Food Recommendations
While none of these items are necessary to follow a low carb or keto diet, they can make your life easier by providing you with healthy low carb alternatives to the stuff you used to eat.
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Erythritol
- Tastes (almost) like sugar
- Can replace sugar in most recipes
- No impact on blood sugar or insulin levels
- Very safe
- Good for your teeth + other potential health benefits
- Has a slight “cooling” effect in your mouth
- Only 70% as sweet as sugar
Erythritol is our sweetener of choice.
We use it for almost all of our sweet keto desserts and we can recommend it wholeheartedly.
It tastes (almost) like sugar and can usually be used in the same way – without all of the negative health consequences.
Powdered Erythritol
- Same benefits as granulated erythritol
- Unlike granulated erythritol, also suitable for sweetening cold drinks
- Same drawbacks as granulated erythritol
Powdered erythritol has the same benefits as granulated erythritol, but is better suited for some recipes.
For example, unlike granulated erythritol, it’s also great to sweeten cold drinks like our keto milkshakes.
Brown Erythritol
- Same benefits as granulated erythritol
- Has a pleasant malty taste that goes well with caramel, nuts, cinnamon and much more
- Same drawbacks as granulated erythritol
It tastes exceptionally good in combination with things like cinnamon (see our Keto Cinnamon Roll Fat Bombs) or nuts (see our Keto Butter Pecan Ice Cream).
You can also sweeten your coffee or other hot drinks with brown erythritol.
Defatted Almond Flour
- Fat-Reduced, which makes it much lower in calories and higher in protein than other brands
- Much better for low carb baking than full-fat brands
- Very fine texture (almost like wheat flour)
- Subtle taste, that goes well with a ton of recipes
- More expensive in comparison to most other brands and other popular low carb flours like coconut flour
Defatted/Fat-Reduced almond flour will give you the most consistent results and is the closest thing to a really good wheat flour replacement we’ve found.
Unfortunately, not a lot of brands offer defatted almond flour – Sukrin USA is the only commonly available brand in the US we’ve found that does.
All other brands we’ve encountered are basically selling finely ground almonds, which is also fine for a lot of recipes but your results might vary quite a bit from ours and you’ll also be left with considerably more calories.
Granted, the price tag is higher than most other brands, but in our opinion, you’ll also get a much superior product.
Coconut Flour
- Usually very cheap compared to other low carb flours
- Subtle and pleasant coconut taste
- Coconut taste can be a drawback as well, as it doesn’t go with all recipes
- Cannot be used as a 1:1 replacement for wheat flour and usually has to be mixed with other low carb flours
- Using too much coconut flour can quickly cause your recipes to become too dry
It often makes recipes too dry when used alone, which is why you’ll mostly find it mixed with something like almond flour in our recipes.
In combination with almond flour, for example, it forms the base of all of our popular mug cake recipes – making sure that our mug cakes are as fluffy and moist as they can be.
Coconut Oil
- Very stable fat, which makes it perfect for frying (even at high temperatures)
- Can be used in a variety of ways besides cooking, for example, as a gentle way to remove make-up
- Slight but noticable coconut taste, that doesn’t go with all recipes
We also like to use it as an ingredient in some of our sweet keto recipes, like our Keto Coconut Bars and also for skincare, for example as a gentle make-up remover.
Coconut oil also contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), that are linked to several potential health benefits.
Ghee
- Very stable cooking fat, even at high temperatures
- Contains vitamin A and vitamin K2
- Also suitable for lactose intolerant people
This makes it superior to butter when frying at high temperatures, as the milk solids in butter begin to burn quite easily, which is neither delicious nor healthy.
Ghee, in contrast, is stable even at very high temperatures, partly due to it being free of any components that burn easily and partly due to its high content of saturated fats, that are more stable and don’t oxidize as easily as unsaturated fats.
Shirataki Noodles
- Virtually carb-free with less than 1g net carbs per 100g (3.5oz)
- Neutral taste
- Can be used in the same way as “normal” noodles
- Most brands do have a slightly “fishy” smell may be present when opening the packaging, which disappears after the noodles have been rinsed with water
- Consistency is somewhat “rubbery” and slightly different from normal noodles
The processing of the konjac plant results in thin, white noodles that are virtually carb- and calorie-free and thus absolutely perfect for anyone who follows a low carb diet and misses his favorite pasta dishes.
Granted, they are not the same as “normal” noodles, especially in terms of consistency (they’re more “rubbery”), but they’re still a pretty good alternative.
They’re also neutral in taste, so they’ll pretty much just taste like what they’re served with.
Keto Chocolate Chips
- Can be used in a variety of ways for low carb desserts
- Satisfy cravings without adding a lot of carbs and sugar
- Sweetened with erythritol and stevia
- Pretty expensive
But they can also be a great way to quickly satisfy sweet cravings, without the need to make a Keto dessert from scratch.