Lowcarbezine! 6 September 2000
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Hey, Gang!
*Finally*, this issue's done! I'd say more, but the truth is, I need to
send this to you and dash out of the house -- it's Toastmasters night!
So read on, and enjoy!
Dana
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All contents copyright 2000 by Hold the Toast Press. All commercial
reproduction and/or use is expressly prohibited. As always, feel free
to forward Lowcarbezine! to any family or friends you feel might enjoy
it, provided that you forward it in its entirety.
If Lowcarbezine! has been forwarded to you and you enjoy it, you can
subscribe for FREE at http://www.holdthetoast.com .
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Frequently Asked Question
What's a paleolithic diet all about?
Okay, this isn't the *most* frequently asked question, but it's one I've
been getting recently.
The term "paleolithic diet" pretty much sums it up -- it's an attempt to
reconstruct, as nearly as possible, the diet of our paleolithic
ancestors, aka The Cavemen. The theory goes like this: We were cave
people a whole heckuva lot longer than we've been farmers, so the cave
folks' hunter/gatherer diet is the evolutionary diet of human kind --
the diet our bodies are programmed for. We deviate from that diet at
our peril.
Now, the low fat/high carb crowd, and especially militant moral
vegetarians, keep telling us that the "natural" diet of human kind is
whole grains and beans, because that's what the majority of the
population has survived on for the past several thousand years. They're
certainly right about the fact that the majority of folks have lived on
these foods in recent millennia, and they're also certainly correct that
whole grains and beans are a far, far healthier diet than white bread
and corn syrup and cold cereal and white rice and "enriched" spaghetti.
What they've missed is that a few thousand years is a mere drop in the
bucket of evolutionary time, and that human kind has, so far as science
has been able to determine, a 2 *million* year history. Grains and
beans, on the other hand, have only been staples of the human diet since
we figured out how to farm, roughly ten thousand years ago. That makes
grains and beans Johnny-come-latelies to the human diet. And according
to paleolithic diet theory, that makes them highly suspect.
Indeed, according to Ray Audette, author of _Neanderthin_, there's a
very simple guideline for eating a paleo diet: If you couldn't gather
it with a sharp stick and a rock, while naked, and eat it raw, it's not
food. (Please note: This doesn't mean that paleodieters have to eat
everything raw. Clean meat, eggs, and fish are, of course, quite edible
raw -- steak tartare and sashimi come to mind -- but dirty packing
houses and such make this a risk in our modern society. We're simply
talking about foods which the body can assimilate raw without any
problems.)
This pretty much disposes of grains and beans, which have to be cooked
to be edible. Indeed, many grains and beans contain toxins to protect
themselves from eaten, and cooking is essential to break down those
toxins -- they'll make you sick if you manage to eat any quantity of
them raw. It also does away with a wide variety of other foods, from
coffee to potatoes. (Yes, you can eat a slice or two of potatoes raw.
But they're likely to make you ill if you eat them raw in any quantity.)
Now, the paleolithic diet theorists didn't set out to create a low carb
diet. But that's pretty much the way it's worked out, simply because
concentrated carbohydrate foods were few and far between in the
paleolithic world. So far as anyone has been able to determine, both by
studying archeological sites and by studying the diets of the very few
hunter gather tribes which survive today, our paleolithic ancestors ate
game -- meat and birds -- fish, eggs, bugs, nuts, seeds, leaves, shoots,
flowers, fruits in season. Does that sound like the diet of anyone you
know? A low carbohydrate intake may not be the point of a paleolithic
diet, but it surely is the outcome.
Indeed, a study came out in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
just this past March that concluded, after studying existing hunter
gatherer peoples, that hunter gatherers relied heavily on animal foods
wherever the environment was rich enough for them to do so. Indeed, the
article states that 73% of hunter gatherers get more than half of their
calories from animal foods. It goes on to state that this reliance on
animal foods, and the low carbohydrate content of wild plant foods
(remember, our cultivated fruits and vegetables have been bred for a
higher sugar content than their wild cousins) means that hunter
gatherers "universally" eat a high protein, low carb diet.
So, how is a paleolithic diet different from your standard low
carbohydrate diet?
First of all, the theory behind it is different. We low carbers eat
this way because we're convinced that a high carbohydrate intake causes
nasty insulin surges, which in turn cause fat deposition, heart disease,
diabetes, etc., etc., etc. Paleo dieters feel that there are other
risks involved in eating foods that weren't available to our distant
ancestors -- that many of the diseases of civilization, including heart
disease and diabetes, but also including auto immune diseases like
rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and serious allergies, are due to toxic
reactions to compounds in the "foods" that have been introduced into the
human diet in the past few thousand years. Ray Audette, by way of
example, claims to have cured his diabetes and his rheumatoid arthritis
with his paleolithic diet. So the point of a paleo diet is to avoid
"foods" that by paleodiet theory aren't really food at all, and will
cause nasty reactions in the human body that didn't evolve for them.
Because the point is to avoid taking foreign substances into your body,
you need to be even more wary about reading labels on a paleolithic diet
-- for instance, while fish is certainly allowed, canned tuna that
included soy protein in the broth it's canned in -- very common -- would
be forbidden, no matter how low carb it was.
Secondly, a paleolithic diet is actually stricter than most low
carbohydrate diets. Since on a low carbohydrate diet, all we're trying
to do is control our carbohydrate intake, and thus control our insulin
release, we can eat anything that isn't loaded with carbohydrate,
whether or not it was available to our caveman ancestors. The many low
carbohydrate foods that are *not* part of the ancient diet of human kind
include anything containing soy; peanuts, cashews, coffee, all dairy
products, and anything fermented including vinegar and alcohol. It
would also rule out the reduced carbohydrate, high fiber baked goods
that many of us eat, like the Fiber Rich crackers I like with my tuna
salad. It rules out all artificial sweeteners and products containing
them, although it seems to me that stevia would be allowed. It requires
much more careful shopping -- for instance, I'm currently thawing a
turkey for this weekend, and it says on the packaging that it includes a
"basting solution" -- which has stuff in it that would be forbidden on a
paleodiet; I'd need to buy a fresh turkey with no additives.. Of
course, the vast majority of low carbohydrate specialty products would
be out on a paleo diet, since most of them include some sort of soy,
dairy, or artificial sweeteners. All of this, of course, narrows our
menu possibilities even further than we've already narrowed them, and
that's hard for many of us to face.
On the other hand, I've written before about the fact that I don't trust
soy products, that I've known many low carb dieters who have broken long
plateaus and lost weight far better when they eliminated dairy products
from their program, and that peanuts seem to make me gain weight
disproportionately to their carbohydrate content. Hmmmm. Beginning to
look like there's something to this paleolithic diet stuff.
There are obstacles to eating a true paleolithic style diet, of course,
the greatest of which is the fact that even the basic foods found in our
grocery stores are tremendously different from the foods available to
the cave folks. Farm raised, grain fed meat is *much* higher in fat
than game, and that fat has a very different balance of
saturated/monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fatty acids than game does.
(This, by the way, is an issue that has not been much addressed by low
carbohydrate diet doctors like Atkins and Eades, and it seems an
important issue to me.) Further, unlike hunter gatherers, who ate
virtually the whole animal, right down to the eyeballs and the sinews,
we tend to eat only muscle meats -- often buying meat without even the
bones, much less the organs. Our fruits and vegetables, as mentioned
earlier, have been bred for greater sugar content and less fiber. Even
much fish is farmed now, with the result that it has a different
nutritional composition than wild fish. Indeed, Ray Audette is a
falconer -- he hunts much of his own meat in the wild, with the help of
a trained falcon. (Pretty darned cool, if you ask me!) We also tend to
get a *much* narrower variety of meats and plant foods than hunter
gatherers, who will eat virtually anything that is edible.
Still, while you may not be able to eat a truly paleolithic diet there
is no question that you can avoid foods that were not in any way a part
of the evolutionary diet of human kind, and for many this may be the
best possible diet. I think this is an important option to be aware
of. I've known several people to successfully break plateaus on their
basic low carbohydrate diets by dropping the "forbidden fruits" and
going paleo. I would certainly give a paleolithic diet a try if I had
any sort of disease for which modern medicine had little of value,
especially anything that suggested a derangement of the immune system,
such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. If you've been having trouble
losing weight on a low carbohydrate diet that includes a fair amount of
dairy or soy or other non-paleo foods, or if you have health problems,
this is definitely worth a look.
If you'd like to learn more about paleolithic dieting, I highly
recommend _Neanderthin_ by Ray Audette.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312243383/lowcarbohysoluti
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Splenda Alert!
Splenda is hitting the stores!! I have received several emails in the
past week, reporting on Splenda sightings. I myself found it at my
local Kroger -- wouldn't you know it, I had just ordered some online a
couple of days before! I've also had reports of Splenda being found at
Wal-Mart and Meijer stores. Yippee! No more paying shipping and
handling charges, and waiting for days for my Splenda to arrive!
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Odd New Weight Loss Device I Don't Need
Got the news today, thanks to an alert reader, that researchers in
Europe and the US are testing a "gastric pacemaker" -- a device similar
to the cardiac pacemakers that have been in use for decades. In this
case, instead of keeping the heart ticking steadily, the device would be
implanted under the skin of the abdomen, and deliver electrical current
to the stomach. In some way that was not explained in the article, this
is supposed to "induce feelings of satiety" -- make the patient feel
full and satisfied. This, in turn, is supposed to help the patient lose
weight and keep it off.
Why does this strike me as superfluous? We already have a pretty good
handle on what makes people feel full and satisfied -- a nice, stable
blood sugar level with no big crashes. Eating enough protein, fat, and
fiber, and avoiding addictive high impact carbs. Being in ketosis has a
*powerful* appetite suppressant effect!
Sorta cracks me up. One of the "criticisms" I've heard leveled at a low
carb diet is that it "tricks you into being less hungry", as if that
were a *bad* thing. So if we know what sort of a diet will "trick"
people into not feeling hungry, why the heck do we need a surgically
implanted electronic device? And why is it a bad thing to eat a diet
that "fools" us into not being hungry, but a good thing to get a
surgically implanted electronic device that fools us into not being
hungry?
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Time's Running Out! If You Want To Cruise With Me, Today's the Day!
Okay, all you cruise procrastinators -- yes, you, the one who's been
thinking, "Oh, man! I've got to go on that Low Carb Cruise, but hey,
it's summer. I'll register later." Guess what? Time's running out.
Already there are no ocean view rooms left! And inside rooms are
disappearing *fast*. If you want to come along, you'd better make that
reservation *NOW*, as in *right now*. And don't worry about not having
an ocean view room -- that's what all those decks and pools and stuff
are for!
So reserve your space today! It's going to be a blast! We're going to
have whole lot of fun, learn a lot, get away from *WINTER* (which *is*
coming, you know!), get rid of the holiday stress, get the New Year off
to a *great* start, learn about various low carb diet options, look at
the latest low carb cookbooks, brainstorm day to day low carb diet
strategies, sample new low carb products, learn way-cool breathing
exercises to accelerate metabolism -- all on an outrageously luxurious
and beautiful floating resort called the Carnival Victory, the newest,
largest, and most luxurious ship in the Carnival fleet! You have to see
this ship to believe it! And we're going to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and
Jamaica! How cool is *that*?!
Join me! Get an autographed preview copy of my second book! Meet new
low carb pals! Knock off another five pounds! And have a *ball*! We
sail on January 7th, 2001 (You'll want to be in Miami by the evening of
the 6th -- we can arrange that, too.) for a full week!
But you want to get your reservations in *now*. Why? Because just like
with airlines, you get a better rate with cruise lines if you *book in
advance*. At this point, we're moving toward the winter Caribbean
cruise season, and prices will only go up. So book now!! Your deposit
is fully refundable through October 15th, should anything untoward
happen. Check out all the details of the cruise at
http://www.holdthetoast.com/cruise.html .
C'mon, which would you rather be doing come the second week in January?
Shoveling snow? Or sailing blue waters with me and a whole bunch of low
carb diet pals?
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Reader Review of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_
I bought this book for my husband. He would starve on low fat diets and
never seem to lose much weight. We read this and it helped us create our
own low-carb diet that would work for him - a month into it he is 15lbs
lighter and most importantly to him is that he has never had so much
energy. I get tired of people saying how I am going to kill him with
this high fat eating - but I don't call a lean piece of meat with
vegetables or veggies and dip for a snack bad nutrition - not all diets
are for everyone but for the people that this kind of diet works for it
is a godsend -- which is more deadly being 100 lbs. overweight or eating
meat and veggies? You decide.
Thanks, Dana -- your book is great.
A. Dittmer, Rockford, May 8, 2000
Thank you!!
You can read this and other reader reviews at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966883101/lowcarbohysoluti
And you can read the first chapter of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and
Lost Forty Pounds!_ for FREE at http://www.holdthetoast.com ! You can
order the book through the order page on the website, through
Amazon.com, or -- and this is a *very good deal!* through Carb Smart, at
http://www.carbsmart.com .
If you'd like to order the book through a local bookstore, you should be
able to do so virtually anywhere in the USA -- just give them the title,
_How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_, and the ISBN
(0-9668831-0-1), and tell them it's available through Baker and Taylor
-- that's our wholesaler!
International readers, I'm afraid you'll have to order through the
internet, or by sending us a check or money order here at Hold the Toast
Press -- we don't have an international wholesaler yet. :-( But we've
shipped as far as Japan! We'd be happy to ship to you!
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Recipe Goof-o-Rama!!
I am officially a doofus. Last week, Diana Lee graciously agreed to
allow me to publish a couple of recipes from her cookbook _Baking Low
Carb_ to tide everyone over until it is back in print. I published her
recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies, which I had personally enjoyed a
great deal -- but I messed it up. As *many* of you let me know, I
omitted the oat flour from the ingredient list. Further, it begins to
appear that I put the *quantity* for the oat flour -- 2 tablespoons --
next to the baking powder on the ingredient list, leading to a rather
chemical-tasting product, no doubt!
So, in penance, I am once again publishing this recipe, and I promise to
proofread it at least three times!!
Peanut Butter Brownies
Chocolate Layer
5 tbls. butter
1/4 c. baking cocoa
2 eggs
1/4 c. heavy cream
1/4 c water
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. Splenda
1 tsp liquid sweetener (Sweet 'N Low)
3/4 c. vanilla whey protein powder
2 tbls. oat flour
1 tbl. baking powder
Melt butter and stir in cocoa. Add to eggs, water heavy cream, vanilla,
Splenda, and sweetener; mix. Add whey protein, oat flour and baking
powder, and mix till moistened. Pour into greased 8 inch pan.
Peanut Butter Topping
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
3 tbl. butter
2 tbl. Splenda
1 egg
2 tbls. vanilla whey protein powder
Mix all ingredients together and spoon on top of brownie batter. Bake
at 350 for 15 minutes. Cut into 16 pieces.
2.5 g. carbohydrates and 5 g. protein per serving.
Here's another recipe I liked, although next time I might add 1/2
teaspoon or so of salt:
Sweet Zucchini Bread
2 c. shredded, unpeeled zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/3 c. heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. water
1/3 c. Splenda
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 1/2 c. vanilla whey protein powder
3 tbl. high gluten flour (Dana's note -- this is also called "vital
wheat gluten", and is different from "gluten flour" -- it's lower carb.)
1/3 c. oat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
Combine zucchini, eggs, oil, cream, and water; mix. Add Splenda,
walnuts, gluten flour, whey powder, oat flour, baking powder, baking
soda, salt, and cinnamon; mix till moistened. Pour into greased bread
pan. Bake 40 to 45 min. at 350.
Total loaf is 78 g. carbohydrate and 118 g protein.
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Product Review
Are you among the people who have eliminated soda pop from your diet
because you're nervous about aspartame, and are avoiding sugar? You'll
be glad to know that Diet Rite brand is now sweetening their diet soda
with sucralose, the same sweetener found in Splenda.
Now personally, I'm not a big soda pop fan; I simply find it to be
*waaaay* too sweet. Indeed, I can't remember the last time I drank a
can of soda, but know it has literally been *years*. However, I'd have
to be blind, deaf, and living in a cave in the wilderness to be unaware
that the *vast* majority of Americans love soda, and drink a lot of it.
So it's really nice to be able to announce this new option in soft
drinks.
You ought to know that Consumer Reports down rated Diet Rite Cola on the
basis of flavor; I guess they just didn't like the way it tasted.
However, I've gotten emails from readers saying that they like it very
much. If you're a cola drinker it seems to me it would be worth
investing in a six-pack of the stuff to see how you feel about it.
Diet Rite also makes other flavors, and I did an informal taste-test of
two of them at a barbecue I hosted recently. The two flavors were Red
Raspberry and White Grape, and they were a *big* hit. I made a point of
asking my guests who chose the Diet Rite sodas how they liked them, and
everyone said they tasted great, even people who generally don't drink
diet beverages. I took a sip of each flavor, and did think that the
flavors were quite good, if -- as I expected -- very sweet.
I even have a recipe using one of these sodas -- of course, being
sweetened with Splenda they keep their sweetness when cooked. This came
in from reader Laurie Jenner:
A couple of us from atkinsfriends.com came up with a steak sauce recipe
- similar in taste to A1 or Heinz 57:
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
6 ounces white grape Diet Rite
3 Tbl worcestershire sauce
3 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground pepper
3 tsp lemon juice
Put all ingredients in a saucepan. Whisk together over medium heat
until thickened. Store in refrigerator.
Thanks, Laurie!
I haven't tried this yet, but intend to, since I'm fond of steak sauce.
I also might try using the white grape flavor to sweeten sugar free
ketchup.
If you dropped aspartame sweetened soda from your diet because you were
concerned that it was keeping you from losing weight/going into ketosis,
you need to be aware that there is still some controversy about which
ingredient causes this effect for so many dieters, the aspartame, or
citric acid, added to soda to provide tartness. While Diet Rite does
not contain aspartame, it does contain citric acid. Just something to
bear in mind.
All in all, if you're a soda fan, the new Diet Rite is definitely worth
checking out!
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That's it for this week! See you next week!
Dana W. Carpender
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