Low Carbs, Healthy Fats.

A bunless burger at a local cafe.
They are many reasons why someone might decide to adopt a low carbohydrate, healthy fat diet.
It has significant benefits for people who have the history of insulin resistance, such as people living with diabetes or polycystic ovarian syndrome, and there’s also good evidence that it can be great option for people living with hypertension and/or obesity.
The degree to which a person needs to reduce the carbohydrate content of their diet depends upon their degree of insulin resistance. Someone with type two diabetes may need to reduce their carbohydrate intake to less than 35 g per day, whereas someone who has a milder form of insulin resistance may only need to reduce the carbohydrate intake to 100 g per day.
Remember a standard Australian diet would have about 300 g of carbohydrates per day; a low-carbohydrate diet, which excludes for example, processed foods, grain foods, sweet fruits and potato contains approximately 50 g of carbohydrates per day.
Sometimes it is easiest to take a stepwise approach, for example swapping cereal/oats or toast at breakfast time for eggs and vegetables or leftover casserole.
Sometimes it is better to jump in with both feet, and go thorough the pantry and toss out all of the packet and highly processed convenience foods, and make room in the fridge for the fresh produce that forms the bulk of the LCHF diet.
Don’t overdo the meat/protein. Each meal could contain a portion of red meat the size of the palm of your hand, and chicken and fish the size of the palm and fingers. The portion of healthy fat about the size of your finger and vegetables is what you could hold in both cupped hands.
Don’t eat if you are not hungry. Snacks are not essential. Beware the sugar content of drinks, even ones marketed as being “healthy” such as fruit juice. Have a plan for what you will eat if you are tired/angry/rushed, such as nuts, cheese, boiled egg, frozen leftovers, tinned fish, dark (70-90%) chocolate.
There are plenty of websites with LCHF food ideas; googling “LCHF chicken soup” brought me 1,980,000 results just now…….it may mean learning a few new recipes, or perhaps leaving the carbs out of the old recipes.
Here are some websites with more information:
Low Carb Down Under (Australia) lowcarbdownunder.com.au
What The Fat? Book and website (over the ditch in NZ) whatthefatbook.com
The Real Meal Revolution Book and Website (the original, South Africa) realmealrevolution.com
Diet Doctor (USA) www.dietdoctor.com
Public Health Collaboration UK (United Kingdom) phcuk.org