Diabetes: How much carb your particular body can tolerate while keeping your bg's normal

I can only give you my opinion and experience: I am not a nutritionist, although I am opinionated enough to think I know better than most of them!

The issue is how much carb your particular body can tolerate while keeping your bg's normal. For those who can eat low-glycemic starches such as beans and whole grains, a lacto-ovo-vegetaria n diet can work, especially if you eat soy products. (For several reasons, I don't consider this a good idea, even if you are not allergic as I am. But some disagree.)

Some of us, on the other hand, have to keep our carbs a good bit lower. I essentially eat meat and low-glycemic vegetables, with a few nuts, seeds, and berries. In order to get enough protein during Lent, I have tried various protein powders (rice, pea, and hemp). I don't seem to tolerate any of them well. Nuts and seeds are too high in calories for a main protein source, and even if I could physically consume enough spinach, broccoli and mushrooms to get my protein, I would get too many carbs. Although shellfish is permitted, there are problems with all of them from a dietary standpoint. This is why I finally threw in the towel last Lent and asked my priest if I could eat eggs and fish.

My son-in-law, who is a Type 2 and takes insulin. He eats beans, grains, tofu, eggs, cheese and occasionally fish. From what I gather (I try not to be an interfering mother-in-law, and he has not chosen to elaborate) this is not working well for him health-wise lately, although it may have at one time.

In my opinion, the best discussion of the options available for a vegetarian low carb diet is in Dana Carpender's book How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds.