When doing the Atkins Diet or other low carb diet, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and have the same old foods every day. And getting bored with your food choices is one of the quickest ways to fall off your diet! So it is helpful to get hold of some Atkins and low carb menu plans and a good low carb cookbook to ensure your diet is varied and enjoyable.
Atkins dieters and other low carbers often get fed up with packing a salad and cutlery for lunch at work or on a day out, and think wistfully back to the days of putting their ham and salad in a sandwich. Low carb breads are available on the Internet and in some shops, but even these may be too high in carbs for some people. However, low carb breads containing little more than a gram of net carbs per slice can be made from flax and other healthy ingredients. Low carb cookbooks which include bakery recipes (the minority) usually include recipes for flax bread.
If you are on the Atkins or other low carb diet, you may need to boost the fiber you get from your green vegetables and salads. There are various fiber supplements you can take in capsule form or mixed with water, but how much nicer to incorporate your added fiber into your cooking. For instance, fiber-rich flax seeds and soya bran can be used in making low carb bread, muffins, chocolate refrigerator cake and even fish cakes and ‘breaded’ fish or chicken.
When starting the Atkins or other low carb diet, many people find the most difficult thing is making the change to a whole new way of thinking in the kitchen. A low carb cookbook will help with this, but it’s important to choose one which focuses on everyday, quick and easy recipes and shows you how to make low carb versions of the foods you miss most, be they bread, cookies, pies, quiche, sauces, ice cream, risotto, lasagna or whatever. Many of the so-called low carb or Atkins cookbooks just provide recipes for meals comprising meat, fish, eggs or cheese coupled with salad or green vegetables, which you can find in any cookbook.
Breakfast on the Atkins Diet isn’t just about bacon and eggs! Try porridge made with dessert-type ricotta cheese, flax seeds, soya bran and unsweetened desiccated coconut. Just put a teaspoonful of each dry ingredient into your bowl and cover with hot water, leaving for a few moments. Then mix in the ricotta and warm in the microwave, adding artificial sweetener and a pinch of cinnamon to taste. Or try making low carb crunchy breakfast cereal or granola.
High in vitamins, minerals and ‘good’ fats, nuts are making something of a comeback in healthy eating and their low carbohydrate content means they are also perfect for dieters on Atkins and other low carb diets. But don’t just think of them as something to nibble raw — ground into nut flours, they’re also great for use in low carb bake mixes.
Dietary needs and preferences differ, so when considering which low carb or Atkins Diet cookbook to buy, why not think about getting an interactive one? For instance, you might want to be able to adjust the recipes to suit your likes and dislikes, and even recalculate the carb counts if you substitute ingredients or change serving sizes. Or you might want to add low carb recipes of your own. A good interactive cookbook will not only organize and index your own recipes along with the existing recipes, it will allow you to import recipes from elsewhere as well.
When choosing a low carb cookbook, be sure to check which ingredient measurement system it uses. The best cookbooks show ingredients in metric and imperial as well as cup measures, so that you do not have to spend time converting ounces into cups or cups into grams and so on.
Copyright LowCarbIsEasy.com and GoodDietGoodHealth.com 2007
Jackie Bushell is passionate about raising awareness of the role of diet and nutrition in good health and helping those who are affected by obesity. Via her website at GoodDietGoodHealth.com, she provides information, support, cookbooks, how-to guides and a newsletter for those wishing to understand more about how to improve their health and achieve a healthy weight in a natural way. Amongst the resources she has developed are a low carb/low GI diet cookbook and a book called ‘Why Can’t I Lose Weight’ for those who experience common problems such as not losing weight on their diet or becoming stuck on a ‘diet plateau’.
