The “root” of the matter...

This post is in answer to a question that I received in a comment to a previous post. I was asked why underground vegetables should be avoided. So, here's my answer...

An underground vegetable is a root and this is where the plant stores its energy as carbohydrates. These are also included under “starches.” If you are insulin resistant and want to prevent it from continuing on to diabetes you should avoid all root vegetables as well as other high carbohydrate foods. If and when you get your insulin resistance under control you might be able to eat them occasionally and in small amounts but never alone.

If you are trying to control your insulin resistance or you just want to lose weight, you will need to restrict the number of carbohydrates that you eat per day. There are differences of opinion on what the limit should be. For controlling insulin resistance I would say no more than 80 carbs per day maybe even less. Of course, there are “good” carbs and there are “bad” carbs. The “bad” carbs are really only bad if you have insulin resistance or diabetes or if you are trying to lose weight and those are the only carbs that you will eat!

People with these conditions are generally told by their nutritionist, or they've read it in a diet book, or only occasionally are they told by their doctors (doctors are notoriously uninformed about good nutrition), that they should stay away from starchy vegetables.

I did a little bit of Googling research and found some interesting facts about carbohydrate content of root vegetables. I will just say that potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams followed by parsnips seem to be the biggest winners in the area of carbohydrate content. Check out the article “Carbohydrate Counts of Root Vegetables” at About.com for the specifics on these and a few other root vegetables.

Until next time...