Hi everybody! What carb-free meals do you like?

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

ericrobinson

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Recently diagnosed with T2.
500mg metformin a day.
Need to lose weight.

Today I tried a day with only 0% carb meals, while monitoring my glucose properly for the first time throughout the day.

It was interesting, easier that I thought but expensive. Expensive because I went for all the nicest options. Bacon and egg for breakfast. Mackerel and egg for lunch. Steak, egg, leafy greens and broccoli for dinner (with added salt, olive oil and butter). No deserts. Yes, I know, not perfect by any stretch, I know steak, bacon and eggs come with their own baggage, but not a bad first start if I say so myself. Correct me if I'm wrong please - I'm here to learn everything.

I've just been looking at a graph on Wikipedia for how glucose levels change throughout a normal day, which I assume is for a diet which includes some carbs. I'm curious if someone can tell me how this graph would look for a person who never ate any carbs?

Also is there a perfect carb free one-day menu? I'd love to know what meals you'd pick.
 
Welcome to the forum @ericrobinson 🙂

It’s very difficult to have entirely carb-free meals. Because there are trace amounts of carbohydrate in eggs, cheese, and all vegetables.

Many members here find a moderate or low carbohydrate approach works well for them and can still be very flexible. There are no completely agreed terms, but many definitions of ‘low carbohydrate’ begin at 130g of carbohydrate per day. Some members here have found their metabolisms prefer a slightly lower target, perhaps 50-90g per day. But it’s very individual.

A key component is that it is enjoyable, satisfying, sustainable, and has a good balance of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients 🙂
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure that's it's possible to entirely eliminate carbs from our diets. Even broccoli is 2-3% carbohydrate, for example. Can I ask why you think you have to try for zero carbs rather that go low carb? Even a Keto diet includes carbs. Also, it's not a good idea to try and bring BG down too quickly. How high was your HbA1c?

I went low carb, ie below 130g per day, as soon as I was diagnosed and managed to bring my BG back into normal range after 5 months. Many go lower, and some a lot lower. As @everydayupsanddowns says it's a very individual thing and we all have to find what works for us personally.
 
People will usually test what amount of carbs they can tolerate at any one meal by testing before eating and after 2 hours and aim at no more than 2-3mmol/l increase. For some the amount may be different for meals at different times of the day. You still need a balance of nutrients, vitamins and minerals in your meals and that may come with some carbs.
It is better to have a regime which is sustainable rather than a quick fix which is not.
I reduced my carbs to 70g per day and had problems with my eyes for several months as blood glucose levels dropped quickly and not even from a particularly high level.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Welcome to the forum @ericrobinson 🙂

It’s very difficult to have entirely carb-free meals. Because there are trace amounts of carbohydrate in eggs, cheese, and all vegetables.

Many members here find a moderate or low carbohydrate approach works well for them and can still be very flexible. There are no completely agreed terms, but many definitions of ‘low carbohydrate’ begin at 130g of carbohydrate per day. Some members here have found their metabolisms prefer a slightly lower target, perhaps 50-90g per day. But it’s very individual.

A key component is that it is enjoyable, satisfying, sustainable, and has a good balance of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks @everydayupsanddowns
Nice to meet you.

Yes, after I wrote that post I thought that there was probably some carbs in that food, even in the leafy greens. For example, I grow kale in the winter and I know it tastes a lot nicer at that time of year because the plant produces a lot of carbs that act like antifreeze. I suspect winter broccoli and sprouts might be similar.

Thanks for sharing the thread with daily menus. Very interesting indeed!
 
Martin.A said:
I'm not sure that's it's possible to entirely eliminate carbs from our diets. Even broccoli is 2-3% carbohydrate, for example. Can I ask why you think you have to try for zero carbs rather that go low carb? Even a Keto diet includes carbs. Also, it's not a good idea to try and bring BG down too quickly. How high was your HbA1c?

I went low carb, ie below 130g per day, as soon as I was diagnosed and managed to bring my BG back into normal range after 5 months. Many go lower, and some a lot lower. As @everydayupsanddowns says it's a very individual thing and we all have to find what works for us personally.
Click to expand...
It's wasn't a diet plan, just a no-carb-day experiment.

On Friday night I learned about reversing T2 with a zero-carb menu. On Saturday I discussed food with a relative who's had T2 for decades but to my surprise she's never managed her diet for diabetes, and never received any proper guidance on this topic. I listed Potatoes, Bread, Pasta, and Rice as the three high-carb staples that would have to be significantly reduced in a low-carb diet. At the time it seemed daunting to reduce them a lot, as most recent meals included fish and chips, curry and rice, an Aldi pasta ready meal, sandwiches, toast, and croissants.

Then on impulse I thought it that maybe it would be interesting to try having a whole day of main meals with zero (or close to) carbs, just as an experiment. We quickly and easily came up with 3 main meals we could make from ingredients we both have in stock already, so it wasn't as difficult as we first imagined. She did say she had to have a piece of bread with her lunch though.

I think this was interesting because I wanted to know what it would be like going cold turkey. And it was just fine. Now I feel like I can create a balanced diet with low to no carbs fairly easily. My only issue is with eggs, because I think I would have to eat more eggs per week than are recommended.
 
There is no reason to limit eggs because they are an almost perfect food.
I only tend to eat (at most) 4 in a day, about dozen and a half per week. Cholesterol is vital for life, in the bloodstream it's almost all made by our liver but it is so vital to the brain that it has its own supply. You may be able to make less by eating more in your diet, but it's only a very small proportion from the diet that makes it into the bloodstream.

At first I was cautious about fats because I'd had a triple bypass just over 2 years before being diagnosed with T2D. But I had been eating low fat (but high carb) including whole grins for over a decade before that, so had first hand evidence that the standard dietary advice didn't prevent those conditions for me!
I found that my Lipid ratios all improved on very low carb except for my LDL, which I later found is because I was a slim (normal weight) T2 diabetic rather than overweight. For those more typical T2's their LDL often goes down along with the higher HDL and lower Triglycerides. I have now been in T2D remission for almost 4 years.

Testing with my BG meter showed me I needed to go very low carb almost Keto - 20 to 40 gms of carbs per day. Although I love fish, meat, eggs, cheese, full fat yogurt, my personal way of eating allows me some tasty sauces and even a few squares of dark chocolate (Lindt 90%). Some doing a carnivorous diet eat many more eggs than I do, Dr Shawn Baker eats very little except steak, eggs and salt.
 
ericrobinson said:
It's wasn't a diet plan, just a no-carb-day experiment.

On Friday night I learned about reversing T2 with a zero-carb menu. On Saturday I discussed food with a relative who's had T2 for decades but to my surprise she's never managed her diet for diabetes, and never received any proper guidance on this topic. I listed Potatoes, Bread, Pasta, and Rice as the three high-carb staples that would have to be significantly reduced in a low-carb diet. At the time it seemed daunting to reduce them a lot, as most recent meals included fish and chips, curry and rice, an Aldi pasta ready meal, sandwiches, toast, and croissants.

Then on impulse I thought it that maybe it would be interesting to try having a whole day of main meals with zero (or close to) carbs, just as an experiment. We quickly and easily came up with 3 main meals we could make from ingredients we both have in stock already, so it wasn't as difficult as we first imagined. She did say she had to have a piece of bread with her lunch though.

I think this was interesting because I wanted to know what it would be like going cold turkey. And it was just fine. Now I feel like I can create a balanced diet with low to no carbs fairly easily. My only issue is with eggs, because I think I would have to eat more eggs per week than are recommended.
Click to expand...
I would just issue a warning about reducing carbs too quickly as it is kinder on your body to reduce gradually over a few weeks as there will be less risk of problems with your eyes and nerves that some people get. I went down in one go to 70g per day and had problems with my eyes after a few weeks which too months to recover.
 
ianf0ster said:
Cholesterol is vital for life.
Click to expand...

Water is vital for life, and yet drinking too much in a short space of time will kill you quickly. So that logic is flawed.

I've never considered too many eggs to be an issue and I have regularly binged on eggs, but when I decided to have eggs in every meal in one day, I thought it might be wise to quickly check if there is a recommended limit. The sites I found gave mixed recommendations for how many eggs one can safely eat, here are two:

Editor in Chief, Harvard Men's Health Watch - "the average healthy person likely suffers no harm from eating up to seven eggs per week".

Heart Foundation NZ - "[people] who are at increased risk of heart disease can eat up to six eggs per week as part of a heart-healthy diet".

I think I remember the eggs.com (or egg.com) website being the highest, recommended up to 8 eggs per week.

These all mention some kind of limit.

When I first looked these up I was narrowly focused on my 1-day experiment, so I learnt enough for that, but you've forced me to fact check you now, and after looking at it a bit more closely, as far as I can see there is now conflicting research, inconsistent results, and mixed opinions regarding the need for any limit on how many eggs are safe to eat, and some say there is no longer any justification for recommending any kind of limit. So thanks for correcting me on eggs, but it's clear more research is needed before anything conclusive can be asserted to be the case. It's all very interesting though.

I'll come back to digest the rest of your comment later. Got some errands to run before it gets too late.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top