You might be thinking about trying out a low-carb diet to lose weight, or perhaps you are sticking to it as a way to improve your health. Low-carb diets can help you improve conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, and even neurodegenerative diseases. When following a low-carb diet, it is important to make sure you are eating a well-rounded diet that can give you the most important nutrients your body needs to survive.
Usually, low-card diets require you to eat foods that are high in fats, get a moderate amount of protein and eat less or no carbs at all. These types of diets can influence your body to burn fat, instead of carbs. This can help you to lose weight.
Many people might think that eating a low-carb diet means just to eliminate bread and grains, but there are other important carbohydrates that you need to be aware of if you would like to be successful in sticking to a low-carb diet. Here are 5 of the top foods to avoid when dieting this way.
Grapes and Other Fruits
In just one cup of grapes, there are 26 grams of carbs. A banana has 27 grams of carbs. While fruit is healthy for your body, when you are following a low-carb diet, you need to be aware that certain kinds of fruits can have a lot of grams of carbs in them. Not only should you avoid some of these fresh fruits, but there are also some dried fruits that you should avoid as well. Other fruits to avoid are raisins, pears, mango and dates. If you do want to have fruit as a snack or with a meal, it is a good idea to stick to berries, which are lower in carbs and higher in fiber.
Vegetables that are Starchy
There is nothing like a delicious potato to go along with your dinner, but they are very high in carbs, along with other starchy vegetables. While they are high in fiber, which is good for any diet, and can help with controlling blood sugar, they are very high in carbs. You should definitely try to avoid starchy vegetables when on a ketogenic diet, which is one type of low-carb diet. Some other vegetables that are starchy to avoid are corn, beets and yams. Spinach, avocados, and peppers are some low-carb vegetables that you can enjoy without having too many carbs.
Juices
You should avoid juices while on a low-carb diet. As discussed before, many fruits are high in carbs, and that is what most juices are made out of. Since there are many carbs in juice, it can cause your blood sugar levels to go out of whack pretty quickly. Juice can actually be worse for you on a low-carb diet than soda. Drinking juice can actually cause you to be hungrier, which makes you eat more than you would without it. It is even best to avoid vegetable juices, as they can be high in carbs, too.
Low-Fat Foods
Everyone thinks low-fat foods and salad dressings are better for you than the regular. This is not true. If you are on a low-carb diet, you will probably find yourself eating a lot of salad and vegetables. While this is great, the dressing you choose can be the worst part, and can negate the other healthy foods you eat in your salad. Using oil and vinegar might be a great alternative to using low-fat salad dressings. It is also important to note that low-fat foods can often have ingredients that are not healthy as well.
Sugar and Honey
Sugar is one of the worst things you can eat on a low-carb diet. Many cookies, cakes, and other sweets will contain high levels of sugar. It is also important to keep in mind that sugars that are considered natural are also a no-no when it comes to low-carb diets. Honey, agave nectar, maple syrup and regular sugar are also high in carbs and hold hardly any nutrients that your body will benefit from. While there are some healthier sugars you can choose from if you feel the need to sweeten drinks and food, it is probably best to go without.
Sticking to a diet, for whatever reason, is easier when you know all the ins and outs. Commonly, people can be unsuccessful when following any diet because they might not know that some foods they think are okay to eat are actually reversing all the work being done. It can be helpful to think of your diet more as a lifestyle change than a diet unless you are only committing to it for a short period of time. Either way, when following a low-carb diet, be aware of the foods mentioned above that are higher in carbs than you might think.
Amanda Maurois
Proud mompreneur, graphic designer, enthusiastic traveller and blogger who loves to write about healthy lifestyle, entrepreneurship, time management and more. She’s also a founder of HowTonight lifestyle blog,