9 of the Unhealthiest Low-Carb Recipes on Pinterest (and how to fix them)
Pinterest is the best and worst place to search for recipe ideas on the internet.
There are MILLIONS of recipes on the internet and they’ve all made their way to Pinterest to tempt, tease, and torture your taste buds.
I’m not a fan of low-anything diet, because calorie restrictive diets lead to binge eating, a slow metabolism, and weight gain.
However, a short-term low/medium-carb diet has proven to show many benefits for women, especially those who have symptoms of hormonal imbalance.
So, to help my clients on their carb-cycling journey, I searched Pinterest for the best of the best low-carb recipes.
What I found SHOCKED me…
I found, of course, millions of low-carb delicious looking Pinterest worthy recipes, but as soon as I looked at the ingredient lists, I found not all of these recipes were what I would call “healthy.”
This list of 10 low-carb recipes will teach you how to tell if your low-carb recipe is healthy or not, and how to fix them if they aren’t.
Overall this looks like a tasty and healthy recipe as long as you use hormone/antiobitic free chicken, MSG-free taco seasoning, and organic cheese, you’ll be in great shape. This recipe is ideal for lunch or a dinner where you’ve been active that day.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Replace the canola oil for coconut oil, since canola oil can actually inhibit your thyroid function
b.) Make sure to choose organic chicken
c) Use hormone-free, organic cheese
Low-carb meals are always loaded with cheese aren’t they? This chili dog bake is no different, and it actually looks like a great recipe, especially for kids and busy moms! Let’s take a look at the ingredients:
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use grass-fed beef in place of the ground beef
b.) Use an organic beef frank, like Applegate or a similar brand, and avoid the Oscar Meyer quality hot dog
c.) Use organic/grass-fed cheese for the cheddar cheese
Learn How The 3-Week Metabolism Diet Uses Carb-Cycling To Help You Lose Weight
Who doesn’t love shrimp scampi and pasta? Pasta in the case of this delicious recipe are zucchini noodles. This recipe looks awesome, it even has Butter, which one of the healtiest fats, but it fails to mention one KEY component to making if perfect.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use wild-caught shrimp and not farm-raised shrimp
4.) Pumpkin Spice Pudding Dessert
I’m not quite sure in what world any of these ingredients are healthy. Which brings me to a great point to consider when doing “low-carb.” Just because a recipe is low-carb, does NOT mean it’s healthy. Let’s take a look at the ingredients:
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Avoid the Snack Pack Vanilla Pudding, instead try this Homemade Vanilla Pudding from Healthy Home Economist
b.) Use full-fat organic cream cheese instead of low-fat
c.) Avoid the Reddi-wip topping and try this Homemade Reddi Whip from Chocolate Covered Katie
5.) Tuna Patties
Tuna is always a great high-protein option to start your meal. However, you can easily ruin a good first choice with mayo, breads, and other inflammatory ingredients. This recipe tries VERY hard to ruin your metabolism, but we’ll fix it right up.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use a gluten-free bread in place of the white-bread, even an organic sprouted grain bread would be a better option
b.) Make sure your butter is a grass-fed variety to ensure you stay away from GMOs, hormones, and antibiotics
6.) 5-Ingredient Zucchini Fritters
With onle five ingredients, you’d think it would impossible to mess up, right? Think again, some low-carb experts think if they use zucchini or spaghetti squash, they have a rockstar recipe. Wrong.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use white or brown rice flour in place of the all-purpose flour
b.) Make sure your eggs are organic, pastured eggs
c.) AVOID vegetable oil like the plague, always use coconut oil in place of vegetable oil.
This Is Exactly How To Eat For Losing Fat
I know, before you say “any recipe with bacon” is OK in my book. The bacon isn’t necessarily the problem with this recipe, but as you’ll see below in my analysis, your bacon choice is important.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use 1 Tbsp. of melted coconut oil in place of vegetable oil. Refined coconut oil is OK, if you afraid of altering the taste.
b.) Choose organic chicken. Hormone/antiobitic free is most important when buying chicken.
c.) Ranch dressing is loaded with soybean oil and other preservatives, try making your own from The Food Renegade
d.) As for your bacon, choose nitrite/hormone/antiobiotic free bacon and of course, choose organic cheese.
8.) Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole
My mouth was watering reading through this unique recipe, but it needed just a few healthy tweaks before it made its way into my kitchen.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Use organic chicken.
b.) Best to use nitrite, preservative, additive free ham from a natural source.
c.) Use rice flour or tapioca starch in place the flour
d.) Grass-fed/organic milk is best option.
e.) Replace your Panko breadcrums with a gluten-free breadcrumb for easier digestion.
f.) And of course, choose a grass-fed butter, like Kerrygold
9.) Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
I cringe when I see a perfectly good sounding recipe have the below ingredients, because it tricks you into thinking you’re about to make a REAL FOOD meal. You won’t be deceived anymore after learning which ingredients to replace.
Ingredients to replace:
a.) Avoid PAM cooking spray, use a small amount of coconut oil to grease your pans.
b.) Try using coconut aminos in place of soy sauce, since soy can cause many hormonal imbalances
c.) Use potato or taipioca starch in place of cornstarch to avoid GMOs
d.) Choose grass-fed flank steak or at least hormone-free beef.
As you can see, it just takes a lot of small tweaks to transform an unhealthy recipe into a healthy one. It’s a good practice to examine ANY ingredient list before you start cooking any recipe to make sure it’s truly healthy.
With more and more “cooking blogs” and “low-carb experst” popping up, you need to become a “healthy detective” and “ingredient ninja.”
Do you need help transforming a recipe? Or have a question about my breakdown? You can ask me questions after joining The 3-Week Metabolic Fat Loss Challenge below:
