No-carb Diet Foods To Avoid

Low-carbohydrate diets can be an effective way to lose weight; however, there are some no-carbohydrate foods that can sabotage your weight loss efforts. According to Gary Taubes, author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories," low-carb diets work because they help to manage blood sugar levels, which, in turn, minimize the amount of insulin that is released into the bloodstream. Insulin is responsible for escorting dietary fat into your fat cells and keeping your body from using the fat in your cells as a fuel source. Eating a low-carbohydrate diet allows your body to use stored fat instead as fuel, resulting in weight loss. However, some no-carb foods may still have an impact on your blood sugar, causing insulin levels to rise.

Diet Soda and Soft Drinks

Diet soda and soft drinks contain artificial sweeteners, which are those sugar substitutes that have been manufactured in the laboratory. Popular artificial sweeteners that can be found in a large amount of zero-carbohydrate foods and beverages include aspartame, sucralose, asulphamine-K and saccharine. Since artificial sweeteners are a relatively recent invention, the long-term effects on the human body remain largely unknown. The Women to Women website states that artificial sweeteners like sucralose amount to what is largely a public health experiment, since long-term studies on large populations haven't been done to test the safety of sugar substitutes. The sweetness from artificial sweeteners may also trick the brain into thinking that it is eating sugar, triggering sugar cravings and, possibly, insulin release.

Sugar-Free Candy

Sugar-free candy products replace sugar with sugar alcohols such as mannitol and sorbitol, xylitol and isomalt. While sugar alcohols aren't technically zero-carbohydrate foods, low-carb diet plans such as the Atkins Diet suggest that you can treat them as if they have no carbohydrates in them. Sugar alcohols are commonly used in candy marketed towards diabetics and labeled as "sugar-free"; however, just because something has a sugar-free label doesn't mean it is carbohydrate-free, as well. Products containing sugar alcohols are often perceived as "free" foods that can be eaten indiscriminately on diabetic and low-carb diets; however, these foods are often surprisingly high in blood-sugar raising carbohydrates. Sugar alcohols may also cause gastrointestinal upset, bloating and weight gain.

Low-Carb Shakes and Bars

As low-carbohydrate diets gain popularity, more low-carb meal replacement shakes and bars are hitting the market. Low and no-carb offerings from manufacturers like Atkins and Slim Fast are attractive because there is the perception that you can eat something sweet as a meal replacement while still adhering to your low-carb diet. According to Dr. Michael Eades, author of "Protein Power Lifeplan," such offerings will slow or stall weight loss, particularly in early phases of the diet. This is most likely due to the presence of sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners, which can cause sugar cravings.