Carb counting

[Toffee1]

Recently diagnosed type 2. I am really finding it difficult to understand what my carb intake should be. Can anyone recomend an app that might help me to plan suitable meals. Thanks

 

[Inka]

The simple answer to that is the amount of carbs that works for you - ie keeps your blood sugar ok and your weight ok.

I think you said you ate quite a few savoury carbs? Perhaps start with having your normal meals but reducing the carb element and replacing it with veg or salad. Unless you’re on insulin and carb-counting to adjust your bolus insulin, you don’t have to count up exactly.

 

[Toffee1]

Thanks inka. I used to eat savoury carbs and trying hard to eat as much salad and veg but to be honest, every time I think of veg I just want to throw up.

 

[Inka]

You’re talking to the UK’s biggest veg fan here @Toffee1 What is it that you don’t like about veg? Would you prefer salads? There are so many interesting and tasty salads now - forget just lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.

 

[pm133]

You’re talking to the UK’s biggest veg fan here @Toffee1 What is it that you don’t like about veg? Would you prefer salads? There are so many interesting and tasty salads now - forget just lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.

I must admit, I could never be a vegetarian.
Life without meat sounds unbearable.
How anyone can be a vegan is beyond my comprehension.
It must be horrible. A carrot can never be as good as a delicious medium rare rump steak soaked in a pepper sauce surely?

I remember my wife and I going to a friends house 30 years ago and they served up cauliflower cheese. After they'd dished it out they started tucking in. They asked me if I was going to eat and at that time I had no social filter and said "It's OK, I'll wait for the meat." As soon as the words came out of my mouth it suddenly dawned on me that there was going to be no meat. I was horrified.

It seems funny looking back now but as an ardent meat eater, I can't begin to describe how furious I felt at the time. I was absolutely seething. Barely spoke a word during dinner.

We didn't meet them again. I think it was mutual. 🙂

 

[Sally71]

Oops...

I don’t think I could ever go veggie either though, I enjoy my meat too much. Although if I occasionally put a meal together which just happens to have no meat in it I don’t mind, my hubby will go out of his way to put some bacon on the top or something though!

 

[Inka]

Most people are vegan for ethical reasons @pm133 I’m not vegan but I do eat a lot of vegan and plant-based meals. They’re definitely not horrible else I wouldn’t eat them! I love my food too much. As for vegetarian food, well there are a wealth of options 🙂

Even if people choose not to be vegetarian or vegan, we could all do with eating more veg for general health reasons not just to lower carbs.

 

[pm133]

we could all do with eating more veg for general health reasons not just to lower carbs.

There's nothing inherently unethical about eating meat. Animal welfare is another issue I suppose. Treating animals like c**p isn't an inevitability and I don't understand the mentality of any farmer doing this.

Happy to eat veg personally, but it will always be a side serving rather than the main course.

As a population I think a bigger problem than not eating enough veg is eating too many cakes and pies. The fact that covid seems to have particularly devastated the lives of those who are obese (many of them quite young) will probably be a wake-up call for the government to sort out obesity once and for all. Our UK lifestyles have almost definitely contributed to our death tolls being so much higher than those in other EU countries.

 

[Inka]

Yes, junk food and over-processed c**p is a massive problem too, but I find the two are generally connected. Those who eat the most c**p, eat the least veg.

I disagree strongly that eating meat isn’t an ethical issue. You might be happy to do so and that’s fine - we all make our own decisions. But the idea there’s nothing ethical to consider seems wrong. Is it ethical to eat other living beings? You might say Yes, but there’s still an ethical/moral side to meat-eating that we all surely go through in our heads?

 

[helli]

I haven't eaten meat for about 30 years.
Initially, my motivation for giving it up was animal welfare. Since then, free range meat has become much more common but, after so long, I don't miss meat and feel no reason to change.
I love the variety of colour, flavours and texture you get from vegetables. In comparison, meat looks so ... brown.
My partner eats meat and I have no problem with it but we both love trying different flavours and use lots of herbs and spices.

I love how varied the human race is ... and how varied the cuisines are around the world.

 

[trophywench]

I will never EVER feel guilty about the pigs that died to keep me alive - and neither should ANYONE who uses insulin !!!! It was a bloody good job for shedloads of us worldwide that someone bred them!!!! - including RG Lawrence and HG Wells.

 

[Toffee1]

You’re talking to the UK’s biggest veg fan here @Toffee1 What is it that you don’t like about veg? Would you prefer salads? There are so many interesting and tasty salads now - forget just lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.

I think I have just got so used to my old diet which didn't really include many vegetables. I have been eating salads but I do need to investigate ways to make them more exciting.

 

[Inka]

The cheapest way is to look for recipes online and/or borrow books from your local library. Despite the conversation above there’s no need to be vegetarian or vegan to explore veg, but I would say that googling plant-based salads or borrowing plant-based or vegan cookbooks should give you some ideas. You can then just add meat of your choice.

Finding an actual meal planner app isn’t easy. The only ones I know are plant-based and cost money, but there are often free offers where you get 3/5/7 days free or whatever.

Maybe I should start a Tasty Veg/Salad thread in recipes but that wouldn’t be for a few days. I find that having new salad recipes is refreshing and makes me focus on that as the centrepiece of the meal. I then add whatever I want to it to suit. Just mixing up different things eg adding strawberries to a rocket salad, or toasting pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top of a green salad is fun. You can also do things like roast cauliflower rather than boil it. Stir fries are also a good way to jazz up veg.

My favourite veg at the moment are fennel and orange salad with hazelnut, rocket salad with strawberries, chickpeas and basil and lemon, and kale and broccoli salad (raw) with mango and chilli dressing. There are also the old favourites like Salad Nicoise which can be quite posh if you focus on getting good quality ingredients and presenting it nicely.

 

[Leadinglights]

I think I have just got so used to my old diet which didn't really include many vegetables. I have been eating salads but I do need to investigate ways to make them more exciting.

You can use mixed leaves which are a bit more exciting than just lettuce and add peppers, celery, radishes, shredded red cabbage, carrots, avocodo, olives add seeds like pumpkin and sunflower, maybe some crumbled feta cheese. You could have coleslaw.

 

[Toffee1]

The cheapest way is to look for recipes online and/or borrow books from your local library. Despite the conversation above there’s no need to be vegetarian or vegan to explore veg, but I would say that googling plant-based salads or borrowing plant-based or vegan cookbooks should give you some ideas. You can then just add meat of your choice.

Finding an actual meal planner app isn’t easy. The only ones I know are plant-based and cost money, but there are often free offers where you get 3/5/7 days free or whatever.

Maybe I should start a Tasty Veg/Salad thread in recipes but that wouldn’t be for a few days. I find that having new salad recipes is refreshing and makes me focus on that as the centrepiece of the meal. I then add whatever I want to it to suit. Just mixing up different things eg adding strawberries to a rocket salad, or toasting pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top of a green salad is fun. You can also do things like roast cauliflower rather than boil it. Stir fries are also a good way to jazz up veg.

My favourite veg at the moment are fennel and orange salad with hazelnut, rocket salad with strawberries, chickpeas and basil and lemon, and kale and broccoli salad (raw) with mango and chilli dressing. There are also the old favourites like Salad Nicoise which can be quite posh if you focus on getting good quality ingredients and presenting it nicely.

Thanks Inka. I have taken a note of the fennel and orange salad and will definitely try it. Your idea of starting a tasty veg salad thread sounds great and I am sure it will help many newbies lime me.

 

[Inka]

I will do next week 🙂

For the fennel, I use one of those mandolin-type peelers to get off thin strips (raw). It has some fresh mint too. It’s very simple and would go nicely with fish or chicken if you eat those. It has a citrussy dressing.

 

[Toffee1]

I will buy a peeler at the weekend and most definitely be keeping an eye out for your thread.

 

[pm133]

I disagree strongly that eating meat isn’t an ethical issue. You might be happy to do so and that’s fine - we all make our own decisions. But the idea there’s nothing ethical to consider seems wrong. Is it ethical to eat other living beings?

Is it ethical to eat other living beings? That's an odd question.
Humans are omnivorous. Biologically, we are designed to eat both meat and vegetables. It's why we have canine teeth for a start. Our bodies are as beautifully designed to digest meat as vegetables.
I draw the line at eating humans though.

If someone wants to avoid meat, that's fine but they do need to make sure they find the nutrients and specifically the amino acids they would normally get from meat from other sources. For vegans, that can be particularly difficult.

I would add that @trophywench makes a very valid point about insulin. Without it, all of us type 1s would be dead. There's no ethical question to be answered in that regard other than the treatment of the animals under our welfare. As long as the animals are treated well and humanely dispatched, I'm OK with it (I won't buy eggs from anything other than free range sources for example).

 

[Eddy Edson]

If someone wants to avoid meat, that's fine but they do need to make sure they find the nutrients and specifically the amino acids they would normally get from meat from other sources. For vegans, that can be particularly difficult.

It's really not very difficult to get all yr essential amino acids if you're vegan. Soy stuff, seeds, nuts ...

 

[Inka]

@pm133 Not really an odd question. Animals are sentient beings, and in many cases exhibit emotions that we can relate to eg distress at the loss of an offspring. They feel fear and pain too.

By “ethical”, I mean that we all make judgements about what’s ‘acceptable’ to us as individuals eg you said you’d never eat a human. Would you eat your dog or cat? Would you eat someone else’s dog or cat? Would you drink milk from a dog? Gross? Then why is cows’ milk ok? See, there are lots of questions, both ethical and to do with a matter of taste/revulsion.

Yes, porcine and bovine insulin saved/saves many lives, and thank god for them. That’s another ethical judgement, isn’t it? Personally I think it’s a different matter to take insulin in order not to die than to choose to eat a lamb when a person could easily be nourished by other foods. One is a compelling choice, the other just a food desire.

Compare our canine teeth with a wolf’s. Not much good at tearing meat apart, are they? Look at our digestive tracts. Look at our near relatives in the primate kingdom. The amount of meat they eat is tiny, if any at all. Their diet is largely plants.

People in the developed world eat too much meat IMO. They don’t have to become vegan or vegetarian, but most people could do with eating less meat - for health reasons, ethical reasons and environmental reasons.