HoldTheToast! by Dana Carpender

Clearly I'm out of touch with the mainstream, because I only just learned that Oprah is running a contest to pick the next health and wellness show host -- and I learned it because Jimmy Moore, bless his heart, posted it on Facebook.

Sigh. My third Father's Day without my father. I miss him.

Dad was... hmm. How to say it? A character? That doesn't even begin to cover it. Complicated? Oh, boy. Maddening? Often.

So we recently started taking Google AdSense. We knew it would be quasi-random, what ads showed up on the website, and it would take time to filter out the companies that we really, truly didn't want advertising here. The very first ad that showed up featured the Lucky Charms leprechaun, of all things. Clearly, the keyword algorithms by which ads are distributed are not perfect.

Just promised another Dana, over at Facebook, that I'd post this recipe. And now that I think about it, it's perfect for Father's Day Breakfast. Add some bacon and sausage, coffee with heavy cream, and you'll have a happy and healthy Dad. Each of these pancakes has as much protein as three eggs!

Flax Pancakes

1 cup flax seed meal
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon Splenda granular
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs

Just a timely reminder about our Low Carb Recipe Contest! We've got some delicious-sounding recipes posted, but we need more! MORE, I TELL YOU! MUAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem. I'm sorry, where was I? Ah, yes; it would be gratifying to have more recipes in the contest. But even if you don't have a recipe you want to contribute, please, try the recipes and vote! Try as many as you want, rate as many as you want. You, the Hold The Toast Community, will choose the winning recipe, and the two runners-up.

Of all the recipes I've ever published, the most problematic by far are my recipes for yeast-raised bread. The email I get regarding these recipes is split pretty much evenly between "OMG, this is wonderful!" and "I can't get this to rise for love nor money." And when you're working with expensive ingredients like nut meal and protein powder, having your bread recipe fail is nearly more than a body can bear.

A reader posted in another thread here, asking about this sweetener.

I'd never heard of Yacon Syrup before, but it sounds interesting. Unfortunatly, from this description I can't tell whether I'd be willing to use the stuff or not. I'm fine with FOS (fructooligosaccharides;) they're basically a sweet-tasting fiber, and they feed your beneficial gut bacteria to boot. It's this part that gives me pause: The sugars remaining in the plant that are not FOS are absorbed slowly into the bloodstream.

Got this email the other day:

Those of us in the low carb community have long shaken our heads, wondering why, oh why, the American Diabetes Association still insists that the best diet for people with severely impaired carbohydrate metabolisms is a low fat diet loaded with starch -- aka "lots of sugar holding hands." The research and clinical experience of doctors like Dr. Richard Bernstein and Dr.

Gather 'round, young 'uns. Let me tell you a little secret: If you start eating low carb now, and stick with it, you will get better looking as you get older.

I got the okay from my publisher to post a couple of recipes per month from the new ones I'm coming up with to expand 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes. This morning's smoothie was so wonderful I had to share!

Mexican Chocolate Smoothie

The combination of chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon is classically Mexican, and enchanting. Try this!

3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup sugar-free vanilla syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 ice cubes

You may notice something you've never seen before at Hold the Toast: Outside advertising. We're now accepting ads through Google AdSense. The Webmaster, aka That Nice Boy I Married, will do his best to filter any ads that are antithetical to the message and mission of Hold The Toast -- we really don't need to be taking ads for, oh, sugared soda, or low fat snack cakes, you know?

A study came out June 14th in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine looking at the relationship of brown rice and white rice consumption with incidence of type 2 diabetes. The upshot of the whole thing is that the researchers have determined that white rice increases your risk of diabetes, while brown rice lowers it. Should we all start eating brown rice?