Eating On Atkins
What is the Atkins Diet eating plan?
The Atkins eating plan is a lot of protein, so a lot of meat. In the very beginning, the first phase of the Atkins program, you're only to consume 20g of carbohydrate. The rest is animal foods. Meat, chicken, beef. Also, high fat foods are okay. Butter and cream is okay, as well.
What is considered 20 grams of carbohydrates?
A typical slice of bread is 15 grams of carbohydrates, so that's one piece of bread and a third of a piece of bread. It's not very much at all.
Can vegetarians follow the Atkins Diet?
There are vegetarians that can go on the Atkins diet but by virtue of being vegetarian and not eating meat, you are going to be consuming more carbohydrates, but there are, you do make concessions when you are a vegetarian if you go on the Atkins diet because you are eating a lot you know more of the soy products and lot of the substitute meat products that are made from plant sources.
What makes a food low-carb?
There actually is not an official definition for the term "low-carb." The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is looking at the term "low-carb" and should be coming up with an official definition. But currently, it's whatever the manufacturers decide to put on their label.
What are some examples of low-carbohydrate foods on the Atkins Diet?
Any kind of animal foods, with the exception of milk and milk products, do not contain carbohydrates. So any meat, chicken, poultry, or fish do not contain any carbohydrates, so those are non-carbohydrate foods. Also, some of the low-carb foods that are high in fat are butter, cream, and cheeses. They have a lot of fat in them and they also may have a lot of protein in them but they're low in carbohydrate. Milk is higher in carbohydrate than butter and dairy. Essentially, butter and cream are just taking the fat out of the milk.
What foods are restricted on the Atkins Diet?
Foods that are restricted are foods like fruits, particularly a lot of the tropical fruits, mangoes, papayas, and oranges. Essentially, all of the fruits are restricted and are only allowed in limited amounts. Strawberries, because they're supposedly low glycemic, are allowed in limited amounts. A lot of the starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes are restricted on the Atkins Diet. Carrots are restricted on the Atkins Diet, which we know are very helpful. A lot of very healthy foods are restricted or eliminated on the Atkins Diet. People don't quite understand what high protein and low carbohydrates means, because there's no official definition. Someone could be thinking that they're consuming a high protein, low carbohydrate diet and are actually not.
What are the phases of the Atkins Diet?
There is a two-week induction period on the Atkins Diet where you are allowed twenty grams of carbohydrates a day and that comes in the form of leafy green vegetables, and some restrictions on some other vegetables as well. After two weeks you can go up to five more carbohydrates per day and once you start to go into the maintenance phase, you can add five more carbohydrates every week after that.
What are the best food choices to make on the Atkins Diet?
If you're set on doing the Atkins Diet, and you're going to do it, choose lean proteins. These foods include white meat chicken, turkey, lean beef, more fish than anything else, and use unsaturated oils like olive oil. Go with the the healthier versions of the fattier foods and the high-protein foods.
What makes low-carb processed foods low-carb?
There's a lot of foods out there that are marketed as being low-carbohydrates, and you are actually seeing less of them now. A couple of years ago, we were seeing a lot of these energy bars that were low-carb. These were in fact cookies, candies and all kinds of things that were low-carb. However, those particular types of foods and snack foods are sweetened with sugar alcohols. These sugar alcohols are harder for your body to absorb, and they tend to cause gas, bloating, and possibly diarrhoea. So, those products had become less popular because of that reason.
What is a 'net carb'?
Well again, there's not really an official definition of net carb, but essentially the idea behind that is fibre is a carbohydrate, but fibre carries little to no calories. So if you subtract the fibre from the total grams of carbohydrate in that food, what you're left over with is the net grams. Also the sugar alcohols, they are also carbohydrates, but they're lower in calories than, you know, regular sugar, so that takes away from your net carbs as well. So subtracting out the sugar alcohol and subtracting out the fibre.
