Saturday, In the Park, What's on the Menu Today, 3/7/15?

[Dawgluver]

That was my thought, too.

Me three. Who knew?

 

[Steve Kroll]

Interesting, I would have thought that turnips and rutabuggers had about the same amount of carbs/gram.

That was my thought, too.

From the USDA nutritional database, these are the net carbohydrate (total minus fiber) values for one cup of each cooked vegetable:

Potato - 28.12g
Rutabaga - 8.53g
Celeriac - 7.24g
Turnip - 4.79g
Broccoli - 3g

Granted, 8.53g doesn't sound like much when compared to something like potatoes. But the thing to understand is that I have to keep carbs under 20g for the entire day, and preferably under 15g. So even the little things add up. I could probably eat a small helping of rutabaga, though. Or I could eat two helpings of turnips, or three helpings of broccoli.

This isn't all about weight loss, although that's icing on the cake. It's more about controlling my diabetes. When I keep my blood sugar under control, it reins in the insulin response, which in turn also has the benefit of preventing fat storage. In fact, when you lower insulin response, it promotes the burning of stored body fat. The lower I keep the carbs, the better I feel.