Vegetarian and vegan diets are very popular these days. It's easy to tell this, just by looking at the number of books promoting them.
While having lots of vegetables in your diet is certainly a healthy choice, some vegetarians will forget about the importance of keeping carbohydrates as a whole to a minimum in their diets.
You certainly can eat a low carb vegetarian diet! It is actually not as hard as it may seem. Vegans may have a slightly more difficult time going low carb, but it is still very possible!
Here are some tips for vegetarians out there looking to go as healthy as possible, cut down on carbohydrates, and achieve their ideal healthy body:
1. Never eat carbohydrates by themselves. Add soy protein to your meals in the form of soy protein powder and fermented tofu (i.e. tempeh).
2. Reduce your consumption of the high sugar vegetables. Carrots, corn, and beets have a high sugar content compared with other more healthy vegetables like broccoli, kale, or artichoke.
3. Cut way down on or eliminate: pasta, white or processed bread, flour, sugar, white rice. Stick to whole foods, healthy fats, and quality proteins as much as possible.
4. Eat a lot of: Apples (high fiber), nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, water, miso soup, fermented soy, low carb bread (Trader Joe's has a lot of options here). Cheese and yogurt are also great if you are not a vegan.
5. Get rid of your fear of fat. Avoiding trans fats (often found in fried foods like french fries) is important, but eating enough fat is something many people struggle with, vegetarian or not. You may also want to supplement with Omega 3 fats like fish oils- as a vegetarian you are likely not getting enough of these just in your diet.
