In order to create low-carb candy and bread, manufacturers replace sugar with artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. As a result, a lot of keto-friendly foods are quite high in fiber.
Low-carb products can be quite high in fiber. But are they a healthy way to get more fiber in your diet?
Nutrition Diva is hosted by Monica Reinagel. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi and thanks for tuning into the Nutrition Diva podcast today. I’m your host, Monica Reinagel and this is episode #700. A lot has changed in the world of food and nutrition in the fifteen years I’ve been doing this podcast. And a lot hasn’t!
Diet trends come and go, but the low-carb approach has proven to have a lot of staying power. From Atkins to South Beach to the now-trending ketogenic diet, low-carb diets promote quick weight loss by strictly limiting your intake of foods containing carbohydrates.
This includes foods that otherwise contribute a lot of largely empty calories to the diet: things like sweetened beverages, baked goods, candy, and desserts. But it also limits your intake of a lot of healthful, nutritious foods—things like legumes, whole grains, starchy vegetables, and fruit.
Very low carbohydrate diets tend to suppress the appetite, which obviously makes it easier to cut calories, leading to weight loss. A low-carb diet also initially leads to significant loss of water weight. This is obviously not fat loss and isn’t the sort of weight loss that improves your health. But the rapid change in body weight at the beginning of a low-carb diet definitely gives dieters a sense of accomplishment.
The problem is that if and when dieters resume eating carbohydrate-containing foods, both the water and the weight tend to come right back on. Unless you’re willing to eat low-carb for the rest of your life, the weight loss is unlikely to be unsustainable.
Another criticism of the low-carb diet is that it tends to be quite low in fiber. (Or at least it used to be.) Back in the ‘70s, when Robert Atkins first popularized low-carb dieting, the microbiome wasn’t a thing. Although low-carb dieters often complained of constipation, we weren’t particularly worried about the effects of a low-fiber diet on our gut microbes.
Now, of course, we’re much more aware of the many roles these microbes play in our health—everything from regulating our body weight and blood sugar to impacting our mood. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Or more accurately, where there’s a market, products will be created to serve it.
Which is why you will now find shelf after shelf of low-carb, keto-friendly breads, cookies, noodles, muffin mixes, and candy bars. These products make it easier for low-carb dieters by replacing all the foods that they used to have to do without.
In order to create low-carb candy and bread, manufacturers replace sugar with artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. Flour is replaced by a whole slew of modified starches from wheat, corn, chicory, and other plants, as well as synthetic fibers sourced from wood pulp and other non-food plants. As a result, a lot of keto-friendly foods are quite high in fiber.
For those who haven’t yet tried them, I want to temper your expectations. You’re not likely to mistake a carb-free sourdough or sugar-free chocolate for the real thing. And you may have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a “prince” you can tolerate. I’ve sampled some products that were OK for the first bite or sip, but quickly lost their charm. But taste is subjective and you may find some that you like.
The longer it’s been since you’ve eaten real bread or pasta or chocolate, the more acceptable you may find them. And if you’re committed to a low-carb or ketogenic lifestyle, well, you can’t afford to be super choosy.
Of course, you can follow a low-carb diet made up of whole foods that are low in carbohydrates, instead of highly processed synthetic imitations of carbohydrate-rich foods. But judging from the increasing real estate given over to these products in grocery stores, it would appear that few keto enthusiasts choose this route.
I recently got an email from Megan, who wondered whether keto products could be a good way to increase fiber intake in a regular diet.
“My husband and I are trying to add more fiber to our diets. We have found that some keto products are very high in fiber but I’m suspicious that these products may be hiding something unhealthy. Are keto breads that are high in fiber good for you? Can they safely be integrated into your diet?”
I certainly endorse the effort to add fiber to the diet. The recommended daily intake is 25 to 30 grams per day and most people are getting only about half that much. And the list of health benefits attributed to dietary fiber keeps getting longer. In addition to promoting regularity and heart health, higher fiber diets are linked to reduced inflammation, enhanced immune function, appetite and weight control, enhanced nutrient absorption, better blood sugar control, and Type 2 diabetes prevention.
But are keto-friendly products a good way to bump up your fiber intake?
As always, when someone asks me whether a certain food is “good” or “bad,” I have three follow-up questions.
If you find them to be an acceptable substitute, I don’t see a problem with having a slice or two of keto-friendly toast with your eggs instead of regular bread or using low-carb tortillas in your quesadilla. And while a high-fiber, low-sugar keto “candy bar” might be preferable (nutritionally, anyway) to one that’s low in fiber and higher in sugar, I still wouldn’t consider it to be a good substitute for an actual meal.
Although these products might help you bump up your fiber intake, they shouldn’t be your only—or even primary—source of fiber.
For one thing, “fiber” is not a single nutrient but a whole category of nutrients. Fiber can be soluble or insoluble, viscous or non-viscous, fermentable or non-fermentable. Each has different effects and benefits—so you want to play the field and get your fiber from a variety of sources, and not rely entirely on a single food source or a fiber supplement.
Secondly, whole foods that are naturally high in fiber, including legumes, seeds, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains, contain a lot more than just fiber. They also provide a wide array of other vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that you’d be missing if you were getting most of your fiber from highly processed foods containing isolated and synthetic fiber sources.
Related Resource: Fiber content of common foods
Thanks to Megan for that great question. If you have a question you’d like me to tackle, send me an email at nutrition@quickanddirtytips or leave me a voicemail at 443-961-6206. I love to hear from you.
Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It’s audio engineered by Nathan Semmes with script editing by Adam Cecil. Thanks also to Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, Morgan Christianson, and Kamryn Lacy.
That’s all for this episode. Thanks for listening and remember to eat something good for me.