Veggie Blog

Many of us snack through the day, and most packaged snack foods are full of refined carbohydrate. That makes snacking a challenge on the Atkins plan or any other low-carb way of eating. The good news is that plenty of simple foods are low in carbohydrates. This guide gives real numbers from the USDA FoodData Central database, so you can plan snacks with confidence.

Why do snacks cause trouble on a low-carb plan?

Chips, crackers, cookies and sweets are made mostly of flour and sugar. The old post also pointed out that some snack foods contain trans fats. The FDA says that most of the trans fat in food used to come from partially hydrogenated oils, and that eating trans fat raises LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. The FDA has taken major steps to remove these oils from the food supply, but trans fat also occurs naturally in small amounts in milk, butter, cheese and meat from ruminant animals. Check labels, because a product that lists “0 g trans fat” may still contain less than half a gram per serving. Read more on the FDA page about trans fat.

Which snacks are low in carbohydrate?

These are approximate net carbs (total carbohydrate minus fiber), worked out from USDA FoodData Central values. One large hard-boiled egg: about 0.6 g. One ounce (28 g) of part-skim mozzarella: about 0.8 g. One ounce of cheddar: about 0.7 g. One ounce of cream cheese: about 1.6 g. One ounce of raw almonds: about 2.6 g. One ounce of walnuts: about 2.0 g. A medium stalk of celery: about 0.5 g. About 100 g (3.5 ounces) of California avocado: about 1.8 g. Plain pork rinds contain no carbohydrate. Portion sizes matter: nuts and cheese are high in calories, so a handful is a snack, and a bag is a meal.

What should you watch out for?

Be careful with jerky and other cured meats. USDA data for one chopped and formed beef jerky shows about 11 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, which is around 3 g in a one-ounce portion, and flavored products can have more, so read the label. Peanut butter is a legume product, and USDA data for smooth peanut butter without salt shows about 5.5 g of net carbs in two tablespoons (32 g), so it adds up fast. Atkins does not allow legumes in the first phase. The old post suggested spreading peanut butter or cream cheese on celery. Cream cheese is the lower-carb choice for Induction.

What about fruit and the later phases?

Atkins says that most fruit is not allowed during Induction, and that berries and other fruit come back in later phases. Raw raspberries are one of the lower-carb fruits, with about 3.4 g net carbs in half a cup (62 g), but they still count toward your daily limit. Olives are another choice: about 4.4 g net carbs per 100 g for canned ripe olives, and Atkins counts 10 black olives toward the daily allowance in Induction. See our posts on low-carb swaps and Atkins and sugar cravings for more ideas.

How do you prepare?

Clear the junk food out of the house if you can, and keep prepared snacks where you can reach them: boiled eggs, cheese portions, cut celery and cucumber, a small container of nuts. Eating regularly can help you avoid getting too hungry, which is one reason why Atkins advises not going more than six waking hours without eating. For help with plateaus, see overcoming plateaus on the Atkins diet. You can look up almost any food yourself on USDA FoodData Central.