Low carb/keto diet. {This thread is intended to share low-carb recipes, not for a debate over the benefits and detriments of such a diet.}

Cafe Society
1

I cut carbs about seven years ago. I lost 70 to 80 pounds (with walking and yard work for exercise), and have kept it off. I still want to lost another 10 to 15 pounds, but it’s hard.

Fortunately, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But sometimes I do like something sweet. I like Trader Joe’s 85% Dark Chocolate because it’s easy to get. The nutritional information says that there are three servings per bar (10 g total carbohydrates, 4 g fibre). That’s too much trouble, so I make four servings per bar (one row, four pieces). My other go-to chocolate is Lindt 95% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (8 g total carbs, 5 g fibre per serving). A ‘serving’ is ‘four pieces’. I eat two pieces. Trader Joe’s Pound Plus 72& Dark Chocolate has 10 g carbohydrates and 4 g fibre per two squares, so it’s similar to the other two; but that’s my wife’s chocolate, so I don’t eat it. (Not that she’d mind if I did.)

So like I said: I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but sometimes it’s good. Trader Joe’s has unsweetened organic coconut flakes that have 6 g carbohydrates and 4 g fibre per serving. A large pinch of coconut, plus a square (or half-square, depending on the brand) of dark chocolate makes a suitable Mounds bar analogue.

But that’s just a dessert. Tonight, dinner was a Hass avocado, a couple of thick slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, kosher salt, Italian seasoning, and prosciutto. A quick go-to is frozen chicken breast tenderloins and frozen broccoli cooked in the toaster oven.

2

Breakfast is typically a Jimmy Dean’s sausage patty and an over-easy egg on a slice of Sara Lee Delightful Multi-Grain bread with Omega-3 olive oil margarine. I got a chub of Jimmy Dean’s Hot Sausage, so that will be a treat. (I typically like Sage sausage, but Regular will do. Four Farmer John’s links are also frequent.)

When I cheat, I like steel-cut Irish oat porridge with a tablespoon or so of heavy cream, and salt. Sometimes I’ll have an over-easy egg on it. Rarely, I’ll have keto pancakes with sugar-free ‘maple’ syrup and bacon or sausage; but the pancakes taste almost, but not quite, unlike pancakes. The texture is completely wrong.

A quick, easy dinner is frozen chicken breast tenderloins and frozen broccoli cooked in the toaster oven.

3

Okay, so a family member of mine is a doctor and recently told me there’s new research indicating that the keto diet may increase risk of heart disease. It came up because he had once done the diet some years ago and even recommended I give it a try for a couple months. I am not a doctor and could not give you the details of the claim, but maybe someone with more knowledge can confirm or deny its veracity.

I’m guessing (Google) it’s the research referenced here:

~Max

4

If your approach to a keto diet is “I can eat five pounds of bacon and eggs every day,” you might go into ketosis and lose weight but you’ll still suffer the effects of consuming too much saturated fat, nitrates, cholesterol, etc. That’s what leads to higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

You’ll also bounce back hard when you start eating carbs again because you haven’t learned how to healthily engage with food.

If your approach to a low carb diet is to still limit your intake of unhealthy fat while also working to identify and replace nutritional deficiencies, you’ll be better off.

5

This. ^^^ My closest friend went on a strict Keto diet for a few years and lost a lot of weight. He also ended up with a serious heart attack. I’m not saying those two things are related, but his cardiologist recommended he immediately stop Keto and switch to something else, like a Mediterranean diet instead.

Last year I did a healthy Keto diet, plus intermittent fasting, plus some extreme exercise for 3.5 months and lost 40 pounds.It was too much weight loss too fast and it took me a while to get into maintenance mode. When my weight finally stabilized I switched to a whole food, plant-based, relatively low carb diet and have been able to keep the weight off for a year now. The key for me is balanced macros, increased fiber intake, and overall good nutrition and vitamin supplementation as needed.

6

I did keto in 2019 and lost 30 or 40 pounds. I had heard that keto can cause your cholesterol to spike, and it runs high in my family, so I tried to do more ‘clean keto’, eating a lot of stuff like avocados and nuts… but I was no stranger to eggs, cheese, and occasional smoked meats like brisket, pulled pork and bacon.

After 4 months of being on the keto diet, I had a complete heart workup, and came out with flying colors. Cholesterol levels fine. Not to dispute the report @Max_S linked-- I’m just one data point. I think anybody who does decide to do a keto diet, especially if they are older like many of us, should be closely monitored by a doctor.

Now, alas, I’ve gained the weight back in the intervening years. I’ve blamed the pandemic, but like the Jimmy Buffet song goes, it’s really my own damn fault. I’m considering going back on keto, and maybe trying a ‘super clean’ version with mostly nuts, avocados, salmon, tuna, etc…and just a very rare egg or ‘land meat’ as a treat. I also always eat plenty of vegetables, no matter what my overall diet is at the time.

One thing to watch out for-- I don’t know if the sweet items you mention are artificially sweetened or just low sugar, but a lot of stuff like low-carb chocolate is artificially sweetened with erythritol, which has been associated with higher incidents of blood clot formation. Like you, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but occasionally liked a little something sweet, and I’d sometimes get a Lily’s brand chocolate bar, or make brownies sweetened with erythritol. Even powdered low-carb sweeteners advertised as being made from stevia or monkfruit are bulked up with erythritol, so you really have to read the ingredient list. Now if I use a powdered low-carb sweetener I go with allulose, which is made from monkfruit. At least until a study comes out saying allulose is associated with growing extra limbs or something… :roll_eyes:

7

I have a biometric exam every year. All of the numbers are well within the normal range. My blood pressure is consistently normal to low-normal. (My periodontist sometimes takes my BP too.) And the annual checkups are right after the carb-heavy holidays. My PCP is fine with my diet.

It’s just low-sugar. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the lower the amount of sugar. I like nice, bitter, dark chocolate; strong, black coffee; and unsweetened iced tea. Probably the most sugar I get is when I have a big spoon of peanut butter.

8

I forgot to mention that I still have a sweet tooth, but I’ve cut out anything with added sugar in my diet with the exception of dark chocolate, which is “heart healthy”, I have one square of 90% cocoa every day. The chocolate I buy has10 squares per bar so it’s a very small amount of sugar, but I willing to make that sacrifice for the betterment of my health.

9

Keto is believed to have long term negative consequences relative to the Mediterranean diet, that sort of randomly jump in all of a sudden after a long time of doing it. Relative to being overweight, though, it might still be better - I’m not sure.

In general, the weight loss advice that I’m aware of says that the key to it is to lose a bit, back off, and focus on maintaining at the new weight until your body adapts to and accepts its new normal (which may be many months or years). If you can accomplish that, then you can go for it again, with the key being to adjust the rate of the drop based on comfort and cravings - being willing to raise your calories a bit as a conscious maneuver rather than going off and binging and cheating.

The two problems with most weight loss attempts is that people lose too much weight and their starvation instincts kick in and wreck it for them and/or they’re simply too addicted to low satiety food - foods that are naturally more addictive.

Personally, I’d recommend trying to cut out trans fats (e.g. deep fried foods) and reducing saturated fats, replacing that with some high fiber carbs like apples, raisins, grapes, dried apricots, etc. and maybe the occasional breakfast of chia or oatmeal to maintain a relatively similar caloric load.

In general, higher fiber diets are more satiating and people will often themselves losing weight just because they’re eating better foods.

But, just a suggestion. Not a big deal if you’ve got something that works and you can maintain.

10

Just to be clear…

This thread is intended to share low-carb recipes, not for a debate over the benefits and detriments of such a diet.

Let’s stick to that. Thank you.

11

Sorry, I was looking for a question in the OP and didn’t see it. :sweat_smile:

12

So… Recipes.

One great thing about low-carb is that it’s so easy. Like fish. Every time I eat fish I think, ‘I want to eat fish every day!’ I love it. If I’m cooking for two, I’ll usually make wild-caught salmon by patting them dry, sprinkling with a pinch of kosher salt, adding a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary, topping with lemon slices, and baking skin-side down on a pan that has been prepared with a sheet of foil and a smear of olive oil, in a 400ºF oven for 22 minutes or so. It comes out perfect every time. The side dish is usually steamed yellow squash, or asparagus. Sometimes I’ll use a white fish instead of salmon.

If I’m cooking for myself I’ll usually just use tilapia (or catfish, if we have any). Sometimes I do the salt/rosemary/dill, but I tend to lean toward home-made Cajun seasoning. The filets go into the toaster oven frozen, and come out perfect. Frozen broccoli florets with that.

A place down the beach has Pan-Roasted [read: seared] Rockfish with capers and garlic, served with asparagus. I hope we can go there tomorrow. I really need to try making it at home.

13

My keto diet go-to is a low carb shake. Recipe as follows:

  • unsweetened almond* milk (*soy, coconut, etc.)
  • add heavy whipping cream to taste
  • low-carb whey protein powder such as Walmart’s Premier Protein, Aldi’s Millville Whey Protein Blend, or Dymatize
  • prepared beforehand, one or two almond* milk ice cubes
  • small amount of salt– I use ¼ tsp per three-four cups
  • optional: extra cocoa powder and low-carb sweetener (Splenda, et al)
  • Toss all in blender and blend until almond milk cubes melted/dispersed.
14

One dilemma I had when eating keto was, carbs often serve as the ‘base’ or ‘matrix’ for a lot of meals. How do you substitute for that? Sandwiches are wrapped in bread. Stir-fries are served on rice. Pasta sauces are served on pasta. When I’d cook for my family I’d make a stir-fry, serve it on rice for the family and riced caulifower for me. I ate a LOT of riced cauliflower.

Breads are probably the easiest to sub out-- I found some great recipes for making keto bread with almond flour, and low-carb Ole brand wraps I still use to this day.

Pasta was the most difficult. Zucchini noodles, or ‘zoodles’, were insubstantial and a poor pasta substitute. Shirataki noodles were decent subs for ramen noodles, but not much else.

The best pasta sub I found, especially with white sauces, was Palmini noodles, made from hearts of palm. Expensive, but I love the flavor of hearts of palm (a bit like artichoke hearts) and it stands up to sauce well.

Here’s a couple go-to recipes using Palmini noodles from back in my keto days:

Quick white clam ‘pasta’:
Open 2 or 3 cans chopped clams. Drain and reserve liquid. Chop up broccoli and red bell pepper, and mince up a bunch of garlic. Saute in olive oil. Add a little almond flour to thicken. Add in liquid from clams. Salt and pepper to taste. I like a splash or two of fish sauce for umami, optional. Mix in Palmini noodles and clams until heated and thoroughly combined. Serve with lots of grated Parmesan on top.

Chicken Piccata:
I use home-made chicken bone broth I pre-make and freeze. You could probably use low or no-salt commercial bone broth, but I don’t know how well it would turn out.

Set broth simmering on stove to reduce to 1/4 of original volume or less. Take thin chicken breast cutlets and coat in almond flour mixed with seasonings (salt, garlic powder, thyme, etc.). Brown cutlets in a pan in olive oil or butter and remove (don’t need to be cooked through at this point). Add a lot of minced garlic, and I like to add thin-sliced red bell pepper for color and vitamins, optional. Add black pepper to taste and maybe some dried thyme. When garlic and red bell pepper is softened up, add some white wine to deglaze pan (or use broth since wine is not keto, but I just use a little wine).

When chicken broth is much reduced, add it in pan and mix with rest of ingredients. Add chicken back into sauce to finish cooking. Toward end, mix in capers and lemon juice.

Serve over Palmini noodles and add grated parmesan on top.

15

That TJ’s chocolate is great! It was my go-to sweet when I was low-carbing too.

My go-to cookbook at the time was by Dana Carpender. Here’s one of hers but if you click on her name you’ll find others. I’m sure there’s TONS of Dana Carpender books in used book stores. I’m crabby that my mom gave mine away.

16

There’s something new on the market: tortilla wraps that claim to count almost entirely as fiber, because they’re made of something called Resistant Starch:

I was deeply skeptical but I gave them a try and I think they may be as low-carb as they claim. One thing I’ve noticed is that when I eat carbs I binge on them in a “carboholic” way. But these I don’t; I can have one or two a day and not want six of them the next day.

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How is their taste and texture, compared to real flour tortilla wraps? The low-carb Ole brand wraps I mentioned are pretty acceptable in that regard.

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Not bad at all; again I was surprised.

19

I don’t eat any starches (bread, potatoes, rice, corn mill products, etc.) because my body immediately turns it into sugar. For things that require slices of bread, or a bun, or something to spread hummus on, I make zucchini fritters. Find a recipe online and replace the wheat flour with chickpea flour. I cook them in a mini waffle maker for my hamburger buns or I’ll squish them as thin as possible and cook them in avocado oil for something that can replace toasted bread.

20

I’ve tried the Mission and Guerrero net zero tortillas while wearing a CGM. I can get away with three (they’re tiny) without a significant glucose spike. That fourth one will take me from 100 to 140 mg/dL without fail. It’s a good product in small doses.