Low Carb Ingredients

[Wilber123]

Hello all, I’m a recent prediabetic.
Does anyone know if I can buy low carb ingredients in a Supermarket. Or a health store.
I’m thinking about cost as I’m a pensioner and not rich.
Many thanks.

 

[AdamJames]

Hello all, I’m a recent prediabetic.
Does anyone know if I can buy low carb ingredients in a Supermarket. Or a health store.
I’m thinking about cost as I’m a pensioner and not rich.
Many thanks.

The context for these comes mainly from my shopping at places like Aldi:

Low carb & quite cheap: Eggs, simple cheese like cheddar.

Low carb & not too expensive: Bacon, double cream, ground almonds (to make e.g. baked goods with an alternative to wheat flour). Various bags of nuts - useful ingredients for various things.

Veg that is fairly low carb and affordable: Sprouts, broccoli, big bags of baby spinach.

 

[Rachox]

I suppose it depends which ingredients in particular. Unfortunately as low carbing isn’t mainstream, specifically made low carb foods are more expensive in my experience. However, there are a lot of low carb foods that are ‘mainstream’, salad stuffs, above ground veggies, eggs, meat (cheaper cuts being more fatty are perfect for low carb/high fat way of eating) and cheese, just a few examples to get you going.

 

[AdamJames]

Hello all, I’m a recent prediabetic.
Does anyone know if I can buy low carb ingredients in a Supermarket. Or a health store.
I’m thinking about cost as I’m a pensioner and not rich.
Many thanks.

I was thinking mainly ingredients as requested, but also if you want finished / flavoured products, then Aldi do the lowest carb honey roast peanuts I've seen. Big bags, very cheap, packed full of energy which I guess is a good thing if you want to stock your cupboards full of sustenance at a low cost. I find I need to be careful with them however as I'm trying to lose weight.

 

[AdamJames]

Hello all, I’m a recent prediabetic.
Does anyone know if I can buy low carb ingredients in a Supermarket. Or a health store.
I’m thinking about cost as I’m a pensioner and not rich.
Many thanks.

@Rachox's comment about fatty meat reminded me, both Aldi and Lidl are doing packets of strips of belly pork for £1.99 at the moment. 500g packets, there's a lot of meat in there. Very low carb, high energy. I find that a couple of slices of belly pork (less than half a pack) and a lot of broccoli makes a great, filling meal.

 

[Scimama]

As well as eggs, cheese, cream, leafy greens etc many supermarkets have a good selection of low carb foods in the freezer section. Frozen cauliflower rice, avocados, asparagus, kale, cauliflower (to make cauli mash) broccoli , meat great for slow cooking and generally good value too

Omelettes are low carb, filling and cheap.

 

[Wilber123]

Wow!! Fantastic. Things I had not thought of. Thank you to you all for your help. It’s a shock to my system as I’m not s great cook either. Appears I have s big learning curve to follow. Thank-you all once more.

 

[Hotpepper20000]

Wow!! Fantastic. Things I had not thought of. Thank you to you all for your help. It’s a shock to my system as I’m not s great cook either. Appears I have s big learning curve to follow. Thank-you all once more.

If your supermarket has premade whole chickens that is always a good option and doesn’t require cooking.
You can add any vegetables you like with it. Or a salad.

 

[AdamJames]

Wow!! Fantastic. Things I had not thought of. Thank you to you all for your help. It’s a shock to my system as I’m not s great cook either. Appears I have s big learning curve to follow. Thank-you all once more.

Chorizo is another good one. Not too expensive, especially from likes of Aldi/Lidl. It seems like quite a big outlay for a small piece of meat initially, but it's such a strong flavour that it lasts a long time as you only need to use a little bit at a time, and goes with all sorts when chopped up into small pieces, e.g. put some in an omelette. Also, while it says to use within 2 days of opening, it's been cured, and I've kept using it for a couple of weeks, stored in the fridge after opening. It didn't turn green and neither did I.

 

[Mr_Pot]

I was thinking mainly ingredients as requested, but also if you want finished / flavoured products, then Aldi do the lowest carb honey roast peanuts I've seen. Big bags, very cheap, packed full of energy which I guess is a good thing if you want to stock your cupboards full of sustenance at a low cost. I find I need to be careful with them however as I'm trying to lose weight.

Honey roast peanuts don't sound very low carb.

 

[AdamJames]

Honey roast peanuts don't sound very low carb.

No they don't, that's why I think the Aldi ones are notable. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think it's something like 7g per 100g as opposed to the normal 15-ish grams per 100. If you stick to the measured serving size (I always used scales) then I think it's about 3g carbs.

 

[paulloseby]

I too am a pensioner and recently diagnosed as type 2 diabetic. I had been pre-diabetic for some months and then a blood test showed that I had 'progressed' past the pre stage. I then realised that each morning (including before having blood tests at the surgery), I was having a big glass of Tropicana orange with extra juicy bits. Once educated about the carbs in the juice, I cut down to just 100ml each morning and since then, my blood tests have been normal - not even prediabetic.

 

[Wilber123]

I don’t buy juices I know how high in sugar the are, but I did wonder if (no added sugar) squash is ok. Does anyone know.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi @Wilber123 and welcome

Some of us do end up avoiding the sweeteners in stuff like ‘no added sugar’ products, but it isnkt obligatory, and it is early days for you. So if you like them, then go for it.

One thing to note about ‘no added sugar’ products is that sometimes they have a lot of sugar. It just hasn’t been added.

Hope that helps.

 

[Wilber123]

Thank you.
Iv bough flavoured water. But don’t know if that is ok.
I love coffee with cream but too much gives me Headaches.
My aim is to keep to 50g Carbs or day.
I’ll check out the squash.
Many thanks.

 

[Mongolia]

I don’t buy juices I know how high in sugar the are, but I did wonder if (no added sugar) squash is ok. Does anyone know.

I use the Robinson's lemon squash with no added sugar as on reading the nutrition label it has <0.5g carbs / 100g so was the lowest I could find. I spend a lot of time reading labels!

 

[PenguinMum]

The only frozen veg I buy is peas but does anybody use frozen cauliflower to mash and how successful is it. Do you have to dry it out well before mashing? I have this preconceived idea that it will be more watery than fresh but would love to be wrong as it would be so convenient for last minute meal plans.

 

[Wilber123]

Hello Penguin Mum.
Iv new at all this. But I boiled a cauliflower and drained it patted it dry with kitchen towel before blitzing it in a food processor.
I ate it all with. Day. Nd s half but supermarkets do it in bags frozen.
It’s a bit of a performance. Easier to buy.
Good luck.