A low-carb diet is a diet that is low in carbohydrates and targets more on protein, fat, and healthy vegetables.
Why Follow Low-Carb Diet?
Studies show that a low-carb diet can help you lose weight and improve your health. For decades, this diet has been recommended by doctors and all you need to do is to eat the right kinds of food.
The choice of food that you can eat will depend on a lot of factors. This includes the lifestyle that you have, your goal weight, and how much exercise you do.
What to Avoid?
Foods that you should avoid are those that are rich in carbohydrates: sugar, wheat, seed oils, trans fat, highly processed foods, and low-fat products.
Sugar that is found in soft drinks, fruit juices, candies, ice cream, and many others is the top of the line that you should avoid. Next to this are refined grains that include rice, wheat, barley, rye, bread, pasta, and cereal. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils are also referred to as trans fats. These are mostly found in the ingredients at the label of food packages.
Going back to the basics, you also need to avoid eating processed foods. And last but not the least, avoid eating starchy vegetables. But if you could not totally avoid them, try as much as possible to limit your intake of them.
What to Eat?
Eat foods that are rich in protein, healthy fats and vegetables. You can eat meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruits, vegetables, seeds, high-fat dairy, healthy oils, and some tubers and grains.
Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and other grass-fed meat is allowed to be eaten. You can also eat many different kinds of fish, but the best ones are those wild-caught such as salmon, haddock, trout, and others.
Eat your eggs whole. If possible, choose the omega-3-enriched or pastured. Choose to eat vegetables that have low carbohydrates content. They are spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and many other leafy vegetables.
Fruits like apple, pears, oranges, strawberries, blueberries are classified under low-carb fruits. For snacks, you may also enjoy nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and others.
To add flavor to the food that you eat, you may add high-fat dairies such as butter, cheese, yogurt, and heavy cream. Fats and oils that you may use for cooking are butter, lard, fish oil, coconut oil, and olive oil.
For those that are trying to lose weight, limit your cheese, fruits, and nuts because it is easy to overeat them.
What to Drink?
The best drink for health or trying to lose weight is water. But if ever you get bored with the plain water, you may also drink tea, sugar-free carbonated beverages, and black coffee.
