11 Essential Low Carb Hacks Worth Trying

Until I was diagnosed with diabetes, I ate carbohydrates all day, every day. I was a vegetarian, a pizza/pasta/bagel/cereal lover, and I had a very sweet tooth. When I think back to the time of my diagnosis, almost ten years ago, it’s easy to remember how panicked I felt when I began to understand that my body could not process the food I loved. I never feel that panic anymore, but it took a long time to get to the point where food was not an issue. During the long, confusing period of trying to figure out what I should and shouldn’t eat, I wish someone had just said to me: Don’t eat carbs, here’s what you can eat to replace them. In other words, what I needed was a medical professional to tell me that cutting out carbs was a good idea for a person with diabetes, and I needed a  list of low carb hacks. I had no idea, for example, that a large green leaf could sub for a bun, tortilla, or sandwich bread. I was grateful for the many varieties of cheese, because it became one of my staples. What I didn’t know was that not only did cheese come in wheels, hunks, cubes, spreads, and slices, but it could be molded into a taco or turned into a pastry dough.

Having a plan in place when you start a low carb diet can make all the difference. And if you have diabetes, a low carb diet can simply blood sugar management. Never has a cheese taco budged my blood sugar over 100! So, for all you PWD who are looking for ways to keep carbs to a minimum, we put together a list of simple low carb hacks.  If you have other low carb hacks, please leave them in the comments. 

1. Collard greens, lettuce leaves, and sandwich meat can all serve as wraps. 

2. Instead of buying yogurt with added sugar, buy plain yogurt and add a spoonful of sugar-free jam, or add fresh blueberries to your yogurt.

3. Make rice out of cauliflower (or buy frozen riced cauliflower)

4. Forget about noodles and bring on the zoodles. Zucchini pasta is easy to make

5. Bring on the crudites. Whatever your quick snack food was, replace it with fresh veggies and a tasty dip.

6. No more potato chips and pretzels. For an easy salty snack grab a handful of nuts.

7. If nuts aren’t your thing, try pepperoni chips, zucchini chips, or eggplant chips.

8. You love French fries?  No problem. Swap them for celeriac fries or zucchini fries.

9. Yes, you can make tacos out of cheese.

10. Dark chocolate, 70% and above, is a good alternative to most candy.

11. Don’t drink milk, juice, or sugary sodas. Stick with water.

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

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Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)