A Low Carb Shopping List

One of the things you notice when you first try to do a low carb shop is how much of the supermarket is no use to you. It makes shopping a whole lot quicker. But what do you buy? I have built the list below up over the last 6 months of low carb eating. I will add more items to it as I think of them. I normally pull this up on my phone before I leave the shop to make sure I have everything I need.

I get all of this in Aldi and my local butchers.

Meat

Stewing beef - very good in normal beef stew without potatoes and also this
Minced beef
Minced lamb
Minced pork
Steak - sirloin or striploin
Whole chicken - free range. This is a lot cheaper than buying portions and you can use the whole lot. There is a nice video here courtesy of Tesco which explains how to portion the chicken.
Venison Steaks - frozen
Lamb Chops
Lamb chunks, for stewing
Shoulder of lamb, bone out - from butchers
Rashers, dont over do these. They have a lot of chemicals in them

Dairy

Butter
Eggs
Milk - full fat is best, but this depends on what you will be using in it. No tea with whole milk for me
Cheese - Parmesan, Cheddar, Maasdam (like edam) and Brie de meaux
Full fat natural yoghurt - unsweetened
Creme fraiche

Vegetables

All kinds except starchy ones like spuds and sweet potatoes:
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Garlic

Sugar snap peas

Mange tout
Baby corn
Fine beans

Tomatoes

Peppers - all colours

Broccoli - stalks can be used too. Just pare off any tough outer bits
Turnip - the yellow ones. The white ones are harder to find in Ireland and a bit pointless
Cabbage
Frozen corn
Frozen peas

Fish

Fresh for freezing

Salmon - works well in this

Smoked coley
Mackerel
Smoked haddock
Hake for weekends - bit pricey for mid week
Kippers

Stuff in tins

Tomatoes - lots
Fish (Mackerel, Salmon, Sardines and Anchovies)
Chickpeas - not too many of these. This is a good snack
Mixed beans

Everything else

Olives - green and black
Capers
Tomato paste
Olive oil - cold pressed
Rapeseed oil - cold pressed
Nuts (Sliced almonds, pistachios, whole almonds unblanched, pecans. Cashews are quite high in carbs, so not too many of these)
Seeds (Sunflower, pumpkin, sesame)
Spices as required
Salt and pepper

Things to leave out

People tend to focus on this section when they are talking about starting a low carb/no sugar diet. I think this can just make it sound scary and if this stuff is very bad for you, giving it up should not be that big a deal. The worst thing to eat on this diet is sugar. It is absorbed very fast and spikes your insulin. The best thing is something with very low carbs - something like meat for example. But you can't live on meat on its own and you need a wide variety of foods anyway to make sure you are getting the right micronutrients.  How far you choose to deviate from perfect along this continuum by for example having a small amount of potato with your dinner is up to you. The less carbohydrate the better though is always the guideline.

Bread - including wholemeal
Normal breakfast cereals - I make an exception for unsweetened porridge
Flour
Potatoes
Rice
Pasta - including wholemeal
Sugar, biscuits, cakes and sweets - This is obvious though
Alcohol - I must admit I have not cut this out, but am always trying to keep my consumption at reasonable levels. The less the better with this.