No Carb No Sweets Diet

Low-carbohydrate diets such as Atkins, Kimkins, South Beach and Rosedale promise weight loss not through direct reduction of calories but through the reduction of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, according to these diet plans, make it difficult for the body to eliminate stored fat. Additionally, a high-carbohydrate diet may leave you vulnerable to the blood-sugar spikes and crashes that cause cravings, binges, and, ultimately, weight gain.

Basics

• To succeed on a low-carbohydrate diet, you will probably need to change your idea of what constitutes a meal. Give yourself time to make the transition (and to replace the flour- and sugar-based foods that likely line your pantry and fridge). Make sure to add new foods to your diet so you're not just depriving yourself of old favorites and trying to make do with what's left. If you've been a low-fat diet for awhile, find a few salad dressings you've been denying yourself and make a steak, chicken breast or grilled tofu salad. Try melting cheese over an allowed vegetable. Experiment with sauces you can pour over vegetables, tofu or meat, such as the peanut- or walnut-based dressings popular in some Asian and African cuisines. Do be careful when choosing vegetables; some low-carbohydrate diets are more restrictive than others, but usually high-fiber, low-sugar vegetables are okay.

Substitutions

• Different low-carb diets vary on the severity of the restriction, but no matter which of these diets you choose you will need to find alternatives to widely-available dietary staples such as pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, sugar and fruit. Many low-carbohydrate breads, tortillas, ice cream and other sweets are now on the market. Don't allow the option of these familiar favorites to prevent you from making more creative substitutions. Try sauted kohlrabi instead of French fries, roasted turnips instead of roasted potatoes, and mashed cauliflower or turnips instead of mashed potatoes. In the mood for rice or couscous with that lamb curry or lentil stew? Try pulsing raw cauliflower in your food processor until it reaches desired consistency. You can even turn a medium or large zucchini into a pile of noodles by running it through a spiral slicer, then salting and draining it.

Sweeteners

• For a natural low-carbohydrate sweetener try stevia. Stevia is made from an herb and is now widely available in packet, powder and liquid form. HolisticMed.com recommends avoiding artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and Splenda (sucralose), but these are an option, too. If you choose to avoid these artificial sweeteners be sure to read labels on low-carbohydrate alternatives to traditional sweets.

Considerations

• If you care about your overall health as well as how much you weigh, you will want to be careful to include high-fiber (lower carb) vegetables and to monitor your consumption of saturated fats, even if the particular diet you're on does not ask you to do so. High intake of saturated fats (found in meat, dairy, egg yolks and chocolate) has been identified as a major risk factor for heart disease. The South Beach and Rosedale Diets have tried to account for this problem with low-carbohydrate diets by encouraging consumption of high-fiber produce, lean meats and vegetarian proteins such as tofu.