root veg... carbs? And salad?

[ian1962]

We all understand (presumably! 🙂 that spuds are "carbs" and are our dreaded enemy.

but what about other root vegetables? eg carrots, parsnips, turnips, swede, beetroot, celeriac?

Are they "the same" generally speaking? eg if on a no carb day/diet/life, does that mean root veg are "off piste" ?

Meanwhile - salad. I can't see that salad (leaf, cucumber,) has any realistic carbs in them (much of anything really!). So does that mean one can fill your boots with salad leaf and cucumber? I appreciate that salad DRESSINGS are a different scenario! 🙂

cheers!

 

[Mark Parrott]

Salad. Fill your boots.🙂 OK, there are some carbs in tomatoes, but not really worth worrying about much. Root veg all vary. Potatoes are the worse by a long way. Sweet potato has similar carbs but more fibre so some can tolerate it better. I have celeriac, carrots, turnips & swede, they do have a small impact on my blood sugar, but still within my limits. Parsnips are high carb, but oddly I can tolerate them.

 

[trophywench]

What Mark said.

We can't realistically completely avoid carbs - even lettuce and cucumber have minute amounts - but if we cut down pretty well on the major things containing them it gives us more scope to then add some of the lesser ones. Some folk find the carbs in legumes (peas, beans) affect their BG too - just depends on YOU !

 

[grovesy]

Some tolerate these where others don't.

 

[sandram]

I was told for a low carb diet, avoid veg grown under the ground, as much as possible as they are higher in carbs, hope this helps

 

[Wirrallass]

The best advice I can give you is to TEST your bgl ( Blood glucose level) before each meal and again 2hrs post meal ~ by doing this you will determine which vegetables ~ foods etc you can or cannot tolerate. We 'diabeticeers' are very different ~ some can tolerate potatoes (New baby potatoes & mashed potatoes) others cannot. I can eat most veggies now without spiking my bgls too much. Some can tolerate porridge ~ others cannot. Diabetes is a very individual condition. Good luck.

 

[Mark Parrott]

I was told for a low carb diet, avoid veg grown under the ground, as much as possible as they are higher in carbs, hope this helps

All depends how low carb you want to go. I manage to stay around 50g - 60g a day & still eat some root veg. Here are the carbs per 100g.

Celeriac - 7.2
Turnip - 4.2
Parsnip - 13.1
Carrots - 7,2
Swede - 6.7
Beetroot - 7.2
Potatoes - 14.8
Sweet potato - 17g (Surprisingly higher than potato, but higher fibre slows it down)

 

[Radders]

Sweet potato - 17g (Surprisingly higher than potato, but higher fibre slows it down)

I don’t find it surprising really, the clue’s in the name! ;-)

 

[SB2015]

A useful rule of thumb I picked up from somewhere is
- if it grows under the ground (potatoes, leeks, etc) lots of carbs
- if it grows above the ground (beans, courgette, squash etc) medium carbs
- if it grown on the ground (herbs, lettuce) ignore the carbs as they are so minimal.

Seems to be a good guide when trying new things or out and about and can't be bothered to look things up.

 

[khskel]

As for salad dressings some are very low. Mayo isn't as bad as you might imagine and a vinagrette can be virtually zero.

 

[Dave W]

Leeks are low carb at 2.6. Peas are fairly high at 10.0. Parsnips at 12.9 are about double that of carrots. Swede and turnip according to the dataset I rely on come in at 2.3 and 2.0. Beetroot 9.5.
My source is The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2014.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/composition-of-foods-integrated-dataset-cofid

 

[Mark Parrott]

Leeks are low carb at 2.6. Peas are fairly high at 10.0. Parsnips at 12.9 are about double that of carrots. Swede and turnip according to the dataset I rely on come in at 2.3 and 2.0. Beetroot 9.5.
My source is The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2014.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/composition-of-foods-integrated-dataset-cofid

Mine was google. Different websites give different results, but usually in the same ballpark.