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Low Carb Diet Principles

Quantity
Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full. There is no need for counting calories.
Quality
Avoid carbohydrate-rich foods. Especially the sweet, sugary foods.

How to Use "Low Carb Diet Handbook" Website

This website is our Low Carb Diet Handbook's online companion. It complements the printed Handbook by allowing users to interactively search for foods by name and sort foods by sugar or carb content.

Our Low Carb Diet Handbook and this website are all about the practice of low carb diet. Neither is about the low carb diet theory. We highly recommend Gary Taubes's Why We Get Fat for the scientific theory behind the low carb diet. If you are persuaded by Taubes's argument that "we do not get fat because we overeat; we get fat because the carbohydrates in our diet make us fat," then our Handbook and this webpage are exactly what you need to optimally practice the low carb diet.

So, what are the carbohydrate-rich foods?
Low carb diet researchers classify foods on the basis of carbohydrate content: white potato is almost 20 percent carbohydrate by weight so it is known as a 20-percent vegetable. Similarly, carrot is 10-percent and broccoli 7-percent, etc. We denote this carb rating as Carb% in our table above.
If you want to pay attention to only one number associated with a food, use this Carb% value in our database and handbook to help you choose foods. This means, when you wish to include vegetables in your menu, everything else being equal, choose broccoli over white potato, etc.

How about the sweet and sugary foods?
Gary Taubes concludes that "The very worst foods for us, almost assuredly, are sugars". Again, refer to Why We Get Fat for a thorough discussion of the effects of sugars in diet. In practice, fruits, for example, are sweet because it contains a type of sugar called fructose. And fructose is uniquely fattening as carb. [We have a separate Fructose Counter for your reference.] The sugar content in our low carb diet database includes all sugars in a food, such as fructose in fruits and lactose in milk, etc.
What should be extremely informative from our sugar data is that you can directly compare the sugar content of mango (14.80) vs. banana (12.23) vs. apple (10.39), and can immediately tell which one is the more fattening fruit. In fact, our data should confirm your sense of taste that, in general, mango is sweeter than banana and banana is sweeter than apple, etc.

What is the information in the food charts?
The essential information in our charts is the percentages of calorie contribution from each of the 3 macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein and fat. In our printed handbook, this info is organized into 3 columns: Fat, Pro and Carb. At our website, a doughnut chart is used.
Example: the 3 values for Carrots, raw are Carb 87%, Protein 8% and Fat 5%. This means carb contributes 87% of calories of raw carrots; protein 8% and fat 5%. For almost all food items, these values add up to 100 (87 + 8 + 5 = 100). The exceptions are foods and beverages that contain alcohol where alcohol contributes part or all of the foods' calories.
This set of calorie-source data provides a different perspective on the low-carb-diet quality of a food. This is what Gary Taubes describes as "good calories" vs. "bad calories". In general, calories from carb are considered bad in the low-carb diet theory.
You can use this set of numbers to help you choose low carb foods. Or if you want to also to adapt the low-carb-diet to take into account the amount of fat or protein in your diet, these numbers can be very useful.
Furthermore, when a chart is displayed, you can hover the mouse over the chart to see additional nutrition info about the food, such as whether it contains a significant amount of fiber or saturated fat, etc.

There are plenty of free nutrition data on the internet. But there is no other nutrient database that is designed specifically for the low carb diet like ours: informative, logical, convenient and easy to use. Above all, our handbook and online database remove the guesswork from your low carb diet.

The data in our handbook are not opinion but facts. Scientifically determined facts that give you the easy insight that staring, no matter how hard, at a melon or a tomato or an avocado in the supermarket just won't reveal.

So, if you want your low-carb diet to be truly effective, you need to have DietGrail's Low Carb Diet Handbook.
Click to purchase DietGrail's Low Carb Diet Handbook.
Click to view sample pages of Low Carb Diet Handbook.

Popular diets and food databases for weight control

• Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan
• Eat This, Not That! by David Zinczenko
• Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman
• Forks over Knives, the Plant-Based Way to Health
• Glycemic Index Diet
• Low Carb Diet
• Paleo Solution Diet by Robb Wolf
• The 17-Day Diet by Mike Moreno
• Sugar: The Bitter Truth by Robert Lustig
• Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes

Usage Notes

• The low carb diet food finder database at this website and in our Low Carb Diet Handbook contains approximately 7,000 most common food items.
• Total sugar (in grams) is calculated per 100g of food.
• Nutrient data can be directly compared between foods as they are all based on the same 100g of food weight.
• Click on column header to sort foods by name, by carb % or sugars.
• Pie chart shows relative contributions to total calories from carbohydrate, protein and fat (and alcohol, if exists).

Low-Carb Vegetables

If you like vegetables and want to follow a low-carb diet, these are 100 vegetables or vegetable products with lowest carb content. Carb content is in grams per 100 grams of food weight.

Low-Carb Vegetables

Carb

Butterbur, canned

0.4

Watercress, raw

1.3

Bamboo shoots, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

1.5

Cabbage, chinese (pak-choi), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

1.8

Cabbage, chinese (pak-choi), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

1.8

Bamboo shoots, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

1.9

Asparagus, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

1.9

Asparagus, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

1.9

Mustard greens, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.1

Alfalfa seeds, sprouted, raw

2.1

Mustard greens, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.1

New Zealand spinach, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.1

New zealand spinach, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.1

Beans, mung, mature seeds, sprouted, canned, drained solids

2.1

Butterbur, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.2

Cucumber, peeled, raw

2.2

Butterbur, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.2

Cabbage, chinese (pak-choi), raw

2.2

Lettuce, butterhead (includes boston and bibb types), raw

2.2

Cabbage, napa, cooked

2.2

Pickles, cucumber, sour

2.3

Lettuce, red leaf, raw

2.3

Pickles, cucumber, sour, low sodium

2.3

Taro shoots, raw

2.3

Pumpkin leaves, raw

2.3

Cabbage, chinese (pe-tsai), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.4

Cabbage, chinese (pe-tsai), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.4

Seaweed, spirulina, raw

2.4

Turnip greens, canned, solids and liquids

2.4

Low-Carb Vegetables

Carb

Waxgourd, (chinese preserving melon), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.5

Asparagus, canned, drained solids

2.5

Asparagus, canned, regular pack, solids and liquids

2.5

Asparagus, canned, no salt added, solids and liquids

2.5

New Zealand spinach, raw

2.5

Pickles, cucumber, dill or kosher dill

2.6

Radishes, white icicle, raw

2.6

Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.7

Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.7

Malabar spinach, cooked

2.7

Cowpeas, leafy tips, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.8

Cowpeas, leafy tips, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.8

Mustard spinach, (tendergreen), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.8

Mustard spinach, (tendergreen), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.8

Broccoli raab, raw

2.9

Lettuce, green leaf, raw

2.9

Spinach, canned, regular pack, solids and liquids

2.9

Spinach, canned, no salt added, solids and liquids

2.9

Dock, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

2.9

Dock, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

2.9

Turnips, frozen, unprepared

2.9

Squash, summer, crookneck and straightneck, canned, drained, solid, without salt

3.0

Celery, raw

3.0

Lettuce, iceberg (includes crisphead types), raw

3.0

Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.0

Tomatoes, yellow, raw

3.0

Waxgourd, (chinese preserving melon), raw

3.0

Chrysanthemum leaves, raw

3.0

Chrysanthemum, garland, raw

3.0

Waxgourd, (chinese preserving melon), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.0

Borage, raw

3.1

Low-Carb Vegetables

Carb

Pokeberry shoots, (poke), cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.1

Pokeberry shoots, (poke), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.1

Gourd, white-flowered (calabash), cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.1

Mustard greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.1

Squash, zucchini, baby, raw

3.1

Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw

3.1

Mustard greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.1

Broccoli raab, cooked

3.1

Swamp cabbage, (skunk cabbage), raw

3.1

Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.2

Pumpkin, flowers, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.2

Tomatoes, orange, raw

3.2

Taro, shoots, cooked, with salt

3.2

Taro shoots, cooked, without salt

3.2

Dock, raw

3.2

Winged bean, immature seeds, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.2

Winged beans, immature seeds, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.2

Bamboo shoots, canned, drained solids

3.2

Cabbage, chinese (pe-tsai), raw

3.2

Mushrooms, white, raw

3.3

Beans, snap, green variety, canned, regular pack, solids and liquids

3.3

Nopales, cooked, without salt

3.3

Pumpkin flowers, raw

3.3

Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw

3.3

Balsam-pear (bitter gourd), leafy tips, raw

3.3

Squash, summer, scallop, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.3

Squash, summer, scallop, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.3

Pumpkin flowers, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.3

Peppers, sweet, red, frozen, chopped, boiled, drained, with salt

3.3

Peppers, sweet, green, frozen, chopped, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.3

Peppers, sweet, red, frozen, chopped, boiled, drained, without salt

3.3

Low-Carb Vegetables

Carb

Nopales, raw

3.3

Endive, raw

3.4

Squash, summer, all varieties, raw

3.4

Pumpkin leaves, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

3.4

Pumpkin leaves, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt

3.4

Gourd, white-flowered (calabash), raw

3.4

Spinach, canned, regular pack, drained solids

3.4

Radishes, raw

3.4

Turnip greens and turnips, frozen, unprepared

3.4

Vinespinach, (basella), raw

3.4

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