The Banting Diet has taken South Africa by storm. It means eating low carbs and high fat (LCHF). Whenever you eat, choose more fatty stuff to fill you up and little or no carbs at all. You’re allowed between 25 to 50g/100g carbs a day, so you can have some carbs (list of foods in this bracket below). There are no portion sizes to stick to. You pretty much eat as much as you want until you’re full. The idea is that your body knows when it’s full and it will tell you. You don’t have to overeat, and by no means should you undereat. Below are foods you can eat and can’t eat. I also give the Cape Townians places which serve Banting dishes.
The fatty / practically no carbs at all / good stuff to eat
ANIMAL PROTEIN
- All eggs
- All meats, poultry and game
- All natural and cured meats (pancetta, parma ham, coppa etc)
- All natural and cured sausages (salami, chorizo etc)
- All offal
- All seafood (except swordfish and tilefish – high mercury content)
- Broths
DAIRY
- Cottage cheese
- Cream
- Cream cheese
- Full-cream Greek yoghurt
- Full-cream milk
- Hard cheeses
- Soft cheeses
FATS
- Any rendered animal fat
- Avocado oil
- Butter
- Cheese – firm, natural, full-fat, aged cheeses (not processed)
- Coconut oil
- Duck fat
- Ghee
- Lard
- Macadamia oil
- Mayonnaise, full fat only (not from seed oils – see recipe for coconut mayo)
- Olive oil
FLAVOURINGS AND CONDIMENTS
All flavourings and condiments are okay, provided they do not contain sugars and preservatives or vegetable oils.
NUTS AND SEEDS
- Almonds
- Flaxseeds (watch out for pre-ground flaxseeds, they go rancid quickly and become toxic)
- Macadamia nuts
- Pecan nuts
- Pine nuts
- Sunflower seeds
- Walnuts
SWEETENERS
- Erythritol granules
- Stevia powder
- Xylitol
VEGETABLES
- All green leafy vegetables (spinach, cabbage, lettuces etc)
- Any other vegetables grown above the ground
- Artichoke hearts
- Asparagus
- Aubergines
- Avocadoes
- Broccoli
- Brussel sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Courgettes
- Leeks
- Mushrooms
- Olives
- Onions
- Peppers
- Pumpkin
- Radishes
- Sauerkraut
- Spring onions
- Tomatoes
The carby / bad stuff to never eat
BAKED GOODS
- All flours from grains – wheat flour, cornflour, rye flour, barley flour, pea flour, rice flour etc
- All forms of bread
- All grains – wheat, oats, barley, rye, amaranth, quinoa, teff etc
- Beans (dried)
- “Breaded” or battered foods
- Brans
- Breakfast cereals, muesli, granola of any kind
- Buckwheat
- Cakes, biscuits, confectionary
- Corn products – popcorn, polenta, corn thins, maize
- Couscous
- Crackers, cracker breads
- Millet
- Pastas, noodles
- Rice
- Rice cakes
- Sorghum
- Spelt
- Thickening agents such as gravy powder, maize starch or stock cubes
BEVERAGES
- Beer, cider
- Fizzy drinks of any description other than carbonated water
- Lite, zero, diet drinks of any description
DAIRY / DAIRY-RELATED
- Cheese spreads, commercial spreads
- Coffee creamers
- Commercial almond milk
- Condensed milk
- Fat-free anything
- Ice cream
- Puddings
- Reduced-fat cow’s milk
- Rice milk
- Soy milk
FATS
- All seed oils (safflower, sunflower, canola, grapeseed, cottonseed, corn)
- Chocolate
- Commercial sauces, marinades and salad dressings
- Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils including margarine, vegetable oils, vegetable fats
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
- Fruit juice of any kind
- Vegetable juices (other than home-made with Green list vegetables)
GENERAL
- All fast food
- All processed food
- Any food with added sugar such as glucose, dextrose etc
MEAT
- All unfermented soya (vegetarian “protein”)
- Meats cured with excessive sugar
- Vienna sausages, luncheon meats
STARCHY VEGETABLES
- Beetroots
- Legumes
- Parsnips
- Peanuts
- Peas
- Potatoes (regular)
SWEETENERS
- Agave anything
- Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, acusulfame K, saccharin, sucralose, splenda)
- Cordials
- Dried fruit
- Fructose
- Honey
- Malt
- Sugar
- Sugared or commercially pickled foods with sugar
- Sweets
- Syrups of any kind
The ok / do have carbs but really low carbs stuff to eat
Remember you can have between 25g of carbs per 100g each day. These foods do have carbs, so monitor how much of them you have. But you don’t have to steer clear of them by any means.
FRUITS
- Apples 1.5
- Bananas 1 small
- Blackberries 3.5 C
- Blueberries 1.5 C
- Cherries (sweet) 1 C
- Clementines 3
- Gooseberries 1.5 C
- Grapes (green) under 1 C
- Kiwi fruits 3
- Mangos, sliced, under 1 C
- Nectarines 2
- Pawpaw 1
- Peaches 2
- Pears (Bartlett)
- Pineapple, sliced, 1 C
- Plums 4
- Pomegranate ½
- Prickly pears 4
- Quinces 2
- Raspberries 2 C
- Strawberries 25
- Watermelon 2 C
NUTS
- Cashews, raw, 6 T
- Chestnuts, raw, 1 C
SWEETENERS
- Honey 1 t
VEGETABLES
- Butternut 1.5 C
- Carrots 5
- Sweet potato 0.5 C
KEY
C = cups per day
T = tablespoons per day
t = teaspoons per day
g = grams per day
For example: Apples 1.5 are all the carbs you can have for the day
Read more about the facts of how and why the diet evolved here.
BANTING RESTAURANTS IN CAPE TOWN
The Banting Kitchen – Greenpoint
65 on Main – Greenpoint
Starlings – Claremont
Chalk + Cork – City Bowl
Den Anker – Waterfront
Freres Bistro – City Bowl
Rcaffe – City Bowl
Rococoa – Woodstock
Arugula Bistro + Bread – Belville
Pulp Kitchen + Deli – Durbanville
Soet Bistro – Durbanville
Papinos – Hout Bay
You forgot Cold Gold in Stellenbosch 🙂
You list almonds with 22g/100g carbohydrates under “practically no carbs at all” while peas with 14g/100g and peanuts with 16g/100g is listed under “carby / bad stuff”?
Why?
Hi Hugo! The lists are straight from his book “The Real Meal Revolution”. See this link: http://realmealrevolution.com/real-food-lists. He likes the fat content of the almonds as opposed to the peanuts. Fat fills you up which keeps you fuller, longer. He doesn’t like the starch in the peas. More here: http://realmealrevolution.com/real-food-lists#red
Would it be better to have full cream almond milk than full cream milk if you are going to have some form of milk in your tea?
Hi Patsy. He recommends full cream milk, for sure. He actually recommends cream for coffee and tea.
Hi i was wondering if corn is ok?
I recently found out my child has a few allergies, for example nut, soy, gluten and so on. Any ideas on what other things to use instead of the nuts to still have a balanced diet? We already did go gluten, nut and soy free, but also fell sick not long after because of a lack of vitamins, how can we incorporate banting with allergies and also being healthy?
Corn is definitely not okay – its on the red list! including cornflour, maize, couscous, popcorn, polenta, etc…
Are sugar snap peas allowed? What about baby corn?
Hi,
I was wondering if the pyotts cracker breads (one without the maize) were ok to use, I know that the dr Cohen diet allows 5 per day as the body does not register the tiny amount of it. Usually 1 breakfast and 2 for lunch and dinner.
Please could u look into that?
Many thanks
Chris 🐎
In one Pyott’s biscuit there is 6.4g of carbs, so you could have 4 a day. Remember that this diet is low carbs, not necessarily no carbs. Keep your carb intake at 25g of carbs a day maximum and you will be fine. Look on the labels or google carbs!
Can I have condensmilk in my coffee say once a week?
38g of condensed milk is 28g of carbs. So you can have roughly six teaspoons a week of condensed milk