Snacking - drinks

(H) #1

Newbie here… but I’ve been reading a lot on this forum about snacking and only having two meals a day.
This might be a stupid question but what do people do for drinks… if you have a cup of tea with almond milk or something, is that ok? Or do people tend to stick to water or something?
Also, is Diet Coke ok? I can’t quite get my head around the rules on sweeteners!
Thanks!

#2

You can do it however you like, almond milk isn’t going to screw anything up, and there are no rules on sweeteners other than stay away from real sugar. I drink diet soda every day and have for years. Some are anti-sweetener, most aren’t.

(H) #3

Great! Thanks!

#4

You can also try some other things, such as Zevia drinks. It’s sweetened with Stevia leaf, It’s basically carbonated water, but has a pretty good taste and quite similar to sodas overall. (I like the Cream Soda the most, but they have plenty of flavors) … For some, keeping the sweets around, even drinks, does not help them lose the sweet-tooth itself and worry about this. But if this doesn’t bother you, give some a try. Some folks do Diet Soda’s as mentioned above, while others will say they are wrong for this. But some also forget that everyone is different and they should do what works for them and them alone.

(H) #5

Thank you! I’ll definitely look out for that!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

There are no rules. There is just a sense that the less processed our food is, the better. Almond milk contains carbohydrate, but as long as you keep it within limits, it’s fine. The same would be true of cow’s milk, as well.

Artificial sweeteners are a problem only for certain people, who believe that such sweeteners cause their insulin level to spike (insulin being the main fat-storage hormone, a spike is not considered a good thing). The good news is that not every sweetener affects everyone. So if you feel that one sweetener is interfering with your progress, another sweetener is likely to be fine.

Diet Coke is sweetened with the notorious sweetener aspartame. According to what you read, aspartame is either the devil’s handiwork or a perfectly innocuous sweetener. At this point, there has been so much controversy, that it is hard to know what to think about it.

#7

Yeah, Aspartame has definitely taken center ring when it comes to controversial artificial sweeteners. … Very up and down with that one, as far as what’s reported. But most I’ve seen are on the bad side for it. - It’s one of the reasons I stayed away from it myself, not knowing for sure, but just hearing too much on it. So I do try to stick with Stevia or Truvia (which is supposed to be made from the stevia leaf as well) I don’t use it a ton, but mostly in Iced Tea here and there. But so far I haven’t had any issues with either one, and the Zevia’s I mentioned above are sweetened with Stevia, hence the play on the name.

(Allie) #8

I like to drink sparkling water, sometimes adding electrolytes.

(H) #9

I didn’t realise it was so controversial I’ll have to have a look into that since I drink it every day!
I am a huge tea drinker- about nine cups a day before. That’s had to come down because of the carbs in the milk. Almond milk seems better though it’s not as satisfying.
Thanks for this! Lots to work on!!

#10

It’s keto, you need to consume little enough carbs, that’s it, the rest is up to you :smiley:
Some people do it super strict. Some people have their own blacklist like me who ate health-consciously way before keto (I just didn’t know what is the most healthy to me… not like I was ready for extreme low carbs even when I went keto, that came later).
I personally have a strong IIFYM attitude, not THAT strong since carnivore-ish my default woe, understandably… But on a keto day? Anything is fine except the worst stuff I don’t consider proper food.

I drink any drink I want on simple keto. When I still couldn’t do it, I had a Hungarian wine with 20% sugar content (old ex-fav, it practically never spoil, good for someone who drinks alcohol like me. I never could drink a whole bottle of wine in a week). Okay, that was pure rebellion, that is not a good idea on keto but obviously possible, it’s all about amounts! :smiley:
But don’t do that if you can :slight_smile:

Sugars are best to skip, well you probably consume natural sugars in some extent, it’s hard to avoid that unless you do strict carnivore.
Sweeteners… It’s individual. I never noticed any problem with them, directly, at least. Sweets may trigger overeating or cravings… But some people are sensitive to certain sweeteners and they can cause problems.
While I am fine with sweeteners, I don’t consider regularly consuming sweets ideal at all… So they are kind of allowed in my world but I better avoid them. It’s not even hard with the right food choices.

And I never would use sweeteners in a low-cal drink. It makes no sense to me. I use sweeteners to eat my fatty proteins in times when my supplies are low and limited and I am bored with my normal options. (But sometimes I just want to enjoy them, nothing is wrong with that IMO. But fatty proteins are always involved, I eat them, with or without a lil extra. It sounds normal, drinks don’t need sweetness. But it’s me and now, of course, if something helps you for a while and it causes no real problems, that’s different.)

There are many things to drink. I usually drink coffee, tea, carbonated water, now it’s lemonade season with elderberry flowers :slight_smile: Very rarely I drink cocoa…
I never sweeten them as I don’t want them really sweet. The tea is problematic as plain tea leaves are often a bit too sweet to me but it took several years on lower and lower carb to become a borderline problem.
Certain tea (I only know one example, Assam) and bitterer coffee may need something in it but most of us can learn to drink them plain. I prefer coffee with a few drops of cream but a not bitter one can be enjoyed black too now. I trained myself for years :slight_smile: I used less and less sweetener and now I would hate a sweet coffee. Time and determined training helps :slight_smile: And sticking to normal, savory food. But just avoiding added sugar changes our sweet perception so even wanting things sweet means less and less sweetener. It makes eating and drinking store-bought stuff less enjoyable too :smiley: They are horribly sweet to people like me. So the temptation drastically drops.

About snacking and number of meals… It’s individual too. I couldn’t care less about other people’s rules. If I need 6 meals and want snacking, I obviously do that. Snacking isn’t my thing, usually but if I get satiated with a few bites for some reason for a while, I obviously won’t starve with 2-3 meals… One should be flexible.
2 meals a day sounds great to me but even I can’t or want do that all the time let alone others. What if someone gets satiated with small meals but needs 5000 kcal a day? They clearly shouldn’t force-feed themselves! And I see 3 meals pretty normal anyway. Not everyone can fast better on keto. My fasting abilities gets very bad if I barely eat carbs… Though it varies. Sometimes I can eat big meals (therefore I can fast longer), sometimes not, using the same food choices and everything. Do what feels best at the moment if you can figure out what that is.

(H) #11

Thank you!!!

(H) #12

I’m learning that it seems to be about added fats… putting a bit more butter or olive oil seems to get the fats up and make things more filling. I think I will practice this because it seems to work and ive really noticed my hunger levels go down… I’m used to picking at bits as I’ve always been a snacked but that seems to have been curbed since I started this which is great!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

Fats aren’t magic, but they can help food taste better and help you feel satisfied, and without stimulating more than the minimum of extra insulin (we do need some insulin, we just don’t want too much). Don’t go overboard, just get enough fat to make the hunger go away.

#14

Fat has lots of uses. Even added fat, even if it has a very bad satiating ability for the one in question as sometimes undereating is the problem.
I almost never have that but I use some added fat for cooking when using leaner protein sources.
It helps eating bigger meals too… Not like it’s my goal at the moment but sometimes it’s a good idea.

(H) #15

Thanks! On insulin, are you meant to aim for a certain level? My parents are type 2 diabetic so I acquired a blood test machine and I use it here and there. But my bloods are always pretty stable… 5.2-5.7 even after a meal. But I don’t really understand anything other than that it tells me that’s acceptable! I don’t know whether worrying about insulin this early on is pushing it a bit though!!!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #16

@H1980 Don’t understand your love for tea but each to his/her own. Instead of almond ‘milk’ which is nutritionally useless you might consider whipping cream (aka heavy, aka double, etc) as an alternative to milk. It has a fraction of the carbs - about 3 grams per 100 grams of cream - tastes a whole lot better than milk or almond ‘milk’ and actually contains measurable nutrients. If you don’t like the taste of cream, just water it down until it’s palatable. Yes, that reduces not only the flavour but also the nutrient content. But over time you can gradually use less water as you grow to like the cream flavour.

As for artificial sweeteners, as noted, it’s pretty much different strokes for different folks. And can even change for yourself over time with use. My opinion is that sweet serves no useful purpose and the sooner lost the better.

If you’re ‘snacking’ because you’re consistently hungry between meals then eat more at meals so you’re not. Instead of ‘snacking’ try slightly salted water (to taste).

(H) #17

Thanks for this. I can definitely take cream. Love it. I’m just trying to me mindful of dairy fats but I think the answer is to cut down on tea and enjoy the few I do have!

#18

Some people use a ton of cream in drinks, some of us are fine with a tiny bit… So the carbs and fats and other things we don’t want overdo stays low.
I can drink coffee with cream all day (I usually start with 3-4 when I wake up. it does nothing to me but tastes nice… and I can keep using it until bedtime though I usually stop at 10pm and start to drink water already) using only 15-20ml cream… And it’s really not much :slight_smile:
I never drank tea with anything milk-like but as far as I know, one uses even way less milk for tea, just a few drops per cup… And a little cream substitutes more milk…

But drinking less tea if you want a lot of something in it sounds good too :slight_smile: I shouldn’t drink this many coffees, I know it but it’s hard to stop, I keep trying though.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #19

Why exactly? Do you have problems with dairy generally? Dairy fat specifically? Otherwise, there’s no reason to avoid dairy fats. They are loaded with nutrients.

As for tea, I think it’s quite innocuous and see no reason to ‘cut down’ if you like it. If you drink 10 cups of tea per day with 10 grams of cream in each, that’s 100 grams of cream per day: 3.3 grams of carb, 36 grams of fat, and 1.5 grams of protein (might vary a bit by brand). Just account for that in your daily meals. Avoid cream that has ‘gums’ added.

(H) #20

No, no issue really. Simply because I read on here that too much dairy fat can hinder weight loss. I’m keen on doing this for both fat/ weight loss and also for general health… but maybe I’m reading too much about what works for people individually…