To me the most amazing thing is that we still have "low fat" food around and that it is still labelled as healthy. Instead, the low carb food is either labelled "low carb" or "paleo", which are both names that remind this gym fixated people everybody laughs at. Then you have all the vegan/vegetarian crowd who laughs at who eats meat and steaks. It's a mess.
As a vegetarian, I don't laugh at people eating meat. In fact, when it comes to nutrition, eating (the right) meat is likely the most rational choice based on today's understanding.
As a sidenote, I have looked into low-carb/keto diets and I've found that those are rather hard for vegetarians; reducing carb intake from some sources (rice, pasta) is easy, but even staple vegetarian foods rich in protein (tofu, lentils, beans, quinoa) are 1:1 when it comes to protein:carb content.
Another thing to mention is that being vegetarian in a central European country limits you to a very few number of restaurants you can eat out with friends; I do not know of any place around that would serve vegetarian low-carb food. This would imply that I always bring my own food from home to work, socially exclude myself by not eating anything when we go out eating with friends, and so on.
If you want to be on a low carb diet as a vegetarian you have to accept eating processed food, and a lot of it.
Specifically: Soy Protein Isolate, TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein - it does have carb so don't overdo it), and Seitan (Wheat Gluten), if you are not a vegan then add eggs to that - perhaps as egg whites (i.e. more processed food).
Nuts are reasonable too. Then add in a bunch of low carb vegetables (i.e. no root vegetables), and avoid fruits for the most part.
A sample breakfast: TVP soaked in egg white with some nutritional yeast for flavor, fried as an omelet.
Snack: A cup of protein shake with as little sweetener as you can manage to handle. (You would have to buy pure soy protein isolate powder and add the sweetener yourself - most places put in a ton.)
Lunch: Seitan - fried or baked, and salad (watch the dressing - most have sugar, make your own).
Dinner: Vegetable stir fry such as zucchini, mushroom, and onion plus oil for satiation.
It's easier to be a meat eater, but if you are not a picky eater it can be done.
PS. Tofu is not 1:1, it's closer to 4:1 so it can probably be used. TVP is about 2:1.
As to the sugar, I find myself using stevia a lot now. You have to experiment with it; with some foods, you really notice the taste, and it doesn't work very well as a sweetener. But in greek yoghurt, for instance, stevia tastes really nice and not at all unlike sugar.
That brings me to a second point; as a vegetarian, one of my best investments was a simple reusable yoghurt strainer. Natural yoghurt has a lot of carbs in the form of lactose, but straining it into greek-style yoghurt removes these sugars, leaving protein and fat (which you can control by choosing no/low/full fat yoghurt). Add some stevia to it, and you've got a healty breakfast, snack, and/or dessert without any carbs.
I think it should also be said that relying solely on soya protein is not the best idea. It's a complete protein, yes, but there's very little we understand about nutrition--one of the few things we do know is that variety is better. That being said, the firmer the tofu, the fewer carbs--plus it's easier to cook (fries up nicer). If you get sick of tofu, paneer is a good alternative, and easy to make as well.
Finally, chia seeds can be a useful addition. They don't have a taste (but they absorb an incredible amount of liquid, so you can soak them overnight to make pudding), but are packed with fat, protein, and fibre (approx. 32% fat / 16% protein / 35% fibre / 7% net carb by weight).
Where in Central Europe are you? I lived in Vienna and now living In Berlin, and while it was a bit of a struggle being vegetarian in the former it think over here there are actually quite a lot of good options (obviously not anywhere near as good as some other places like San Francisco).
As large, relatively "hip" capital cities, Berlin and Vienna are probably a "best case". In the German-speaking countries, there does seem to be a growing awareness and interest in vegetarianism, but in small cities in Germany I find my options in restaurants basically limited to pasta and pizza -- and of course falafel -- (though there are enough vegetarians and similar that there are shops selling tofu, vegan cheese, meat substitutes etc.). From what I've heard, the rest of central Europe is even worse.
Yes for sure - the local cuisine is heavy on meat & dairy so you'll have to rely on ethnic and speciality places, which mostly exist in the big metropolitan cities.
Czech Republic. I don't complain about generic vegetarian places (indian food, asian food, some pasta), but if you wanted to go low-carb here, you find nothing.
Keto is not meant for long-term use. You will have one miserable life if you could pull that off but i doubt you could even if u tried. It works really well for cutting that last bit of stubborn fat when u trying to show your six pack.
As with anything, it depends. I'm also not suggesting that keto is harmless long-term, just that it's not inherently harmful. Several sections of the Wikipedia article are instructive: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet
Animals do provide high quality fertilizers and ecosystem services. I'm trying to cut out factory farmed meat. Hence, budgetary constraints cause me to choose less meat and more pastured eggs.
Soy is insanely toxic. Until recently, Asians didn't consider it edible, except for monks who used it to decrease libido.
You are shifting the argument by cherry picking Australian beef production (vs meat production in general). Overwhelmingly most meat production is fed using harvest from cultivated land, hence the claims are irrelevant to the general discussion in addition to being factually uncredible.
About the questionable facts: the 25x claim is not substantiated in any way. It doesn't in any way substantiate why use of fertilizers to grow plants for human consumption would be worse than growing grass for the equivalent nutritional value of cows.
Lastly, even if you ignore the irrelevance and the bad claims, it concludes that ethically you should only eat rangeland grown meat and kangaroos, a clear counterargument for the usual meat eater diet!
You are shifting the argument by cherry picking Australian beef production (vs meat production in general).
Yes, though not intentionally - this is just an article I read recently so it came up in my memory. I believe, though, that a lot of small animals die because of farming grains everywhere in the world, not only in Australia. Other factors, indeed, may vary greatly.
Lastly, even if you ignore the irrelevance and the bad claims, it concludes that ethically you should only eat rangeland grown meat and kangaroos, a clear counterargument for the usual meat eater diet!
I agree - if one's aim is to minimize the number of animal deaths or the amount of suffering, that seems to be the answer.
If you drink milk and consume eggs, aren't you still perpetuating the same system? I mean after a cow no longer can produce milk it's not like it will go to a cow hospice.
