{"id":9710,"date":"2024-08-20T16:49:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T15:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9710"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:58:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:58:41","slug":"carbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/carbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Are carbs back on the menu? They always have been at Slimming World!\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You may have seen\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/article\/061d0500-7a25-43a5-a6ed-b03659676598?shareToken=2ec5aa78572bc56f076594dadbab1a48\">research<\/a> suggesting that low-carbohydrate diets can negatively impact our health, sparking concern about cutting carbs to lose weight. This comes as no surprise to us at Slimming World. We know from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/press\/carbfusion-how-low-carbohydrate-diets-are-damaging-the-nations-health\">our own research<\/a> that\u00a0anti-carb messages and myths have caused widespread confusion about the role of carbs in health and weight loss \u2013 and that some dieters find low-carb diets difficult to follow, because they feel\u00a0hungry, bored and restricted in what they can eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Margaret Miles-Bramwell founded Slimming World,\u00a0she created a healthy way to lose weight without hunger, deprivation or guilt.\u00a0For more than 55 years, as the UK and Ireland\u2019s leading weight loss\u00a0organisation, we\u2019ve been advocating healthy complex carbs as a key part of our Food Optimising eating plan, with many of them (including potatoes, rice, pasta, lentils, beans, oats and wholegrains) featuring on our lists of Free Foods &#8211; foods that you can eat freely without weighing, measuring or counting &#8211; and measured Healthy Extras.\u00a0Our members tell us they feel they have been set free!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/real-life-stories\/sam-and-sophie\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Body-SamAndSophie-BeforeAfter_SlimmingWorldBlog-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9715\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Sam and Sophie are two of our members who\u2019ve achieved their dream weights without missing out on their favourite foods. Together, they\u2019ve lost an amazing 13st (82kg), and they\u2019re now planning to get married! They say:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Food Optimising eating plan was nothing like we were expecting. We\u2019re both big foodies, so we loved adapting some of our favourite meals, like spicy meatball pasta and&nbsp;Korean beef noodles, to make them slimming-friendly.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/real-life-stories\/sam-and-sophie\">Read Sam and Sophie\u2019s weight loss success story<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Slimming World Free Foods?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Free Foods are foods that are \u2018low energy dense\u2019 (lower in calories for their weight) \u2013 so they\u2019re the best at satisfying your appetite for the fewest calories. This means you can eat them freely and still lose weight beautifully.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Free Food means never feeling hungry, guilty or deprived, so you\u2019re less likely to want to rebel by reaching for those high-fat, high-sugar foods&nbsp;that&nbsp;can so easily derail our best intentions. As long as they\u2019re cooked without fat or oil, you can enjoy hundreds of delicious Slimming World Free Foods with absolutely no limits.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before coming to Slimming World, many slimmers are told to avoid carbohydrates \u2013 yet carbs such as rice, potatoes and pasta have fantastic filling power, as well as being low in energy density, which is why they\u2019re on our Free Food list and absolutely <em>can<\/em> help our members to lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/discover-slimming-world-free-foods\/\">Find out more about Slimming World Free Foods<\/a><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/slimming-world-pasta-recipes\/\">Try our favourite pasta recipes<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you\u2019d love to set yourself free from restrictive dieting, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/group-or-online-membership\">discover two great ways to lose weight with Slimming World.<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n    <section class=\"block-embedded-widget-area alignwide\">\n        \t\t\t<section id=\"mm-newsletter-widget-3\" class=\"widget mm-newsletter-widget\">\t\n\t\t<div id=\"mm-newsletter-widget\" class=\"mm-newsletter-widget-form\" data-thanks_page=\"0\" data-thanks_page_url=\"\" data-thanks_page_new_window=\"0\">\n            <div class=\"wrapper\">\n                <aside>\n                    <header>\n                        <h2>Free 7-day eating plan<\/h4>\n                    <\/header>\n                    <p>You&#8217;ll also get our email newsletter with recipes, inspiration and exciting special offers<\/p>\n                <\/aside>\n\n                <div class=\"form-wrapper\">\n                    <form action=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\" method=\"post\" id=\"newsletter-form\">\n\n                        <fieldset>\n                            <label class=\"input-label\">First name<\/label>\n                            <input type=\"text\" name=\"firstName\" placeholder=\"Enter your first name\" title=\"Enter your first name\" required>\n                        <\/fieldset>\n\n                        <fieldset>\n                            <label class=\"input-label\">Email address<\/label>\n                            <input type=\"email\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Enter your email address\" title=\"Enter your email address\" required>\n                        <\/fieldset>\n\n                        <fieldset>\n                                                            <div class=\"input-radio\">\n                                    <input id=\"classic-menu\" class=\"classic-menu\" type=\"radio\" name=\"menuType\" value=\"Classic\" checked>\n                                    <label for=\"classic-menu\">\n                                        I&#8217;d like the classic menu                                    <\/label>\n                                <\/div>\n                                                                                        <div class=\"input-radio\">\n                                    <input id=\"vegetarian-menu\" class=\"vegetarian-menu\" type=\"radio\" name=\"menuType\" value=\"Vegetarian\">\n                                    <label for=\"vegetarian-menu\">\n                                        I&#8217;d like the vegetarian menu                                    <\/label>\n                                <\/div>\n                                                                                        <div class=\"input-radio\">\n                                    <input id=\"vegan-menu\" class=\"vegan-menu\" type=\"radio\" name=\"menuType\" value=\"Vegan\">\n                                    <label for=\"vegan-menu\">\n                                        I&#8217;d like the vegan menu                                    <\/label>\n                                <\/div>\n                                                    <\/fieldset>\n\n                        <div class=\"button-wrapper\">\n                            <div class=\"g-recaptcha\" data-sitekey=\"6LdLR7cZAAAAAFDxo_6diZKq91dLeqE45o9GkrNL\" data-theme=\"light\" data-size=\"normal\"><\/div>\n                            <button class=\"submit is-secondary animation-light-background\" type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\">Sign me up<\/button>\n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/form>\n\n                    <p class=\"message-success\">Thank you for signing up. We just need you to verify your email address. Please check your inbox for a message from us and click on the verification link so we can keep you up to date with our latest menus, recipes and offers.<\/p><p class=\"message-error message-error-0\">Failed captcha.<\/p><p class=\"message-error message-error-1\">Please check your inbox for a message from us and click on the verification link so we can keep you up to date with our latest menus, recipes and offers.<\/p><p class=\"message-error message-error-3\">Good news, you&#8217;re already on our email list. Look out for emails from us packed full of recipe inspiration.<\/p><p class=\"message-error message-error-default\">Something went wrong.<\/p>                <\/div>\n\t\t    <\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/section>\t\n    <\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/nearest-group-search\">Join Slimming World<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pasta, potatoes, rice&#8230; you absolutely can enjoy carbs and still lose weight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9710"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14491,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions\/14491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimmingworld.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}