Vegetables

When you say leafy greens, which ones do you mean?
Don't worry, i am not going to try to force feed you!
The reason i ask is cos... well... they are not my favourite, either.
I consider boiled cabbage, cooked spinach, steamed kale as all pretty vile.

But i have eaten my own bodyweight (several times over) of raw kale and spinach in green smoothies, which i adore.

And i love a good saag paneer (indian veg side dish of spinach, cheese and spices)

Love coleslaw

And cabbage stir fried with beef mince and peas is astonishingly good. Or bacon. Need try that, because i think, with black pepper, that's going to work really well too...

So i suppose i am saying that you might find some surprising deliciousnesses, if you think outside the box. But please, there is no point forcing yourself to eat something revolting just because 'they' say it is good for you. That way lies madness, nausea and projectile vomiting.

For fibre there are other things you could have....try bulking up on all the other veg u like, plus pulses, nuts (I think) too. As long as you do eat veg you're likely to be ok. There's also fruit for bran But be very careful cos they can put ur bs right up.

Kingsland said:

I really really loathe and detest ALL green leafy vegetables. I really really like all the others.
I can just about manage cauliflower mashed with cream and cheese and lots of pepper, but as a substitute for plain mashed potato even that is a pale copy

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Hi Kingsland. Can you be a bit more specific about what vegetables you do actually like. As far as I can tell the only one you really fancy is potato. Can you think of any others?

You don't have to eat a lot of green leafy vegetables to do LCHF, but it certainly does help if you can at least find some low carb vegetables that you enjoy, because these can really help bulk out your meals. And that really does make them more filling and sometimes more enjoyable too. Eating just meat and fat is a little unappealing to me (well not totally because I do it sometimes and like it , but to do it all the time would start to bore me).

Also, you don't have to just sit down to plate of plain vegetables and eat them "straight" (though many people do so and enjoy it, me not so much). "Hiding them" in sauces etc might seem a little like trying to disguise a bad medicine, but it's really not so. Sometimes the whole can be more than the sum of the parts, and this is often the case with recipes containing meat and vegetables.

There might also be some vegetables that you haven't yet thought about or tried. I love eggplant (aka aubergine) with spring onions or leek and covered with meted cheese + salt and pepper. Sure leek is not a totally low carb veggy, it's a bit more medium carb, but in moderation is still fine for me.

Eggplant is also really good at taking up the flavors of meat and other things you cook with it. I dice it in cubes and use it as a "filler" in meat pie mixtures, it has a "meaty" texture and just blends in and takes on all the flavours brilliantly. There is so much more to eating vegetable than just sitting down to a bland plate of them with nothing else!

Kingsland said:

I really really loathe and detest ALL green leafy vegetables. I really really like all the others.
I can just about manage cauliflower mashed with cream and cheese and lots of pepper, but as a substitute for plain mashed potato even that is a pale copy - ditto for sweet potato and celeriac. I do eat greens but its like taking nasty medicine.
I can't say I'm having any problems with my bloods (unless I cheat on a grand scale when they'll go through the roof) but I wonder if I should invest in some vitamin tablets. My GPs no help, and although the diabetic nurse is pro low carbing and promises to be available at 'any time' I just can't seem to reach her. If you personally didn't like greens - what would you do?

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I stopped eating plants and plant based food completely, save spices and coffee. Meat, eggs and occasional cheese only. Apart from vitamin D, I don't take any supplements.

Often we don't like things because we were made to eat them as a child and that's enough to put us off for life. I personally see no virtue at all in eating what we really don't like just because we are told it is supposed to be good for us .Even disguising it we still know we are eating it so that can make us nauseous and totally spoil a meal Even with LCHF there are no rules about what you have to eat only what you shouldn't eat

There are no rules about what we should eat, agreed. But if you have to exclude lots of sources of nutrients, then it makes sense to look to replace them using other sources.

The traditional diet of the Masai was meat, blood and milk and they got vitamin D from sunlight. The Inuit diet includes not just the flesh of whales and seals but also the blubber and skin. They also eat fish and the eggs of wild birds plus tubers and grasses of plants which we don't eat and seaweed.

Dr Jay Wortman MD did a study/documentary in Canada, called 'My Big Fat Diet' in British Columbia with a village of First Nation Canadians. Having seen the documentary, while it's true that they reverted to a 21st century version of their traditional diet, they were eating vegetables too and Dr Wortman's blog gives some recipes which include non-traditional foods.The doco is on YouTube if you want to watch it.

It is possible to eat a diet which is entirely comprised of meat and animal products as the Masai did and Arctic Inuit did. But they were eating animal products such as blood, blubber, skin, liver etc which we just don't eat.

In fact, because of the stupidity of conventional farming, it would be inadvisable to eat bovine brains and bones for fear of the proverbial Mad Cow Disease.

If you are able to get organic or wild grass-pastured meat which hasn't been fed ground up diseased sheep then yes, eating brains, offal and bone broth is extremely healthy. Liver is the most nutrient dense food item of all.