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Grow a Low Carb Garden

Gardens laden with vegetables are perfect for those watching their waistline. But with the low carb craze, many tasty morsels have been cut from the menu.

What's a gardener to do?

First of all, you have to understand that all fruits and vegetables have carbs. The question is: which ones have more than others? These vegetables are divided into three different categories: those that have very high carbohydrate content, those that are middle of the road, and those that have low carbohydrate content.

The vegetables that have the highest carb count, and the ones that you should stay away from growing, include America's favorite, sweet corn. Nothing beats a tender ear of corn, unless you're counting carbs, because there's 19 grams in one ear. And believe it or not, one cup of frozen corn has 34 grams of carbs.

How about parsnips? Those of you who like these will have to stay away, because one cup of parsnips has 30 grams of carbohydrates. Sweet peas are not so sweet if you're watching carbs. One cup of these and you're looking at 34 grams of carbs.

And what about potatoes? Whether they're mashed, smashed, fried or scalloped, you must stay away from them. One potato is 31 grams, and with the skin on it has 34. If you bake the potato, it becomes 51, and the same is true for sweet potatoes.

If you love onions, this will bring tears to your eyes. One small onion is worth 16 carbs. But there is an alternative. ½ cup of chopped green onions brings those carbs down just below 2.

If you're watching carbs, you better stay away from sweet winter squash. The same goes for beets.

And if you're a gardener, and you love all these vegetables, Rebecca has a tip. Don't plant them in your garden, and you won't be tempted to eat them. Instead, head to your farmer's market and buy just a few of the high carb vegetables for a treat when a craving hits.

The next category of vegetables has less than 10 grams of carbs per serving .

First there are beans and tomatoes. Tomatoes can be rather tricky. One tomato is worth 6 grams of carbs, but dried they have 17, and if you add oil to the dried tomatoes it is less than 17.Go ahead and eat your eggplant, broccoli and cauliflowers. A pepper is anywhere from 4-7 carbs, but carrots are sweet, so you can only have one.As you might have noticed, the sweeter the vegetable, the higher the carb content, which leads us to the lowest carb category . These are the vegetables that don't have a lot of flavor, especially leafy green lettuce, iceberg lettuce and spinach.You can eat a whole bunch of radishes with less than 3 grams of carbs, and you can eat six asparagus spears and stay below 5 grams of carbs.Cucumbers have less than 1 gram, and don't forget sprouts. Sprouts are good for you, and one cup of sprouts hardly even registers on the carb counter.