By this approach, you would end up rejecting all fruits, and lots of "salad"
vegetables.  High protein vegetables like spinach and broccoli pass your
test.  Cucumber probably does not.  Neither does celery.

There's nothing wrong with that, except that you are eliminating many good
food choices that most people would consider healthy and even staples of
their low-carb way of eating.  Not everyone here eats fruit, but many people
do occasionally eat berries or other low glycemic fruits.  And nearly
everyone eats loads of lettuce, cucumber, celery, and that sort of salad
vegetable.

I don't know about using this approach across the board; avoiding lettuce
because of its carb content seems kind of misguided.  (I'm not sure your
lettuce number is right, though I suppose it depends upon the type of
lettuce, and that's not really my point here anyhow.)  Most folks don't get
fat eating too much celery and cucumber.

carla

It works for me.

I agree with you that it is your plan and I also agree that it is
completely goofy.  Why not use 30 plus years of proven research
performed on thousands of subjects.  The Atkins diet.

PJ

I use lettuce as a vehicle for getting more olive oil into my diet.
Face it, lettuce doesn't have much flavor.

But someone on a LC diet won't do this by definition.

If you log everything you eat you can easily find your total percentage of
calories from carbs.  You can also eat lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and even
some apples, and still get 9% carb calories.  The important point here is to
pick food that have low caloric value, so even if they % carb cals is high,
it won't make much impact.

Just today, I've eaten about 1080 kcals, and have had lettuce, tomato,
cucumber, spinach, broccoli and my carb kcals are at 11%.  I'll probably
have fish and broccoli for dinner, bring the precentage down.

Hence, I don't think this is a good method as it is overly restrictive.  The
basic problem with this approach is that if you go only by % carb calories,
then you end up restricting foods that have low caloric value too.  That is
simply not a good idea, IMO.  Restricting foods with high % carb and are
also high in caloric value makes sense.

Cubit,

I think for me it comes down to nutritional quality of the food rather than
the carb %.  I eat tomatoes because there are so many micronutrients a
tomato that are known to be good for us many still not identified. Just
taking vitamin pills will not give you all the micronutrient you get in real
vegetables and fruits. Onions are likewise full of chemically active things
that are extremely good for us.

When I first stared low carbing 6 years ago, I didn't touch tomatoes or
onions, but I have since revised my food plan so that they get a pass, and
it hasn't had a negative effect on my weight.  They taste so incredibly good
to me now that I know they must be something my body needs.

OTOH, grain based stuff is much higher in calories than these veggies and
does not contribute a whole lot more than B vitamins which can be adequately
supplemented.

In fact, the percentage thing will get you eating more starchy grains and
less nutrient rich veggies. So no. Not a good idea.

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

This is way over-restrictive. My "guidelines" - everything with GI > 40
is banned. For GI < 40, _weight_ percentage of net carbs is important
for me. I absolutely do not care and count anything with <5% weight
percentage of net carbs (includes lettuce and most vegetables). As
percents grow up, other nutritional information gets in to decide - so
if it is high in nutrition (like fruit) it might be acceptable even at
20%, but in moderation (like one piece of 20% fruit per day).

I am afraid that following your guidelines you are pretty short of
fiber, at least....

Mirek

Note: In my carbs by percent research I didn't think to deduct fiber carbs.

Cubit