What is Low Carb Diet and what nuts are allowed on it?

Are you looking for a diet that can help you lose weight more healthily? You may wonder what foods you should eliminate to reach this goal sooner. If you want to lose weight and still be healthy and energetic, you need to find a suitable diet for you and your lifestyle.

What is a low-carb diet?

As its name indicates, a low-carb diet restricts carbohydrates, such as bread, sugary foods, and pasta. Instead, this diet focuses on foods rich in protein and healthy fats, such as nuts and fish.

Three main food types are needed for the body to work correctly. They are carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Your body needs carbs to have more energy because carbs are broken down and make energy. But if the person doesn’t use this energy, it will be converted into fat, which then causes weight gain or sometimes obesity.

So, following a low-carb diet can help you lose weight or maintain your weight balance, especially if you are not that much active to burn fats or use carbs.

Researches show that if you cut down on consuming carbohydrates, your body burns more fats, promoting fat loss and leading to weight loss. Are you ready to start this diet? First, let’s see what you can eat on a low-carb diet.

What to eat on the low-carb diet?

Before you start to add these foods to your diet, you need to know each diet plan is suitable for a person based on their health conditions. Sometimes you may have a situation that you require to eat some foods.

Hence, make sure that avoiding or adding any foods to your diet is not critical to your health.

To follow a low-carb diet, you need to add the following foods to your meals:

• Lean meats, such as chicken breast, pork, or sirloin. They are rich in protein and fat.
• Fish and seafood. You can find protein, vitamins and omega-3 in seafood.
• Green leafy vegetables and cauliflower and broccoli.
• Nut and seeds or nut butters. Nuts are riches in protein, vitamin E, and many other healthy essentials for the body. Nuts are very low on carbohydrates and sugar. They mostly consist of healthy fats too.
• Low-carb fruits, such as apples, strawberries, and blueberries.
• Unsweetened dairy products, such as plain Greek yogurt and plain whole milk.

Which nuts are good for the low-carb diet?

Nuts are healthy snacks that are recommended on most diets and recipes. They are mostly low on carbs. To make sure which nuts are suitable for the low-carb diet, here we listed the seven low-carb nuts:

1. Brazil Nut: As a great source of protein and fiber, a handful of this nut contains only 4 grams of carbs, which is suitable for this diet.
2. Macadamia Nut: With a high amount of healthy fats, a handful of macadamia nut has 5 grams of carbs.
3. Pecan: Rich in magnesium and over 19 vitamins, this nut is also loaded with 4 grams of carbs.
4. Hazelnut: Ranked as one of the nuts with the highest level of vitamin E, every 1 OZ (one handful) of this nut contains 7 grams of carbs.
5. Walnut: With the highest numbers of omega-3, the amount of carbs in a handful of walnuts is 7 grams.
6. Peanut: As a convenient source of protein, every handful of this nut contains 8 grams of carbs.    
7. Almond: Being rich in vitamin A, a handful of this nut contains 9 grams of carbs.

Pistachio and cashew nuts have the most carbs among all the nuts. Although they are not considered unhealthy, if you want to follow a low-carb diet, it’s better to avoid these two nuts, too.

For example, just two handfuls of cashews contain 20 grams of carbs, which is not bad if you follow a regular diet, but the daily allowance of carbs on a strict low-carb diet is 20 grams.

Therefore, these nuts can make you consume more carbs a day. However, you should also know how many nuts you can eat on a day. Since nuts are delicious, it’s so easy to overeat them.

What to avoid on the low-carb diet?

As its name indicates, on this diet, you need to cut down on consuming carbohydrates, such as:

• Wheat, such as bread
• Juice and soda or any drinks containing sugar
• Potato or any other starches high in carbs
• Pasta
• Chocolate bar, cakes, candies, donuts or any other desserts high in sugar 
• Rice (cooked)
• Beer
• Highly processed foods
• Fruits (except blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries in small amount)

What are the benefits of low-carb diet?

• Weight loss
• Lower blood sugar
• Improved mental clarity
• Shrinking fat stores
• Lower blood pressure
• Better skin
• Fewer migraine

Is low-carb diet good for the diabetics?

Most people can follow a moderately low-carb diet. However, people with diabetes should not follow a strict low-carb diet. People with type 1 diabetes may encounter blood sugar improvement.

Since people with diabetes take different medications to decrease their blood sugar, avoiding carbohydrates will reduce medicine.

Therefore, it’s always recommended to follow any diet with the assistance of a physician or your health professional with expertise in diabetes. 

Is low-carb diet good for pregnant women?

Although a low-carb diet has many benefits, especially on weight, it’s still not recommended to pregnant women or moms breastfeeding.

Nutritionists commonly recommend cutting down carbs to 50 grams per day for women who are breastfeeding. However, it’s always better to choose a diet that is based on your health conditions. So, it might be a good idea to check the best diet that fits your body with a nutritionist.

Bottom Line

The low-carb diet is one of the simplest regimes you can follow for weight loss. You need to cut down on carbohydrates. However, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat any carbs anymore; you need to be aware of the number of carbs you consume daily.

As a result of this diet, you will become skinnier, healthier, and more in shape. But you should know that to stay in shape; you need to do exercises too.

So, if you want to have a healthier life, follow an active lifestyle and a healthy diet. You can check the paleo diet, vegan diet, vegetarian diet, keto diet, and Mediterranean diet.