EAT FISH !!!
it’s the best source of good protein, insatiable fats and vitamin E and so on
but soy products are good as well, tofu etc.
so enjoy your own meals :smiley:

just vegetables, like green beans, aubergine - if you prepare them boilt or steamed they’ll make you full than if you’d do it fried
i recomend you boilt / steamed fish - a lot of pieces of protein, which make you full and of course the whole meal products like whole meal pastas, rice (!) and grits - it’s very important product
i’ve been a vegeterian for over 4 years and i’m alive :P, so don’t worry abt :smiley:
have a great day
P.

but I forgot about very important thing - become a vegeterian step by step, not suddenly !!!

Hi

We have changed from a meat eating diet to a vegetarian one over the past three years. We still eat a little meat but that is very infrequently and only fish when we do.

To add extra protein to your diet you could try protein powders. You can get ones derived from milk or from hemp. The hemp one we can get here (UK) also gives you the good oils like omega 3.

They can be added to smoothies to boost the overall protein content and help keep you full for longer.

Peas, Beans and Lentils also contain higher amounts of protein than fruit & veg.

Chick peas and lentils about 8g protein per 100g

Also some veg have more protein than others ie: Asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower and broccoli. All having more protein than carbs per 100g and none of the fat that meat has.

I personally don’t like all the additives in the meat substitutes and find that our diet is higher in dairy products, which I’m not overly happy about.

We eat tofu about once a month. But we are trying to get our main protein from our beans etc.

Don’t forget though that the added fiber in your diet, found in beans peas lentils & vegetables, will help with blood sugar spikes. See extract below.

In June 2007, the British Nutrition Foundation issued a statement to define dietary fiber more concisely and list the potential health benefits established to date:

‘Dietary fiber’ has been used as a collective term for a complex mixture of substances with different chemical and physical properties which exert different types of physiological effects. … Diets naturally high in fiber can be considered to bring about five main physiological consequences:

  1. improvements in gastrointestinal health
    2. improvements in glucose tolerance and the insulin response
  2. reduction of hyperlipidemia, hypertension and other coronary heart disease risk factors
  3. reduction in the risk of developing some cancers
  4. increased satiety and hence some degree of weight management

Therefore, it is not appropriate to state that fiber has a single all encompassing physiological property as these effects are dependent on the type of fiber in the diet. The beneficial effects of high fiber diets are the summation of the effects of the different types of fiber present in the diet and also other components of such diets. Defining fiber physiologically allows recognition of indigestible carbohydrates with structures and physiological properties similar to those of naturally occurring dietary fibers.

Hope this is some help to you.

Vonda K