When making trips to the supermarket on a low carb way of eating it is vital to be prepared. The more low carb options you have at your disposal, the less likely you are to fall off the wagon! Here are my top 10 essential items which are always on my shopping list:
1. Babybel Cheese – These are such an essential for me, and for eating low carb. Easy and portable, perfect for a quick breakfast item you can chuck in your bag for work or a quick fix afternoon snack to see you through to dinner!
2. Soy Milk – Lower carb than traditional milk, I was surprised when I tried this under duress for the diet and found I really liked it. Another perfect on the go breakfast as a protein shake too – Alpro do a great light version with even fewer carbs.
3. Eggs – Can be used in such a wide variety of ways with low carb cooking, from scrambled eggs for breakfast, egg wraps for lunch or frittata for dinner – and relatively cheap too! Make sure they are free range though.
4. Decaf Coffee or Herbal Tea – Decaf coffee is definitely a good purchase for this way of eating, particularly if you are cutting out caffeine at the start. Meanwhile there are so many lovely herbal teas you can buy now, it feels like an indulgent treat (and takes your mind off snacking!). I like Detox Tea from Birt&Tang and Dragonfly Vanilla Rooibos.
5. Cream – It does take your head a while to get around that cream is ok on this way of eating. But once you do, you find its a great asset for cooking (crustless Quiche in particuar – will post on this soon), or to lower your carb count even more by adding it to coffee.
6. ‘Guest cheese’ – No not some weird cheese brand! But as your supermarket shop now effectively banishes you from what you previously considered the ‘treat’ aisles, a substitute may be in order. I have discovered the cheese counter and now buy a (small amount of!) a new and exciting cheese when I go. How about eating your way around Britain’s Cheese board with a new piece each week?
7. Lettuce – Salads definitely feature a lot on my low carb menu, and with the inclusion of cheese/cream et its frankly quite nice to balance this with some crisp, fresh light meals! Again I try to ensure I vary the type I am buying to ensure boredom doesn’t set in.
8. Peanut Butter – Important that this is a no added sugar variety (Whole Earth do a particularly nice version and are my brand of choice) – invaluable to me as I will eat a teaspoon to offset a sugar craving and have in the fridge for emergencies
9. Ham / Bacon – invaluable for inclusion in salads, or wider cooking. Bacon is great with eggs for brekkie and ham and cream cheese roll ups an ideal low carb snack!
10. 80% (or above) Chocolate – If it’s just got to be chocolate, make sure its dark with a high cocoa content – store in fridge and make sure a square in emergencies goes a long way!
What are your essential low carb shopping items?
Low Carb Not No Carb 
All the foods on this list are yummy! Sounds like we have similar diets, except ham/bacon – I’m a veggie.
It’s great you included guest cheese on the list, though sometimes that doesn’t work out. While in Austria recently, I picked a yummy looking cheese out of the case & it was horrendous. But then at Costco, I dared to try again and recently found my new favorite: Dubliner Irish cheese. The only problem is that Costco sells them in huge blocks!
Hi! First time to your site 🙂 I just started low carb a lil’ over a month ago (due t/diabetes).
A couple of my staples: Almond milk, flax meal, “Fit & Active” wraps (sooo good-great for low carb enchildas!), “Josephs” flax wraps, whey protein, and the list goes on and on!
Waitrose have just introduced a cheese that actually tastes just like lemon cheesecake. It’s White Stilton with candied lemon. A little goes a long way and it’s utterly fab IMHO.
No WAY! That definitely has to be tried – Waitrose here I come!
I’d add macadamia nuts to the list for a decent high-fat snack, but please: no highly processed soy [fermented soy is just peachy].
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/soy-scrutiny/