What is a Low Carb Diet?
Low Carb Diets are dietary programs that restrict carbohydrate intake. Low carb diets are usually followed for weight control or for the treatment of obesity. Foods high in digestible carbohydrates such as bread and pasta (or things made from white flour)) are limited or replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of proteins and fats like meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds and peanuts, salads and vegetables. The amount of carbohydrate allowed varies with different low carb diets.
Low Carb Diet Plan
Low-Carb cooking used to be mostly a matter of deprivation and restrictions. That was its main impact on the low-carb kitchen. You could not eat this; you could not eat that. It made cooking and eating boring but also fairly simple. Foods with high-carbohydrate concentrations were largely out. It is one thing to understand that you do not really need to eat much, if any, carbohydrate laden foods to be healthy and quite another to live by that rule. No hearty sandwiches, no dinner rolls, no hamburger buns, no muffins, not to mention pasta, pizza, and tortillas. Well, now you are released from these restrictions. With the recipes you will find here, you can eat almost anything you have been missing (at least within reasonable quantity) and still control your weight and maintain a great lipid profile.
How do we do it? By eliminating the worst offenders, which are the starchy, high-carb grain (and all products made from them) along with that pure carbohydrate, sugar. Both must be exiled, except for small amounts. And that is all there is to it. Less simple, of course, is what to do about it. It has taken years to find substitutes for flour and sugar to create these workable recipes. Of the two, the sugar problem has been the easier one to deal with. Today, some acceptable artificial sweeteners that can also be used in baking are available and generally work fine. On occasion— when texture truly demands it— limited amounts of real sugar can be added to a recipe as well.
The chief difficulty is finding a replacement for flour. What breads, cookies, rolls, crackers, cereal, pancakes, muffins, pizza, or pasta can you make without it? None, obviously. Flour supplies the bulk in all of these beloved foods. But at 92.0 grams of carb in a single cup of white flour and only slightly fewer in a cup of whole wheat flour, flour is the number one enemy of the low Carb dieter. So the principal change in your new low Carb kitchen will revolve around what can be used in its place. Everything else remains pretty much the same.
Flour— that powdery tasteless, valuable stuff— has no perfect match for baking. Impostors are hard to find. There are, however, substances that collectively can do a pretty good job of imitating the texture that comes from flour, and that’s what we are after. So instead of using flour, you will be using one or more of these different ingredients. Piling these items into to mixing bowl to make a batch of bread, muffins, or rolls will quickly become routine.
Some of these new flour substitutes may already be familiar to you. The main ones are:
(1) almonds— usually ground into a meal or flour;
(2) vital wheat gluten flour—-a flour with most of the starch removed;
(3) wheat bran—known to most of us as a good sources of fiber, a flaky meal made from the outer layer or husk of the wheat kernel;
(4) whey protein powder— a powdery substance made from the watery part of milk;
(5) soy protein powder—a powdery substance like whey protein but extracted from the soybean. (use organic soy )
These ingredients will help to make you believe that you are eating flour. You can usually find them in the health food section of your supermarket or in most health food stores.
(Mary Dan Eades, Michael R. Eades, Ursula Solom; The Low-Carb Comfort Food Cookbook; 06)
LOW-CARB SUBSTITUTES
Keeping carbs in check doesn’t mean eliminating your favorite food groups. A simple switch within the same group may be all it takes. You can dodge nearly 40 grams of carbohydrate by snacking on a cup of popcorn instead of a handful of pretzels. Or skip 25 grams by opting for whole wheat bread instead of bagel. Try these substitutions in the kitchen and when you eat out.
INSTEAD OF | TRY | CARB SAVED (G) |
Breads, pasta, and flour | ||
Bread, whole wheat (1slice) | 25 | |
Bread, white (1slice) | Bread, light whole wheat (1slice) | 2.3 |
Flour, all-purpose or whole wheat (¼ cup) | Flour, soy (¼ cup)Flour, oat (¼ cup) | 1412 |
French toast (1slice) | Omelet, ham and cheese (2 eggs) | 12 |
Lasagna noodles ( 2 oz dry) | Eggplant or zucchini slices (1cup) | 35 |
Pancakes, from mix (two 6”) | Eggs, large (2) | 56 |
Spaghetti, cooked (1cup) | Squash, Spaghetti, Cooked (1cup) | 30 |
Tortilla, flour (6”) | Tortilla, corn (6”) | 06 |
Deserts, Sweets, and Dairy Foods | ||
Cake, yellow, w/van frosting (1slice) | Cheesecake (1slice) | 18 |
Ice cream, (1/2cup) | Gelatin, diet (1/2cup), w/whipped cream (2 Tbsp) | 14 |
Milk, chocolate (1 cup) | Milkshake, chocolate, high-protein, low Carb (1 cup) | 26 |
Maple syrup, pur (2 Tbsp) | Maple syrup, low-calorie (2 Tbsp) | 14 |
Milk, skim (1 cup) | Milk, soy, unsweetened (1cup) | 09 |
Pie, apple (1slice) | Pie, pumpkin (1 slice) | 10 |
Sugar, granulated (1/2 cup) | 48 | |
Sugar, granulated (¼ cup) | Brown sugar ((¼ cup)All fruit Spread ((¼ cup) | 1509 |
Yogurt, frozen soft (1/2 cup) | Fruit juice bar (2.5 oz) | 02 |
Yogurt, with fruit (1cup) | Yogurt, plain, unsweetened (1cup) | 30 |
Fruits | ||
Apple | Celery (1 rib) | 18 |
Banana (6”) | Kiwifruit | 10 |
INSTEAD OF | TRY | CARB SAVED (G) |
Blueberries, fresh (1/2 cup) | Strawberries, fresh (1/2 cup) | 05 |
22 | ||
Honeydew (¼ med) | Grapefruit (1/2 Medium) | 13 |
Juice, apple (1cup) | Cider, apple (1cup) | 08 |
Strawberries, frozen in syrup (1/2 cup) | Strawberries, frozen, no sugar added (1/2 cup) | 23 |
Main Dishes, Sauces, and Soups | ||
Beef pot pie, frozen (1 serving) | Meat loaf (1serving) | 40 |
Linguine w/white clam sauce (1serving) | Manicotti w/tomato sauce (1serving) | 31 |
Mayonnaise, regular ( 1 Tbsp) | Mayonnaise, no sugar added (1Tbsp) | 01 |
Pasta salad, seafood (1.5 cups) | Tuna salad (1.5 cups) | 03 |
Sandwich, chicken, fast food | Hamburger, fast fold | 08 |
Sandwich, roast beef, fast food (1) | Soup, chicken rice (1can) | 29 |
Soup, tomato, canned (1cup) | Gazpacho soup (1cup) | 12 |
Thousand island dressing (2 Tbsp) | Oil and vinegar (1 Tbsp each) | 04 |
Vinaigrette, bottled ( 2Tbsp) | Oil and Vinegar ( 1Tbsp each) | 02 |
Snakes and Beverages | ||
Cashews, dry-roasted (1/3 cup) | Brazil, nuts, dry-roasted (1/3 cup) | 09 |
Cola (12 oz) | Diet cola, seltzer, or club soda (12 oz) | 38 |
Fig bars (2) | Gingersnaps (2) | 20 |
Jelly beans, large (10) | Apricots, dried (10 halves) | 05 |
Pretzels, hard twists (10) | Popcorn, air-popped (2 cups) | 35 |
Vanilla wafers (5) | Cookies, oatmeal (2) | 02 |
Vegetables and side dishes | ||
Carrot | Celery (1 rib) | 05 |
Onion rings, fried (8) | Mozzarella sticks, fried (5) | 09 |
Onions, chopped (1/2 cup) | Scallions, chopped (1/2 cup) | 03 |
Potato, baked (med) | Corn-on-the-cob (1med) | 34 |
Potatoes, mashed ( 1cup) | Turnips, mashed (1 cup) | 26 |
Potato pancake (1 med) | Hash brown potatoes (1/2 cup) | 06 |
Potato salad (1/2 cup) | Cauliflower salad (1/2 cup) | 11 |
(Bettina Newman, David; Lose Weight the Smart Low Carb Way: 200 High-favor Recipes and a 7 step; 62 -63)
Please remember that Low carb diets that severely restrict carbohydrate consumption can prove ketogenic and can have several negative effects on your health. Please consult a physician or dietecian before starting any low carb diet plan.
Hi, I have been on a low carb diet for 12 weeks and lost 12 kg, I have never been hungry and feel fantastic, I have come to the conclusion that all the problems with regart to weight stem from eating too many carbs, so moving forward I have reached my goal weight but intend to keep eating more protein and less carbs, it obviously is more healthy despite what the so called experts say. Just one more thing, I take two large spoonfulls of oatbran in liquid 0% yogurt each day and so have no intestinal problems, a magical food with magical results.
Hi Alan,
Can you explain the low carb diet you followed in detail? Losing 12 kgs in 12 weeks sounds very interesting!
I definitely support what Alex has said about the positive benefits of reduced carbohydrates; without intentionally going for a low-carb diet, I was overly fond of bread and dramatically reduced the amount I was eating. In as little as three days, I felt less bloated and more energetic. I more or less steadily lost 1 lb a week, without experiencing hunger pangs, just as Alan said. I also start every day with a breakfast of bran and oats, hardier than any commercial brand cereal I have tried and delicious with a bit of fruit. A little goes a long way and no hunger pangs till lunchtime. I am thrilled with my weight loss and feeling so good about myself makes it easy to stick to this plan. I no longer think of myself as on a diet but just making healthy food choices, as opposed to foods that offer no health benefits.
It’s great to hear about your success! I am sure many others will benefit from your experience.