No sugar, no grain (NSNG) snacks sound pretty straightforward. Just eliminate added sugars and grains, and you’re good to go. But it’s not that simple.
NSNG is not a formal diet. It’s a gateway into a low-carb high-fat lifestyle. In this spirit, these no sugar, no grain snacks are all either keto friendly, carnivore friendly, or both.
If you’re practicing NSNG guidelines, you’ll likely want to snack far less often than when on a standard diet.
An no sugar, no grains eating plan centers around whole animal foods like red meat, eggs, and full-fat dairy, making it extremely satiating.
But for those times when you or your family are on the run or just need a nutritious boost, these simple recipes and convenient store-bought options will keep you in the NSNG lane and headed to greater health and wellness.
Americans eat A LOT of sugar. The average American adult consumes 94 grams of sugar per day or nearly 100 pounds per year. And for children, it’s even more. [1]
Source: Stephan Guyenet
In addition to this extreme intake of added sugars, 83% of American families eat at fast food restaurants at least once a week, while 37% of American adults eat fast food on any given day. [2]
These ultra-processed foods are high in added and hidden sugars, refined grains, and toxic vegetable oils.
Each of these ingredients have been linked to the chronic inflammatory “diseases of civilization,” including cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, among many others.4 They’re called the diseases of civilization because they are virtually non-existent in cultures that consume low-carb traditional diets without added sugar, few if any grains, and high amounts of fat from animals.
In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60% of Americans have at least one chronic inflammatory disease. [3]
Choosing NSNG snacks and an NSNG lifestyle, in general, may offer numerous benefits, including:
Now that we know why it’s beneficial to go with NSNG snacks, here’s our list of the best ones.
This is a 100% guilt-free “iced cream” that Dr. Kiltz recommends to his fertility patients trying to conceive. It’s loaded with nourishing fats, proteins, and important micronutrients.
Though the recipe eliminates all sweeteners, it has a natural sweetness that will be even more apparent if you’ve been on the low-carb wagon for a while.
Pro-tip: If you have trouble digesting dairy, look for A2 cream from certified A2 cows, goat, buffalo, or camels. A2 dairy is free from the standard A1 milk protein called casein. And studies show that A2 dairy is significantly easier to digest. [4] [5]
Kiltz’s Guilt-Free (No Sugar) Keto Ice Cream Nutrition
Instructions
Follow Along with Dr. Kiltz as He Makes His Guilt Free Keto Ice Cream
Steak leftovers are the easiest and most nutritious NSNG snack out there.
This one can come as a surprise for people who think NSNG snacks should be complicated low-carb versions of junk food. But we guarantee your body will thank you for keeping it simple.
Next time you’re shopping, select cuts of steak that are at least 25% larger than you can eat in one meal.
We recommend Ribeye steak. It has all the macro and micronutrients you need to thrive, including healthy fats, loads of complete proteins, B vitamins, and zinc.
Ribeye is so nutritionally replete that many people, including psychologist Jordan Peterson, swear by an elimination diet of just ribeye, salt, and water, known as the lion diet.
You can cook your ribeye along with Doctor Kiltz in the video below:
If you’re looking for an easy NSNG snack that’s both comforting and satiating, these cheese crisps are for you.
Cheddar cheese is high is loaded with healthy fat, and protein, and provides significant amounts of bioavailable vitamin A retinol.
Pepperoni has decent amounts of vitamin D, B5, B2, and B12, along with complete proteins and healthy fats.
Crumble on creamy blue cheese, and you’ll get the added benefits of beneficial bioactive peptides produced by the cheese cultures. For example, the compound spermidine in blue cheese has proven anti-aging benefits that benefit every organ in your body.4
Ingredients
If you find yourself in a period of life where you don’t have time or energy to whip up even a simple recipe, pork rinds and crackings can be the perfect whole food snack.
These NSNG snacks are crunchy, satiating, and surprisingly nutritious.
Though all pork rinds are cooked the same way–fried in lard at 400 degrees–how they’re rendered and cut before makes a big nutritional difference.
Most pork rinds are just the skin, which makes them high in protein but low in fat–these are easy to over-eat as if they were chips.
We recommend fat-back cracklins that come out of the frier as dense, savory cubes that will curb your hunger in just a few bites.
The best place to find pork rinds and cracklins is your local farmer’s market. But if your search turns up a dud, there are a couple of solid store-bought options.
Epic Artisanal Oven Baked Pork Rinds, Pink Himalayan Sea Salt flavor is made with two simple ingredients–salt and skin.
Pork rind bread crumbs also make NSNG “bread” crumbs. They do a great job of boosting your fat when consuming leaner meats like chicken and fish.
Speaking of using pork rinds as bread crumbs, here’s a prime example.
These keto zucchini fries are so damn delicious that they’ll impress friends and family who haven’t yet jumped on the low-carb living wagon.
Though not low in carbs, some good old-fashioned french fries fried in tallow or duck fat can make a delicious occasional snack.
Dr. Kiltz, who has been eating carnivore for over 12 years, whips up a batch of these once or twice a month on his treat days. This is Dr. Kiltz’s personal recipe
Though this recipe includes non-carnivore foods like lemon and dijon mustard, it’s great as a treat-day condiment that eliminates toxic vegetable oils and boosts your healthy fat intake.
It’s also possible to make this truly carnivore by eliminating lemon juice, ACV, and mustard. The taste will be bland, but you’ll get the texture.
Store in the fridge and enjoy!
Eggs are among the most nutritionally complete foods on earth–which makes sense considering that they need to contain all the nutrients necessary for growing an entire baby animal.
For this NSNG snack, we’ve dressed up the classic deviled egg, while eliminating the toxic seed oils that your get from traditional mayo and dressing
If you can find beef jerky without sugar and soy sauce (contain wheat, a grain!) then you’ve got one of the most convenient and delicious NSNG snacks out there.
Even better is biltong–the South African version of beef jerky that is made by air-drying meat. Biltong is easier to find without additives and is often made with fattier, higher quality cuts of meat.
You can make sure your jerky or biltong is fatty and NSNG by making it yourself. Start with a ribeye steak and follow these easy instructions.
If you’re on the run stock up on NSNG Brooklyn Biltong’s Naked Meat Flavor. Simple ingredients include grass-fed beef, apple cider vinegar, and salt.
Chocolate without sugar is simply the product of a bean pod and fits the parameters of an NSNG snack.
Choc-zero dark chocolate Keto Bark is the tastiest NSNG chocolate we’ve come across. But it’s also possible to just go pure dark.
Dark chocolate is chock-full of healthy fats. It contains beneficial oleic, stearic, and palmitic fatty acids.
Stearic acid has been found to promote mitochondrial health and trigger energy metabolism in our cells which benefits your body composition. [6]
One study found that dark chocolate offered more polyphenols, flavanols, and greater antioxidant effects than any other tested fruits, including acai and blueberries.
These antioxidant properties are responsible for the findings of other studies that show that dark chocolate can decrease “bad” LDL cholesterol and increase “good” HDL cholesterol in people. [7] [8] [9] [10]
The cardio-protective properties of dark chocolate were revealed in a study with 470 older men. Researchers found that dark chocolate reduced the risk of heart disease by 50% over a period of 15 years. [11]
And here’s a bonus: Dark chocolate provides mood-boosting compounds like endocannabinoid anandamide. [12]
Though NSNG doesn’t bar fruits, trainer Vinnie Tortorich who coined the no sugar, no grain approach, recommends that fruit be consumed in small amounts and only after you’ve adapted to a low-carb high-fat lifestyle.
Once you’ve gotten over the troughs and peaks of high-carb living, an occasional snack of low-toxin berries with heavy whipping cream can be simply delightful.
Berries are lower in sugar than most other fruits, with 5-10% net carbs by weight. [13]
Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are at the top of most keto-friendly fruit lists.
You can get even more decadent by covering your berries in the creme fraiche–the milder and more decadent French version of sour cream.
Berries and Cream Nutrition Highlights
NSNG snacks provide you with the robust nutrition of whole, high-fat low-carb foods while eliminating inflammatory sugars and grains.
The NSNG way of eating is a doorway into more sophisticated low-carb high-fat plans, including variations on ketogenic and carnivore diets.
These ten nourishing snacks are here to help you reclaim your metabolic health even when life gets taxing and time is hard to come by.
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