Last Sunday I heard an interview on NPR with Jonathan Safran Foer about his latest book into the meat industry titled Eating Animals. It was enough to make him a vegetarian. It was enough to make me search the web to see how well hypoglycemia and vegetarianism mix. The answer is, apparently, not well, but not impossible. The helpful bit I found was a chart showing the protein/carbohydrate ratio of many foods. The higher the ratio, the more suitable it is for a low-carb diet with a ratio above 3 preferable. Some of the things I learned:
* Most legumes have a ratio less than 1. While a good source of protein they must first be seen as a carb.
* The highest ratios of natural foods are with tofu (ugh!) with values around 6.
* Peanut butter has a ratio of under 3.
* Eggs have a ratio of 10, pretty good, though I'm aware of the issues vegetarians sometimes have with eggs.
* Only Quorn meatless products were listed, most with good ratios. My one experience with Quorn products was not good.
I've been eating a couple different Morningstar products for lunch, so checked the nutrition guides. They have a ratio of 5 for one product, 8 for the other. I think I'll stick to these to reduce the amount of meat in my diet, though I won't (yet) eliminate it.
The webpage for the Foer interview includes an excerpt from his new book. He argues (in perhaps a Devil's Advocate sort of way) that with so many dogs being euthanized every year we're wasting a very good source of protein.
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There are a lot of great imitation high protein soy, wheat products at health food stores.
ReplyDeletesprouts. I know that sounds crazy, but they're 30% protein.
ReplyDeleteHi! Glad you heard Foer on the radio, he's one of my favourite authors. I have yet to get the new book yet, but I'm betting I will love it!
ReplyDeleteI did a search on nutritiondata.com (choose "tools," and then "nutrient search tools"). I asked it to give me foods that were high in protein but low in starch, sugar, and cholesterol. I subtracted cholesterol because it only comes from animal products. I subtracted starch and sugar because it was the easiest way to subtract carbs without including fiber (I also thought of asking for low carbs and high fiber, experiment if you'd like).
Here's the results page: http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-000078000000007008073-w.html
The list isn't very friendly. Some things (like beef broth) don't have cholesterol but are still animal products. Other foods (like soy protein isolate) are not really what you want to eat for dinner. But looking at individual categories: vegetables, nuts/seeds, etc. might yield more interesting results.
I'd like to note that mushrooms have no starch or sugar, but have 4g of protein per 100g. Not enough the center of your diet, but a nice addition if you like them. Also, I think the chart is wrong about seitan/wheat gluten. Gluten is made by taking all of the starch out of the grain, leaving the isolated protein. I'd expect a better number and it very well might be worth investigating. We make our own seitan at home and it is VERY VERY easy to make in big batches and freezes well.
I said mushrooms, but I meant some mushrooms.
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