Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

[blst 2 d max]

Hey everyone,

Caribbean girl here......for those who do not know we have our very own cuisine in the Caribbean, there are foods that we have that i have not seen anywhere in the Atkins book..lol.

We have dasheen leaves which we use with ochroes to make calaloo. there is christophene,bhagi (kind of spinach),we do not grow asparagas,etc, it is do darn hard to know what to substitute, but i am trying........ist week of induction and i think i am going to throw out my scale i am seeing zilch.

I am still going to keep on going....i need to loose 60lbs by Dec. 22nd my 44th birthday.

[Desertthorn]

This is a problem, I live in Japan and we have food items that are not on any list also. Dasheen leaves are a lot like spinach, so I would go with the carb count for a like product. Unfortunately, dasheen itself is like 50 carbs per cup so absolutely not on the list. Fitday is pretty good about listing "ethnic' foods.

[matawguro]

Same problem here, even for foods that are listed. For example, I've been told that the mangos here in the Philippine are very different from the one found in US supermarkets. The mangoes here are much sweeter and probably rate much higher on the glycemic index.

[Sharni]

Hi Miss Trinidad!!! Welcome on board!!
:icondance :icondance

I was actually in Trinidad a few Tuesdays ago. I flew over from St. Vincent to buy some Fabric on Frederick Street. I have lost weight (Thanks to Atkins) so you know I needed some new clothes. I am back in Jamaica and therefore back on the WOE.

I find fitday useful only for basic foods. After a while I do find it annoying and tedious because I have to customise everything. Maybe your best bet is to call up UWI and find out if they have a branch of the Caribbean Nutrition Centre and ask if they have the food charts with the nutritional value for foods in region. Also the diabetic society will have charts for our region.

Some good foods - callaloo, ackee (Jamaican fruit) - can get this in a tin, avocado, coconut milk (I use the powder) on the fruit rung, tangerines, ortaniques, navel oranges. I make pumpkin aloo, pumpkin and saltfish, garden-egg (aubergine) and saltfish, mackreal. I also experimented with the soy flour mixed with urid flour or almond flour.

"Bad" ones - plaintains (which I adore), green bananas, yam. No rice no roti (booooo hoooo). :nono Sweet potato, peas and beans only if closer to goal.

If I actually find any useful websites I'll pass them on to you. Isn't it sad how everything "Tropical" is bad for the system - our sweet fruit, our starchy foods, our rice and peas etc.... We definately can't follow this WOE to the letter, hey where the heck will I get berries!!! :yikes

[Flab To Go]

Re: Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

Greetings,

I don't think dasheen leaves or any green leaves are bad when being on Atkins. Like Sharni stated stay away from sweet potatoes or anything that grows in the soil. Best thing to do is highlight the foods that you can have and purchase those. I wouldn't add coconut milk in calallo while doing induction. You still have many options! Make a salad and have it with meat of your choice...stay clear of the doubles, roti and rice! Really hard to do since most meals require it as a side dish but if you want this to work you need to eliminate them. Pumpkin on its own without the roti for ex. I know you can do this!

[rayard singh]

Re: Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

Hi, I am a fellow trini-
here are some carb figures for our local stuff.
dasheen leaves-(taro leaves)-6.7grams carbs per cup cooked with no salt , no coconut milk etc.
okroos- one three inch pod, boiled-5.6 grams carbs.
boiled pegion peas with one teaspoon goldenray cooking margarine one cup-32 grams carbs
Zaboca (avocado)- one cup slices-14 grams carbs
tamarind-one 3inch 1.5grams carbs
soursop one cup flesh-38 grams carbs
sapodilla- 100 gram serving-20 grams carbs

[Elizellen]

Re: Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

Thanks for posting that info to help other members with access to the same foods, rayard!
Do you have numbers for the fibre in them, or are the numbers you posted the 'net carbs' with the fibre deducted?

[rayard singh]

Re: Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

sad to say, this is with the fibre deducted

[Heidi3]

Re: Caribbean What to do about foods from my country not listed

the best (and very low carb) curries in the world come from the Caribbean imho