Low Carb Fresh Baked Pizza Shells by LC Foods Review

This post is sponsored by LC Foods; the opinions expressed are honest and my own. There are links in this post that may lead to revenue for CarbSmart if you click through and purchase the product on external web sites.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Italian (Sicilian actually) like me or just the average American–we all love pizza. Before our dedication to low carb living, I’m sure we all had pizza at least once per week (and more likely 2 or 3 times each week). But all that pizza crust probably was a major contributor to our obesity and diabetes before low carbing.

That’s why when LC Foods asked me to review their Fresh Baked Low Carb Pizza Shells I was ready–boy was I ready.

Most people stopped making pizza at home when companies like Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza made it easy to pick up a fresh pizza or have it delivered to their home. Also, to make a pizza from scratch involved a lot of time preparing the pizza dough. That changed when Boboli Pre-made Pizza Shells hit the market in the 1970s. According to the Boboli web site, a typical 12 inch Boboli pizza shell has 6 slices of 32g of carbohydrates each! Ouch! Quick and easy yes but not low carb.

The LC Foods Fresh Baked Low Carb Pizza Shell

LC Foods has figured out how to make a Low-Carb pizza shell with only 1.5 Net Carbs per slice (8 slices per pizza crust). They do this by substituting the normal bleached white flour in a typical pizza shell with resistant starches.

The Science of Resistant Starches

There are three types of starches–rapidly digested starch (which breaks down quickly into simple sugars), slowly digested starch (like whole barley) and resistant starch (which reaches the large intestine without being broken down into sugars at all). Most of LC Foods’ products use resistant starches as part of their main ingredients.

From Wikipedia:

When isolated resistant starch is used to substitute for flour in foods, the glycemic response of that food is reduced. There is preliminary evidence that resistant starch, used as a substitute for refined carbohydrate, may increase insulin sensitivity and may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Ok that’s a lot of science, but what that really means is that resistant starches pass through the digestive system mostly untouched and not absorbed or processed until they reach the large intestine where it is consumed or fermented by colonic bacteria.

For most people, resistant starches will not cause gas or a laxative effect but each person’s body is different and some people will not be affected but some will. When you use a product the includes resistant starch, you will need to understand how much your body can tolerate.

Preparing The Toppings

Since LC Foods Fresh Baked Pizza Shells are a pre-made pizza crust, you do not prepare the dough or bake them for the same amount of time you would a regular pizza dough. What that means is that you need to precook most of your toppings before you put them on top of your crust and bake it.

So for my first pizza, I decided to make it with pepperoni, red peppers, green peppers and onions. These are some of my favorite low carb ingredients. After I preheated the oven to 375° F, I took my red peppers, green peppers and onions added a tablespoon of coconut oil, some garlic powder and fresh black pepper and lightly sautéed them. I set them aside in a bowl and took my pepperoni and heated them up enough to lightly brown them.

Building the Low-Carb Pizza

Now it was time to build the pizza for the oven. Using my favorite pizza stone the Wilton 2105-0244 Perfect Results Ceramic Pizza Stone, I first placed the pizza shell on it, then put a layer of sugar-free pizza sauce, a first layer of mozzarella cheese, the mixture of peppers, onions and pepperoni and topped it all off with the final layer of mozzarella cheese. I then placed the pizza stone in the oven for 13 minutes (the directions on the package say 13-15 minutes).

The LC Foods Low Carb Pizza Shells Taste Test

I let the pizza cool for 10 minutes and I cut it into 8 pieces. Not only does this look like a real pizza, it tastes like a real pizza. The crust was crispy and flavorful. Not too thick and not too doughy. The mix of the mozzarella, peppers, onions and sugar-free pizza sauce on the shell worked well together. My non-low carb girlfriend couldn’t tell the difference between a homemade pizza and this one.

The next morning, I put a slice in the microwave for 60 seconds and was able to enjoy low carb pizza again. The shell was not as crisp as when it came out of the oven but that is the nature of a microwave oven.

I don’t eat a lot of low carb bread products but I have started to occasionally have LC Foods bread products and am happy to add the LC Foods Low Carb Pizza Shells to my lifestyle. It won’t be everyday and it won’t be every week, but I can see that I’ll be able to make a great tasting pizza whenever I want to feed my family and it doesn’t matter who is a low carber and who is not–we can all enjoy it. I give them a 4.5 stars out of 5.

LC Foods Low Carb Pizza Shells Nutrition Facts

• Serving Size 1 slice (45.1g) 5″ pizza shell slice
• Servings per Container 24
• Calories 133
• Calories from Fat 31
• Total Fat 3.4g
• Saturated Fat 0.3g
• Trans Fat 0g
• Cholesterol 0mg
• Sodium 178mg
• Total Carbohydrate 12g*
• Dietary Fiber 10.5g*
• Sugars 0g
• Protein 13.5g

Ingredients: Wheat protein isolates, resistant wheat starches, flax seed meal, olive oil, vital wheat gluten, instant dry yeast, Inulin (chicory root) fiber, salt, calcium propionate (as a preservative), organic stevia rebaudiana leaf natural herbal extracts, and natural luo han guo monk fruit.

Net Carbs as listed by the manufacturer on the package = 1.5g per serving.

If you still want to make your own pizza crust, try LC Foods Low Carb Pizza & Calzone Mix.