Low carbohydrate diets

People can get mixed up between Calories and Carbohydrates; they are not the same thing. Calories are the total energy in the food which includes fats, carbs etc. Carbohydrates do contribute to total calories but are just the bit of the food that eventually breaks down into glucose.

A low carbohydrate diet is defined as eating less than 130g of carbohydrates per day. Carbohydrate breaks down to glucose in the body, so it is the nutrient that has the biggest impact on your blood glucose levels. Lowering blood glucose levels is beneficial for people with diabetes.

What can I eat?

The first step is to familiarise yourself with what foods contain carbs, as some foods have none (e.g. meat and fish), some have a small number of carbs (e.g. most vegetables), and others have high amounts (e.g. bread, pasta, rice and potatoes).

A low-carb diet typically involves:

• Fruit & Vegetables: Provide our body with an important source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Go for vegetables that are grown above the ground as they contain fewer carbohydrates. Vegetables are extremely versatile on a low-carb diet and you can replace starchy foods such as pasta with butternut squash noodles or courgetti and white rice for cauliflower ‘rice’ and broccoli ‘couscous’.

• Meat & fish: Protein is an important nutrient for the growth and repair of tissues inside the body. Increasing your intake of protein whilst reducing your intake of carbohydrates can help you feel fuller for longer whilst reducing your overall calorie intake. It’s still advised to go for lean proteins such as chicken, turkey and fish and to limit your intake of processed and red meat.

• Nuts & seeds: Our body gets a lot of vitamins and minerals from nuts and seeds. They are also a healthy source of fat which is important for heart and brain health.

• Dairy & eggs: Dairy is an important source of calcium which is essential for bone health. Try to stick to lower-fat varieties, such as reduced-fat cheese or skimmed milk, and make sure you check food labels for sugar content as things like low-fat yoghurts can actually be high in sugar.

What foods should I avoid?

• Sugar: This includes simple sugars such as honey, table sugar and maple syrup but also any foods that contain added sugar such as sugary drinks, sweets, chocolates, ice cream, biscuits etc.

• Starchy vegetables: These are defined as those that grow under the ground or ‘root veg’ such as sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beetroot and potatoes as they contain high amounts of carbohydrates.

• Highly processed foods: Foods that have been highly processed such as sausage rolls, crisps, and sausages are generally high in saturated fat, sugar and salt and offer no nutritive value so it’s best to avoid them altogether.

• Bread, grains & pasta: All of these are high in carbs, regardless of whether they’re made from refined flour or whole grains. Most grain dishes, including rice, wheat and oats, are also high in carbs so you either need to limit how much you are eating or avoid it altogether.

Food labelling

Food labels tend to give you the values per 100g and per serving or weight of food, so make sure you are looking at the correct value for how much you are eating when working out the carbohydrate content.

You will see a value for the carbohydrate content, sometimes called total carbohydrate content; this is the value that you need to use when calculating your daily amounts. Underneath this figure is how much of the total carb content is sugar.

Tips for following a low-carb diet

You can download a guide for following a low-carb diet here.