HoldTheToast! by Dana Carpender

Oh, fercryinoutloud. Look what showed up in one of threads I've been following on Facebook: Refusing to eat junk is now being defined as a mental illness. The article cites The Guardian, which is a British paper, so maybe this garbage hasn't made it across The Pond yet. But I'm betting our medical establishment seizes on it right quick.

As you may or may not have noticed, there aren't as many comments here as there are at some blogs. Part of that is because we've just started sending out emails to the old Lowcarbezine! crew, and are still gathering our audience. (And we'd love it if you'd send our link to any friends you think would enjoy Hold the Toast.) But part of it is because a lot of the chatter is going on at ourHold The Toast Facebook Fan Page. Pretty lively over there.

So hey, come join the fun!

This press release came out from the Endocrine Society on June 20th. This is more evidence that fructose is uniquely fattening, especially when given to children. In particular, this study demonstrates why loading children up with juice is a very bad idea. Do not, however, assume that this means common sugar is in the clear: Sucrose, aka table sugar, is a 50/50 mixture of glucose and fructose.

Fructose Sugar Makes Maturing Human Fat Cells Fatter, Less Insulin-Sensitive

Under the "The Other Dana" thread, a reader named Johnnie Ann asks:

I have a question for you, off-topic of your girl crush and off-topic of low carb (for humans anyway!) It's for my beloved doggies & kitties!

I have a girl-crush. I just discovered that Dana Seilhan, a regular poster at Dana Carpender's Hold the Toast facebook fan page (click the link at the left, below my smiling face, to join) writes her own blog, The Low-Carb Curmudgeon. I've been clicking around the archives this afternoon, and I love it. She smart, she's funny, she's snarky as heck, and she's brave enough to use words on her blog that, trust me, I regularly use in real life.

We're adding her to the blogroll post haste. Hope you enjoy her stuff as much as I am.

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: