In addition to doing more cooking, we've changed how we shop for groceries since going low-carb. We eat more fresh produce, mostly from the farmer's market (Offenbach has the nicest farmer's market in the Hesse region). In the supermarket, we've learned a lot from reading the "fine print" on products. We always keep a supply of nut flours and gluten in the pantry, even though we once had no idea these products existed. If you're just starting a low-carb lifestyle, it can be difficult to find these ingredients, but the internet can help overcome this obstacle. That's what we'll discuss in this section.
The Carb Contents of Popular Foods
Published on: May 15 2014, 09:44
There are many lists circulating on the internet that detail calorie content, fats, carbohydrates, the glycemic index, and much more. We found Kohlenhydrat.org and the Fitness Forge especially helpful. Unfortunately, we discovered that many of the tables include significant errors. The mistakes keep repeating in tables from over 20 different sources, so it's likely that people just copied and pasted from one another. So don't be fooled just because you get the same number from different sources.…
At the Supermarket
Published on: Jan 20 2013, 21:14
For obvious reasons, low-carb fans will want to avoid the candy aisle and the bakery when they go to the grocery store. Almost everything there is 70-80% carbohydrates, most of it sugar. Even the special products for diabetics are no exception. Many doctors advise against them, and anyway, I for one don't think they taste very good. When you adopt a low-carb lifestyle, it's time to familiarize yourself with the fine print on food packaging. All the ingredients are there, along with a table listing…
Apple Cider
Published on: Jan 20 2013, 20:46
Those of us who live in the Hesse region of Germany can count ourselves lucky: our traditional drink, hard apple cider, has almost no carbs - about 0.4% at most! It's usually drunk as a spritzer (i.e. mixed with sparkling water), which lowers this percentage even further. Cider is an ideal low-carb beverage!
Alcohol
Published on: Jan 06 2013, 22:50
Alcohol isn't a problem for low-carb diets in and of itself, since it doesn't raise the body's insulin level. Restrictions on alcohol aren't necessary for a low-carb lifestyle. (We won't lecture you about the real health risks of frequent or heavy drinking. We're not moralists. Anyway, you know about those already.) The problem with alcoholic beverages is that many of them also contain sugar and carbs. Beer generally has between 40 and 60 g of unfermented carbohydrates per liter, typically more…
Juice Drinkers Beware
Published on: Jan 06 2013, 22:00
The problem with beverages is actually not that they're full of carbs (even Coke is no more than 12% sugar) but that people consume relatively large amounts of them. If you drink half a liter of Coke, that's 60 g of carbs. On the other hand, half a bar of ordinary milk chocolate only contains 25 g (1 oz) - that's less than half. As you can see, beverages are tricky. There aren't a whole lot of choices for tasty low-carb drinks. Coffee and tea aren't a problem as long as you don't add sugar…
Nut Flours
Published on: Dec 28 2012, 01:51
In addition to gluten, we make most of our baked goods with deoiled nut flours. They give the bread volume and are also very nutritious. If you were to use just ground nuts, the result would be too greasy (nuts generally have a high fat content, up to 50%). The nut flours we use are a byproduct of nut oil production. When nuts are pressed to extract oil, they leave behind a "cake" made of protein, a little fat, very few carbs, and lots of fiber. When this "cake" is ground up, it becomes deoiled nut…
Gluten
Published on: Dec 28 2012, 01:18
Lots of people get worried when they hear the word "gluten" . Isn't that stuff bad for you? And isn't gluten-free a lot healthier? Gluten often gets confused with glutamate, which has been blamed for the infamous "Chinese restaurant syndrome". But that's all nonsense! Gluten is a naturally-occurring substance that is consumed by 90% of Germans on a daily basis. It is found in all types of grains. There's only one reason to avoid gluten: if you're allergic to it. A gluten allergy is a serious…
Sweeteners
Published on: Dec 27 2012, 02:19
If you're a low-carb fan with a sweet tooth, artificial sweeteners are unavoidable. There's been a lot of discussion about whether artificial sweeteners are unhealthy, and different people have different opinions. Some claim that sweeteners cause cancer or have a negative effect on blood sugar, and therefore on insulin levels. Furthermore, there's a common assumption that sweeteners are fattening, although this could be because people assume they're not fattening and therefore eat too much of them.…
Suppliers of Low-Carb Ingredients
Published on: Dec 23 2012, 20:36
It's rare to find nut flours in even the best-stocked supermarkets. The same is true of gluten. A good health food store may be able to order them. Health food stores are also a good place to find soy flour or guar gum. The problem is, you might experience "sticker shock" when you see how much they cost. That's why we turned to the internet to find the ingredients we need at an acceptable price. You'll find a nice assortment of nut flours and gluten at buffbody.de. The prices there are fairly…