Low-Carb Vegetarian by DeMello

Low-Carb Vegetarian – Meatless alternatives for popular low-carb diets

By Margo DeMello

At 159 pages, this slim square book with smooth white pages boasts an index, large readable text with ingredients in bold font, and helpful nutritional breakdowns for every recipe. The book includes no photos or illustrations, but DeMello does summarize the basics of low-carb dieting. In doing so, however, she commits the grave error of asserting that the Atkins diet is dangerous because it is high in saturated fat. This is incorrect for two reasons. One--there is no underlying reason Atkins’ diet should be higher in any specific type of fat—that is the dieter’s choice alone. Two--current evidence shows that certain saturated fats such as coconut oil and stearic acid are quite healthful indeed. You do not have to accept my word: please do your own research and make your own conclusions.

DeMello also throws out the myth that high protein consumption hurts the kidneys. This is misinformation and extremely unhelpful. DeMello goes on to savage the Neanderthin diet, arguing that the carb levels allowed by that plan would increase cancer, heart disease, hypertension, and stroke while imperiling the bones and kidneys. Only the fact that I know Margo believes what she’s saying keeps me from screaming in rage. It is this type of terrible misinformation from the nutrition community that left me fat and ill for years, trying to attain health by minimizing fat and maximizing carbs and allowing in the merest bites of protein.

Let me be absolutely candid: I ate abundant amounts of protein and saturated fat while losing over a hundred pounds. My bloodwork and blood pressure went from bad to stellar. I got my health back by eating sufficient amounts of healthy saturated fat and protein. But back to the text at hand…

DeMello counsels her readers to look toward The Zone or South Beach—neither of which is truly low carb—when considering which diet to adopt. She also states that soy is “the basis for the protein in most of the recipes”. As you know, I believe soy endangers human health. Since DeMello’s book wasn’t titled “Low-Carb Vegan,” I believed it would include the vegetarian proteins I believe are safe and thus do consume: dairy and eggs.

Let me be absolutely clear: DeMello does not include dairy or eggs in her recipes. As she states in the intro, almost all the protein in this text is soy. She makes minimal use of other beans.

To me this book is a risk to health and is utterly without use in my kitchen. I can only shake my head at it in dismay.

For low-carb dieters committed to vegan menus, this book might be helpful. Please understand I have great respect for the heartfelt commitment to animals’ wellbeing that most vegans share. I adore my vegan friends for their compassion and goodness. Nonetheless, I personally believe a vegan diet jeopardizes human physical and mental wellbeing and is fundamentally incompatible with optimal health.

I cannot recommend this book. Then again, I cannot recommend a vegan diet. If, however, you are vegan and want to try low-carbing: this book would likely be a welcome addition to your cookbook shelf.