High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Is there a list of high, low and no carb foods on line?

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Hi Carey,

No and very low carb foods are primarily meats, leafy vegetables, most dry
cheeses and some varieties of nuts. Here is a good list of no and low carb
foods:

http://www.atkins.com/articles/atkin...eptable-foods/

Broccoli, cauliflower, to some extent carrots are what I'd call reasonably
low-carb. Sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, sour cream and heavy cream also
fit on this list.

Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) are your next step up,
followed by melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew). Some nuts are
moderately low-carb, (walnuts, peanuts, cashews...) I eat the berries and
fruits all the time, but I uuuuusaually stay away from the higher carb nuts.

I'm not aware of a list of high carb foods. For the most part, it would
consist of high sugar fruits (apples, oranges...), grains (bread, noodles,
cake), candy (duh). In other words, all the stuff in the base of that
worse-than-nothing food pyramid the libs try to shove down your throat in
addition to sugary sweets and snacks.

My diet is almost but not quite literally all of the above except for that
last paragraph.

Wow, that's about all I can come up with! I guess my knowledge is pretty
limited. Personally, if I'm not sure about a food I look at the back of the
package, or hit the USDA database online.

If you want an exhaustive list, and if you can do a little database work on
your own, you can download the USDA database and sort it out, but it would
be a big job. I'm not aware of any exhaustive lists split up by carb level,
but if you find something, please let us know.

Mike


"Carey" thelastoneno wrote in message
...
Is there a list of high, low and no carb foods on line?

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

"Carey" thelastoneno writes:

Is there a list of high, low and no carb foods on line?

Lots of them. The USDA has this handy tool
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7783 for finding the
nutritional contents of most foods, so you can make a short list of the
foods you tend to eat. Here's a nice list of carb "bargains" taken from
the book "Protein Power":
http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62. If you're just
wondering what sort of things low-carbers eat in addition to things like
meat and eggs, that list will give you an idea.

Whatever low-carb book you get (and you really should get at least one,
if you're planning to do this) will have a list of the most common
foods and their carb contents. There are also lots of small booklets of
food nutrient totals available.

To put it very simply: Sugar, grains, and starches are basically out of
bounds. That means no corn, rice, sugar, flour, oatmeal, pasta, honey,
or anything made from those items. You may be able to incorporate some
of those items back into your diet later when you know what you're
doing, especially after you reach you reach your weight and health
goals; but at the start, it's best to just keep it simple and avoid them
completely. Eat meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, butter, oil, vegetables
(some), and berries.

Vegetables are the tricky part, because it's not always easy to guess
what vegetables are high-carb, especially if you were raised to think of
corn and potatoes as vegetables, like I was. Generally, the greener and
leafier a vegetable is, the lower in carbs (and higher in nutrition) it
is, but that's not always the case. Cabbage and cauliflower are better
than their "greenness" would indicate, while peas are worse. That's
where you just have to have a list.

On fruits, berries and avocados are the best, followed by melon. Most
other fruits are simply too high in sugar for when you're getting
started, but can be added later.



--
Aaron -- 285/254/200 -- aaron.baugher.biz

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Aaron Baugher wrote:

Vegetables are the tricky part, because it's not always easy to guess
what vegetables are high-carb, especially if you were raised to think of
corn and potatoes as vegetables, like I was. Generally, the greener and
leafier a vegetable is, the lower in carbs (and higher in nutrition) it
is, but that's not always the case. Cabbage and cauliflower are better
than their "greenness" would indicate, while peas are worse. That's
where you just have to have a list.

It is easy to guess at the carb level of veggies based on what
they are and how they grow -

Grass is high carb so anything made from grain is high carb.
The lowest carb grain stuff like crisp breads and moving up to
oatmeal aren't low carb but some folks eventually fit them in
their plan.

Potatoes are cheap high carb food.

After that go by how the vegetable grows. Under ground
veggies tend to be higher carb. Above ground veggies tend to
be low carb. Veggies that grown right at the surface tend to
be in the middle between high and low carb. There aren't all
that many exceptions after the corn/grain that grow above
ground are factored in.

That's the method I use when I am shopping for veggies that
come from other lands. In a store that specializes in
Chinese grown veggie types I won't find them in the common
lists so I look at them and see if they grew above or below
the ground or on the line. It's not a hard judgement to make
based on what they look like.

Above ground veggies - Hard skinned winder squash are the
exception so other than them if it grows above the ground it
is going to be low carb. Grains are the other exception -
Animals with hooves eat grass and I've never yet met a
hooved human.

Below ground veggies - White turnips are the exception so
other than them if it grows below the ground it is going to be
high carb. This even handles white potatoes which are so high
carb they shouldn't even be counted as veggies.

At ground level veggies are in the middle for carb count -
Members of the onion family like garlic, leaks, shallot and so
on are the most common veggies that grow at the surface.

This approximation even works for veggies that grow both above
and below the ground. Consider that celery stems are so low
in carbs they count as salad but celery root is starchy high carb.
Beet greens are so low carb they count as salad but beets are
carby enough that one type is used to make white sugar.

The next easy approximation is about fresh or dried. If a type
of veggie comes both fresh or dried the frsh will be a lot lower
in crabs than the dried. Green beans are low carb but almost
all dried beans are high carb (soy being the lowest among the
dried beans).

On fruits, berries and avocados are the best, followed by melon. Most
other fruits are simply too high in sugar for when you're getting
started, but can be added later.

For fruits the easy approximations are tart is lower, sweet is
higher followed by grown in temperate climates is lower, grown
in the tropics is higher.

So berries are tart so they are lower carb. And sure enough
most berries are grown in northern climates. Pinapples and
dates are not only sweet but they are grown in the tropics.

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Doug! Grass isn't high carb, its seeds are high carb. Grass itself is
pretty indigestible unless you are a cow as it is mostly cellulose.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
| It is easy to guess at the carb level of veggies based on what
| they are and how they grow -
|
| Grass is high carb so anything made from grain is high carb.
| The lowest carb grain stuff like crisp breads and moving up to
| oatmeal aren't low carb but some folks eventually fit them in
| their plan.
|
|
| Below ground veggies - White turnips are the exception so
| other than them if it grows below the ground it is going to be
| high carb. This even handles white potatoes which are so high
| carb they shouldn't even be counted as veggies.

Radishes including Daikon are also low carb

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

"FOB" wrote:

Doug! Grass isn't high carb, its seeds are high carb. Grass itself is
pretty indigestible unless you are a cow as it is mostly cellulose.

Grass seeds are grass. Moo. ;^)

Doug Freyburger wrote:

| Below ground veggies - White turnips are the exception so
| other than them if it grows below the ground it is going to be
| high carb. This even handles white potatoes which are so high
| carb they shouldn't even be counted as veggies.

Radishes including Daikon are also low carb

Looking at a radish I see it grows at the surface so it should
be medium carb by my approximation. Looking at a diakon it
looks like it grows below the surface so it should be high carb
by my approximation. More exceptions. Looking stuff up in
tables definitely works better than my approximation.

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Carey wrote:
Is there a list of high, low and no carb foods on line?

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/appb.htm

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Like nuts are nut trees, apples are apple trees, grapes are grape vines,
mmmmm hmmmmm. A better rule would be to think seeds as high carb, the rest
of the plant is low carb. Seeds, like eggs, contain a lot of energy to get
the new plant started. That's why green peas are fairly high carb but snow
peas, which are picked before the seeds are fully developed and eat casing
and all are lower carb. Root vegetables are similar, most of them are
tubers which will grow if you plant them so they also store energy. Some
seeds break the rule a bit, nuts are generally higher in fat and protein
than carbs, they store their energy in a different form. Leafy greens are
hard workers, lean and mean.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
| "FOB" wrote:
||
|| Doug! Grass isn't high carb, its seeds are high carb. Grass
|| itself is pretty indigestible unless you are a cow as it is mostly
|| cellulose.
|
| Grass seeds are grass. Moo. ;^)
|

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

Doug Freyburger wrote:

For fruits the easy approximations are tart is lower, sweet is
higher followed by grown in temperate climates is lower, grown
in the tropics is higher.

So berries are tart so they are lower carb. And sure enough
most berries are grown in northern climates. Pinapples and
dates are not only sweet but they are grown in the tropics.

I don't think this rule works. Berries and melon taste quite sweet to
me and are relatively low-sugar fruits. Whereas citrus fruits, even
grapefruit, is pretty carby.

--
http://www.ornery-geeks.org/consulting/

High and Low Carb Foods?
 

"Jim" wrote in message
...
Carey wrote:
Is there a list of high, low and no carb foods on line?

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/appb.htm

Nice site. Interesting thoughts.