Eating LCHF in America
We did some shopping for LCHF-food in the US. It’s possible, but you really have to look carefully. Full fat cheese is hard to find for example.
The groceries above turned into two lovely breakfasts:
LCHF-breakfast
Scrambled eggs, bacon and tomatoes. And coffee with heavy cream. Of course there’s just heavy cream for the blueberries as well.
Yummy.
The blueberries has around 6 grams of sugar per 100 grams, so this is not super-strict LCHF. But as I’m not too carbohydrate sensitive it’s absolutely worth it – they taste really good with cream.
LCHF-gift
By the time we left the motel there were just some saturated fat left. We left it as a LCHF-gift for the next guests:
In a restaurant
In a real restaurant (as opposed to at McDonald’s) it’s of course easy to eat LCHF-food. Meat and fish dishes with vegetables aren’t hard to find.
You may need to ask for extra butter on the side though (and risk a confused gaze from the waiter). Usually there wasn’t much in the way of sauce with the meals, just the meat and vegetables. Probably another consequence of the severe fat phobia.
Here’s a nice exception, the most delicious meal I had in the entire trip:
Two lobster tails with melted butter and a nice glass of dry white wine… LCHF hardly gets any better than this.
What’s your favorite LCHF-meal?
Next
Soon on this blog: some examples of the “industrial foodlike products” we did not buy in the stores.
Earlier
Why Americans are obese, part 2
I think labels here are easier to read as every label shows the content per serving instead of per 100 grams as the Swedish labels do. A serving is almost never exactly 100g.
As for eating at McDonald's, it is very easy to order a hamburger without the bread. You then get it served in a container with a fork and knife to eat with. If you are on the run and Mickie D is the only thing around does not mean you have to eat 'bad'.
However, 'butter' at the restaurants is often margarine, so the extra may not be so healthy after all...
I'm just a tourist in America you know! But shopping at e.g. Walmart almost all the cheese seemed to be low fat or non fat.
Regarding servings vs 100 grams – I think showing the amount per 100 grams is vastly superior, but that could depent on what you are used to I guess. The way I see it the "serving" sizes are often pure fantasies, choosen by the manufacturer to make their numbers look as good as possible. With different serving sizes it gets very hard to compare different food.
The butter we got were packeged so we know it was butter, luckily. :)
I agree about excess linoleic acid being a potential health issue, although I'm not sure it's worth arguing about when eating out. That may make it hard to eat anything that you didn't prepare yourself. It's really hard to avoid.
I mostly just avoid the obvious sources when I can: vegetable oils and margarines.
I don't know the Wallmart layout (I don't shop there EVER), but in a typical grocery store, you will find cheese in two places.
1) Dairy isle. That is where you will find all of those low-fat fake cheeses.
2) Deli. This is where you will find the "good" cheeses, including the higher-priced imports.
Aron - "LCHF" is unpronounceable, I've only seen it written. It's just as many syllables to say "low carb high fat" as spelling out "LCHF". :)
Here in So Cal, full fat yoghurt and cheeses are not hard to find. Trader Joe's has lots of full fat (and even some raw milk) cheeses and a few varieties of full fat yoghurt. When I lived on the east coast, I always bought Stonyfield Farms whole milk plain yoghurt, available in pretty much any grocery store. Greek yoghurt was just coming out, too, though I noticed they often spoiled it by making it low fat. For those who can't find whole milk yoghurt to buy, you can make your own with some whole milk and a tablespoon or two of starter from any live culture plain yoghurt: Heat the milk to 180 degrees (don't boil), then remove from heat and cool to 110 degrees. Stir in the starter, pour into a glass container and place in a cooler (not in the fridge or with ice!) or otherwise maintain the temperature for about 12 to 24 hours, until it reaches the consistency and taste you like. I actually rarely buy yoghurt as I prefer the taste (and price!) of home made. Once made, you can eat it as is or thicken it further by straining the yoghurt through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth--voila. Greek yoghurt, much cheaper than in the store. And the whey can be used in other things, such as home made mayonnaise.
Thanks Andreas and team for writing this blog.
Another frustration - even with that particular brand of Organic Whipping Cream, you have to watch for it having carageenan added. The one I get from my grocery store doesn't have it, but that same brand, in the same package, from Trader Joes does. Ugh.
I recently went to a conference in another state and since it was at a convention center far from any grocery stores, I took a small insulated lunch cooler bag with my heavy cream, cheese, and salami, just to make sure I had the things I needed at least for a few days.
Noticed that bacon is allowed on this diet. All the bacon I've seen here (in Canada) has lots of sugar in it. Can one get bacon without the sugar?
thanks hope someone can answer this for me...
You know.. there are a lot of fake food products in the store!
Real bacon is dry saltet pork and then its smoked!