Questions about carbs in Vegetables

[naPS]

Hello all - newb to the forum, but have been doing induction going on 3 weeks now.

My main problem with induction is trying to eat ENOUGH carbs - I'm always in the sub-10 region by the end of the day. I feel great, and am losing weight, I'm just curious about veggies.

My main veggie intake during the day usually consists of 2 cups of raw spinach that I make into a salad, and a cup of steamed broccoli or a few spears of asparagus.

Anyhow - in the Complete Book of Food Counts it lists several different things for spinach alone, and this is the one that took me by suprise :

Spinach, fresh.

baby(Ready Pac) 4 cups, 3oz. 10 grams of carbs, 5 grams of fiber.
chopped (1/2 cup) 1 gram carbs, .8 grams fiber.
On the Atkins site, it says 1 cup = 1.1 grams carbs, .8 grams fiber for .3 net grams per cup.

Why the difference? I usually eat 2 cups out of the bag of baby spinach, and was counting that as .6 grams of carbs a day - was I wrong? Is the Food Counts book right? Or, should I be going off the Atkins website counts?

Also, the same thing happens with Broccoli - without going into too much detail, I just kinda want to know why there's such a difference.

Thanks!

[tickletussler]

Well... I don't know about you, but I find that it really depends on how your cup is "packed"

If you shred or finely slice spinach, you are bound to get more spinach in a cup when it's loosely packed.

However, what is defined as "loosely-packed" - that I haven't worked out.

I mean if I use spinach, it "loosely-packs" more easily than one of the lettuces I buy (called "coral-leaf" here) because the leaves are more stiff and really really curly, and 2 small leaves can only just make "loosely-packed" into my cup, whereas I'm pretty sure I can fit more than 2 same-sized spinach leaves.

As some of the mods suggest, it would be best to take the upper limit of carb amounts listed, so that you don't overestimate your daily consumption.

Also, if you have trouble eating enough carbs, why not pick veggies with a higher carb content? For example 1 cup of lettuce has more NET carbs than 1 cup of spinach, because spinach is something like 50% fibre where lettuce is less, which means you can eat the same amount of cups, but fill it with something with more carbs?

eg tomatoes, onions, shallots are higher carbed veggies.

[Peytonn]

ah... I don't know what to say except that food counts are often a little 'different'...

and from what I can tell... jicama is much higher in carbs than cabbage... although cabbage is listed on the 'higher carb' list on page 26, and it's lower than several of the veggies on the list on page 25....

I try to just do the best I can with it...

ensive

if you need to ADD carbs.. maybe add a few of the higher carb things.. llike bean sprouts or peppers or tomato.. like tickle said

[not2late]

Pick one carb counter and use that.

The Atkins carb counter measures their vegetables "loosely packed"---as it says in DANDR to measure your veggies raw and "loosely packed".

While spinach is fine, some folks have raised the concerns over the oxalic acid found in raw spinach. Moreover, spinach and broccoli are "goitergenic" veggies, that is, they possibly can suppress your thyroid, making weight loss difficult.

The best is to eat a variety of vegetables, so you do not run into the problems of getting too much of one thing and not enough of another.

[naPS]

Okay - thanks for the help guys.

Basically, I'm just going to stick to the labels like I've done the past few weeks - it seems to be working for me, so hopefully it will continue to do so.

I'm definitely going to mix it up a little more - I have a little more time now than I did a few weeks ago when I started. The pre-washed packaged spinach was just too easy, and I love it. While the broccoli was also the same way.

Another question I had - during induction, if I don't approach the 20 grams of carbs with 2 cups of salad and 1 cup of veggies, can I just add another cup of veggies?

[not2late]

Okay - thanks for the help guys.

Basically, I'm just going to stick to the labels like I've done the past few weeks - it seems to be working for me, so hopefully it will continue to do so.

I'm definitely going to mix it up a little more - I have a little more time now than I did a few weeks ago when I started. The pre-washed packaged spinach was just too easy, and I love it. While the broccoli was also the same way.

Another question I had - during induction, if I don't approach the 20 grams of carbs with 2 cups of salad and 1 cup of veggies, can I just add another cup of veggies?

The way DANDR 2002 is written is that 20 net carbs is your upper limit---meaning, it's the number of carbs you do not go over.

If you like veggies, move onto the OWL phase. The first thing you add on is 5 net carbs of the Induction veggies (from either list).

[Richard6310]

I dont know if it will help, but fitday.com has a feature called 'add custom foods' where you can add the ingredients of the things you buy at the store.

[tickletussler]

Another question I had - during induction, if I don't approach the 20 grams of carbs with 2 cups of salad and 1 cup of veggies, can I just add another cup of veggies?

Oh gosh Naps... I find all my extra carbs get filled up with my daily quota of cream, cheese, prawns, soy sauce, vinegar... I find all these 0.5-1grammers suddenly add up to 20! LOL

[naPS]

That's true - I'm actually finding ways to get a few more carbs into my diet -

The switching to lettuce from spinach was a big one, and I've also discovered the Atkins tortillas, and the Atkins muffins. 3 grams, and then 2 grams of carbs. I couldn't be happier. I just hope they don't throw me out of liposys. I checked this morning, and I seem to be doing great, so hopefully I can keep it up with one of each each day.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[2big4mysize]

if you are doing induction then you don't want to be eating those muffins and tortillas. Only eat foods no matter who makes them that have ingredients you find in your acceptable foolds lists.

You have made a big mistake. reread your DANDR chapter 11 and you will see it says you can't have more then 20 net carbs not you have to eat 20 net carbs most of us were below 15 doing our induction clean.

[Isabeau]

I totally agree with 2big. I probably averaged 13 net carbs on induction. And those products (muffins, tortillas) are not on the acceptable food list for induction and are actually quite high up the owl rungs.

[naPS]

That's weird though - because they are on the recommended induction menu.

[Ragtime Gal]

Regarding spinach...there are two different types, baby and regular. They are actually totally different veggies. Regular has a lot less carbs than baby.

Sharon

[Peytonn]

That's weird though - because they are on the recommended induction menu.

are you using the 2002 book? are you sure it's the induction menu?

there are a few tiny glitches I found.... ex. it says no seeds or nuts on induction.. but on page 133, for dinner, it says sesame seeds on the kale for dinner... (but I know it's a tiny amount of seeds)


just curious... where's the menu you're talking about?

[naPS]

It's the two week induction menu on their website.

Ahhhhh... and that makes sense about the baby spinach / regular spinach - thanks!