Intake (DRI) defines 130 grams per day as its recommended minimum. The Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan promoted in this book adheres to this carbohydrate level. See Appendix C for more on the DRIs.
Moderate-carbohydrate diet: This diet sets carbohydrate limits at 130 to 225 grams per day or 26 to 45 percent of your total calorie intake. This was the prevailing upper limit of carbohydrate intake in the western diet before the obesity epidemic (43 percent) began.
High-carbohydrate diet: Carbohydrate intake is more than 225 grams per day or greater than 45 percent of total calorie intake on this diet. More recent surveys estimate that the current American diet is 53 percent refined and processed carbohydrate.
The Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan that I describe in this book provides 130 grams of carbohydrate and fits the definition of a low-carbohydrate diet. But don’t worry — the guidelines I give don’t ask you to remove carbs from your diet completely. Instead, I want to get you thinking about the quality of the foods you consume, rather than the number of carb grams those foods contain. For more details about this, turn to Chapter 2.
Clarifying what this low-carb diet is about
The Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan isn’t an eat-all-the-fat-and-protein-you-can-possibly-consume diet. It’s really focused on enjoying whole or unprocessed foods and enjoying the healthy side effects, including having more energy, stabilizing your blood-sugar levels, losing weight, and improving your self-confidence. Whole foods are fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds that haven’t been processed to remove vitamins, minerals, fiber, and so on. They’re foods that are sold to consumers as close to the same state that nature provided them.
Most foods contain some carbohydrates. Even an 8-ounce glass of skim milk contains 12 grams of carbs. A cup of broccoli contains 8 carb grams. And yet, both milk and broccoli are packed full of other nutritional benefits, including vitamins, nutrients, fiber, and phytochemicals. If you strictly limit the number of carb grams in your diet without considering the quality of the carbs you eat, you’ll be missing out on some key foods that will enhance your overall good health.
These sections clarify which carbs you can eat as much as you want on the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan and with which carbs you need to be more selective.
Identifying free foods — eat all you want
Even though you’re limited to five carbohydrate servings a day on the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan, many foods that contain carbohydrates are absolutely free (which means you can have as many of them as you want, without counting them toward your daily carb allowance).
Don’t be afraid of fruit. Fruit does contain carbohydrates, but the carbs in fruit give it a delicious natural sweetness, which is partnered with a ton of vitamins, fiber, and relatively few calories. Increasing your fruit intake is a great way to help you wean yourself off refined sugars. (Refined sugars are sugars like table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup that are added to processed foods.) Fruits make a great dessert option and, because they come pre-portioned in their own natural package, they’re a great choice for grab-and-go snacks. On this diet plan, almost all fruits are free The recipes in Chapter 16 offer a wide array of healthy, fruit-filled desserts.
Look at leafy green and non-starchy vegetables. Leafy greens, like spinach, watercress, cabbage, and romaine lettuce, and non-starchy vegetables, like green beans, broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes, come in an almost limitless variety. You can further vary your diet by trying new preparations of old favorites and partnering them with new choices. Check out some great recipes for salads and other greens in Chapter 12.
Remove refined sugars from your life. Refined sugars provide calories, but lack vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They’re also high on the glycemic index table. See Chapter 3 and Appendix A for more on the glycemic index. The amount of refined sugar in the American diet is a disastrous, but fairly recent, development. Watch out for hidden sugars in breads, lunch meat, and salad dressings. Pay attention to the not-hidden sugars in non-diet sodas, cookies, and candy. For more on reducing the amount of sugar in your diet, see Chapter 6.
Eyeing what five carb servings you can eat
A carbohydrate serving is a portion of a carbohydrate food that provides 15 grams of carb per serving. On the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan you’re allowed up to five servings a day, although you do have some flexibility. You can eat as few as one to three servings per day or three to five servings per day based on your weight loss goals. After all, you are in control. You decide. That’s why the quality of the carbohydrate food you eat is so important.
Check out legumes. Legumes (leh-gooms) are foods like peas, beans, and peanuts. They’re nutritional powerhouses that add fiber to your diet, are naturally low in fat, are a great source of protein, and are very inexpensive. Look for several varieties at your market including canned, dried, and fresh. Legumes make great additions to salads, serve as excellent side dishes, and make healthy delicious entrees in their own right. Look for great recipes for legumes throughout the recipes in Part 3.
Choose whole grains whenever possible. Look for whole grains (grains that still have their bran and nutrients intact) as the first ingredient on a food nutrition label’s ingredients list. Items made from whole grains tend to be higher in fiber and lower in sugar, and have a stabilizing affect on blood sugar levels compared to their refined-grain counterparts. For more on the benefits of fiber and whole grains, look at Chapter 6.
Introduce more soy products into your diet. Soy foods contain both carbs and protein, making them off-limits on many low-carb eating plans. Not so with my plan. In fact, if you’re a vegetarian, you can substitute soy products for lean proteins and still get many of the nutritional benefits this plan has to offer. Regardless of whether you’re a vegetarian, adding more soy to your diet can offer tremendous health benefits, including a reduced risk of several types of cancer and heart disease, as well as more-balanced hormone levels.
CONSIDERING HOW A LOW-CARB DIET DIFFERS FROM OTHER POPULAR DIETS
This sidebar describes several popular diet plans that are currently promoted. This information can help you appreciate the benefits of the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan:
Very-low-carb diet: This eating plan significantly restricts carbs and is intended to induce ketosis in most people. The Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan doesn’t induce ketosis.
Atkins Diet: This diet, which resurfaces about every 25 years, starts with an induction phase designed to induce ketosis and then gradually moves the person to higher carbs.
Keto Diet: