The Cost of Low Carb

[NicoleC1971]

The surprising thing about this is how hungry you don't get. 2 rashers of bacon for breakfast, and that took me right through to lunch. 6 thin slices of sandwich chicken at lunch (without the sandwich) and that'll probably do me through until 6pm. I suspect I've spent years trying to fill a void with carbs, when what my body actually wanted was protein and fat.

I'll probably do a Food Warehouse shop tonight, and be buying very differently to how I've done in the past. I love their pakora chicken strips, but the coating is fairly carb heavy. I may still have them as a treat if and when I gradually start to reintroduce some carbs. I'd like to have lost a stone from my starting weight before I even go there, though.

The McDonalds tip is a brilliant one, while travelling. Nando's butterfly chicken is practically carb free if you're eating out, too. And thanks @bulkbiker for the scratchings tip. I'll be ordering some of those. I'll hold you responsible if I break any teeth, though

My work is only serving cold sandwiches at present so another tip is to asset strip a baguette. You do not have to eat the carb vehicle that the good stuff comes in!
Agree that pork scratchings are fabulous and with you that I never thought I'd find a way of eating that did not leave me hungry between feedings either!

 

[AloeSvea]

My food bill works out to be about the same as pre-LCHF/Keto (and diagnosis) days. More eggs. meat, dairy, the definitely more expensive flour (almond over the ol wheat flours), organic non-sweetened gherkins as opposed to the usual much cheaper kind - but without all the processed and carby foods, all the condiments, desserts etc etc.

When we do feel it is if we have house guests and for holiday feasts etc when we are buying for non LCHF folk/family staying as well. I did try getting people to bring their own (wheat, milk, sugar and products) with them, and more importantly from my pov - take them away with them when they go! But that didn't work, as wheat, milk, sugar products are sooooo the norm, and folks don't really understand a household that doesn't stock them as a matter of course. We wanted the guests, so we bought the products to be good enough hosts to make them happy. Our choice, but ohhhhh boy do we feel it in our bank balance when we do.

 

[Resurgam]

I don't buy any of those things - I get a 10 percent fat Greek yoghurt, olive oil, various vinegars, but if I want tomatoes, I use tomatoes, but don't eat organic or processed - other than the prepared salad, and I suppose that cheese is processed.
Sometimes the cost of doing a particular diet is down to choices other than the bare bones of the required foods.

 

[SlimLizzy]

My food bill has gone through the roof since starting on low carb. I am a naturally slim person and find I need to eat way more than before and am still inclined to lose weight.
My diet was carb heavy before:
Something like this.
Tea with milk and toast for breakfast. Or yoghurt and berries.
Coffee with milk and biscuit or cake
Lunchtime, sandwich. Cheese or ham with some salad content.
More tea or coffee with milk and possibly more cake in the afternoon.
Dinner. Often rice. Noodles or pasta, if not potatoes, vegetables and meat or fish.
Rice and noodle meals would have chopped veg and handful of prawn or chicken thrown in. Often a sugary/creamy dessert. Wine.
Tea with milk at bedtime.
Weight at diagnosis 58.1kg
On starting low carb I lost weight so rapidly and consistently that my doctors insisted on investigating for cancer. Despite me saying I needed a dietitian.
My current weight is 49.7kg well underweight for my height. BMI 17.
Although I have got used to and like my new figure, other people still remark on how skinny I am.
Now I drink coffee with cream at least three times a day.
Breakfast homemade nut granola and often eggs as well.
Lunch huge plate of salad with a protein AND FAT element. Sometimes LC bread or greek yoghurt and berries. Or a small piece of fruit. Tea with milk and often more tea with milk in the afternoon.
Dinner, meat, fish or chicken, plenty of veg. Use celariace to replace roast potatoes. Which is considerably more costly. Sometimes have cauliflower rice. Homemade. ( about 50p a portion v 55p a kilo for white rice probably 10-12 portions) Occasionally very small portion of oven chips.
Snacks are chunks of cheese, dark chocolate, or peanut butter.
Still drink wine.
Bedtime tea if I have it, is lemon and ginger.
Overall I eat more, and more expensively.
I try not to take my husband shopping, he is always shocked at the price of nuts and seeds. And at the quantity of cheese I buy.

 

[lucylocket61]

My food bill has gone through the roof since starting on low carb. I am a naturally slim person and find I need to eat way more than before and am still inclined to lose weight.
My diet was carb heavy before:
Something like this.
Tea with milk and toast for breakfast. Or yoghurt and berries.
Coffee with milk and biscuit or cake
Lunchtime, sandwich. Cheese or ham with some salad content.
More tea or coffee with milk and possibly more cake in the afternoon.
Dinner. Often rice. Noodles or pasta, if not potatoes, vegetables and meat or fish.
Rice and noodle meals would have chopped veg and handful of prawn or chicken thrown in. Often a sugary/creamy dessert. Wine.
Tea with milk at bedtime.
Weight at diagnosis 58.1kg
On starting low carb I lost weight so rapidly and consistently that my doctors insisted on investigating for cancer. Despite me saying I needed a dietitian.
My current weight is 49.7kg well underweight for my height. BMI 17.
Although I have got used to and like my new figure, other people still remark on how skinny I am.
Now I drink coffee with cream at least three times a day.
Breakfast homemade nut granola and often eggs as well.
Lunch huge plate of salad with a protein element. Sometimes LC bread or greek yoghurt and berries. Or a small piece of fruit. Tea with milk and often more tea with milk in the afternoon.
Dinner, meat, fish or chicken, plenty of veg. Use celariace to replace roast potatoes. Which is considerably more costly. Sometimes have cauliflower rice. Homemade. ( about 50p a portion v 55p a kilo for white rice probably 10-12 portions) Occasionally very small portion of oven chips.
Snacks are chunks of cheese, dark chocolate, or peanut butter.
Still drink wine.
Bedtime tea if I have it, is lemon and ginger.
Overall I eat more, and more expensively.
I try not to take my husband shopping, he is always shocked at the price of nuts and seeds.

Have you had your thyroid checked? Also, there seems to be little fat in your diet, which may be contributing to your weight difficulties. You do need fats.

 

[SlimLizzy]

Have you had your thyroid checked? Also, there seems to be little fat in your diet, which may be contributing to your weight difficulties. You do need fats.

@lucylocket61 Thank you for your concern.
Did have a thyroid check, that was one of the huge battery of tests the doctor ordered.
Nuts for breakfast every day, cream in coffee, full fat greek yoghurt, cheese, Coleslaw.Shoulder pork chops, chicken thighs, sardines, mayonnaise or oil with salad, peanut butter spooned straight from the jar, do make an effort to get sufficient fat.

 

[lucylocket61]

@lucylocket61 Thank you for your concern.
Did have a thyroid check, that was one of the huge battery of tests the doctor ordered.
Nuts for breakfast every day, cream in coffee, full fat greek yoghurt, cheese. Shoulder pork chops, chicken thighs, sardines, mayonnaise or oil with salad, peanut butter spooned straight from the jar, do make an effort to get sufficient fat.

thanks for the reassurance. Some of us (including me) have a few health concerns to juggle, and pick a path through them. I have more carbs than many, as lowering further affects my bowel issues. I take the slightly higher HbA1c as simply the price I have to pay for overall health. I still dont need meds. Maybe that is a possibility for you to keep a healthy weight? Its easy, when the focus is on one health concern, to miss balancing treatments up with other health concerns.

best wishes to you.

 

[SlimLizzy]

thanks for the reassurance. Some of us (including me) have a few health concerns to juggle, and pick a path through them. I have more carbs than many, as lowering further affects my bowel issues. I take the slightly higher HbA1c as simply the price I have to pay for overall health. I still dont need meds. Maybe that is a possibility for you to keep a healthy weight? Its easy, when the focus is on one health concern, to miss balancing treatments up with other health concerns.

best wishes to you.

I have been underweight for most of my life. Nothing to do with dieting. Just normal for me. I believe the gradual increase in my weight, after decades of stability, was probably the first sign of prediabetes.
My previous normal for me weight was 55kg. Over a decade it crept up to 58kg.
One of my son's has had similar issues with a doctor insisting he is underweight. Eventually Doc decided it too was " normal for him"

 

[EggsEggsEggs]

Frozen food usually seems to be the cheapest option, especially with meat and fish. It kind of makes sense, because there's less store waste of food that's gone past its use by date, which has to be factored into the cost of the food that actually sells.

Check out the frozen fish in Iceland / Food Warehouse. They often do 3 packs for £10. Lots of different things to choose from, and you get at least 4 decent sized fillets (or the entire fish, bar head, tail and guts, in the case of mackerel) in each bag. So it works out at less than £1 per serving if you just have the one piece, and still less than £2 if you have a couple.

Snacks and accompaniments seem to be a killer, though. 12 bags of low carb pork puffs for £10, when a 12 pack of Quavers would typically be £5 at most, and often on sale for £3. 200 grams of Konjac rice costs the same as a 2 kilo bag of Basmati.

I used to get a delivery from Iceland every month, because it was the cheapest place to buy frozen fish and seafood. Looking at the Iceland website now, the fishing waters info has disappeared and instead, it's all 'Produced and Packed in China'. Makes me think that the fish is probably farmed. After all, wild rocket in the supermarket is farmed and Atlantic salon is just breed of salmon. Stating 'from the waters of the Aegean' doesn't mean the sea bass isn't farmed.

 

[Robbity]

Most of what I eat on low carb is essentially what I've always eaten: in general I've just replaced all the high carb starchy sugary stuff with some some extra fats, so my basic shopping costs haven't really needed to be increased. What can add to the cost are optional extras like various low carb baking ingredients and erythritol/stevia, but keeping an eye on offers or bulk buying keep the overall cost down.

And I'd agree - less carbs and more fat actually results in less hunger and so less food.

 

[Chook]

I get home delivery from Asda and about nine years ago I found a printed receipt for the same week of the previous year so I compared it to the then current receipt and have done so every year since. It shows that over the last ten years my weekly Asda order had steadily risen up by £20 but that rise was mainly in the five years before I started low carb - after I started low carb it remained at more or less the same level year on year but the contents of the order are, of course, completely different. Then I became vegetarian last October (I still low carb) and my weekly order has gone down by about £15.

 

[EggsEggsEggs]

Organic seems very important to you. Is there a reason for that?

Several reasons. We went organic after buying plain pork chops from Tesco and finding out that they contained 11% added water, two additives and glucose syrup,o only when we took the wrapper off. There was nothing on the outside, about any of it. I had bad retinopathy, I did stricter low carb and ate only wild and organic. Six months later, it had almost gone. Consultant was amazed and showed me on his computer. Told me he had never seen it before. He told me to keep doing what I was doing as it was working for me. Also, I want to consume the least possible amount of pesticides and additives. There's very little research on potential harm over many years. I have completely eradicated added sugars and sweeteners from my diet now.

 

[HSSS]

Several reasons. We went organic after buying plain pork chops from Tesco and finding out that they contained 11% added water, two additives and glucose syrup,o only when we took the wrapper off. There was nothing on the outside, about any of it. I had bad retinopathy, I did stricter low carb and ate only wild and organic. Six months later, it had almost gone. Consultant was amazed and showed me on his computer. Told me he had never seen it before. He told me to keep doing what I was doing as it was working for me. Also, I want to consume the least possible amount of pesticides and additives. There's very little research on potential harm over many years. I have completely eradicated added sugars and sweeteners from my diet now.

Honestly my opinion is the low carb (ie lowering blood glucose levels) would be what reversed the retinopathy. It’s not uncommon on here and apparently can spontaneously reverse anyway according to the nurse I spoke to after my very mild positive test this year despite 18months of low carb, good levels and a previous negative test the year before.

I’m confused about your statements about ingredients for the pork only being identified after you took the wrapper off. Where were they listed if not on the wrapper? And are things such as glucose and water excluded from organic products? I didn’t think so. Additives would depend very much on what they were.

Can’t argue at all with wanting to reduce or eliminate pesticides and artificial additives though.

 

[EggsEggsEggs]

I’m confused about your statements about ingredients for the pork only being identified after you took the wrapper off. Where were they listed if not on the wrapper? And are things such as glucose and water excluded from organic products? I didn’t think so. Additives would depend very much on what they were.

Can’t argue at all with wanting to reduce or eliminate pesticides and artificial additives though.

The label was stuck into the shrink-wrapped plastic. The ingredients were printed on the back of this. It wasn't possible to see them at all from the front and there was nothing in or underneath the tray with ingredients on.

Don't know about glucose, but it would have to be labelled. Water isn't allowed in chicken or bacon, probably not others either. In any case, I buy my meat from organic farms mostly. Also, conventional food can contain secondhand GM eg animals can be fed on GM feed and organic animals can't be. There are stricter rules on antibiotic usage too. No glyphosate on crops to dry them out, either.

 

[HSSS]

The label was stuck into the shrink-wrapped plastic. The ingredients were printed on the back of this. It wasn't possible to see them at all from the front and there was nothing in or underneath the tray with ingredients on.

Don't know about glucose, but it would have to be labelled. Water isn't allowed in chicken or bacon, probably not others either. In any case, I buy my meat from organic farms mostly. Also, conventional food can contain secondhand GM eg animals can be fed on GM feed and organic animals can't be. There are stricter rules on antibiotic usage too. No glyphosate on crops to dry them out, either.

Whilst frustrating, is this a problem inherent with non organic foods or a labelling/production line issue that potentially could happen anywhere?

Whilst I’d love to eat organically in case it makes a difference I can’t afford to. Eating to control my more direct and immediate threat of diabetes, which definitely makes a difference, comes first for me. If you can manage both brilliant. We all have to decide our own personal priorities and then do the best we can.

 

[lucylocket61]

I wouldnt say your additional costs are due to low carbing, but due to choosing to eat organic foods and from organic farms. Low carbing, of itself, is not more expensive.

It is possible to successfully low carb eating much cheaper foods. I have done so for over 8 years now.

 

[Resurgam]

Water sugar and lots of other things are organic - and it is perfectly possible to find everyday items which are what they look like and unadulterated - but if something was not clearly labelled I'd be asking why, and probably putting it back on the shelf.

 

[aard]

For me low cost is definitly cheaper and I buy lots of organic.
If's cheaper because very rarely bug sweets, bread, pastries etc.

I always bought meatso no change there but I now est a lot more salad which works out cheaper than buying pies, sausage rolls etc.

Also my main drinks are now water, peppermint tea. So I save a fortune in not buying the quanties of milk, squash, fizzy drinks I did before.

I also used to spend about £10 - 15 p/wk on fresh fruit. Now just a pkt raspberries/blackberries per week.

My food shop is about 25 - 30 p/wk low carb. It was £100 p/wk before.

And I very rarely eat out to avoid temptation.

 

[ReggiePerrin]

One of the biggest influencers in the NHS believes that a low carb diet is outside of the reach of those on the lowest incomes.

 

[lucylocket61]

One of the biggest influencers in the NHS believes that a low carb diet is outside of the reach of those on the lowest incomes.

Why? What do they base that on?

For that matter, any healthy diet covering basic nutritional needs is very hard on a lowest income.

I wonder, do they define how much money per person to spend on food constitutes a lowest income in their view? Do you have a link to the assertion please?