Veggies

[calsurfman]

Sorry but im a little confused, if we are only allowed to have 3 cups a veggies per day i dont understand why lettuce is included. Im showing it only has like .2 net carbs per half a cup of Romaine Lettuce. Now Brocoli and Cauliflower i can understand. Or is that just the rule no more then 3 cups however it measures under 20g Carbs per day under induction?

[Georgiana]

Re: Veggies

I'm not sure if I understand exactly what you mean. During induction, one should have 3 cups of veggies per day. 1 of these cups can be of veggies from the "other vegetable" list, while the other 2 cups have to be from the salad veggies list.

Lettuce is very low in carbs indeed. You can, of course, eat lettuce - it's great in salads or for wraps - but you don't have to. You can have spinach or cucumber instead, just to give two examples. If, let's say, you have 1 cup of cucumber slices, 1 cup of chopped red/green/yellow pepper and 1 cup of green beans, this will give you about 12 net carbs. Exchanging the cucumber or the peppers on lettuce will give you only ~9 net carbs.

[not2late]

Re: Veggies

We follow the 2002 book here. According to it, the majority of your daily carbs are to be from vegetables. So, if you have eaten 12 carbs for the entire day, at least 7 of them must be from vegetables.

There are about 20 vegetables listed on the "salad list". Lettuce is only one of them. The salads I eat never have more than 25% lettuce.

[calsurfman]

Re: Veggies

Ok so basically, lettuce is so low in carbs we do not need to count it as part of the the 3 cup rule for veggies, Essentially we can have 3 cups of veggies along with the Salad, Im taking a head of lettuce with me to work today with 2 cups of cooked cauliflower and 2bsp of ranch dressing. Im sorry, i have never counted food quantities before its very difficult for me--took me 5 years to put the 130 on and i have never dieted before. Im trying to count everything but its so tedious but i know its important.
Thanks for the help

[not2late]

Re: Veggies

Ok so basically, lettuce is so low in carbs we do not need to count it as part of the the 3 cup rule for veggies, Essentially we can have 3 cups of veggies along with the Salad, Im taking a head of lettuce with me to work today with 2 cups of cooked cauliflower and 2bsp of ranch dressing. Im sorry, i have never counted food quantities before its very difficult for me--took me 5 years to put the 130 on and i have never dieted before. Im trying to count everything but its so tedious but i know its important.
Thanks for the help

No. You count the carbs to all foods and beverages you have. So if you eat two cups of lettuce, then you count the carbs towards your daily totals.

DANDR 2002 ed says you eat 3 cups of vegetables daily. Either 3 cups from the salad list or 2 cups from the salad list and 1 cup from the "other list". The salad list contains about 20 vegetables---lettuce being only one of them. The "other list" has about 30.

Cauliflower is on the "other list" as is limited to 1 cup.

[Elizellen]

Re: Veggies

As not2late said, on induction we stick to the max 3 cups of all veggies, which to my mind means that lettuce is better avoided and substituted with some of the more nutritious salad veggies to allow the inclusion of other carby foods like cream, eggs, cheese, salad dressings etc within our '20 net carbs, most of which from vegetables'.

BUT if you like loads of lettuce you could move on to OWL rung one after 2 weeks and add an extra 5 net carbs of lettuce (about 13 cups if I recall correctly )

[huniebunie]

Re: Veggies

Hello All! I was previously a lurker, and specifically joined for this question. I was also confused about this. What im not quite getting is that if we can only eat 20g of carbs a day, and 12-15 of those carbs have to come from veggies on the list, how does that add up to 3 cups of veggies? Are there any vegetables that high in carbs in order for us to be eating only 3 cups, and still getting 12-15g? Or am I totally off the baseball field and missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Elizellen]

Re: Veggies

The 12-15 net grams of veg is a new rule invewnted by the Atkins company and posted on their website, not contained in Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution, so strictly speaking, according to the book you do not need to eat 12-15 net carbs of veg, but 'most' of your net carbs from them.

So as not2late said, if you eat only 7 net carbs from veg and another 5 from other foods making 12 net carbs in all, you are sticking to the rules.

If you manage to choose veggies with more net carbs from the veg list then you can achieve 12-15 net carbs from them - in fact you could make 20 net carbs from your veg alone!.

One cup of chopped sweet red peppers has about 5.9 net carbs
One cup of jicama has about 5.5 net carbs
1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes has about 2.5 net carbs
1/2 cup of chopped onions has about 6.1 net carbs

So that would make 20 net carbs!

If you wanted to include cheese, mayo and eggs in your menus then you could maybe have:
1 cup of lettuce (0.3 net carbs)
1/2 cup of chopped sweet red peppers (3 net carbs)
1/2 cup of jicama (2.3 net carbs)
1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes (2.5 net carbs
1/2 cup of chopped onions (6.1 net carbs)

Making 14.2 net carbs and leaving 5.8 net carbs for other foods.

Here is a useful carb table which shows how many net carbs per cup of many foods as well as indicating which foods are 'legal' for each phase of Atkins

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/useful_files/CARB_COUNT.pdf