THE BANTING GREEN LIST
Do you ever wish you could eat until you were satisfied and still lose weight? You’re in luck.
We have discovered 69 foods that you can eat until you are full that will never make you fat. Your luck doesn’t stop there. These foods, if prepared properly, are totally delicious. And, you get to eat these foods non-stop all the way to your Awesome Weight.
You may be afraid of food, or you might inherently feel that food has to taste bland or boring to be healthy. What if we told you that you could eat your fill of delicious foods, day-in and day-out, that would restore your health, help you lose weight and allow you to fall in love with food again? Would you believe us?
We developed the Banting Green List with you in mind. These foods are not special berries and nuts from the icy cliffs of the Himalayas or extreme foods that you need to get from a super-premium grocer. These are normal, whole vegetables, fruits, proteins, condiments and fats that you can get at any shop or market that sells real food.
The Banting/Keto Diet (that’s what we’re about) was built on the Banting Food Lists. The Four Lists of the Banting Diet are:
- The Green List – Eat to Hunger
- The Orange List – Exercise Self-Control
- The Light Red List – Hardly Ever
- The Red List – Never Ever
As far as the Banting Green List goes, there are no restrictions on the any of the foods on this list.
Here’s what the Banting Green List looks like.
Banting / Keto Fruits and Vegetables
The fruits and vegetables on the Banting Green List, which you will see below, are all generally low in carbohydrates and mostly high in fibre baring one or two. The items that are high in fibre (prebiotics) are marked with a (P). For best results we recommend you make these fruits and vegetables the biggest part of your diet (yes, more than meat, fat or any supplements).
Ingredients that are shaded and marked with an (n) are nightshades. They have their own story.
You can eat them in any combination and you can cook them using any method you like, provided the method does not use ingredients from lists that you are not allowed to eat from (some lists are out of bounds during certain phases).
Banting / Keto Drinks
It might sound odd to you, if you are the kind of person who drinks energy drinks, recovery drinks and protein shakes, but the healthiest thing you can ever drink is still good old-fashioned H20. We believe the things that are missing from this list are actually more important than the items that you actually see here.
There are things that help your body store fat that you have probably never even thought about. Smoothies, energy drinks (even the organic ones), coffee, tea and even diet sodas have all shown to prevent you from losing weight.
When we say herbal teas, we mean any tea that isn’t actually a tea. Berry teas, ginger teas from the store, fruit teas and rooibos (for the Saffas) are all great to drink in whatever quantity you like. The real slices of fruit are there for flavour not for eating. Remember, most fruits are on the orange list.
Flavoured waters and still or sparkling water are probably your best bet if you aren’t sure about the caffeine content.
On the point of hydration. There is no goal for water consumption. Don’t dehydrate yourself. Don’t overhydrate. How will you know if you are dehydrating? You get this thing called thirst. If you don’t get thirsty, don’t drink anything.
Banting / Keto Proteins
OK, we have sold ourselves short. We said there were only 69 foods on the Banting Green List, but that’s because we classified ‘All meats, poultry and game’ as only one ingredient. Then we said ‘Naturally cured meats’ was also one ingredient and followed it with ‘All offal’ and ‘All seafood’ as individual ingredients. Obviously those four items alone make up about 500 ingredients, depending on where in the world you live.
It is a large misconception that Banting is a high protein diet, but that is not the case. You should be getting most of the colours on your plate from the fruits and vegetables higher up on the page. But you should still eat your fill of protein.
Have you ever been on a diet and thought, ‘There is nothing I can actually eat’? Well, in the world of proteins like you see in the list below, there is literally nothing you CAN’T eat.
Banting / Keto Condiments
If the veggies and meats of the Banting Green List aren’t enough to flavour your food, you still have a large variety of condiments available to you, that will not make you gain you weight. In fact, there are even some condiments that help you lose weight.
Real Dijon, German or Wholegrain Mustard is something you can eat to your hearts content but vinegar will actually help you lose weight if you have it the right way.
Banting / Keto Fertilisers
What? I need to give yoghurt to my plants? Not quite.
Because the total surface area of the gut lining is thought to be anywhere between the size of a badminton court to a full size tennis court, we refer to it as our Wimbledon Centre Court. Centre Court is an appropriate name because only the most important games happen there.
New science suggests that your gut is linked to every major function in your entire body, from your hormone levels to your state of mind. Every time you eat, you are literally playing the game of your life.
Fertilisers are foods that help replenish gut bacteria or that help your gut lining heal itself which obviously keep your gut banging on all cylinders. If you want to win, you need to keep that court in good nick, and you do that by eating fertilisers (preferably from the Banting Green List, although there are two fertilisers on the Banting Orange List).
Banting / Keto Fats
The fats of the Banting Green List may come as quite a surprise to you. You may have spent your whole life thinking butter and lard were going to kill you.
SURPRISE! They’re good for you.
But, not so fast.
It is a common misconception that these good fats need to be eaten in enormous volumes. Not true. You don’t need to start adding them to anything you can, including your coffee. You can, however enjoy them in the normal process of cooking real foods.
If you haven’t already, download your free copy of the Banting Food Lists to see what else you can and can’t eat if you’re on the Banting Diet.
