Low Carb Shopping Tips

Meat: pick organic for its other health benefits, but meats are “freebies” for the most part. Beware lunch meats, packaged meats, sausages, etc, they can contain grain or starchy fillers and sweeteners. Read your carb labels.

Dairy: If you must have milk in your coffee, chose whipping cream instead of milk. Generally speaking the less fat a milk product contains the more sugars you’re getting.

Heavy cream or whipping cream can contain 7-14 grams of carbs per cup – even if the label (or local doctors) says 0 carbs.

By law, as long as a product has less than 1 carb per serving it can be listed as 0. A “serving” of cream is 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon and most creams have nearly 1 carb per tablespoon no matter what is listed on the label. If your label says 0 carbs for 1 tablespoon of cream it will be closer to .95 of a carb

Hard cheeses have less carbs than most soft cheeses. Some cream cheeses had additives that will pump up the carb count, read the labels.

Fats:

Fats are your friend. You will be moving from burning blood sugars as your body’s main fuel to burning fat. You need fat.

Coconut oils, palm oils, mct oil, olive oils, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, animal fats, butter and ghee are best.

Avoid corn, safflower, soybean, cottonseed, canola, peanut, pumpkin see oils.

Run like crazy from margarine, shortening and hydrogenated oils! These are evil.

Vegetable choices: Eat all the non-starchy veggies you want. Try to get some in every meal of the day.

Best veggies include avocado, asparagus, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, beet greens, collard greens, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, swiss chard, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, daikon radish (great for replacing lasagna noodles!), celery root, kale, lettuce, mushrooms, kohlrabi, peppers, radishes, rhubarb, sauerkraut, snow peas, spinach, tomatoes, wax beans, zucchini, sprouts of all kinds, seaweed, summer squash

Fresh, organic veggies are the best of course. But frozen (you can find these organic now too) are wonderful choices. Don't buy canned vegetables.

Use less beets, carrots, leeks, onions, pumpkin, rutabaga, parsnips, etc
Don’t use chickpeas, most beans (other than lupine or black soy beans), lentils, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, yams

Fruit choices:

Berries in moderation, lemons and limes, and unsweetened cranberries only. Leave the rest alone. In terms of weight loss, fruit (and juices) = sugar = weight gain.

Nuts and seed choices:

Your best choices are almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, coconut, and hazelnuts (filberts)

Cashews, peanuts, pine nuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, pecans, and sunflower seeds are higher in carbs, don’t use many.

Breads and grains:

It’s all high in carbs, no matter if it’s organic, whole grain, alternative grain, ancient grain, it’s GRAIN already! Grain = high carbohydrates.  Leave this group alone.

Condiment choices:

Say no thanks to relishes, ketchups, bbq sauces, and low fat dressings; they are high in carbs, leave them alone. Oils, herbs, spices, vinegars, mustard, and high fat mayo are better choices.

Sweeteners:

You know better. Yes, maple syrup and honey ARE sugar. It’s doesn’t matter if they are “natural sugars” or “organic sugars”, they are sugar! So is lactose, glucose, dates and date sugar, agave, barely malt, brown rice syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice, concentrated fruit juice, maltose, sorbitol, sucanant, organic cane sugar, molasses, sucrose, palm sugar, etc.

Even stevia has been shown to stop the body from entering ketosis in some people! Yeah, even stevia.  

If you think you’re eating low carb and “only using a tiny bit of honey in my coffee”, as I hear people say daily at work, and you can’t seem to lose weight or get into ketosis, now you know why. A teaspoon of honey has 16 carbs! “A tiny bit” is a bit too much.

Things like Xylitol, stevia, and erythritol can be used SPARINGLY for the occasional treat. Four days a week is not sparingly.

Are you noticing a trend here? Eat real food. Real food doesn’t come in a package. Real food is a plant or animal product that still looks like a plant or animal product. Lose the starches (which are just sugar as far as your body and weight is concerned), drop the junk, and lose the weight.

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