Since I use several low carb products, I wanted to talk a little bit about them. First, I am not receiving any compensation from the makers of these products and they probably don’t know I have a blog or mention them, so I’m not trying to plug any particular product — just letting you know what I use and why.
As I’ve mentioned, my body isn’t a very efficient fat burner so the amount of net carbs I can eat daily and lose weight or maintain my weight is very low. The minimum recommended on the Atkins diet for their induction phase is 20 net carbs a day. That is just about the maximum I can go and still lose anything. If I go up to about 23 net carbs, I am a maintenance weight. If I go over that, then I begin to gain. While this might sound like a problem, it really isn’t as bad as it sounds as there is always something you can eat with no carbs.
Liquid Sweeteners
But it does make me very aware of the net carbs in some products, like powdered Splenda, Equal and Stevia that may only have a little, but the carbs are in the filler that the actual sweetener is in. By using a liquid sweetener, I can eliminate the carbs completely. It may sound like worrying over nothing, but if I use four packets of sweetener a day, that’s almost 4 net carbs I can use elsewhere. For instance, it can be a whole low carb dessert!
If you are baking with a powdered sweetener, one cup is about 24 carbs and that’s a lot extra in your food. There are times where the powdered sweetener is needed for a texture, but you can cut some of it and use liquid for the remainder.
There are several manufactures who make liquid sucralose. Just check it out on a search and you’ll see various brands. Liquid sucralose is just the concentrated sucralose in a water suspension rather than the powder. I use EZ-Sweet, which is readily available from Amazon.com, Netrition and other suppliers. You might even find it in grocery and health food stores.
Flours
Since I love breads, flour is a big problem if your body doesn’t use carbohydrates well. I am not even going to question how products such as CarbQuick, Atkins (no longer being produced) and Bob’s Red Mill flours reduce the carbs in the flour they produce. Some are a mix of various flours that may not include any wheat flour while some have managed to block some of the carbs in the product so that it isn’t absorbed by the body. I’ve said before that many of the new products coming out have been developed to help diabetics more than folks trying to maintain a low carb lifestyle, but it’s benefited all of us.
Being special products, these flours tend to be at least double the regular flours. If you buy a loaf of pre-made low carb bread, they run about $8 a loaf. You can bake them for less than that. All of flours I mentioned are available from Amazon and Netrition. Other brands are also available. I’ve used several of them. I generally go with CarbQuick because it’s versatile and the lowest net carb count of the ones I’ve seen. But there are time you want a finer flour and Atkins or LC Foods both produce a finer textured flour for baking breads and cakes.
Don’t overlook almond, coconut, and other nut flours when baking. They are lower in carbs and work very well in baking. They are also gluten free for those who can’t eat regular flour. My Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe can be made using just almond flour or a combination of almond flour and coconut flour without using any of the wheat flour products that contain gluten. Soy flour is another option, but I personally don’t like the taste of it, so I use it in very little quantity.
As I go along with this blog and use these products, I’m going to try to feature them a little more under the Yummy LC Products header. Some of the products I use are mixes for breads and cakes, while others are ingredient items. Either way, I’ll put items there that I use and I’d like to introduce to you that I think will help you to enjoy a low carb lifestyle if that’s your goal.
First published on my blog 10/08/2012.