Research

Green light, yellow light….what do these things have to do with eating low carb? Well I picked up the “Low Carb Diet for Dummies” at the library the other day, and it was a most fascinating book on eating low carb and low sugar. The book is all about green light foods and yellow light foods – green light foods are foods which don’t count towards your daily carbs and you can be as “free” with them as you want and eat them whenever. Yellow light foods are foods that you have to be careful with and you can’t go overboard.

I love this book because not only does it have very helpful information, but it has an entire grocery list of green light foods and yellow light foods, very helpful. (Oh and a side note, I was able to give away a LOT of processed, refined and white foods to a friend of mine that we had in our pantry and freezer, so now with those foods out of the house, it will be so much easier to stick to this.)

So now for those of you who are interested in seeing which foods are green light and which are yellow light, I have included some for your benefit and mine! I have included the ones that I know I will eat and actually don’t mind.

Some green light fruits include apples, cantaloupe, grapes, mangoes, oranges, peaches, pears and strawberries.

Green light veggies – beans (green, wax, Italian), broccoli, carrots, celery, greens, mushrooms, onions, spinach, and summer squash.

A few green light proteins (and there are a bunch) are, ground beef, roast, short ribs, steak, ham, lamb, eggs, low fat cheeses, pretty much any type of seafood, chicken, and canned tuna.

A few dairy green light items would be buttermilk, fat free milk, and low fat or fat free yogurts.

Okay, now on to Yellow Light Carbs – remember, these you should only allow yourself 5 carb choices a day from this list, and each serving should be about 15 grams, and remember you can always subtract the fiber from the total carbohydrate value.

Starting with breads – bagels, bread, english muffins, pitas, and tortillas.

Yellow light veggies and fruits – bananas, corn, peas, potatoes, mixed vegetables and sweet potatoes.

Some yellow light legumes – any type of beans (black, pinto, lima, etc.), and peanuts.

A few yellow light grains, cereals, and misc – all types of cereal whether cooked or dry, cornmeal, flour, grits, oats, pasta, brown and white rice, green soybeans, any type of soup broth, sugar free cake mixes, Crystal light, low fat mayo and low fat sour cream.

And when it comes to snacky foods, you really don’t have to give up too much taste, for that I was very grateful. There were several yummy snack ideas in this book, and I thought I’d share a couple with you guys.

- low fat mozzarella string cheese and grapes

- chicken salad with low fat mayo and apples

- boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce

- prosciutto and melon

- pita chips and hummus

- deviled eggs

- veggies and low fat dip

- pineapple chunks with ham cubes

- tortilla roll ups

So see? You can still have yummy snack foods around the house to keep you full and satisfied, yet still lose weight and stay healthy! I’m very excited to be finding out all this information from my research, and hopefully it will help others as well.

And now I must go get ready for my little birthday excursion, hubby and I are going to a marvelous bed and breakfast for which I am quite thrilled.