Last updated on April 14th, 2017

Your guide to free quality sources on the Internet

Last updated April 2017.

Knowledge is power.  When switching to a low-carbohydrate way of eating, you should learn as much as you can about it — not just the “how” but also the “why.”  Below is a selection of free low-carb diet resources that I have found helpful.

This page is a work in progress, and always will be.

Low-Carb Background and Foundations

The focus of the resources in this section is the “why” of the low-carbohydrate approach. They cover basic science, history, politics and general principles.  If you’re in a hurry, skip this section and go to the next.

Atkins.com. Notable Research. This page summarizes many of the peer-reviewed studies that support the “Atkins Nutritional Approach” and low-carb diets in general.

Carpender, Dana. FAQ. Hold the Toast! Carpender is a diet-book and cookbook author who lost 40 pounds by going low-carb.  Her blog’s FAQ stops short of laying out a diet (you have to buy her book for that), but does respond to many key questions, starting with “Is a low-carb diet for everyone?”

Sisson, Mark. Why Grains Are Unhealthy. Mark’s Daily Apple. Sisson is a fitness and diet guru in the “Paleo” mold, and the author of The Primal Blueprint. He writes a lively blog, going into detail on many topics; in this post, he presents the case against grains.

Taubes, Gary. The Soft-Science of Dietary Fat. Science, 2001. Taubes is an award-winning science writer.  His work examines the health and weight-loss benefits of low-carb eating, but also attacks the fat phobia that has gripped America since the 1970s. In this article, Taubes argues that “the history of the national conviction that dietary fat is deadly, and its evolution from hypothesis to dogma, is one in which politicians, bureaucrats, the media, and the public have played as large a role as the scientists and the science.”

Taubes, Gary. What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? New York Times, 2002. This article lays out the themes that he explores in more depth in his books Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat.

Volek, Jeff S. and Stephen D. Phinney. The Sad Saga of Saturated Fat. Art and Science of Low Carb, 2013. In this well-documented article, two accomplished researchers examine how saturated fat got such a bad reputation and why that needs to change.

Low-Carb Diets, Dietary Advice and Tools

The links in this section are all to resources freely available on the Web, offering practical advice on how to get started — or restarted — eating low-carb, high-fat.

Anderson, Jim. 5 lessons for eating low-carb. OK, this is one of my own pieces on Life After Carbs, but it’s a good one. (Yes, a rarity. Ha ha.) I wrote it after I’d been eating low-carb for several years, so it is based on experience. If I had always followed the principles I lay out herein, I’d be a thinner man.

Atkins.com. Free Weight Loss Tools. This is just one of many pages on the Atkins website that provides free dietary information. The focus here is on digital tools such as carb counters, diet trackers, mobile apps, and downloadable meal plans and recipes. The numerous, well-known books by Dr. Atkins and his colleagues provide additional information, but the website offers a great deal for free.

Attia, Peter. How can I lose weight? This section of Dr. Attia’s personal blog offers a clear, no-nonsense answer to the question posed by its title. The page links to his personal story of weight loss and nutritional education.

Dolson, Laura. Making Your Carbs Count. This page lays out seven principles for constructing a healthy, effective low-carb diet. My favorite — “eat nuts and seeds.” Also, Dolson’s An Overview of a Low-Carb Diet provides an excellent look at the basics of eating low-carb.

Eades, Michael R. Tips & tricks for starting (or restarting) low-carb Pt.I. and Pt. II. May-June 2011. Dr. Eades MD is co-author of the best-selling diet book Protein Power. In this blog post, he provides a primer for getting started.  His bottom-line advice is “don’t be a wuss when you start your low-carb way of eating. Keep the carbs cut to the minimum and load up on the fat.”

Eenfeldt, Andreas. LCHF for beginners.  Dr. Eenfeldt MD provides a clear, concise introduction to eating the low-carb, high-fat way — covering dietary advice, theory, tips, recipes and more.

Lifestyle Medicine Clinic, Duke University Medical Center. Low-Carbohydrate Diet: Low-carb Menu Planning. This pdf file contains a three-page handout laying out a basic low-carb diet.  It is similar to the example diet that Taubes provides in Why We Get Fat, but less detailed.

Stella, George. Get Started.  Celebrity low-carb chef George Stella provides practical advice for carb-proofing your kitchen, examining food labels, and navigating the super-market. He provides great low-carb recipes, too.

Low-Carb Oriented Videos

I’m a reader, but many people prefer to watch. Luckily, You-Tube has thousands of free, relevant videos by and about low-carb experts and enthusiasts. No list of low-carb diet resources would be complete without a few good examples. 

Davis, William. Wheatlessness: A 21st Century Health Strategy. (The IHMC, September 2013, 1:09:20). Dr. Davis, author of Wheat Belly, explains the many health benefits of “removing this thing that never belonged in your diet anyway.” He responds to push-back from the “Wheat Improvement Committee” and other defenders of the grain, comparing their tactics to those of the tobacco industry a half-century ago.

Jolene. 7 Low Carb Breakfast Ideas (YummyInspirations.net, October 2016, 10:03). A keto blogger shares a week’s worth of delicious, low-carb morning meals. This is part of a series that includes lunch, dinner and salad ideas.

Taubes, Gary. Sweet Poison? (The Agenda with Steve Paikin, January 2017, 24:57). In this interview, Taubes discusses the ideas underlying his best-selling book The Case Against Sugar. If you don’t have the time to read the book, watch this video!

Teicholz, Nina. The Big Fat Surprise. (TEDxEast, March 2014, 19:57). What’s wrong with our hypothesis about saturated fat, and where did it come from? Author Teicholz addresses these and other nutrition questions in this TED Talk based on her best-selling book of the same title. (Also see Dr. David Perlmutter’s 2017 interview with Teicholz.)

Volek, Jeff. The Many Facets of Keto-Adaptation: Health, Performance, and Beyond (The IHMC, May 2014, 1:03:48). Dr. Volek, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, discusses carb-addiction and intolerance, how eating too many carbs blocks our ability to burn body fat, and how to eat a healthy, sustainable low-carb, high-fat diet.

Westman, Eric. The Science and Practice of Low Carb Diets (Duke University Office Hours, June 2012, 42:41). Dr. Westman, director of the Duke Lifestyle Medicine program, says that for two-thirds of Americans, the high-carb, low-fat diet is “the recipe for obesity.” He explains the low-carb approach and answers questions from the audience.