Zero carbs? An appeal to low and very low carb members.

[everydayupsanddowns]

This post was split away from an earlier thread

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/help-before-i-give-up.104466/

because it risked becoming a distraction

He's wrong.. there are no 'essential carbs".

There is no need to eat carbs,

I think the suggestion that you don’t need any carbs and the inference that zero carbs is a viable possibility seems weird to me. And actually quite misleading.

but I like to have stirfries (though these days I buy the frozen ones from Lidl as I never know if I will be hungry enough to eat them) and stews or salads depending on the weather.

My stirfries and stews would typically contain

carrots - 10% carb
onion - 9% carb
garlic - 3% carb
broccoli - 7% carb
mushrooms - 3% carb
cabbage - 6% carb

and perhaps a sprinkling of
sesame seeds - 23% carb
cashew nuts - 30% carb

and in stews additionally things like
celeriac - 6% carb
swede - 9% carb

So with a zero carb diet, I could have none of those things. I can’t find any vegetables that are 0% carbs.

Neither could I eat

Cheese - 1.5% carb
Bacon - 1.5% carb
or Eggs - 1.1% carb

Or even Psyllium husk (11% non-fibre carbs) to help with the constipation.

I could eat meat, and drink oil and water. And that’s it. Well… with the addition of multivitamins to try to get around the significant lack of vitamins and minerals. Hardly practical, sustainable or healthy.

So can I please request that members who find a very low carb approach works for them stop repeating the assertion that you “don’t need any carbs”, or that “the required amount of carbs in the diet is zero”. Because to me it’s just a bit of a silly suggestion, and not really practically applicable for most people.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Basically, if what you mean is “there’s no need to eat potatoes, rice, pasta and the like”, then please say that instead 🙂

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Zero carb is also incredibly limiting.
I have spent the week hospital visiting.
Amount of carb free food - zero.

Pure meat simply is not served anywhere.

The closest would have been the "zinger burger"
Once you threw the salad, the roll, the hash brown, the crispy batter coating, and the dressing in the bin, you would be left with a (sort of) chicken piece, but it was no doubt reconstituted with a carb binder.
The pastie in the evening would be even harder to dissect.
As to the coffee and biscuits on the ward itself.......

I evolved as an omnivore for a reason it seems.

 

[Lucyr]

Thanks for the reminder Mike. Being autistic I take things as literally as outlined in your first post. So if I was advised by someone to eat no carbs then I’d assume that meant a very strict even lettuce is out diet, which is completely unrealistic and I’d not even be able to attempt.

 

[Robin]

I agree, Mike. @everydayupsanddowns . Your body may technically not need an intake in the form of carbohydrate for fuel, but we don’t just eat pure carbs, we eat foodstuffs that contain carbs (a few or a lot), but also vitamins, minerals and fibre which help to keep the body healthy and which are not found in meats and oils.

 

[Felinia]

I have spent the week hospital visiting.
Amount of carb free food - zero.

In a short hospital stay, I told them I was Type 2 following a reduced carb eating plan. This is what I got served up with:

B: Sugary cereal in a box, full fat milk, a roll with butter and a jam sachet
L: Pre-packed white cheese salad sandwich, banana
D: A very nice chicken casserole in a tomato and onion sauce, plus 4 large boiled potatoes, steamed pudding and custard.

When I reminded them I was low carb, I was told that was what the previous patient in the bed had ordered for me, and there was no alternative. Thank goodness I was then discharged!

 

[rebrascora]

I am an advocate of low carb, but I find it extremely irritating when people use the term "zero carb". Either they use it ignorantly or erroneously and really mean as Mike suggests, that they are avoiding bread and rice and potatoes and pasta etc.... which to me suggests that they don't really understand about carbs in the first place, or they mean a completely meat and fish based diet with no veggies/fruits/seeds/nuts etc which is not healthy. Yes we can survive on a purely carnivore diet but it isn't particularly good for us and very unlikely to be enjoyable for more than a few days or even doable for the majority of people living an ordinary life.

 

[EmmaL76]

I hope I haven’t started something here that ruffled feathers 🙄

 

[EmmaL76]

And @Felinia im currently in hospital and the choices are very limited to say the least

 

[AndBreathe]

And @Felinia im currently in hospital and the choices are very limited to say the least

I do hope your family will be bring you in food parcels.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

And @Felinia im currently in hospital and the choices are very limited to say the least

I was just visiting, the options I had were in the restaurant, then when these all shut, the nurses stations.
After hours it's toast, or their biscuit tin. (Or the confectionary from the vending machine)
Then possibly the chip shop on the way home, if it's still open.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I was told that was what the previous patient in the bed had ordered for me, and there was no alternative.

Well you could have refused the meal.
This works wonders I can assure you, as an alternative does then appear on the scene 🙂

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Well you could have refused the meal.
This works wonders I can assure you, as an alternative does then appear on the scene 🙂

Any new admission I've been in with gets the choice of whatever is left on the trolley if there is any spare, or a sandwich out of the fridge.
Or the original meal just gets taken away cold later.
But all options are always carb heavy.
Even the yoghurts are mostly fruit flavoured.

 

[bulkbiker]

So with a zero carb diet, I could have none of those things. I can’t find any vegetables that are 0% carbs.

There are no zero carb vegetables.

There is no dietary requirement for humans to eat carbohydrates or vegetables.

Humans can exist on a solely meat, salt and water diet and many are thriving on exactly that.

What I said is perfectly accurate.

Check out https://biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

It has been known for years.

Zero Carb Zen

Eat Meat. Drink Water.

zerocarbzen.com

“the required amount of carbs in the diet is zero”. Because it’s just silly.

And also completely true.

Gluconeogenesis is there to provide any glucose that the body requires from ingested amino acids.

 

[silentsquirrel]

There are no zero carb vegetables.

There is no dietary requirement for humans to eat carbohydrates or vegetables.

Humans can exist on a solely meat, salt and water diet and many are thriving on exactly that.

What I said is perfectly accurate.

Check out https://biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

It has been known for years.

Zero Carb Zen

Eat Meat. Drink Water.

zerocarbzen.com

And also completely true.

Gluconeogenesis is there to provide any glucose that the body requires from ingested amino acids.

Something can be accurate/true but still silly.

Most people prefer to do more than just exist.

 

[bulkbiker]

Something can be accurate/true but still silly.

Most people prefer to do more than just exist.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion I agree. Although calling a perfectly viable course of action "silly" isn't especially respectful is it?

I do way more than 'exist' though and am far healthier so....

 

[Deleted member 21371]

There are no zero carb vegetables.

There is no dietary requirement for humans to eat carbohydrates or vegetables.

Humans can exist on a solely meat, salt and water diet and many are thriving on exactly that.

What I said is perfectly accurate.

Check out https://biblelife.org/stefansson2.htm

It has been known for years.

Zero Carb Zen

Eat Meat. Drink Water.

zerocarbzen.com

And also completely true.

Gluconeogenesis is there to provide any glucose that the body requires from ingested amino acids.

We aren't Inuit.
Different DNA.

And from your trawl, the words

"Toward the latter part of the test it became startlingly clear, on paper that we were not getting enough calcium for health"

don't really help you very much?
It's not a viable diet.
And it's your link, don't argue with me.

 

[bulkbiker]

We aren't Inuit.
Different DNA.

And from your trawl, the words

"Toward the latter part of the test it became startlingly clear, on paper that we were not getting enough calcium for health"

don't really help you very much?
It's not a viable diet.
And it's your link, don't argue with me.

" on paper that we were not getting enough calcium for health. But we were healthy."

Nice edit my friend..

Steffanson wasn't Inuit either nor was Andersen.

Please don't tell me what to do.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

" on paper that we were not getting enough calcium for health. But we were healthy."

Nice edit my friend..

Steffanson wasn't Inuit either nor was Andersen.

Please don't tell me what to do.

Ok,
for the sake of @bulkbiker.

"Toward the latter part of the test it became startlingly clear, on paper that we were not getting enough calcium for health. But we were healthy. The escape from that dilemma was assume that a calcium deficiency which did not hurt us in our one year might destroy us in ten or twenty."

Calcium deficiency, "startlingly clear" after one year, might be assumed to "destroy" @bulkbiker in ten to twenty years on an inuit meat only diet.
(If you fed Inuits western sheep and steak)

Not my sort of gamble Eddie.

But as you say, no one is going to tell you what to do.
In much the same way you can't tell us not to have our opinion on your suggestions.

 

[Robin]

Humans can exist on a solely meat, salt and water diet and many are thriving on exactly that.

I’m interested to know how you can do that without getting scurvy. Until the introduction of citrus fruits into their diet (hence the nickname Limeys) British sailors succumbed to Vit C deficiency. And what about Beriberi, caused by Vit B deficiency? Can you please tell me where you get your vitamins from? Do you take it in tablet form?