Salma Mehar, Consultant Dietician gives an in depth description of what a low carbohydrate diet it, how to estimate the amount of carbohydrate in foods. Salma also gives overall advice on how to balance your diet if you are going down a low carb route.
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A low carbohydrate diet is one which contains less than 130 grams of carbohydrate per day. That basically means that you're reducing your carbohydrate intake from breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as snacks. The way to do this is by measuring your carbohydrate intake so knowing exactly how much you're going to eat. Once you've calculated the amount of carbohydrate you're eating it'll become very easy for you to then know how much carbohydrate is in certain foods. You can use certain resources like apps and books to know how much carbohydrate in foods. One of the most commonly used apps and books is the carbs and cals app which will really help you understand how to reduce your carbohydrate intake or just by using fist size measures so So sort of a hand-sized measure for rice, potato, pasta, using spoon measures such as one serving spoon of rice, potato, pasta, or even using smaller bowls and plates to help you reduce the amount of carbohydrate. And where you do reduce the amount of carbohydrate, that is going to assist with weight loss and also improving your diabetes management. In low-carbohydrate diets, we encourage you to eat more good fats. So those are things like more monounsaturated fats from olives, avocados, oily fish, nuts, and seeds. And we also encourage more green leafy vegetables. So things like more salads, kale, spinach, and foods like more of the green color, as well as increasing more protein. Now protein could be in the form of chicken or fish or eggs, but if you're vegetarian and vegan, then using more beans, lentils, pulses, tofu, and even things like more eggs would be a part of your low carbohydrate diet.
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