One of the issues with Banting or a LCHF lifestyle is that if you fall off the wagon, it may set you on a road to a long-term binge. Sugar begets sugar. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. How can you then, control carb cravings.
It was not long ago that I had a conversation with my engineer daughter whose passion in life is to engineer whatever she can. She devises multiple ways of doing different things from engineering recipes from high carb to low, from engineering knitting patterns from one to another and within her career majestically creating incredible code that makes programmes run. When it comes to Banting, Stacey knows a lot and she has successfully implemented it as her lifestyle. So when she says something about Banting, I listen. It was really just a throwaway comment about eating salad for breakfast and how kale helps control carb cravings. That caught my attention, so I started eating more kale and it worked!
Kale is a member of the cabbage family.
It grows easily in pots and comes up leafy like spinach. As it grows bigger, clip and use the outer, larger leaves first, shred and pop them into a salad with spinach and other salad leaves.
Kale is related to other cruciferous vegetables all of which are great for curbing carb cravings. They include the ones you may be very familiar with on the Green List eg cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, baby marrow, cabbage, spinach etc.
Herein lies the secret to help you kick a carb craving. When I started the day with a fat salad packed with some of the veggies mentioned above, I found it made a different to the rest of the day. You can buy combo salad packs with a variety of different salad and herb leaves which are ideal for this. If you are wanting to experiment with growing your own, plant pots of leafy organic veggies (seedlings are available at the nursery) and pick leaves from them. You get the freshest and you know where they have come from.
Back to the magic of Kale, it contains vitamins A, C & K and is packed with minerals such as copper and calcium which are involved in your body’s cellular energy.
I got the following list from authoritynutrition.com taken verbatim, so please know this is not my own writing:
“A single cup of raw kale (about 67 grams or 2.4 ounces) contains
- Vitamin A: 206% of the RDA (from beta-carotene).
- Vitamin K: 684% of the RDA.
- Vitamin C: 134% of the RDA.
- Vitamin B6: 9% of the RDA.
- Manganese: 26% of the RDA.
- Calcium: 9% of the RDA.
- Copper: 10% of the RDA.
- Potassium: 9% of the RDA.
- Magnesium: 6% of the RDA.
- Then it contains 3% or more of the RDA for Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Iron and Phosphorus.
This is coming with a total of 33 calories, 6 grams of carbs (2 of which are fibre) and 3 grams of protein.
Kale contains very little fat, but a large portion of the fat in it is the omega-3 fatty acid called alpha linolenic acid.
Given the incredibly low calorie content, kale is among the most nutrient dense foods in existence. Eating more kale is a great way to dramatically increase the total nutrient content of your diet.”
Back to my thoughts: adding Kale to your diet will help suppress carb cravings. It is easy to grow and, like spinach is a veggie plant that keeps on giving. Add it to salads, steam it, juice it – just start eating it!
On my journey to 1000 thanks, it’s easy to make #29 a thank you for Kale.
Genesis 1:29
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
These are the days!
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂