A low-carb lifestyle has worked well for Pete, carnivore that he is. It worked so well, in fact, that I decided to try it myself. Sure, I have a few extra pounds to lose, but the main reason I chose this diet is to break my carb addiction. Yes, addiction. I realized that thanks to a series of scheduling challenges, health issues and increasing laziness, I was eating utter crud. Well, not crud, if it weren't the only thing I ate. Carbs and dairy, 3 or 4 times a day, washed down with a diet coke or a glass of wine. Breakfast? A bagel and cream cheese. Lunch? A sandwich, heavy on the cheese. Dinner? Some form of pasta and cheese. A snack? Crackers and cheese. See the pattern? No fruits, veggies, or lean protein. Frankly, I don't know how I lived that way. If it weren't for Flintstones, I'd probably have keeled over by now.
Interestingly, that was technically a vegetarian diet. Most people think all vegetarians are skinny, healthy people. They are, if they eat a balanced diet - just like omnivores. But many vegetarians actually eat crud like that under the misconception that they're eating well. Some even live on really bad junk food, like soda and doughnuts - hey, it's still vegetarian, right? Most vegetarians fall somewhere in the middle, of course.
Personally, I'm an omnivore who's too cheap to buy high-end, grass-finished lean meat all the time, so I like to include some vegetarian meals in my menus. I just recently found a small cookbook by Margo DeMello entitled Low-Carb Vegetarian. She was apparently one of those misunderstood unhealthy vegetarians, and used low-carb dieting to improve her weight and health. Her cookbook is not so much a collection of new recipes as revisions of old favorites from her past. This book is very useful for anyone looking for alternatives to meat, i.e. soy-based products. If you've never explored them, and think that soy = tofu, this book is excellent for showing you what is available and how to trade it for meat products. I prefer minimally processed foods, but I think it's very valuable to know what your healthier options are if you just can't live without a certain food.
I'm not sure why this book is called Low-Carb Vegetarian and not Low-Carb Vegan, as all the recipes are, in fact, completely vegan. Perhaps the editors were concerned with how small the vegan cookbook market may be. It's easy enough to substitute dairy products for the soy-based pseudo-dairy in the recipes, but remember that the nutritional facts will be off. This may or may not be an issue depending on which plan you follow. South Beach lets you eat as much as you want of certain foods, but the Zone suggests you count your protein intake, among other things. The Zone, in particular, seems to be the program the author is most familiar with (because it has a vegetarian program available), but she does address the overall low-carb concept and several of the most popular plans.
Is this one I'll keep on my kitchen counter? Probably not, simply because I spent several years as a vegetarian and am already comfortable making substitutions. Will it save us money? Probably not - directly. Soy-based products are often costly because of the processing involved, and the limited market. Having said that, if you are not already in the habit of making substitutions, replacing a few meat-laden meals with meatless ones could save you lots of medical expenses in the future. This book is simple and non-threatening to omnivores because the recipes, like Taco Salad or "Chicken" Caesar Salad, are familiar tastes already. Tofu can be scary; soy "chicken" is not. In fact, this book inspired me to stock my fridge and freezer with many of the vegetarian options I'd forgotten over the years. No mac & cheese for this girl tonight!
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