We don't eat vegetables on Atkins?

[Sherrie]

I was just reading this blog post on the USDA food pyramid...

As we all know the first criticism we usually get on that atkins diet is that we don't eat vegetables, well heres one of their reccomendations from the blogpost linked above:

--2.5 cups of veggies daily, or 16.5 weekly, of which 3 cups should be dark green, 2 cups should be orange, 3 cups should be dried beans or peas, 3 cups should be starchy

Now obviousely they break down of it seems a bit silly but the main thing that caught my eye was the total cups of veg: 2.5 cups a day or 16.5 a week (which btw should actually equal 17.5 cups a week).

Now correct me if I am wrong, but Atkins induction or phase 1 is 2 cups of salad veg and 1 cup of non starchy veg... That is 3 cups a day and 21 cups a week, yes?

And they say we don't eat enough vegetables?

[melvan]

No kidding...when I was doing strict Atkins, I ate more veggies than I ever had before in my life!

[luv2bslim]

me too :-)
cauliflower, brocolli, spinach, zucchini...

[LC_Dave]

And you know what else?

Those recommended daily allowance guidliness on minerals and vitamins are based on a diet where poor absorbtion occures.

Ie. A high vegetable, fruit and grain diet.

Evern veggies and fruit have anti-nutrients in them that interfere with the digestion of those minerals and vitamins.

So they set the requirments high,

because they assume no one is eating a meat based diet with animal fat in it.

[Sherrie]

I don't think their mineral vitamin requirements are high Dave in fact I think they are probably low.

But anti nutrients, yep a lot of vegies, grains and soy are full of them even our prized low carb broccolli among others, particulary if you eat them raw. But that doesn't neccesarily make them bad from that respect, you just need to learn how to prepare them.

But anyway Atkins induction actually allows more vegies then the USDA food pyramid example!

[Osanna]

This one thing that hubby and I noticed, we ate more vegetables than ever before and oddly enough more fruit (berries).

[Sherrie]

Yes I was never a fruit eater so I ate more too!

Well except tomato

[LC_Dave]

What I guess I'm saying, is that we actually get more vitamins pound for pound, because we are low carbing!

[Sherrie]

Bump

[laffin]

I eat more vegetables on Atkins than I ever did on SAD (standard American diet). Since I have to have my groceries delivered each month, I start the first half of the month consuming salad vegetables or other fresh vegetables like green and red cabbage, zucchini and summer squash and then when those run out, I switch to frozen vegetables - broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, etc.

[jess82]

I also eat more vegetables now than I did on a high carb diet. What alot of the critics don't realise is that high protein does not mean eating kilo steaks with cheese and bacon. With most low carb high protein diets you will find that you will that your meal will require you eating half a plate of vegies 1/4 plate or 200g of protein and if it is a day meal the plate can also be 1/4 of a good complex carb that is low GI. So much for no vegies. I also had to laugh at the book Skinny Bitch where they say people do Atkins to eat cheeseburgers all day. Sorry I think cheeseburgers are a no no for most of us regardless of the diet we are on

[vicolisted]

I agree that it's silly and a bit infuriating how non-LC-er think we don't eat ANY vegetables.

I ate lots even when I wasn't LCing but when LCing it just increases to a crazy amount as in my wee fridge isn't large enough to hold all my veggies and I'm doing frequent grocery store runs just for fresh veg.

In my times off LC in the past year I (and the non-lcarbing husband) use to start to crave the high veggie suppers with the nice quality protein and lots of lovely fat.