Im interested what people eat instead of white carbs……is brown rice ok? Brown pasta? Sweet potato…….I feel veg and salad is not apertizing enough…

I would suggest that most people on the BSD eat a lot of leafy veg and lower carb veg. There’s not really a concept of OK or acceptable foods, just managing your input to meet calorie (and often carb) totals. I was in Germany this week and had a Pilsner with my bratwurst dinner, but still managed 980 calories and 42g of carbs for the day. (I aim for 900-1000 calories a day and less than 50g of carbs).

If you are looking for a similar sort of level, then brown rice and especially brown pasta is going to be difficult to fit in.

I tend to eat veg but with added spices and herbs to be a bit more appealing, spicy cauliflower is a fave, spinach with garlic and pine nuts, dry-fried kale is lovely. Soups and broths add a bit of variety. Roast veg tends to crop up regularly.

Sweet potatoes are worse than ordinary ones, the word sweet gives it away. I eat cauliflower rice or mashed cauliflower, I also like mashed celeriac or griddled aubergine, some butternut squash but not too much or too often. Never rice or pasta, white or brown, they all increase your BG. I don’t think I have had more than 4 traditional salads since starting this 19 weeks ago. A lunch for me might be a roasted chicken breast, roasted red peppers and asparagus sat on a bed of raw spinach or courgette swirls dressed with Greek yoghurt with mint and lemon juice. Today I had tuna mashed with cream cheese served with batons of crunchy veg (carrot, celery, courgette and red pepper slices) and used the tuna as a dip. Have a look through the recipe book or at the back of MM’s book for ideas.

I don’t eat substitutes for white carbs, I just go without. I don’t even bother with cauliflower rice. There’s a lot you can do with veg to keep them appetising and satisfying. Stir fries, curried, with a small amount of chopped bacon for extra flavour…

Out of interest, have you looked through the FAQ section? There’s a bit in there about eating brown bread, pasta and rice. The upshot is that brown bread and pasta are pretty much the same as the white stuff. What Dr. MM has to say about brown rice is interesting.

But, if you’re trying to stick within 800 calories, you could soon use them up on brown or white carbs, leaving you insufficient for other food.

I’m with Snoop on this, I haven’t missed pasta or rice, although when I’ve made a minestrone I did put some broken pasta bits in (the sky didn’t fall in 🙂 ). I too have not bothered with cauliflower rice – I just steam some cauli florets, have them with Bolognese sauce, or a chili. Never felt the need to get a spiralizer either, I just cut some thin slivers of courgette for a salad. Stir fries are wonderful because you can sling in pretty much anything you want to use up. I’ve enjoyed the Rainbow Salad from the recipe book. I also enjoy the red cabbage coleslaw (the version that accompanies the steak, rather than the separate recipe in the book). Agreed, salads can be a bit monotonous but there are plenty of different vegetables out there to mix things up.

I’ve been having a bit of ‘slim rice’ or konjac rice. It’s a bit weird in texture, it just tastes of whatever sauce you put it with but psychologically it seems to satisfy me – I think cos it looks like rice and it bulks up a bowl of food. It’s not cheap but it is frequently on offer at e.g. Ocado or Holland & Barrett.

I’ve seen some people complain that it does not agree with their digestive system is though.

RozyDozy, you’ve got a better hand than me. I bought a handheld spiraliser (OXO) for courgetti and they’re now a regular. Even OH likes them, in part because he’s amazed at how much they behave like spaghetti when swirled around a fork. Mind you, it’s going to cost us a fortune in courgettes when they get expensive in winter!

Last night I had roasted aubergine and courgette with garlic beneath bolognese. I grated Parmesan over the top, it was delicious.
I have made cauli mash and enjoyed it. Must admit I would love to be able to put a poached egg on some bread instead of veg.