Information on low carb diet foods is highly sought after these days, due to the popularity of low carb diets such as the Atkins diet and South beach diet.

These diets can produce dramatic weight loss, but many dieters give up before experiencing significant results because they feel that their meal options are too limited, and give in to their cravings for breads, pastas, and other high carb foods.

Knowing about all the options available to you is therefore vital when attempting one of these diets, as variety is the key to ensuring you do not get bored and give up half way.

Here’s the good news: there’s more to low carb diet food than cheese omelets and fried bacon!

So what is the definition of a low carb diet food anyway?

Actually, there is no generally accepted definition of “low carb”, but we can probably assume that any food containing less than 40 percent carbohydrate is on the low scale, while less than 25 percent is very low. Since all foods are made up of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, a lower carb ratio means a higher ratio of protein or fat.

So what are examples of foods you can eat on a low carb diet? Well, each diet has its own specific rules, but here is a quick run down of the major food groups and their carbohydrate levels:

Vegetables

In general non-starchy vegetables are the best source of low carb diet foods. Leafy greens such as spinach are great, as are asparagus lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, and bok choy. Starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas, parsnips, beets, and winter squashes should be avoided.

Fruits

Berries such as raspberries, black berries and cranberries are fine, as is rhubarb, lemon and limes. Melons, nectarines peaches apricots and apples are also relatively low in sugars, but should be consumed in smaller quantities. High sugar fruits such as bananas and mangoes, as well as most dried fruits should be avoided.

Dairy Products

Milk products from which the whey has been removed, such as cottage cheese and strained yoghurt, have the lowest carb ratios. Remember that milk contains sugar in the form of lactose, so dairy products should be consumed only moderately.

Meat, Poultry Seafood and Eggs

Most red meats and other animal protein foods have a low carbohydrate ratio, although carbs are present in significant amounts in some organ meats, and in shellfish such as mussels and oysters. It’s worth remembering too, that cured meats can contain added sugars.

Cereal Grain Products

Bread, pasta, rice, and other grain-derived foods are high in carbohydrates.

Sweet Foods

Unless they are artificially sweetened, these products usually contain a lot of carbohydrates. Examples include chocolate and soft drinks and anything made with white sugar.

Low carb diet foods can be found in most food groups, and through careful study of the food options available to you it is possible to enjoy the benefits of weight loss from a low carb diet, without sacrificing the enjoyment of eating nutritious and varied meals.

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You’re probably already aware of the many health benefits of eating the low carb diet food flax seed. In this post we are going to examine 4 different ways to incorporate it into our eating regime: as a low carb substitute for flour in baking, as a nutritional enhancer of other foods, as a low carb porridge (when mixed with water), and as an edible oil.

If you have whole flax seeds, you will of course need to put them through a coffee or spice grinder before attempting to use them as illustrated in the first 3 examples in this article.

A Low Carb Substitute For Wheat Flour In Baking

Because flax seeds are a low carb diet food, you can make lower carb versions of many of your favorite baked goods by replacing up to 25% of the flour in your recipe with flax seed meal. Depending on the recipe, you may be able to use a proportion of flax seed meal higher than 25% (see this flax seed muffin recipe), but this tends to make the finished product dry and dense, and you’ll need to add additional water to your recipe to compensate for the higher fiber content of the flax seed. Be aware too that baked goods containing flax seed meal tend to brown more quickly than regular baking, so you may have to reduce the temperature in your oven slightly.

Flax seed meal is also a component of many low carb flour mixes, which comprise a variety of low carb flours (flax seed, soy, almond etc.). These mixes can replace regular flour cup for cup so produce even lower carb baking than the more basic mixture of flax seed meal and regular flour.

A Nutritional Enhancer Of Other Foods

Adding flax seed meal to other low carb diet food is a great way to increase the overall fiber content of your diet. If you eat a lot of processed foods and few fruits and vegetables you are probably not consuming enough fiber. Fiber is essential for a healthily functioning gastrointestinal tract, and is particularly useful for dieters because it expands in the body and helps provide a bulky, full feeling which helps to reduce food cravings.

Among flax seed’s other health benefits is its high concentration of alpha-linoleic acid, an omega 3 fatty acid which is a precursor to the healthy fatty acid in fish oil.

It is best to add freshly ground flax seed to other low carb diet food, rather than store-bought flax seed meal, to gain the maximum benefits. This is because flax seed is very volatile and unless stored properly the meal quickly goes rancid and loses much of its nutritional value.

Popular ways of enhancing food with flax seed meal include sprinkling it on yogurt or cottage cheese, and adding it to protein smoothies. Sprinkling roasted, coarsely ground seeds onto salads also makes a nice touch.

A Low Carb Porridge

You can make a sort of low carb porridge by stirring boiling water into a bowl of flax seed meal and letting it thicken for a couple of minutes as the seeds absorb the water. You can then mix in your choice of other low carb diet food such as peanut butter, coconut, berries, artificial sweetener, and so on. In the morning this porridge can make a nice change from eggs or fruit for breakfast.

An Edible Oil

Because of its volatility flax seed oil should not used in place of cooking/frying oil, but it can be substituted for oils in preparations like vinaigrette. This is a good way of increasing your omega-3 fatty acid intake, as flax seed oil has higher concentrations than flax seed meal (though it doesn’t contain the fiber). 

As you can see, there are at least 4 different ways you can use this low carb diet food in your meals. Can you think of anymore? Please share in the comments box below!

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If you’ve read the Low Carb Diet Food blog post on cranberries, you’ll know that this super fruit is extremely good for you. What you might want some information on is how to actually include cranberries in your diet. Here are my thoughts on how to include this incredibly healthy low carb diet food into your diet plan.

Eat Them Fresh

As with any other fruit, cranberries are most nutritious when eaten fresh. The reason most people don’t eat them this way is because of their tart flavor. Cranberries are naturally very acidic, and being a low sugar fruit there is nothing to offset that sharp taste.

The longer cranberries are allowed to ripen, the sweeter they become – you can tell how ripe a cranberry is from its shade of red, with darker reds pertaining to riper fruits – so if you’re going to eat them raw you obviously want the ripest fruit you can find. However if the flavor by itself doesn’t appeal to you, you can make things easier on yourself by combining cranberries with another low carb diet food.

Protein smoothies are one example of a low carb diet food to which you can add cranberries. Just as you would strawberries or blueberries, why not blend half a cup of chopped fresh cranberries into your next low carb protein smoothie and get the benefits of the antioxidant boost they provide? Think about the different ways you would use other fresh berries like raspberries or blueberries and experiment by substituting cranberries.

Drink The Juice

The second best way to get the goodness of cranberries into your body is by drinking cranberry juice. Most store bought cranberry juices however, are more like cranberry cocktails containing lots of sugar and bulked up by the juices of other fruits such as apples. These kinds of cranberry juices would not fall under the low carb diet food umbrella and should be avoided. Instead opt for 100% pure cranberry juice which you can either buy in health food stores or, if you’re up for a bit of work, make yourself – healthier and cheaper.

Keep in mind that because this juice contains no sugar it will be extremely tart – even more so than if you were to eat whole cranberries. Diluting with water and/or adding an artificial low carb sweetener is one way to make it more drinkable. Another way, per our example above, is to combine cranberry juice with other juices to dilute the tartness. The juices of other low carb berries spring to mind, but if you’re lucky enough to own a juicer, there’s no reason you can’t combine the juices from cranberries with low carb vegetable juices to make a refreshing health tonic.

Finally, because cranberries are so sour, how about substituting cranberry juice where you would normally use lemon juice? In vinaigrette for instance.

Sauce Them

Your first experience of cranberries was probably as the main ingredient in the festive favorite cranberry sauce. Homemade sugar-free cranberry sauce is simple and quick to prepare and is a better option for you than eating the gelatinous kind that comes out of a can, both because it contains no preservatives and because it isn’t loaded with carbs. In addition to its traditional role as side dish accompanying roast turkey, it makes a nice topping on low carb natural yogurt or cottage cheese.

As an alternative to cranberry sauce, why not try cranberry chutney?

Eat Them Dry

Snacking on dried cranberries or “craisins” is a tasty way to pack more vitamin c into your diet – unfortunately its also a great way to sneak in heaps of extra carbs. As is the case with most store-bought cranberry juices, the majority of craisins sold today are full of sugar and are most definitely not a low carb diet food. If you can’t find sweet yet sugarless craisins in the shops, you might want to check out this recipe for low carb craisins that uses an artificial sweetener.

Or you could simply eat unsweetened dried cranberries, which you can probably find in health food shops. Be creative and add these to dishes like low carb tuna or chicken salads – they go very well with white meats and fish – or to trail mixes, as a low carb substitute for raisins or dried apricots.

If you have a favorite low carb diet food that contains cranberries why not share it in the comments box? We’d love to hear it.

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Having low carb snacks on hand is essential for dealing with the times when you get major cravings for salty high carb snacks.  Some people have the will power to refrain from snacking between meals but I’m definitely not one of them. 

Devouring a big bag of corn chips (or whatever your snack of choice is) can wipe out a week’s worth of strict low carb dieting in a few seconds – it’s happened to me numerous times, so one way to help prevent this from happening to you is to always have something low carb on hand for when the cravings hit you – and we all know that they will.

Believe it or not celery is one of the best low carb snacks around. It’s very healthy and contributes almost nothing to your carb count. It has also been described as a negative calorie food – i.e. you actually burn calories by consuming it – but I think this is a myth. Still it’s great for all dieters whether low carb or simply low calorie, but by itself it might seem flavorless and unappetizing so here are 5 ways to dress up celery and help you forget that what you’re eating is 95% water

Celery With Cream Cheese Dip

At its most basic level, to make this snack, simply chop up stalks of celery into thirds and spread cream cheese onto each piece. To be a bit more creative you can mix things into the cream cheese before spreading, such as chopped bacon, chopped olives or chives (all 3 of which are low carb diet food).

Celery With Nut Butter

Peanut butter or almond butter are both good choices. To make low carb snacks from them simply spread the nut butter onto raw pieces of celery stalk. Almond butter is generally considered to be healthier than peanut butter because it tends to have less additives, but also has double peanut butter’s cost. Store bought peanut butter can contain added sugar or salt. If possible pick an organic peanut butter that contains no added sugar (a must) or added salt (recommended). Almond butter is the more nutritious of the two butters.

Celery With Tuna Salad

Use celery sticks as a vehicle for scooping and eating the tuna salad. Most people dice celery and add it to a tuna salad – this is simply a different way to eat the same food. You can find a great recipe for low carb tuna salad here. The celery is diced and mixed into the salad in this recipe – it really doesn’t matter which option you choose; both are great low carb snacks.

Celery With Guacamole

Avoid the temptation to rip open that packet of nacho cheese corn chips (or whatever it is you like to dip into guacamole) and opt for celery sticks instead. Try out this recipe for great low carb guacamole.

Celery With Humus

Last on our list of great accompaniments to celery is hummus. Hummus in case you don’t know is a dip of middle eastern origin containing Chick Peas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini (crushed sesame seeds). Usually you eat it with bread, but it tastes just as good on the end of a crunchy celery stalk. Here’s a hummus recipe if you want to try to make it yourself.

I’m sure you can think of plenty of other ways of turning celery stalks into tasty low carb snacks. The important thing is to have the chopped up stalks handy at all times (i.e. by keeping them in a bag in the refrigerator) so that no matter what dipping substance you have on hand, you will have a low carb way of enjoying it.

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If celery is not already on your low carb diet food list please add it now! 

Most of us probably know that this relative of the carrot is good for us, simply by virtue of it being a green vegetable, and we’ve probably snacked on it now and then. But if you want to know why celery makes a great low carb diet food, here are 3 solid examples of celery’s important health benefits in a low carb diet.

Boosting the Immune System

Celery is very high in vitamin c which supports the immune system. A strong immune system means you’re better at warding away general illness than the rest of the population – you tend to get sick less often than everyone else. Vitamin C is especially well known as a cold fighter. It can help to prevent you from catching a cold in the first place, or if you already have a cold, can help to lesson the severity of it (especially if you consume it inmega-doses). 100 grams of chopped celery provides about 14% of your daily vitamin C requirements.

Because a lot of the low carb diet food we eat tends to be in the meat, cheese and eggs category, we can forget to eat enough vitamin c containing fruits and vegetables, so when we do eat them, we should be going for the ones that contain vitamin c in high doses.

Lowering Blood Pressure

This benefit is a little bit controversial. Celery is considered to be a high sodium food, and people with high blood pressure are supposed to restrict the intake of sodium in their diets. On the other hand celery contains active compounds called phthalides, which can help relax the muscles around blood vessels, allowing them to dilate and thereby create more room inside for blood to flow – reducing blood pressure.

Studies on lab animals have shown reduced blood pressure after being fed celery juice. Also, celery contains other nutrients that are supposed to be good for high blood pressure, such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. Finally, although celery is higher in sodium, than other vegetables, 1 cup of chopped celery still contains only 4% of our daily sodium dietary requirements, so you can easily include celery in your low carb diet food list, and then cut out some other high sodium food to keep you within your daily limit.

Reducing Inflammation

Celery has an anti-inflammatory effect in the body, providing relief to people suffering from arthritis, rheumatism, asthma and other diseases linked to inflammation. Through its diuretic (fluid expelling) effect on the body it helps to remove uric acid crystal build up from around the joints which eases joint pains and swelling.

If those 3 reasons aren’t compelling enough, how about the fact that celery is 95% water. You can eat tons of it and are practically guaranteed not to put on weight. There is even a myth that eating celery actually helps you to lose weight, because the calories you burn by trying to digest it, are greater than the calories contained in the celery itself. I don’t think this is scientifically accurate but it sounds good

So celery is an important low carb diet food we should all be eating more of but if you need some ways to make eating celery more exciting (it is mostly water after all) check out these 5 Low Carb Snacks Made With Celery for inspiration.

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Coming up with new ideas for low carb snacks can be difficult. Sure we could just give up snacking altogether (we are dieting after all) but If you’re like me, snacking is an integral part of your daily activities and if a diet doesn’t allow me to snack between meals then I’m not going to be able to sustain it for very long. 

So in the case of a low carb diet, we need low carb diet food we can snack on, which is where a lot of us run into trouble. What can we eat? We’re not allowed biscuits, chocolate, crackers, potato chips, toast… what snack foods don’t have carbs in them? Actually a surprisingly large range if you’re prepared to go to a tiny bit of effort to prepare something yourself. Sure, its easier to rip open a packed of chips or biscuits, but if you don’t mind using up a few additional brain cells and burning a few extra calories (and why would you if you’re on a diet?), you can make your own tasty – and much healthier – low carb snacks. Here are 5 low carb snacks that I enjoy.

Cheese

Cheese can be enjoyed in several ways. You can of course just snack on cheese cubes or cheese slices straight from the packet, which is no less convenient than snacking on potato chips and provides you with that salty savory flavor that chips help to satisfy. If its the crunchy texture of potato chips you’re craving however, simply grate cheese onto a plate and cook it in the microwave; it will melt and then become crispy like a potato chip. Feta is my favorite type of cheese and always add it to salads – salads make great snacks but can be a bit bland so feta can add some much needed flavor.

Celery

I chop up a few celery stalks into sticks about the length of my finger and keep them in plastic zip lock bags in the refrigerator. They’re one of the low carb snacks I try to have on hand at all times. They are a great low carb diet food substitute for chips and crackers when you need something to eat with humus or some other kind of low carb  cream cheese. I also love celery sticks with crunchy low carb peanut butter.

Hard Boiled Eggs

How hard is it to boil and egg? Mr Breakfast can tell you the answer to that but believe me its pretty easy. After boiling and peeling your eggs you can just keep them in a container in the refrigerator. I find hard boiled eggs to be very filling and i like to eat them with a plate of salt for dipping. 

Pepperoni

You probably already eat pepperoni as part of your low carb diet. But did you know that like cheese, you can microwave pepperoni slices to make pepperoni chips? Just cut them into thin slices and zap them in the microwave till crispy. You want to make sure when dealing with preserved meats like pepperoni that they haven’t had any sugars added to them – i.e. check the carb count to make sure what you’re eating is really low carb. 

Sugar-free Jell-O

I wanted to make sure I included something for those of us with a sweet tooth. Sugar-free Jell-O comes in a variety of flavors and is easy to prepare. It can also be upgraded by adding low carb fruit like berries, or whipped cream mixed with a little bit of vanilla essence. 

More ideas for low carb snacks to come in future posts.

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When it comes to healthy low carb diet food, it’s hard to beat the famously tart and refreshing cranberry. Unlike a lot of low carb diet food, it is both low in carbs AND in calories and like most other berries it is also high in fiber and loaded with nutrients – in this case vitamin c, manganese and antioxidants. I have seen Cranberries referred to as “superfruits” numerous times while doing research on the net – I think its because of cranberries’ huge antioxidant load and anti-bacterial properties which makes them potentially effective at treating conditions such as urinary tract infection and tooth decay.

Basic info on Cranberries

Cranberries are grown predominantly in the United States and Canada. They’re one of only a few fruits which are native to North America. According to Wikipedia, Wisconsin produces around half of all US-grown cranberries, followed by Massachusetts at around 28%. Dennis, Massachusetts was the site of the first recorded cranberry cultivation in 1816. Cranberries are grown on sandy bogs or marshes and because they float, the most common way to harvest the fruit is to flood the bog. Berries harvested this way (95% of them) are used in processed cranberry products like juices and sauces, while fruit harvested the other way (i.e dry) are sold as fresh produce.

Naturally, Native Americans were the first to use cranberries for food (they combined them with deer meat to make a sort of long lasting survival food), and they also used them for medicine and as a textile dye. The name cranberry actually comes from “craneberry“, a name coined by Dutch or German settlers (couldn’t ascertain which one) because to them the cranberry vine blossoms resembled the neck, head and bill of a crane.

How nutritious are they?

1/2 a cup of chopped cranberries contains 4 grams of effective carbohydrate plus 2.5 grams of fiber (1/3 of it soluble) and 25 calories. Wikipedia states that they contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, dietary fiber and manganese, and have an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) score of 9,584 units per 100 g which means they contain more antioxidants than almost any other food we can buy on the market.

What does a high antioxidant count mean in terms of good health? Well, in the case of cranberries it seems to be responsible for various health benefits. For example, from what I’ve read on About.com, the antioxidants contribute to cranberries’ antibacterial nature in the bladder, intestines and mouth which makes them effective at preventing and treating urinary tract infections, food-borne illness and even tooth decay. 

They are also supposed to help regulate cholesterol levels, blood pressure and maybe even prevent cancer. Even though I’m not sure if these last three benefits are as credible as the antibacterial benefit, from what I’ve read, cranberries are one of the healthiest low carb diet foods around.

How to include them in your diet

Because fresh cranberries are so tart, they’re more often eaten in a processed form, or used in cooking, than eaten raw. If you happen to like fresh cranberries they are usually harvested between September and October in the US and are available till December. They’ll remain edible in a refrigerator for a few months. 

Cranberry juice and dried cranberries are two other ways to include cranberries in your diet, however because these versions will often have sugar added they are usually not viable low carb options. This is especially true of “craisins” which are only good as low carb snacks if made with artificial sweetener.

Using cranberries as a cooking ingredient (for example in sauces or chutneys) is probably the best way to go. If you freeze them they will keep for about a year. They come out a bit soft when thawed but are still fine for cooking with which means you can enjoy the health benefits of cranberries all year round. 

We will look at different cranberry recipes in a future post.

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Take the vitamins and minerals of a grain, combine the fiber of bran cereal, the antioxidants of a cranberry, and the omega 3 fatty acids of a salmon, what do you get? You get an amazingly nutritious but unfortunately non-existent superfood. Don’t worry though, Mother Nature has provided us with something almost as good… the tiny, yet mighty flax seed which, in addition to being packed with nutrients, is also, yep! you guessed it – very low carb!

What exactly are Flax seeds?

Humans have been enjoying the health benefits of flax seeds for thousands of years, but in recent times they have slipped out of mainstream use and now don’t feature so prominently in the typical western diet. They are seeds harvested from two basic varieties of flax: Golden and Brown. The US produces more Golden Flax than Brown Flax, however Canada, which is the world leader in flax production, specializes in Brown Flax. Both flax varieties are equally nutritious.

Flax seeds are slightly larger than sesame seeds, and are crunchy when eaten whole, though you should grind them up before eating them, as this allows your body to absorb their nutrients – whole seeds will pass through your body undigested. According to Wikipedia, flax seed contains about 18% protein, 42% fat, and 29% carbohydrate. However, 95% of the carbohydrate content is dietary fiber (which is not digested) , so flax seed in fact contains only 5% effective carbohydrate!

How nutritious are they?

Flax seeds contain a range of beneficial vitamins and minerals: magnesium, folate, copper phosphorus, vitamin b6 and in particular manganese. But flax seed is most prized for its high concentration of 3 other important nutrients: Alpha-linolenic acid, fiber, and phytochemicals.

Alpha-linolenic acid

Flax seed is the most potent known plant source of the omega 3 fatty acid known as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). ALA is essential for human health and cannot be produced in the body so we must acquire it through our diet.

Consumption of ALA has been linked in studies to lower risk of cardiovascular disease. It is also useful because our bodies can turn it into another very important and essential omega 3 fatty acid: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), found in the fatty oils of cold water fish such as salmon and tuna. Omega 3 fatty acids are associated with a range of health benefits, from lowering cholesterol and regulating blood pressure, to increased vitality and better skin and hair. While the results of research into these benefits can be conflicting, a consistent finding is that Omega 3 fatty acids help to lower inflammation in the body, which ameliorates conditions such as heart disease, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, and even some cancers.

It’s worth noting that different people have different abilities to convert ALA into EPA so its probably wise to take omega 3 oil supplements, in addition to consuming flax seeds, if you are wish to ensure you are getting enough omega 3 in your diet.

Fiber

Whole flax seed (as opposed to flax seed oil) contains about 28% dietary fiber, of which 7-10% is soluble, and 11 to 18% is insoluble. According to Wikipedia, both types of fiber are important in our diets. Soluble fiber is believed to help lower cholesterol and therefore reduce the risk of heart disease. It helps to regulate blood sugar levels, and may even reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. Insoluble fiber has a bulking action as it passes through the body, and can help to prevent constipation.

Ironically, the presence of so much soluble fiber in Flax seed means you need to drink a lot of water with it could actually cause constipation. This is especially true if you are not used to a high fiber diet. Also, the high fiber load of flax seed may interfere with the effectiveness of some oral medications, so make sure you do not take these things at the same time.

Lignans

Lignans are a type of phytoestrogen (chemicals found in plants that have similar properties to the female hormone estrogen). While they don’t necessarily have any benefits for men, they are not harmful in any way either, and have important benefits for women. The  lignans in flax seed are broken down in the intestines to produce substances which promote a normal hormonal balance. This can have benefits for middle aged women (35 to 55) experiencing peri-menopausal symptoms such as irregular menstrual cycles, headaches, sleep difficulties, fluid retention, anxiety, irritability and mood swings. Importantly, lignans may also offer protection against breast cancer.

As you see, there are plenty of benefits to eating flax seeds, aside from the fact that they’re low carb and delicious We’ll look at different ways to include flax seed in you diet in a further post.

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