Lowcarbezine! 26 April 2000
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Hey, Gang!
Is it my imagination, or does this ezine get longer by the week? I
swear, I didn't mean for it to become the behemoth it is; it just seemed
to grow! Seems like the more I say on the topic, the more I find to
say, and the more I read, research, cook, and shop, the more stuff I
find that you ought to know.
And this week I didn't even get a head start! Had a cold earlier in the
week; didn't feel like writing. If I'm going to get this thing out to
you all by bed time, I'd best get moving!
Dana
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All contents copyright 2000 by Hold the Toast Press. All commercial
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Thought For the Week
Questions! I get questions!
My favorite this week is from a reader who said that they recently
started a low carb diet, but sometimes they were tempted to eat a big
bag of chips. Could they just chew up the chips without eating them?
I must admit, my immediate reaction was "Not at my dinner table, you
can't!"
But that's not a really useful answer, and it was an honest question,
coming, I suspect, from a place of at least a little desperation. So
I'll try to approach it more seriously.
First of all, etiquette concerns aside, I don't believe that *I* could
chew up chips -- and no question about it, potato chips are my
kryptonite -- and spit them out without swallowing a single crumb.
Could you? Especially since digestion of starches begins in the mouth;
there would be at least some carb content left in one's saliva this
way. Anyway, you know how chips are -- bits stick to the inside of your
mouth. This would, no doubt, be true of chips that were spit out just
as much as chips that are swallowed. You'd gain some carbs in the
process, even if you did spit them out.
Secondly, and perhaps more to the point, is that this strikes me as a
form of fooling one's self, always a hazardous thing to do. If you
crave chips, or any other concentrated, high impact carb, you may think
it's just the taste and the crunch you're craving, but the basis of that
craving is usually a physical carb addiction. Your body wants that
sugar rush. (You know by now that high impact starches are virtually
the same as sugar, right?) Chewing but not swallowing the food you
crave might be termed "eatus interruptus", and it's likely to satisfy a
craving about as well as almost-but-not-quite having sex will satisfy
your sex drive. I have absolutely no doubt that sooner or later you'd
swallow "just one or two", and very quickly move from there to "just a
handful", and pretty soon be eating them outright.
But my most important reason for warning against this idea is that it
represents a very unhappy relationship with food. How far removed is
this, really, from bingeing and purging? The point of a low carbohydrate
diet, I *hope* is not simply to lose weight, but to improve one's
health, and learn a new, healthy way of relating to food.
(To potential critics: I don't want to hear any arguments about how
cutting concentrated carbs out of my life almost completely, instead of
eating them in "moderation", indicates that I have an unhealthy
relationship with food. Some people have this nasty biochemical
reaction to alcohol: It makes them crave more, and more, and more. I
have a very similar relationship to sugar and other high impact carbs.
Avoidance is, for me, the best relationship.
Anyway, sugar and white flour aren't "food", as far as I'm concerned,
any more than vodka is. They all contain calories, but no other
nutritional benefit to speak of.)
It's this last problem that really cries out to me from this reader --
peace has clearly *not* been made, on an emotional level. This isn't a
willing choice that this person is going to be happy with for life.
This person clearly has *not* found the approach which is going to be
comfortable for him or her. Let's see if we can find some options that
might help this person find a way to live on a low carbohydrate diet and
be happy.
First of all, this reader said that he or she had started a low carb
diet "recently". If it's only been a week or two, then I'd recommend
holding on and waiting to see to what degree the cravings subside. It's
astonishing how food that seems almost unbearably tempting the third day
in can draw nothing more than a shrug by the time you've been low
carbing for two or three weeks.
Also, the question included the information that this dieter is trying
to eat *no* carbs. I've said it before, I'll say it again: A *low*
carb diet is *not* the same as a *no* carb diet. If you try to eat a no
carb diet, you'll be limited to meat, poultry, fish, eggs, some kinds of
cheese, and fat. There's no way to construct a long-term satisfying
cuisine out of that. You're going to get bored very, very rapidly if
you try to eat this way, and when you get bored enough, you're going to
quit. Anyway, there's no need to eat a no carb diet. Almost everyone
can lose at 20 grams of usable carb a day -- many on more than that; I
eat closer to 50-75 g of usable carb a day -- and for those few folks
who still don't lose at that level, I'd really recommend modest calorie
restriction before I'd recommend knocking out the vegetables, nuts,
seeds, low sugar fruits, and such that add variety and interest -- not
to mention vitamins and minerals -- to the diet.
Okay, what strategies can our friend use to deal with the potato chip
cravings? Here's some ideas:
* Substitute salty, crunchy, low carb foods for chips. Pork rinds, of
course, are top of the list. Also consider nuts -- walnuts, pecans,
hazelnuts, and macadamias are the lowest carb, but even peanuts and
cashews beat the heck out of chips. Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds in
the shell are good because they keep your hands and mouth busy for a
long, long time -- you have to crack each seed to eat it! Another
possibility would be fiber crackers, like Fiber Rich or Bran-a-Crisp,
with butter and salt, or cheese, but I find these less chip-like.
* Another low carb chip possibility: Buy low carb tortillas -- you can
order them from Synergy Diet ( www.synergydiet.com ) -- and make them
into chips. It's easy: Brush each tortilla with oil on both sides.
Cut them it wedges, and bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 for ten
minutes, or until crisp. Salt, and serve. These still have some carbs,
but they're much lower than commercial chips.
* Go on a mini-binge type program, where you eat 2 moderately sized,
very low carb meals a day, and don't eat between meals at all -- but one
meal a day you have a Reward Meal and eat as much as you like of
whatever you like, so long as A) you eat for not a second longer than *1
hour*, *by the clock*, and B) the meal is *balanced* -- not just chips,
but protein, salad, veggies, *and* chips, or whatever other carb foods
you want. This way you could have chips every day, although you
couldn't eat a large bagful. (Unless you could also fit down an
equivalent quantity of meat and veggies.) Keep in mind that this
approach works better for some folks than for others -- it was not
effective for me, but I know people who have done very well on it. One
possible drawback is that in this scenario, the chips *must* be eaten as
part of a meal; you can't eat them idly, sitting in front of the TV,
over the course of an evening, which is how most of us eat chips.
* Go on a cyclic ketogenic diet. Eat a basic low carb diet, in the
20-50 g a day range, for, say, two weeks at a time, no chips, no foolin'
around. Test regularly to be sure you're in mild-to-moderate ketosis.
Then, every other weekend have a "carb up". Give yourself permission to
eat carbs for a day or two. Then start right back in again on your
very low carb diet. This works very well for some people, but you
*must* be able to *stop* the carb up and go back on your low carb diet
when the time comes. Me, I don't do this because I've come to realize
that eating a bunch of carbs makes me *feel* lousy for hours, and it's
not worth it to me, except on maybe 6-8 special occasions per year.
Even then, I tend to watch quantities and be *very* picky about which
carbs I bother with. However, many people find that this keeps their
bodies from adapting to ketosis, and also that having a diet "vacation"
to look forward to every couple of weeks helps keep them on the diet in
between times.
* Simply make "carb room" for a *small* bag of chips in your low carb
diet from time to time. One ounce of potato chips, which is considered
a "serving", has about 14 grams of usable carb, tortilla chips are a
little higher at about 18-21 g. per ounce. If, like me, you do well on
50 grams a day of usable carb, you could simply decide every now and
then that 15-20 grams of your carbs for the day were going to come from
chips. CAUTION: If you choose this route, I wouldn't recommend doing
this daily; you're replacing real food, in the form of vegetables,
fruits, nuts, seeds, etc, with junk. And I would *strongly* caution you
to buy your chips in one ounce bags, not big bags. I just don't believe
that most people can leave an open bag of their favorite chips alone.
In fact, I'd recommend that if you decide to do this, you buy one small
bag of chips at a time at a convenience store. Having a pile of little
bags of chips in the house sounds pretty dangerous to me. The advantage
to this approach is that so long as you've "budgeted" those carbs, you
may eat your chips at any time during the day that you choose.
* The most important strategy of all is to focus on creating the most
satisfying low carbohydrate cuisine you possibly can. Sit down and make
a list -- yes, with a pencil and paper -- of low carb foods that you
absolutely *love*. Lobster, macadamia nuts, sugar free cheesecake,
Smokehouse Almonds, imported olives, ripe strawberries with whipped
cream, artichokes with lots of melted butter, shrimp scampi, imported
brie, deviled eggs, steak and eggs, whatever *you* most enjoy. Then
make it a point to *eat those things*, rather than falling into a habit
of having a couple of hamburger patties yet *again* because it's easy.
The more you indulge yourself in your very favorite low carb foods, the
less important chips will seem.
One last note: Americans have become habituated to unconsciously
munching on *something* for hours and hours on end, whether they're
physically hungry or not. I call it "the hand-to-mouth routine". There
are almost no low carb foods with which you can do this without becoming
physically ill, for the very simple reason that low carb foods are
*filling* -- you have a built in satiety mechanism for protein and fat
which does not exist for carbohydrates. If you eat, say, an entire jar
of peanuts (which would be too many carbs, anyway), you'd very likely
throw up. You need to work on separating your actual hunger from either
boredom, or simply an urge to do something with your hands. If you want
something you can eat pretty much forever, your best bet is probably
those seeds we passed at the beginning of the suggestions. Again, the
need to crack each shell, coupled with the small size of each kernal,
puts an automatic brake on consumption, yet they're salty and crunchy,
and keep your hands *very* busy.
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Reader Review of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_
You won't believe how good it is!
I am a born skeptic. I also have been obsessed with food for my entire
adult life. When I am going to eat, what I am going to eat, where I am
going to eat, if there will be enough food left by the time I get to the
front of the line... Not a very nice way to live. This book HAS CHANGED
MY LIFE! So far, everything she has said has been true. Everything that
she said would happen, has happened. And it's not hard to do at all!
Sure, the initial adjustment to serving a meal with no potatoes or bread
is a little odd, but you get over it pretty fast. Somehow, this diet
just clicked with me. After reading her book, I have at least 6 more
reasons to eat this way than just to lose weight. That's not even my
focus any more! She explained all the different approaches of all these
other authors and shows you how to pick and choose which aspects of
which approaches will work best for you. It's remarkably easy to read,
too!
... I lost 10 pounds the first week and, I don't know if my initial
measurement was wrong or what, but I lost and INCH off my waist! ...I
hope you find something that works for you. But for my money, this was
the best that was out there for me
"Buggily", Minnesota
Wow. Thanks! You're makin' me happy, Buggily, because apparently my
book did for you *exactly* what I hoped it would!
You can check out the first chapter of the book FREE at
http://www.holdthetoast.com . And you can see other reader reviews at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966883101/lowcarbohysoluti
If you've already read _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty
Pounds_, and enjoyed it, please go to Amazon.com and review it yourself!
Who knows, you might see your review right here!
And if you'd rather, and you're in the United States, you can order _How
I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds_ through your local
bookstore. Hey, that way you don't even pay shipping and handling!
(I'm sorry to say we do not yet have an international wholesaler;
international sales will have to be via the internet, or a mailed check
or money order.)
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Frequently Asked Question
I was thinking I'd answer two of the most common questions I get: What
vitamins should I take? What vitamins do *you* take? But the more I
thought about it, the more it sounded like a *very* long article, long
enough that it probably ought to take the place of both the "Thought For
the Week and the FAQ -- otherwise this thing's going to be even longer
than usual. (It's gotten so long that some people are having trouble
receiving it! So I'll skip the FAQ this week, and tackle the subject
next week.
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Hey, want to get a copy of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty
Pounds!_ at a discount? Visit Carb Smart, at http://www.carbsmart.com
. They have low carb books, including mine, and some great deals on
some of your favorite low carb specialty items! Atkins Advantage Bars
for just $1.99 apiece! Low carb tortillas for $2.25 a pack! Darrell
Lea Milk Chocolate Bars for $1.99! All kinds of low carb stuff, and all
of it at a discount. Recipes and such, too! Check it out.
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It's a Swing... And a Miss!
Didja see the news that came out April 19th? Two separate large studies
regarding the effect of a low fat, high fiber diet for preventing colon
cancer showed *no* benefit.
The studies, which appear in the latest New England Journal Of Medicine,
were done at the National Cancer Institute, and the University of
Arizona, respectively. The NCI study involved having 1,905 people eat
varying diets for four years, and then counting the precancerous growths
in their colons. (Now *there's* a job I don't want...) The U of A
study involved 1,303 patients, and a trial of a diet heavy in wheat bran
cereal. This study also looked at the occurrence of precancerous
growths, or polyps, rather than cancers themselves. Precancerous polyps
can readily be removed. Untreated, about 5-10% of them will turn
cancerous within 10 years.
These two studies echo the Harvard Nurses Study, which tracked colon
health (along with all sorts of other medical parameters) in a whopping
88,757 women over 16 years. This study found the risk of colon cancer
to be the same, regardless of fiber intake. Incidentally, the Harvard
Nurses Study also showed the *highest* incidence of breast cancer to be
among the women with the *lowest* intake of fat.
The researchers in the two new studies suggested that perhaps a low fat,
high fiber diet could conceivably act on colon cancer in later stages of
development, or if eaten for a much longer period of time, but admit
there's no hard evidence of this.
I find interesting a quote from Dr. Arthur Schatzkin, of the National
Cancer Institute. "It was very disappointing," he said. "A positive
result would have been a very strong statement." A very strong
statement of what? That the medical establishment hasn't been leading
us in the wrong direction for the past twenty years? I thought that the
point of medical research was to find useful information, not to "make a
strong statement."
More to the point, Dr. Tim Byers, from the University of Colorado School
of Medicine said, "There may be many reasons to eat a diet that is low
in fat and high in fiber, fruits, and vegetables... but preventing
colorectal adenomas... is not one of them."
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Product Review
Cool new grocery store find! Remember when I published the recipe for
Meatza!, the meat-crusted pizza? I said at that point that the only
jarred or canned pizza sauce I'd been able to find that didn't have any
sugar or corn syrup in it was a brand called Pastorelli's Italian Chef,
which so far as I know is in only limited distribution in the
Chicagoland area.
Guess what? Ragu has started jarring a sugar-free pizza sauce! It's
good, too! It's simply called Ragu Pizza Sauce, and I found it at my
ultra-cheap discount grocery store here in Bloomington, Indiana, so my
guess is that it's in national distribution in the United States!
It comes in a 14 ounce jar, which is roughly twice the size of the cans
that the Pastorelli's comes in, so you'll want to adjust your recipes
accordingly. A serving is considered to be a 1/4 cup, and that has 3 g.
of usable carb, and should be good for at least a couple of slices of
Meatza!
This isn't quite as zesty as the Pastorelli's -- among other things, the
Pastorelli's includes grated cheese, the Ragu does not -- but it's
pretty darned good, and you don't have to fly to Chicago to get it. Bet
you can find some other things than Meatza! to make with a nice, thick,
well-seasoned, sugar free tomato sauce, too.
Look for it in your local grocery store!
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That's it for this week! See you next week!
Dana W. Carpender
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