Maybe it’s the Extinction Rebellion folks gluing their hands to pavements, disrupting flights and parking their uncooperative crusty* posteriors on roads throughout central London.
Or it could be the underlying anxiety about eating meat that has always bothered me since I took it up again after more than 20 years of vegetarianism. But lately I have drastically cut down on the amount of it I’m eating and embraced the substitutes.
Vegetarianism and particularly veganism aren’t natural fits with a low-carb diet, the one I follow because I believe it’s the best one for helping people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar levels. Heck, the good Doctor Morrison and I even wrote a book about it!
Quorn slices
But the meat substitutes have come much further than the last time I ate them. Quorn makes decent fake ham slices. Cauldron sausages and marinated tofu work for me too—all of them low carb, though not as low-carb as the real thing. Even the Diet Doctor—the best source of everything you need to know about a low-carb diet in general—recognises that many people do want to follow a low-carb diet that they can square with their conscience and the website offers low carb vegetarian and even vegan plans these days.
While I question some of the health claims people make for a plant-based diet (and I’m picky about the word being used to mean ‘veganism’—I’ve always based the bulk of my diet around vegetables), poor Mama Earth’s resources will run out far too quickly if meat consumption continues at its current levels.
As I have no children, I can tick that big box on the green credentials list but the other two are eating a plant-based diet and not flying anywhere. As someone who’s not that fussed about travel, the latter might be easily achieved too. That just leaves me with what I choose to eat. As I don’t do absolutes any more, opting to be a vegetarian with limited dairy most of the time is what appeals.
Low-carb vegetarian recipes
How about you? Have you changed your diet because of environmental concern s or do you plan to? We do have veggie options on our website if you are looking for low-carb meat-free recipes. They include low-carb curried cauliflower cheese, aubergine and pepper parmigiana, baba ghanoush, Tofu with teriyaki sauce and crustless spinach and feta quiche.
*As Boris Johnson called them. Maybe he was attempting ‘wit’ as a distraction from the chaos he is in midst of creating in the UK.
Diabetes Diet 
I’m eating less mammalian/red meat. I’m trying to eat more vegetables during the week. Every breakfast has spinach now.
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Spinach is one of those love/hate veggies – but I’m with you and love it!
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I have tasted those in the US, and I love them. Now, if they had less fat and still tasted good, they might have something. As it is (I use ww), and an Impossible Burger costs 8 WW Points. A regular ground beef patty on bun costs about 6 points. The difference is the fat. I will let it go until it is a more comparison.
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I don’t think the Impossible Burger has made it across the pond yet, so I can’t compare that one. I quite like Quorn for being protein rich and tasting okay.
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Maybe he was referring to “crusty punk”. I wouldn’t take it as an insult, personally. There’s not that much distance from veganism to crust, which was the music associated with animal liberation, vegan peace punks, and anarchy in the 90s, at least in the US. I’m pretty sure old middle aged crusties hate Boris Johnson as much as I hate Trump.
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🙂
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This is interesting! Emma, as one food lover to another, what’s your second favorite food?
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Oooooohhhhh – too many to mention! But I reckon my no holds barred (and no consequences after) meal would be a home-made macaroni cheese topped with breadcrumbs, chopped nuts and more cheese… 🙂
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The main problem I see is that animal protein comes with fat, some of which is saturated but which we ate for millennia before it allegedly made us ill just as we were eating less of it.
However vegetable protein always comes with carbs, of which I can only handle about 50g/day. The EAT-Lancet diet is 232g carbs, completely off the table. We have grazing animals – cows and sheep – on land that cannot be used to grow crops, and many farmers have a second crop of pheasants and partridges which are good eats and give them the incentive to sow wildflowers for the seed which also benefits a lot of non-edible birds. “Environmental impact” fails to take into account the soil-building and carbon-sequestering actions of grazing animals.
Furthermore the farmers growing all that heart-healthy vegan wheat and rape (canola) use a lot of animal manure. They don’t do every field every year and you can soon tell the difference, the manured fields attract all the gulls and crows, presumably for the worms and insects.
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It is a dilemma, the carb content of dishes without meat.
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Sure is, Dorothy! By preference and inclination, I’d eat vegetarian all the time.
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I’m pretty happy most of the time with eating vegetarian. I eat primarily vegan except for fish and seafood, but only local and sustainably harvested. Once in a blue moon, I indulge in a bit of Vermont’s wonderful local cheese, but got to keep a watch on the cholesterol!
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I’ll have to go and check that cheese out!
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There are some wonderful ones, Emma, right here in Southern Vermont!
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