Lowcarbezine! 28 June 2000
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Hey, Gang!
Man, the things I do for you guys! There's a recipe in the cooking
section today that I adapted from an old recipe in a high protein
vegetarian cookbook from the 70s. It's a green bean salad with parmesan
cheese, and the original recipe was interesting, but included some
things we can't have, and called for cooking the green beans until they
were gray beans. Furthermore, it wanted you to add the parmesan cheese
to the beans while they were cooking, and simmer the whole thing for
twenty minutes.
Do you have any *idea* what this does to a pan? Trust me, you don't
want to find out! Just be glad that I'm working out these recipes for
you -- one saucepan that takes a full week to clean is plenty!
Lots of good stuff this week -- read on!
Dana
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All contents copyright 2000 by Hold the Toast Press. All commercial
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Lowcarbezine! welcomes reader input! If you have a question, a recipe,
a product review, a low carb success story, send it on in!!
mailto:dana@holdthetoast.com However, please note -- although I really
do read all my email my very own self, I get a *lot* of mail --
generally over 200 posts a day (not all of them about Lowcarbezine!), so
I can't promise to answer every post personally. Or I'll never get the
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Thought For The Week
America, a nation in black and white!
I'm not talking about issues of race here (or I'd need a lot more
colors!), I'm talking about the overriding American tendency to see
things as being clear cut; all one way or the other. Indeed, it seems
that many people feel that the only way to justify anything is to state,
as loudly and clearly as possible, that things are clearly, simply, and
unequivocally *their* way, the way *they* see it -- and of course, the
opposition is forced into the far corner, shouting just as loudly that
they have the One, True, Right and Only Way.
May I be the first to suggest that quite a lot of the time, the truth
lies somewhere in the middle? Radical concept, I know, but one that
struck me yet again when I ran across two wildly opposing views of
obesity while hanging out online. One college aged woman -- and a
snippy, superior little thing she was -- was convinced that anyone who
was as large as a size 12 was terribly obese and out of shape, and must
be a couch potato, doing nothing but watching TV and eating potato
chips. As a very fit size 12, I took exception to her cute little
cracks like, "Well, at least *I* can walk my dog without getting out of
breath!" Yeah, and I bet I could dance you right off your feet,
sweetheart, even if I am twice your age. Several of us explained
repeatedly that we exercised, we ate carefully, we were *healthy* and
energetic, and that our bodies had decided that for us, a healthy size
was a size 12 (or 14, or whatever.) She would have none of it. She was
utterly scornful, and convinced we would all be size 5, like her, if we
just were virtuous, and ate right and exercised.
On the other hand, I was attacked recently by another woman online (as a
diet book author I seem to be a lightening rod for this stuff!) because
I "assume that people have total control over their body size!" Of
course, anyone who has read virtually *anything* I've written on the
subject knows that I don't believe any such thing, or I'd be smaller
than a size 12! But this particular woman was of the "it's all genetic,
so there's absolutely nothing we can do about it, and we shouldn't even
try" school, and again, there was no dissuading her.
I must admit, I entertained evil thoughts of locking these two in a room
together.
But can't we see, please, oh please, that many of us can do *something*
to control our weight/size/body composition, and furthermore see that
being able to influence our weight to some degree through diet and
exercise does *not* mean that we have total control, and that we should
not feel like failures or slackers if we can't reach a fashionable
degree of slimness? Sheesh.
Then there's the whole "*My* diet is the *best* diet, and all you other
people are horribly misguided" game. Sadly, not only do the low fat
folks play this game -- and they do -- but the low carb folks do too.
I've seen the Hellers (_The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet_) on Oprah,
running down those "dangerous low carb diets" like Atkins and Protein
Power, insisting that ketones are a "poison", and that it is "essential"
to eat some grains or the like every day. At the same time, Doc Atkins
is stating publicly that other diets just aren't low carb enough to do
any good, and that vegetables aren't necessary for good health. Does
all this polarizing do anybody any good, or clarify the issue one tiny
bit? Could we maybe consider the idea that some folks do well on
moderate carb restriction, others do well on severe carb restriction,
and vegetables are a good idea, so long as those of us who are carb
intolerant pick the lower carb, higher fiber varieties? Do we really
have to shout, or insult each other?
Then there's the hard core vegetarians who insist that meat is a poison,
plain and simple, versus the folks in our camp who insist that the more
meat we eat, the better, because meat is the hereditary diet of
humankind. I like meat, and eat plenty of it -- had two pork chops for
supper while I was writing this! -- but I'm aware that meat (surprise,
surprise!) does have its drawbacks. As mentioned here a few weeks back,
in our polluted world, animal fat tends to concentrate pollutants such
as dioxin. Further, there's no question that meat from animals that
have been raised on a farm or feedlot has a much different nutritional
profile, especially where fat is concerned -- more saturates, fewer
unsaturates -- than the game our remote ancestors ate; and livestock is
fed all sorts of interesting chemicals, to boot. On the other hand,
there's no question that human beings have eaten meat since we were
proto-people running around the African savannas, hunting with rocks and
sticks, and there is no way that meat can be considered a "poison", or
an "unnatural" part of the human diet. *We don't know what the ideal
diet is*, and furthermore, there may not *be* an "ideal diet" for
everyone. Live with it!
And of course, who could forget the classic "Heart disease is caused by
saturated fat and cholesterol!" versus "Heart disease is caused by high
insulin levels!" debate? Hey, *millions* of people have heart disease.
Think maybe, just maybe, they didn't all get it the same way? A
*majority* of people see an improvement in their bloodwork when they go
on a low carb diet, and a majority also see a drop in their blood
pressure. But guess what? There are reports of a few folks who see
their cholesterol profile get *worse*, not better, on a low carb diet,
and I've heard tell of one or two whose blood pressure went *up*. Maybe
people are different, huh, you think? Maybe some people have heart
disease because they're carb intolerant, and others have heart disease
because they're intolerant of certain kinds of fat. Maybe there are
people who need to watch both their carb intake *and* the profile of the
types of fat they eat. And maybe there are a few factors we haven't
even considered yet, and won't get around to looking at for another
generation!
Look, we've learned that alcohol, which kills thousands, if not
millions, of us every year is, in modest quantities, *good* for our
health. We're discovering that nicotine, which is, no doubt about it, a
deadly and addictive drug, may prevent Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
Disease. The scientists are completely unclear on whether soy is a
miracle food that will prevent heart disease and breast cancer, or a
toxin that causes thyroid disease and brain deterioration -- and who
knows, it could be both! You experiment, you pay attention to the
research, you pay attention to your own body and what it's telling you,
and you play the odds, with an eye to which diseases your genetics put
you most at risk for. And you *listen* to other people when they tell
you that *their* experience of *their* body is different from *your*
experience with *your* body. Go figure.
Who knows? Maybe some day we'll find out that eating *one* Hershey's
Kiss a week cures leprosy. In the meanwhile, let's all try not to be
too smug, shall we?
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Time To Think About Winter Break!
Want to know something scary? Y2K is almost half over!! Yep, it's
about to be *JULY*! And yeah, it's hot now, but before you know it,
it's going to be cold and snowy and blowy and *miserable* in the vast
majority of the United States. Further, you're going to spend the usual
just-over-a-month alternately stressing and partying through the
Holidays far sooner than you imagine!
So it's time to think NOW about your winter break! Join me and a whole
crew of fellow low carb dieters for the Low Carb High Life Cruise!
We'll set sail from Miami on January 7th, 2001, for a whole week of
sunshine and good times on the huge, beautiful, luxurious floating
resort known as the Carnival Victory! We'll learn black-belt,
real-world low carb dieting skills, sample low carb products, eat
*great* food, make lots of friends, and knock off the Holiday Five (you
all know about the Holiday Five, right?), while visiting beautiful
Caribbean ports of call, and kicking back on deck and decompressing from
the holiday stress. For a whole week, the only salt and sand you'll see
will *not* be on the streets!
So check it out at http://www.holdthetoast.com/cruise.html -- then send
the page to your honey, with a little note that says, 'Darling, it's not
too early to think about my Christmas present, you know..."
See you there!
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CarbSmart - Smart choice for a low carb lifestyle - is proud to sponsor
Hold The Toast's Lowcarbezine! We have all of your favorite low carb
products on sale for at least *20% off list price*! Come visit us at
www.carbsmart.com and enter our anniversary sweepstakes! We're giving
away over $2,000 in low carb products and up to $2,000 cash in the month
of June! Visit http://www.carbsmart.com for full details. Also, for the
month of June, all UPS Ground shipping to US residents is only $4.99!
Visit Carb Smart today!!
(Note from Dana: CarbSmart also has my book, and they're selling it at
a discount... :-D)
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Infrequently Asked Question Which Nonetheless Needs to Be Addressed
Is it true that Splenda is more dangerous than they're letting on?
I recently got an email from reader Karen Kosel asking exactly that;
she followed up by posting me a website that said some really unpleasant
things about Splenda -- to be specific, that it may cause shrinkage of
the thymus gland, which is part of the immune system, and may also cause
enlarged liver and kidneys. For balance, they also concluded that
sucralose (the chemical that makes Splenda sweet) was probably "not as
toxic as aspartame".
Uh-oh. I was not aware of any of this, and it sure wasn't makin' me
happy. I started looking for more information. Found it! Actually
found the text of the FDA's documents regarding the approval of
sucralose. Here -- in nice, dense, scientific gobbledygook -- is what
it has to say about sucralose and the immune system ( You may want to
skim this if you're prone to nodding off in front of the computer...)
Immunotoxicity study in rats. As reported by McNeil and as noted in the
agency's review of the sucralose data, thymus, spleen, and hematological
changes were observed in rats at the high-dose levels in some of the
short-term and long-term sucralose feeding studies. For example, when
rats were fed sucralose in a 4- to 8-week range-finding study (E031) the
following effects were noted: Decreased thymus and spleen weights,
lymphocytopenia, and cortical hypoplasia of the spleen and thymus. In
the two-generation reproductive toxicity study (E056), decreased thymus
weights were noted in the F0 and
F1 generations of the high-dose sucralose (3 percent in the
diet) group. McNeil stated that the above effects were secondary to the
palatability-related reduction in food consumption in treated rats.
In an effort to provide more specific and detailed assessment ofthe
immunotoxic potential of sucralose, the petitioner conducted a 28- day
oral immunotoxicity study (El62) of sucralose in rats. In this study,
groups of male and female Sprague- Dawley rats (13 per sex per group)
were administered sucralose by gavage at dose levels of 750, 1,500, and
3,000 mg/kg bw/d for 28 days. Additional groups (13 per sex per group)
of rats formed a gavage control group, an ad libitum diet control group,
a dietary sucralose (3,000 mg/kg bw/d) group, and a diet restricted (90
percent of ad libitum control) group.
Immunotoxicological parameters examined in this study were: Thymus
and spleen weights at study termination; standard histopathology
evaluation of the spleen, thymus, bone marrow, and lymph nodes; and
total and differential white blood cell counts. The study also examined
the following specific immunologic parameters: Bone marrow cellularity,
immunoglobulin subtypes, splenic lymphocyte subsets, and splenic natural
killer cell activity.
Significant decreases were observed in the mean thymus weight of the
males in the high dose (3,000 mg/kg bw/d) gavage group. Thymus weight
was not significantly affected by sucralose when administered to rats by
gavage at either 1,500 or 750 mg/kg bw/d; nor was it affected in the
sucralose-fed group or the diet restricted group. No morphological
changes in thymus or any other lymphoid tissues were observed in any of
the sucralose treated groups.
In the mid-dose (1,500 mg/kg bw/d) sucralose-gavaged male rats,
there appeared to be a trend toward decreasing white blood cell and
lymphocyte counts with increasing dose levels of sucralose, but the
trend did not reach statistical significance. No significant differences
were seen in other immunologic parameters in the sucralose gavage groups
relative to the control gavage group. However, because of the large
variation seen in the data from the gavaged animals at the mid-dose, the
agency finds that the study is inconclusive regarding treatment-related
effects for these parameters at the mid-dose.
The agency concludes that the highest dose (3,000 mg/kg bw/d) tested
in the gavage groups showed an effect based on the significant changes
in thymus weight. Because of the difficulty in interpreting data from
the mid-dose animals, the agency has determined that the low dose, 750
mg/kg bw/d, is the no-observed-effect level for the immunological
endpoints examined in this study (Ref. 37).
(END OF FDA QUOTE)
Whew. Eyes glazed over yet? Here's what appears to me to be the point
of the preceding: Yes, sucralose (Splenda) does appear to have an
effect on the thymus gland, in rats at any rate, when fed in whopping
big doses. There also appears to be a small reduction in white blood
cell count -- also important for immune function, of course -- when fed
in somewhat smaller but still effectively huge doses. In low doses, the
problems do not appear to occur.
Regarding increased kidney weight, the report said that this effect
occurred in the highest dose group, but was not accompanied by any
pathological changes in the tissue itself, nor by any changes in
electrolytes in the blood plasma, which you would expect to see with
kidney damage. The increase in kidney weight didn't happen with the
lower dosage groups.
This may remind you of the tests on saccharine and cyclamates, both of
which involved feeding rats something like the human equivalent of 600
cans of diet soda a day for 10 years, or something equally ridiculous,
and then claiming that the substance was dangerous because health
problems arose at that dose. Let us never forget the first rule of
toxicology: Dose is *everything*.
How big a dose of sucralose are we talking about? Well, the rats on the
high dosage were fed 3 grams a day of straight sucralose -- *not*, I
want to emphasize, 3 grams of Splenda, in which the sucralose is mixed
with other ingredients to bulk it up -- per each kilogram of body
weight, every day. A kilogram is 2.2 lbs. So a 150 lb. human being
weighs just over 68 kilos. How much Splenda would that 68 kilo person
have to eat to get 3 g of sucralose per kilo of body weight? My package
of Splenda tablets (a convenient item, by the way,
http://www.synergydiet.com carries them) says that one tablet contains
5.8 mg. of sucralose, and that one tablet equals one teaspoon of sugar
in sweetness. From this I gather that one teaspoon of granular Splenda
has about 5.8 mg. of sucralose as well.
Okay, math time: 68 x 3 = 204 g. of sucralose per day. 204 grams of
sucralose = 204,000 mg. Dividing that by the 5.8 mg of sucralose in a
teaspoonful of Splenda, I get 35,172 teaspoonfuls per day of Splenda to
reach the dosage that was being given to the rats in the high dosage
group. The middle dosage group was getting half that dosage, or the
human equivalent of 17,586 teaspoonfuls of Splenda per day. And the low
dosage group -- the group which showed no thymus gland shrinkage or
changes in white cell count -- were getting half of that, or 8,793
teaspoons of Splenda a day for an equivalent dose in a 150 lb. human
being.
Anyone out there eating 8,793 teaspoons of Splenda a day? Anyone care
to guess at the health effects if you fed rats an equivalent dose of
*SUGAR*? (By the way, I just worked it out: The average American is
eating 152 lbs of sugar per year. That works out to about 45
teaspoonsful a day. Does anyone really think that we're going to eat
*that* much more artificial sweetener than we did sugar? And why don't
they do these experiments on sugar, anyway?)
I haven't read the entire FDA document yet; it's *long*, and as you've
seen, it's not exactly a quick read. However, from what I've seen, I
find myself reaching the same conclusions about Splenda that I've had
about artificial sweeteners all along: Used with a modicum of sense and
moderation, they're safer than sugar by a country mile. I don't
advocate the consumption of huge amounts of artificial sweetener, nor of
artificially sweetened foods -- for instance, I don't drink diet pop or
Crystal Lite, myself, nor do I have artificially sweetened desserts
every day. But if having the occasional slice of Splenda-sweetened
Peanut Butter Silk Pie (recipe coming soon!) keeps me happy and
satisfied with my lifetime commitment to a low carb diet, then I think
it's a boon to my health, not a detriment. Ditto the use of a couple of
teaspoons of Splenda here and there in a salad dressing, sauce, or other
creative low carb recipe.
If you're still concerned, here's a few possible strategies:
* Cut back on use of sweeteners over all. Not a bad idea, actually.
Not everything has to taste sweet to taste good!
* Use a variety of sweeteners -- saccharine has recently been cleared of
the cancer warning it's carried all these years, so you could use, say,
Sweet 'n' Low in things like coffee and iced tea, and save Splenda for
places where it really improves things, like sugar-free desserts. This
lowers your dose of any one substance.
* You could use stevia. Stevia is a natural, herb-derived sweetener
which appears to have no health concerns connected with it at all. (Not
always the case with all-natural products. "Natural" can be misleading
-- sugar is natural. So are cocaine, heroin, rattlesnake venom, death
angel mushrooms, and botulin toxin.) I find stevia to be a bit
difficult to use -- it's *extremely* sweet, and it has a bit of an
aftertaste or undertaste, especially if used in strong concentration.
Still, for things where only a touch of sweetness is needed, it can be
useful.
* Somewhat easier to use than straight stevia extract is a blend of
stevia and FOS (fructooligosaccharides) available under the name Stevia
Plus, from a company called SweetLeaf. FOS is a naturally occurring
sugar, found in many foods, that is too big for you to digest or absorb,
sort of like fiber. It also has the benefit of being very good for your
intestinal flora. You can get the stevia/FOS blend at
http://www.getbigger.com/wisdom.html . My health food store carries it,
too -- but not with the sweeteners; it's with the nutritional
supplements, instead.
* If I were pregnant, I would probably limit my used of artificial
sweeteners more, even though they are tested for bad effects on a
fetus. You can't be too careful when there's no second chance. On the
other hand, I sure wouldn't start using sugar instead. The most common
time for women to become diabetic is during pregnancy, and it's very
dangerous for both mother and child.
* If you're making a dessert using low sugar fruits such as
strawberries, pie cherries, cranberries, or what-have-you, you can cut
the amount of sweetener of any kind that you'll need by adding a little
baking soda. This will neutralize some of the acid, making the fruit
less tart. It will also make your concoction *foam*, big time, so make
sure it's in a big enough pan! Start with a 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon, and
taste as you go.
Also, I'll try to come up with some recipes which use the stevia-FOS
blend, or just stevia, since I know that some of you are still concerned
about artificial sweeteners.
Still, all told, I'm not panicking about Splenda, or artificial
sweeteners in general. I'd recommend that you not panic either!
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Reader Review of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_,
by Dana Carpender
Great summary of Low Carb eating, plus it's a "fun read"!
I enjoyed reading this book. Dana's writing style is entertaining, yet
educational. I enjoyed the personal stories and the tales of friends and
cyberpals who also were "big losers". The summaries of various LC plans
was very helpful and made me think that I might follow Dana's lead this
summer, doing the Paleolithic plan in order to be able to enjoy some of
the summer's bounty of fresh fruit. I liked the book so much that I just
ordered a second copy to be sent to a friend!
Sandy C from Indianapolis, IN
Thanks, Sandy!
You can check out more reader reviews at Amazon.com --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-customer-reviews/0966883101/lowcarbohysoluti
If you've read _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_,
and you liked it, please go and add your review! I have 17 reviews
already (and a five star rating!!), but I can always use new review to
run right here in Lowcarbezine!
If you'd like to read the first chapter of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat
Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_ for FREE, you'll find it at
http://www.holdthetoast.com . You can also read the foreword, many
testimonials, and some good recipes! Check it out.
If you'd like to order _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty
Pounds! through your bookstore, you should be able to -- just tell them
that our wholesaler is Baker and Taylor, and the ISBN for the book is
0-9668831-0-1 . So far we do not have an international wholesaler, but
we will ship direct to bookstores in Canada. (Or to Canadian customers,
for that matter!) If you live further away, you'll have to order direct
from us, or from Amazon.com, at least so far.
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Live and Learn!
Reader Andrea McManus writes:
Dear Dana:
I just had to write & tell you what happened!! I decided to have a
"planned indulgence" on Sunday night when we went out to dinner for our
anniversary... MAJOR MISTAKE!! I am still paying for it & it was NOT
worth it!! I did well on the meal, but had exactly what I wanted, pesto
crusted salmon which was fabulous and some sauteed veggies (which turned
out to be low carb ones - not a carrot in the bunch!) and there were a
few (maybe 6) slices of pan fried potato on my plate as well. I was
okay until I decided to have dessert too (please note that I am making
no mention of the bottle of wine we got either!) and I ordered something
called ultimate brownie. HUGE mistake, halfway through it I could have
absolutely laid my head on the table & gone right to sleep. Had we been
at any other restaurant I would have probably passed on the dessert
altogether, but this place has such good ones, well.... you know.... I
told my husband on the way home that I felt like sticking my finger down
my throat in hopes that that would make me feel better!! (Just kidding,
I wouldn't really do that!).
All I can say is that this was soooo not worth it. I hadn't been on the
scale for over a week prior to this episode because I had had TOM plus I
was taking antibiotics for pneumonia & cough medicine (which probably
had sugar too) so I was just eating good but taking medicine & when I
weighed Sunday morning I had lost another 4 pounds which put me at 38
total lost. Well 3 of those are back (it was all 4 til this
morning!). All in all this has been a great learning experience for me
& I kept remembering what you said in your book, that you usually didn't
even want the carb foods when you had even planned an indulgence. I
didn't have any idea that one meal would throw me so far out of whack,
it certainly wasn't worth the miserable way I felt. I told the waiter
that they should re-name that dessert heroin on a plate for what it did
to me!!
My life is so much better without sugar and I can't believe that I ate
that dessert, but I guess it was something I had to go through to learn
that my low carb lifestyle is better than the 15 minutes of chocolate
tastes!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Andrea, for sharing this with others.
Just for you, I'll make sure the recipe for sugar free Peanut Butter
Silk Pie is in the next issue, okay?
For the record, here's Dana's Sugar Count for 2000 so far: About 2
dozen dark chocolate covered espresso beans (not all at once), and about
a quarter of a small serving of home made mango sherbet. However, I
will admit to getting into the potato chips at a party a couple of weeks
back... :-)
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Product Review
Low carb pizza! What a concept!
Of all the foods that low carb dieters miss, pizza may well be at the
very top of the list. I'm here to tell you that last night I ate a half
a twelve inch pizza, and this morning not a single new pound showed up
on the scale! *This* is an experience I could repeat. My husband is
enthusiastic about a repeat performance as well, and actually I believe
"enthusiastic" would be understating it a bit!
The pizza was from the pizza kit available from Low Carbolicious. The
kit comes with a crust mix packet, and a packet of pizza sauce; the
rest -- cheese and toppings -- you supply yourself, which makes sense,
since that stuff is easy to get, and who needs to pay a bunch of money
to have the same mozzarella you could buy at the grocery store shipped
to you? The kit was easy to make, although I did have to go to K-Mart
and buy a micro-perforated pizza pan. I figure I'll be using it again!
You mix the crust mix with a half a stick of butter (melted) and a scant
half-cup water. This makes a sort of a thick batter, rather than a
dough, which you then spread on the pizza pan (greasing it well, first
-- I used a hefty coating of non-stick spray, and it worked fine.) One
minor caution -- a bit of my crust mix came through the holes; either
you'll want to put some waxed paper or something under the pan, or
you'll end up wiping the counter, which is what I did. You then
partially bake the crust all by itself, which is an aid to crispness.
Then you spread on the sauce, and add whatever toppings you like. I
used an entire 12 ounce package of shredded mozzarella, plus some
Italian sausage I just happened to have in the freezer, but you could
use pepperoni, Canadian bacon, regular bacon, ham, peppers, onions,
mushrooms, broccoli (actually very good on pizza; the frozen "broccoli
cuts", thawed first, work well), olives, anchovies -- anything you
like. You then bake the pizza again, of course, to melt the cheese and
finish the crust.
The package recommends that for extra crispness, you then take the pizza
out, crank up the oven to 550 (you start it at 425), and bake for
another few minutes; I did this. (As a youth, I worked in a very
Italian pizza joint, and we always started pizzas in a hot oven, and
finished them in an even hotter oven, so this made sense to me.) Do let
the pizza stand for 3 or 4 minutes before you slice and devour it, as
the package recommends, or you'll be peeling strips of skin off the
inside of your mouth -- no doubt we've all had pizza burns before.
(Cheese is a wonderful insulator; keeps that sauce *really* hot.)
How was it? The sauce is *excellent*, very flavorful and authentic
tasting. The crust isn't exactly like regular pizza crust, but it's
good -- if I weren't *looking* for a difference, I'm not sure I'd have
noticed. And of course a lot of the quality of every pizza lies in the
cheese and other toppings, which the kit leaves up to you. I asked the
Vice President in Charge of Operations and Webmaster (also known as that
nice boy I married) to rate the pizza on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being
the worst possible, nasty, fake, frozen or high school cafeteria pizza
and 10 being Carmen's (our favorite pizza joint in Chicago) on a good
night, and he gave it an 8! Not bad!!
Wisely, Low Carbolicious has not specified a portion size for the pizza;
we rapidly scarfed down the whole thing, and my husband was eyeing the
empty pizza pan wistfully when it was gone. There are just 30 grams of
usable carb in the entire pizza, so figure that if you cut it into 8
slices, as we did, there are under 4 grams per slice. And since the
crust is soy based, the pizza is simply loaded with protein, especially
once you factor in the cheese.
Speaking of the soy in the crust, long time readers know that I'm wary
of soy (Whenever I say this, I get posts asking why. In a nutshell, soy
products can cause goiter and other thyroid problems, and there's some
question as to whether or not they're implicated in brain deterioration
in old age.), but I'm not willing to knock soy out of my diet entirely;
it's just too useful an ingredient for us. I'd simply be likely to eat
this a couple of times a month, but not two or three times a week,
that's all.
All told, this is a terrific product for the low carber who misses pizza
dreadfully; it really is better, for my money, than eating just the
toppings off of regular pizza, or eating Meatza!, even though I'm quite
fond of meat crusted pizza. This is a true pizza experience, and I'm a
happy girl.
The Low Carbolicious Pizza Kit costs $8.99 -- not dirt cheap, but
cheaper than going out for pizza, or ordering in. Me, I'm going to
order a half dozen to keep on the shelf! Check it out at
http://www.lowcarbolicious.com
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That's it for this week! See you next week!
Dana W. Carpender
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