Which One Is Better, Low Carb or Vegetarian Diet?

ahh yes, the messiahs of the nutrition world.  You’ve heard them, right?  They’ll preach to you all day and night about their diet of choice.  Sometimes it’s something obviously nutty, like eating nothing but cabbage soup.  Sometimes though, they seem to make sense.  They’ll tell you to eat low carb like our primitive ancestors did or eat vegetarian to minimize your impact on the earth.  Problem is, they seem to make sense.  So of these two very popular lifestyle diets, which one is right?  Should you be a meat eater like your stone age ancestors or a plant eater like your modern, environmentally aware friends?

The answer is, a little of both.

Trick Question

First of all, this is a bit of a trick question.  Both diets can be healthy or unhealthy and both can be environmentally conscious.  Sure, you can eat nothing but bacon wrapped steaks and claim to be low carb but that’s neither healthy nor good for the environment, especially if you’re eating factory produced beef.  At the same time, you can munch on nothing but oreo’s and mountain dew and claim to be a vegetarian, but that diet is  neither good for you nor the planet.  So before we judge these diets, we have to define what a healthy version of each looks like.

Healthy Eating

Healthy Low Carb (Paleo) Diet

• Lean protein sources like fish and chicken
• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• Some other protein sources like dairy and eggs in moderate amounts
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

And now, the healthy vegetarian diet

• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• Some other protein sources like dairy, tofu and eggs in moderate amounts
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

Look at that, not that different.  Really, the only difference is that the paleo diet adds in meat as an additional source of protein where as the vegetarian diet will get a bit less protein and most of that will come from dairy, eggs and things like tofu.  Otherwise, both diets focus on healthy, organic sources of food with a lot of leafy greens, fruits, vegetables and nuts.  Amazing!

The basic takeaway here is that the base of any healthy diet is essentially the same:

• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

Once you have these things, you can modify to suit your needs.  You definitely need a source of protein here and you can get that from fish, chicken, tofu, dairy, eggs or other sources.  By the way, there are certainly other healthy meats like venison, turkey, grass fed beef and so on.  Just be careful of how much meat you eat since some meats are a bit high in fat.

So stop worrying about paleo vs. vegan.  Just focus on the basics.  If you get those right, you’re already ahead of the game.

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By the way, my diet is mostly vegetarian but I do occasionally eat meat.  So am I a vegetarian or a paleo?  Who cares!?!  I’m healthy!