Eating the wrong amount or type of carbohydrates can cause your blood sugar to spike. This can send your energy and mood levels on a not so exhilarating roller coaster ride. Often, these rides leave you craving for more. The tried and tested solution to that is taking control of your eating habits and saying “yes” to snacks with no carbs instead of falling into a sugar-laden trap time and time again.
If you want to learn more about carbs and find out what low-carb snacks you should add to your daily menu, stick with this read!
Carbohydrates are molecules that contain hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon atoms. As far as nutrition is concerned, carbs are one of the three main macronutrients. The other two are fats and proteins.
Carbohydrates are divided into three categories, which include the following:
You cannot digest this, but consuming fiber daily is vital to your health.
These are foods with long chains of glucose molecules. The digestive system breaks them down into glucose.
Sweet and short-chain carbohydrates are found in snacks and foods with glucose, fructose, sucrose, and galactose.
The primary purpose of carbs in your body is to provide the energy needed for your body to function.
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The delicious taste of carbs comes at a price. If you’re not mindful of your carb intake, you can wind up eating too many calories overall, and weight gain is inevitable.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, eating a diet full of carbohydrates causes your blood sugar to spike. You could therefore be facing a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (2).
When consumed in excess, your cholesterol and triglyceride levels will soar.
The no carbs snacks are essentially those with the lowest amount of carbohydrates, usually 1 gram or less per serving. Here are some sweet snacks with few or no carbs:
If you are craving a chocolate chip cookie, then go for the Keto low-carb alternative. Six of these cookies only contain 11 grams of carbohydrates.
The snack’s combination of sweetness and crunchiness will not overload your carb count. A serving of honey crisp apples only contains 12 grams of carbs.
If you love sweeter snacks, then this nut snack is a must-eat. It gives you a delicious caramel flavor for only 8 grams of carbs per serving.
You only get 6% of your daily recommended carbohydrate consumption if you eat this snack alone.
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According to the US Department of Agriculture, each gram of carbohydrates you consume contains 4 calories. The same applies to proteins which each gram gives you 4 calories.
Fats contain more than twice the amount of proteins and carbs have.
Consuming proteins, carbs, and fats in high portions can easily add up to thousands of calories.
Now that you don’t want to take calorie-dense snacks, which options do you have? Well, the best snacks for you would be those with low carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Here are some of the snacks:
This snack contains zero grams of added sugars and is an excellent source of nutrients such as Vitamin E, D, and calcium.
Almond and cashew nuts butter are all in rage these days, but have you ever tried coconut butter? It is made from pure coconuts and has a natural super creamy taste.
Crunchy roasted and flavored bean crisps contain way fewer calories. This is because they contain a lot of fiber, a non-digestible compound.
You can consume plenty of foods, but how do you identify the ones with no carbs?
Well, foods rich in proteins and healthy unsaturated fats do not have a lot of carbs as they fall under a different macronutrient category.
So, to curb the consumption of starches and sugars, you could go for protein snacks with few or no carbs, such as the following: (4).
Sweet Hummus contains a lot of carbs, but this snack contains way less.
If you are craving a tasty snack that won’t have any impact on your sugar levels, then you only need to mix a few tablespoons of no-sugar dried cherries with dark chocolate. It tastes amazing just like other cherries.
Yogurt is the best grab-and-go tasty snack. However, many brands contain a lot of sugars. You need to go for Greek yogurt, which has fewer added sugars and more proteins.
You can include the following meat types in your snacks: beef, lamb, exotic meats, organ meats, fowl, pork, and veal.
What snacks can I eat with no carbs or sugars? What is health nutrition obtained from these snacks? Here is everything you need to know about these delicious snacks:
First on the snacks with no carbs list is Sardines. These are small oily fish that have a lot of nutrients.
A can of sardines with around 92 grams has zero grams of carbs and 23 grams of proteins.
They are also a good source of calcium as 27% of their serving contains this mineral.
For a crunchy and nutritious zero carbs snack, prepare sardines with low-carb chia seeds and flaxseed crackers.
Caprese salad is an Italian dish made by mixing cheese, tomatoes, cheese, basil leaves, mozzarella cheese, and olive oil (1).
To prepare the low carb snack, follow the steps below:
Dried seaweed sheets are a portable, crunchy low-carb snack.
Seaweed is a good source of natural dietary iodine that supports your thyroid health.
Your thyroid glands make essential hormones that are needed for metabolism, development, and growth (8).
A sheet of Seaweed contains about 1 gram of carbs. It can be enjoyed alone or paired with other foods such as scrambled eggs and avocado slices. You can also include it in your salad.
Salmon is one of the healthy snacks with no sugar or carbs. Besides the foodstuff containing low carbohydrates, it is also a source of the long-chain omega-three fatty acids known as EPA and DHA.
The above healthy fats have many benefits in your system. They have been linked with improved heart health and reduced inflammation (6).
For a tasty low-carb snack, follow the steps below:
Fresh apricots have low carbs, unlike their dried and canned varieties, which have a lot of sugars and carbohydrates.
One fresh apricot weighs about 36 grams and contains only 4 grams of carbs.
To make stuffed apricots with blue cheese, follow the procedure below:
String cheese is one of the popular low-carb snacks which are portable and easy to make.
29 grams of string cheese has less than one gram of carbohydrates and more than 6 grams of proteins.
Cheese is also a known source of calcium. This mineral is needed for your bone health, nervous system, and muscle function (3).
You do not need any other ingredients to make this snack. Just consume it without mixing it with other foods.
Instead of using mayonnaise in your spin-on egg salad, you could substitute it for mashed avocado.
Use these steps:
You can enjoy this salad by itself or spread it on to low-carb seed crackers. Also you can scoop the salad into a lettuce wrap.
The regular yogurt you purchase from the stores is usually high in added sugars. So when you go shopping, make sure you choose unsweetened and plain yogurt to eliminate all these sugars. This will minimize carbohydrate content.
A 170 gram serving of plain and unsweetened yogurt has far fewer carbs than its counterparts (13).
To make yogurt a low-carb snack, pair it with some nuts. You can boost its flavor by adding a little cinnamon, vanilla extract, and natural zero-carb sweetener such as Stevia.
Edamame is unripe, green soybean. These are packed with a lot of nutrients.
A half a cup of edamame contains only 7 grams of carbs and around 9 grams of plant-based proteins.
For a simple snack made with this ingredient:
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A half-cup of cottage cheese contains only 5 grams of carbs and 12 grams of high-quality proteins.
The cheese is also rich in bone-building vitamins such as phosphorus and calcium.
A common addition you can use in a cottage cheese recipe is fruit.
If you want it to be savory and lower in carbs, then use avocado slices, chopped green onions, hot sauce, and cherry tomatoes in place of fruits.
A quarter cup of pumpkin seeds contains only 9 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber.
What’s more, these seeds are rich in zinc, vital for optimal metabolism and immune health (14).
To make cinnamon toasted pumpkin seeds:
The best snacks with low calories contain fewer carbs. A bento box is a container that is compartmentalized to hold as many different food items as possible.
To make your bento box lower in carbs, fill it with items such as the following:
Dipping your carrots into creamy peanut butter is one of the ways you can eat a low-carb delicious snack.
A half-cup of carrot sticks with two tablespoons of peanut butter will only give you a total of 13 grams of carbohydrates.
Note that many peanut butter brands will have a lot of sugars. So be keen to choose a natural variety made of peanuts and salt only.
Tzatziki is made from plain yogurt, cucumbers, and garlic.
Fresh herbs like dill or parsley may be often added to it.
Two tablespoons of this sauce provide only 2 grams of carbohydrates. This makes it an excellent low-carb food.
For additional flavors, pair tzatziki with veggies like celery sticks, baby carrots, or broccoli (11).
Kale is one of the famous low-carb vegetables packed with vitamin A, K, and folate.
A cup of kale contains less than a gram of carbs.
If you don’t fancy raw or sautéed kales, then kale chips are an excellent alternative for you. To make them:
The name of these snacks implies high sugar and hence high carb content, right? Well, not at all!
Sweet bell peppers have fewer carbohydrates. Half a cup of chopped peppers will contain only 3 grams of carbs.
On top of the low carbohydrate content, bell peppers are also rich in vitamin C. The mineral is known to boost immunity, heart and skin health. One green bell pepper has more of this vitamin than a whole orange (12).
Make a quick healthy snack by dipping sweet bell peppers in smashed avocados mixed with onion, garlic, salt, and lime juice.
BLT lettuce wraps are one of the best snacks to eat with no carbs.
Sandwiches filled with bacon, lettuce, and tomato (BLT sandwiches) are known to be high in carbohydrates. However, you can easily strip away the carbs through a BLT lettuce wrap.
Follow the steps below:
With the right ingredients, you can easily make a low carbohydrates juice.
For instance, strawberries have low carbs and are very delicious. A half a cup of the fruits only gives you 6 grams of starch.
To make a strawberry smoothie, blend the following:
Carrot has fewer carbs than you might think. 10 baby carrots only provide 8 grams of starch.
To make a tasty snack, you could pair baby carrots with a dip like homemade aioli. Follow the steps below:
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The no carbs snacks are essentially those with the lowest amount of carbohydrates. Usually, 1 gram or less per serving. Dark chocolate has low carbohydrates.
It is the perfect snack for you if you crave something sweet. 28 grams of 70% dark chocolate has only 12 grams of carbs and 9 grams of fiber.
For better results, pair your chocolate with a tablespoon of cashew butter. This will give you additional proteins and fats.
Be sure that the chocolate you chose to consume has a lower percentage of carbs per serving and is 70% dark.
A medium-sized avocado has only 12 grams of carbs. Nine grams of these carbohydrates are in the form of fiber.
Fiber is an indigestible nutrient that your body doesn’t absorb. This makes avocado one of the best low-carb snacks (5).
To make your stuffed avocado:
You can fill the avocado with chopped shrimp, scrambled eggs, cheese, or tuna salad.
Berries are highly nutritious and contain low starch and sugars.
A half-cup of blueberry provides 11 grams of carbs.
For a delicious snack, combine a half cup of berries with two tablespoons of any heavy whipping cream.
About 85 grams of canned tuna contains zero carbs and over 20 grams of proteins.
To make a tuna salad snack:
An egg contains less than one gram of starch.
Instead, it has other vitamins such as B12 and choline, essential to your brain health (7).
To make tasty deviled eggs:
Cheddar cheese contains low starches and sugars. A serving of the versatile snack has less than 1 gram of carbs.
For a delicious snack, consider making cheddar cheese crisps for yourself instead of buying from restaurants. You will have full control of the ingredients and recipe.
Follow the steps below:
If you are on a low-carb diet, it is good to consume a lot of healthy dishes. The snacks with few or no carbs listed above will provide you with nutrients such as fiber, fats, and proteins while keeping your hunger between meals at bay.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make any kind of decision. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!