Vegan and Type 2

[Baggage]

Hello Everyone

I have recently been diagnosed type 2 and now I need to reduce my carb intake and increase my proteins. I'm really struggling to do this, especially when most soya products also contain carbs. I'm looking to do a 40% carb /40% protein /20% fat plan/ Any advice would be really appreciated.

 

[helli]

How do you feel about Quorn. It is low carb and you can use it in mince form or sausage form or "chicken" form and probably more

 

[Inka]

Hi @Baggage 🙂 There are some vegan recipes on the DUK website, which have the nutritional information eg

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/recipes/butternut-squash-and-borlotti-bean-stew

I’m not vegan but I eat lots of vegan meals. I generally use beans and pulses for added protein along with grains like quinoa. If you bulk your grains out with veg then you reduce the carbs eg I make a quinoa salad with loads of kale added.

Tofu is very adaptable and is low carb (approx 1g carbs per 100g). You can use it in curries, stir fries, chillies, etc, and desserts.

It’s perfectly possible to eat a vegan diet with diabetes. In fact, some studies suggest a very low fat Plant-based diet can improve insulin sensitivity.

 

[Windy]

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian, rather than a vegan, but I do cook a fair amount of vegan meals.
I second Inka's suggestions about tofu and curries, and as long as you don't have a problem with eating wheat gluten, there's seitan, which you can buy in health food shops and Chinese supermarkets.
Pulses - I know they have some carbs in, but uncooked, lentils and chickpeas both are relatively low carb (11.7g and 11.2g of carbs per 100g respectively), which gives you the chance to eat foods like hummus, baba ganoush, chickpea and vegetable curries, lentil and vegetable soup, stews, salads with vegan mayo and falafels... and you could do grilled aubergines with garlic and olive oil, tray baked Mediterrenean vegetables with marinaded or chilli tofu or baked cauliflower and broccoli in curry paste, served with hummus. I make soya mince spaghetti bolognaise (with textured vegetable protein) and serve it with courgette cut into strips instead of spaghetti and do a side of garlic mushrooms.

I've no idea about the 40/40/20 split I'm afraid, I work out cals and carbs and haven't got the energy to work out track the fat percentage too.
Hope this helps, Sarah

 

[MJT82]

I’m also lacto-ovo vegetarian - I only point this out as I’ve just found out from the above post!! Mainly plant based and used to be solely but the cheese was too hard to kick!!

I’ve found most of the fakey meat to actually be pretty decent / suitable numbers wise being low in carbs and not too high in cals and good for protein.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I eat vegan about 2 days out of 3. For protein on those days I mainly have soy milk, edamame, chia seeds (complete proteins) plus nuts. Really have been unable to train myself to like tofu otherwise that would be in the mix too 🙂

Plenty of protein. I don't care much about carbs one way or another but also low carb, fwiw.

One thing I would add: the standard recs for protein daily amounts are open to a lot of questions & fwiw I think there's a strong case for increasing these by 50%+

 

[Windy]

Really have been unable to train myself to like tofu

Have you tried cutting it into chunks, marinading it and roasting it? This sort of thing, making it crispy and well flavoured makes it so much better and overcomes blandness and non existent texture. Or buy smoked tofu, as it's got a better flavour and texture than normal tofu?
I'm mindful that you might just not like it ever though. Sarah

 

[Eddy Edson]

Have you tried cutting it into chunks, marinading it and roasting it? This sort of thing, making it crispy and well flavoured makes it so much better and overcomes blandness and non existent texture. Or buy smoked tofu, as it's got a better flavour and texture than normal tofu?
I'm mindful that you might just not like it ever though. Sarah

I really prefer raw food, mostly - I'm weird 🙂 Raw tofu just doesn't work for me - but raw edamame is triffic so I'm not really missing out on anything, nutritionally.

 

[Eddy Edson]

On a tangent, this is an evolving thread I'm following:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1491641783821881347

Kevin Bass with commentary on & discussion with one of the authors of an detailed paper
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31690027/ reviewing protein and amino acids in vegetarian and vegan diets. Essentially, the paper says that vegans and vegetarians in developed countries generally get more than enough protein from their diets; Kevin will probably be questioning that in some circumstances.

Anyway, I find this stuff interesting; YMMV 🙂