Where to Buy Low-Carb
Episode #9 of the course Basics of low-carb eating by Emily Stone
Welcome back!
You now know how to make low-carb choices for food and drinks, whether staying in or going out. To ensure you are making good choices at home, it’s best to remove everything processed, quick-digesting, and sugar-filled. When you’re ready to restock the pantry with low-carb alternatives, you may be able to find some or all of what you need at your local store. However, there are other great resources to know about that may provide better value and convenience for your low-carb, whole-food focused lifestyle.
For the purpose of this lesson, I’ll use the US as an example. But readers from other nations may also get useful ideas that will help them find alternatives in their native countries.
Amazon Subscribe and Save. When eating low-carb, there are only so many different foods to buy. You may find yourself restocking the same items each week or month and can actually use this to your advantage. If you are an Amazon Prime member and use Subscribe and Save, you’ll automatically receive your staple items each month at a discount.
Thrive Market. One site that really caters to those following a low-carb diet is ThriveMarket.com. You can sort their products by different categories like “Paleo” or “Staples,” view the nutrition information and ingredients for everything, and generally find competitive prices on many specialty brands. Thrive also has its own well-priced brand for many staple products. It is a members-only site, but they offer a free 30-day trial with a discount on your first purchase and the option to buy a one-year membership. There’s also a cash-back program to earn rewards for future purchases. If you are looking to low-carb-ify (probably not a real word) your pantry, this site is a one-stop shop for doing so.
Local farms. Depending on where you live, you may be able to order meat delivery from local farms, and if not, there are also national delivery services. It’s worth an internet search to see what options are available and check out their prices. Often, when you cut out the middleman and if you’re willing to order larger quantities, you can get much higher quality meat (remember, grass-fed = significantly higher omega-3 content) at a better price than the grocery store.
Produce delivery or CSA. Similarly, there are delivery services for produce, or you may even find a local service that offers meat, produce, dairy, and more. This can be a more cost-effective way to buy organic produce and buy seasonal/local. Many areas also have Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) where you purchase a “share” of a farm’s crops for the growing season. Typically, you get a weekly box of whatever was harvested. It’s a great way to try new varieties of fruit and vegetables.
I have found it freeing to simplify the fresh foods and pantry staples I keep in the house. It makes planning meals easier, and there’s still enough room to be creative and constantly try new combinations. My hope is that you’ll be able to use the resources shared today to invest in quality foods at a good value and enjoy a simplified fridge and pantry.
In this course, you have learned the importance of a low-carb diet, along with simple recipes to get started. You also now know where to purchase the needed ingredients to get cooking and baking. Tomorrow, in the last lesson, you’ll learn strategies for establishing new habits to support low-carb eating for life.
From my kitchen to yours,
Emily
Recommended resources
Eat Wild: directory of farms and ranches by state
Local Harvest: how to find a local CSA
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