Banting Drinks

The Banting diet has been gaining momentum over the past few years and is currently the “miracle” diet that tackles weight loss and metabolic syndrome. It is one that encourages high fat, moderate protein and very low carbohydrate eating.

You probably know all about which Banting friendly foods are allowed on your daily menu, but what about Banting friendly beverages?

Bullet-proof coffee: This delicious coffee drink is not only low in carbs, it is very high in the healthy medium chain-triglyceride and saturated fats. It involves adding MCT oil and butter to your morning coffee, whipping it together and adding some low-carb xylitol or stevia to sweeten. A drink like this may fill you up enough that you could postpone breakfast for a few hours and stay in ketosis (the ultimate fat-burning state).

Tea: Any kind of tea is safe on the banting diet, just as long as you don’t load it with sugar! If you like to sweeten your tea then add some low-carb xylitol or stevia. You can make things interesting by making iced tea with herbal infusions and sweetening it with xylitol or stevia.

Low-carb smoothies: A quick and easy low-carb smoothie can be thirst quenching and refreshing. Just make sure you are using low-carb fruit. Throw a cup of berries into the blender with some coconut oil. Nut butter, super food powders of your choice, water and ice and you will have a tasty drink in no time.

Water: The hormone insulin, secreted when we eat carbs, holds onto water and this is why we often get water retention or bloating on a high carb diet. So when starting a low-carb diet like Banting, it is important to drink plenty of water because the initial weight-loss will be from water weight. You can make your water interesting by flavouring it with mint, basil, thyme, lemon, ginger or your choice of fruit. Just make sure not to eat all the fruit afterwards!

Certain Alcohol: Remember that drinking alcohol of any kind is likely to slow weight loss because alcohol gets converted to acetate which is then used as an energy source. This means that fat is not burned for energy for about 2 or 3 days after this. However, if weight-loss is not your goal or if you simply choose to indulge then the best low-carb alcohol options include most spirits and dry wines. Avoid sweet wines, coolers, beer, cider, and any drinks that need to be mixed with cordials, cool drinks or tonic water.