Eat Real Food

Another common mistake when eating a low carb diet is getting fooled by the creative marketing of special “low carb” products. Remember:  An effective low carb diet for weight loss should be based on real food, like this:

Real food is what humans have been eating for thousands or (even better) millions of years, e.g. meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, butter, olive oil, nuts etc.
If you want to lose weight you’d better avoid special “low carb” products that are full of carbs. This should be obvious but creative marketers are doing all they can to fool you (and get your money). They will tell you that you can eat cookies, pasta, ice cream, bread and plenty of chocolate on a low carb diet, as long as you buy their brand. They’re full of it. Don’t be fooled.
Here are three examples of what to avoid:

1. Atkins’ Fairy Tale Cookies
2. Julian Bakery’s High Carb Low Carb Bread
3. The Dreamfields Pasta Fraud

These three companies are not unique. There are thousands of similar companies trying to trick you into buying their “low carb” junk food, full of starch, sugar alcohols, flour, sweeteners and strange additives. Two simple rules to avoid this junk:

• Don’t eat “low carb” versions of high carb stuff, like cookies, bars, chocolate, bread, pasta or ice cream – unless you are SURE of the ingredients (perhaps by making it yourself).
• Avoid products with the words “net carbs” on them. That’s usually just a way to fool you.

Focus on eating good quality, minimally processed real food. Ideally the food you buy shouldn’t even have a list of ingredients (or it should be very short).