Lowcarbezine! 14 February 2001
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Hey, Gang!
Happy Valentine's Day!! I've got a dozen red roses; hope you've been
Valentined yourself!
Just a note: I meant to put more of my reader's New Years Questions
responses in this issue, but it was way too long already! I promise
I'll publish more New Years Responses next week.
Time to get this thing sent out! Hope you enjoy it.
Read on!
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 .
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 All submissions become the property of
Hold the Toast Press. If you don't want us to print your letter, just
let us know, and we won't! 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
next book written!
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Press reserves the right to reject any ad, for any reason.
If you need a website designed or hosted, please check out the info on
Webbalah at the bottom of this newsletter! (Hey, *my* website looks
good, right?)
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A Valentine For You!!!
In case you ever doubted it, I love you guys. I love this job. I love
that I get to hang out at home and come up with new and (hopefully)
interesting articles and recipes and research for you every week, and
make at least a *little* money doing it. I love your support, I love
your stories, I love your questions. I love all that free food the
e-tailers send me!! I love trying new stuff for you. I just really dig
my work, and I love all of you for making my job possible.
Indeed, this job has very few sorrows. But one of them -- perhaps my
profoundest sorrow, professionally speaking -- is the number of emails I
get from people, generally women, who say things like, "I've been on a
low carb diet for 8 months, and I've lost 30 pounds. I feel really
good, and my health has improved -- but I was really hoping to lose
another 15 pounds. I'm thinking of giving up, since I guess this was a
waste of time and energy."
Makes me want to *weep*. Here someone has been a *big* success at low
carb dieting, even admitting that it has improved her health and sense
of well-being -- and just because she can't get down to a fashionably
anorexic-looking weight, she's decided it was all a big waste of time.
Makes me want to go out and smash every television set in the country.
(Except then I'd miss Guiding Light, and how would I entertain myself
while I pack up books for shipping?)
Even sadder, if possible, are the emails I sometimes get from teenaged
girls. The gist of these often is, "I'm a size 9, and I feel *soooo*
fat! Please tell me what to eat to get down to a size 2!!" These girls
are on the royal road to anorexia, not to mention a lifetime of
self-hatred. What ever happened to the days when girls couldn't wait to
develop womanly curves?
I've said it before, I'll say it again: A low carb diet is a *healthy*
diet. It is good for solving the truly hideous health problems that
accompany genuine obesity, and for getting down to a *normal, healthy
weight.* It is rarely successful for reaching the sort of stick-like
thinness currently obsessing our entertainment industry -- because *that
size is not healthy nor natural for the VAST majority of people.*
Women, grown, adult women, are supposed to have breasts and bellies and
hips and thighs. We're not supposed to be obese, you understand, that's
unhealthy and uncomfortable, and to most eyes unattractive. But we are
*supposed* to have curves. We are *not* supposed to look like
just-barely-pubescent girls all of our lives (and some of us weren't
skinny when we were just-barely-pubescent girls!) Am I the only one who
finds the fact that American society, as a whole, has decided that the
only truly sexually attractive body is one that is girlish, instead of
womanly, a little -- well, sick? Am I the only one who finds the
pressure put on us by the constant parade of carefully chosen,
genetically "gifted", surgically altered people with high-level personal
trainers and hours to spend in the gym, and expensive wardrobes to be
oppressive and maddening and obscurely insulting, rather than inspiring
or entertaining?
It was not always so. There was a time within living memory -- heck,
within *my* living memory -- when the entertainment industry did not
send little girls to do a woman's work, the "woman's work" I speak of
being the time-honored job of Sex Symbol or Great Beauty, or both.
There was a time within living memory when 12 was considered the
"perfect" size for a woman (a stupid concept anyway, but 12 being the
perceived perfect size for a woman beats 4 being the perceived perfect
size for a woman!) There was a time within living memory when women's
magazines carried ads for weight *gaining* products, to give women
"those curves" they lacked.
And you know what? In my experience, plenty of men *still* like women
with curves. I married one! Indeed, he married me when I was very near
my heaviest weight, and never once made me feel bad about it.
Ironically, the two friends who were my attendants were both *far*
smaller than I -- one was a size 6 and one a size 2 -- and both were
certainly far more beautiful than I, by any conventional standards. Yet
who was marrying a man who adored her and treated her (and still treats
her) like gold? (I may be ranging a little too close to the Land of Too
Much Information, here, but my husband regularly growls at me -- at me,
still somewhere between a 12 and a 14 -- "I *love* your body!!")
My point with all this? Surveys show that the single most compelling
reason that people, men and women alike, lose weight is to be sexy, to
be attractive to the opposite sex. (Or, in some cases, the same sex.
Whatever. We all want to be sexy.) Yet for many, many of my readers, a
healthy, normal size is going to be something larger than the currently
celebrated Kate Moss/Gwyneth Paltrow/Callista Flockheart look. It would
be a damned shame if a single one of you continued to beat yourself up
and despise your own body because it had a wiser idea than pop culture
did about how a woman should be made. And it would be an outright
tragedy if you decided to give up on eating right (and, it is to be
hoped, getting some exercise) because it didn't make you a Lollipop Girl
-- or, for men, a cut-up buff stud.
So here, Beloved Readers, is my Valentine to you:
A series of photos of people who were considered extraordinarily
beautiful/sexy in their day,
without being painfully thin. I put these together for the Low Carb
High Life Cruise. These are not just people who were considered
okay-looking -- people who were considered *GORGEOUS*, the most
beautiful people of their time. And they were. None of these people is
obese, mind you, but none of them has that -- well, *gaunt* look that
today's "beautiful people" seem to have.
And not one of them is a little girl being sent to do a woman's job.
Here's the URL: http://www.holdthetoast.com/imagesofbeauty/index.html
Enjoy! And Happy Valentine's Day!
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Tired of eggs for breakfast? How about a giant *MUFFIN*? Huge, low
carb, high protein ready-to-eat muffins! Chocolate, vanilla, blueberry,
banana, peanut butter, or apple spice!! Enough protein to fill you up
and keep you going all morning!! And only a few carbs each! YOU'VE
GOTTA TRY 'EM!
http://www.lowcarbgrocery.com
We now have _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_ at a
discount!
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Happy New Low Carber!
Because of my job, I just love checking my email. Why? Because in
between the *unbelievable piles* of spam I get, are posts like this one,
from Tammy, who came on the Low Carb High Life Cruise with her mom. Her
mom had been low carbing for quite a while, but Tammy remained
unconvinced. Here's what she has to say now:
Dana & Eric,
I'm sure you won't believe this, but I am low-carbing!!! On the cruise
I was still very reluctant to try it -- not because I didn't believe
what I was hearing from you & what I had heard & read from others, but I
did
not want to give up my beloved carbs!!! This IS a MAJOR change & VERY
SCARY!!!
I finally decided to give it a try, though, for 2 weeks. I have
basically done the induction diet, although I have not really counted
carbs. I am
eating eggs/cheese/meat/salads/veggies-no bread, fruit, etc. Even I am
totally AMAZED with the transformation! After 8 days, I feel great, I am
not hungry, I have had no craving for carbohydrates (which I find
completely unbelievable!), & I have not overeaten. Most importantly, I
also feel
that food does not have that emotional power over me now. I just keep
hoping this is not a temporary thing that will go away once the newness
wears
off. Please tell me it isn't so!!!
I was so UTTERLY EUPHORIC today that a co-worker who has done the
Atkins diet told me I was probably in ketosis. I had not read that far
in your
book yet, so she told me about the ketosis sticks to test my level. I
was so
excited that I went to the drugstore on my lunch hour to check it out. I
tested at a "moderate" ketosis. YEAH!!!!!!
I also had my cholesterol tested the day after I started. My doctor
was ready to put me on a low-cholesterol diet. Based on the formulas in
your
book, my total/HDL is 4.58, my LDL/HDL is 2.8, & my triglycerides/HDL is
3.8. Most readings appear OK other than needing to reduce my
triglycerides. I
am anxious to continue on this diet & be retested after 3-4 months to
see
what the difference is. I will be going to my doctor in March & plan on
discussing this w/her. I know many doctors are against this (I'm not
sure where she
stands), but I'm determined to continue as long as I feel better.
My Mom had given me a sample of the Hazelnut Shortbread (she made it
with walnuts instead) & I was pleasantly surprised with the taste. That
will be a "keeper" in my recipe file. I haven't gotten bored yet, but I
need
to work on reading the rest of your book & collecting some new recipes
geared toward this way of life. I do enjoy cooking, so that's a plus.
I've made a Weight Watcher recipe for chili that I think is very tasty &
I think the carb count is OK. I don't have any nutritional specifics
about it. Here it is
(in case you're interested or want to give your opinion):
Chili
2 lbs. ground beef
1 lg. can V-8 juice
2 cans french-sytle green beans
2 c. celery
1 can mushrooms (I used fresh)
˝ c. green or red pepper
chili powder, salt, pepper to taste (I used a chili seasoning packet)
Brown ground beef w/some onion until no longer pink. Add the rest of
ingredients & simmer for 1 hour. It's easy to make & delicious!! I
didn't even miss the beans or pasta.
Thanks so much for all of your helpful info -- in person & in print! I
thoroughly enjoyed the cruise & meeting everyone. Between my Mom
following this diet & having so many great sources of info from my
former "crewmates", I'm hoping this will be a "piece of cake" (so to
speak!).
I am now a proud subscriber to your weekly Carbezine & plan on
checking out some websites for more info. My next step is to order some
Baja Bob Margarita Mix from the web. That was wonderful!!!
Take care & keep in touch,
Tammy
Thanks, Tammy! And by the way -- it's now going on SIX YEARS I've been
eating this way, and I still rejoice that food no longer owns my soul!
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Why Pay More? We've got a *HUGE* selection of your favorite low carb
products, and *EVERYTHING* is at a *DISCOUNT*! Baja Bob's Margarita
Mix! Cheeter's Diet Treats Low Carb Crackers! Pumpkorn! Just The
Cheese Chips! And MUCH, MUCH MORE!!
We also carry Dana Carpender's _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost
Forty Pounds!_ for just $9.99!
If you're Low Carb and Smart, you'll shop CarbSmart!
http://www.webbalah.net/carbsmart.html
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The Heart Disease Risk You May Not Know About
More Americans die of heart disease than anything else. Men are more
likely to die of heart attacks than women, but women are still 4 times
more likely to die of a heart attack than of breast cancer. (By the
way, this is a modern problem. Heart disease as we know it was
virtually nonexistent in the US before the 20th Century, and the
drastic rise in the consumption of highly processed, sugary, starchy
junk.) What's the big risk factor for heart disease?
Did I hear you say high cholesterol? Wrong.
Actually, high total cholesterol is not the most reliable predictor of
heart disease. It is not a predictor of heart disease *at all* in women
of child bearing age, nor in the elderly. In young-to-middle aged men,
high total cholesterol *may* be a predictor of heart disease, but only
seems to be a big threat if accompanied by *low* HLD (good) cholesterol,
and high triglycerides. Further, *low* cholesterol puts you at greater
risk of death from all causes, including cancer, and in men, from
violence and suicide. It is also *very* possible to have heart disease
without ever having had high cholesterol; any cardiothoracic surgeon can
tell you of dozens of bypass operations performed on people who have
never had high cholesterol a day in their lives.
This, by the way, is not an attempt to "excuse" the high level of fat
and cholesterol intake on a low carb diet. It needs no excusing; eating
a diet high in cholesterol has *never* been demonstrated to raise blood
cholesterol, and only some kinds of fats have been shown to raise blood
cholesterol, and then only in a minority of people. (The *worst* fats
are the hydrogenated vegetable oils -- the margarine and vegetable
shortening that we were told were healthier for our hearts than butter
and lard.) The majority of folks with high blood cholesterol have high
cholesterol because their livers are busily *making* that cholesterol,
and their livers are making it in response to high levels of insulin in
their blood, which is why a majority of people see an improvement in
their cholesterol on a low carb diet. (A minority will see an
improvement in triglycerides, and also in HDL, but will also get higher
LDL and total cholesterol. These are the saturated fat intolerant
folks, and they need to eat more fish and chicken, and also
monounsaturate fats from nuts, seeds, and avocados, and less beef and
cheese.)
Yet people have had it pounded into their heads, for decades, that high
cholesterol is *the* enemy where heart disease is concerned, that they
must avoid dietary cholesterol and fat to fix it, and that if their
cholesterol is even a point or two above 200, they must go on
cholesterol lowering drugs. (Did you know that 200 is a totally
arbitrary cut-off point? There is no big jump in heart disease over
that 200 mark. And doctors in other countries use other standards.)
There is *very* little hard evidence to back up *any* of this.
Triglycerides are actually a stronger predictor of heart disease than
cholesterol, and of course triglycerides generally *plummet* on a low
carb diet, but that's not what I'm talking about, either.
Ever hear of homocysteine?
All the way back in 1969, Dr. Kilmer McCully, a cum laude graduate of
Harvard Medical School, forwarded the theory that the cause of heart
disease was high levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood.
(For those of you who don't know, amino acids are the building blocks
that proteins are made of. Just as we build words out of various
letters in various orders, proteins of all kinds, from skin to hair to
muscles to hooves -- are made of various amino acids arranged in various
orders.)
Dr. McCully started looking at this when he read a series of studies
published in the 1940s by a pathologist who found that a severe
deficiency of the vitamin B6 would cause arteriosclerosis -- scarring
and clogging in the arteries -- in monkeys. He also found studies
showing that the same thing happened in rats deprived of the B
vitamin-like substance choline. Dr. McCully knew that both B6 and
choline were needed to convert the amino acid homocysteine to another
amino acid, methionine. (Your body can change many amino acids around,
converting one to another. Ain't we a marvel?)
Dr. McCully concluded that high levels of homocysteine must be a cause
of scarring and clogging in arteries -- a cause of heart disease. He
further concluded that it was a lack of B vitamins that caused those
high levels of homocysteine. He first published this theory in The
American Journal of Pathology in 1969.
Dr. McCully continued to study homocysteine and heart disease for
several years, publishing several papers supporting his original idea.
Scientists from around the world lauded his work, and started looking at
the question of homocysteine and heart disease. His work was presented
to the scientific advisory board of Massachusetts General Hospital as an
example of a new observation made by someone with sound training and the
right background.
Yet in 1976, when the chairman of Harvard retired and a new chairman
and board came in, McCully was told that his theory had not been
proven. His salary was cut and his office moved to a basement. He was
eventually told that this was because his work contradicted cholesterol
theory, and the theory that fat was the cause of heart disease.
How times change. Now, in 2001, Dr. Kilmer McCully's homocysteine
theory of heart disease enjoys widespread acceptance, and new studies on
the subject are published regularly, many of them citing McCully's
original work. (When I ran a Medline database search under
"homocysteine AND atherosclerosis, I got 541 hits. When I ran
"homocysteine AND arteriosclerosis", I got 399 hits. "Homocysteine AND
myocardial infarction" (heart attack)? 147 hits.) High levels of
homocysteine in the blood are now widely accepted to be a risk factor
for heart disease.
Yet when was the last time your doctor told you your homocysteine
level? Mine never has. I confess I don't have a *clue* as to what my
homocysteine level should be! All we hear about is cholesterol, and
occasionally triglycerides.
Worse, since they're not telling us about homocysteine, they're not
giving us any idea of how to *lower* homocysteine. That's why I'm going
to tell you. What elevates homocysteine levels? Here's a direct quote
from Dr. McCully himself:
"Homocysteine becomes elevated in the blood when there is a deficiency
of the B vitamins: B6, B12, and folic acid. (Dana's note: Remember
that he also mentioned that a lack of choline could be a cause.) Other
factors also play a role. For example, homocysteine levels may rise due
to normal aging, menopause, thyroid conditions, kidney failure,
cigarette smoking, a number of different drugs and certain industrial
toxins. Genetics also play a role..." Dr. McCully went on to say that
about 12% of the population has a genetic problem in breaking down
homocysteine. (I thought the part about cigarette smoking was
interesting. Guess that's the mechanism by which smoking causes heart
attacks. And I knew that thyroid disease raised heart disease risk;
here's why!)
Apparently, homocysteine does its damage by attacking the cells on the
insides of the arteries. The "plaques" -- the lumps of cholesterol and
calcium that do the actual clogging of the arteries -- grow in response
to this damage caused by homocysteine. This dovetails with a theory
I've read that the actual plaques are the body's attempt to fix the
damage to the arteries.
So, how do you lower your homocysteine? You make sure that you're
getting plenty of B6, B12, and folic acid, not to mention choline. What
are the best sources? According to Dr. McCully: "...fresh vegetables,
fruits, meat, fish, and dairy products." Does that sound like a
familiar diet to you? What was that about a low carb diet being bad for
your heart?
I looked up these vitamins in Earl Mindell's _Vitamin Bible_. The best
sources of B6 include some of our best low carb foods: Eggs, peanuts,
walnuts, cabbage, cantaloupe, liver, kidney. The best sources of B12?
B12 is *only* found in animal foods, which means that a vegan diet may
actually *damage* the heart. Mindell lists the best sources as: Liver,
beef, pork, eggs, milk, cheese, kidney. The best sources of choline
include egg yolks and green leafy vegetables. And prime sources of
folic acid include: Deep green leafy vegetables, liver, egg yolks,
cantaloupe, pumpkin, and avocados.
Do you notice the one food that appears on *all* those lists? Eggs.
More specifically, egg yolks, which everyone has been told, over and
over, are Public Enemy #1 where heart disease is concerned. All those
years of people avoiding eggs, throwing away yolks, making whites-only
omelets (yech!), eating fake egg substitutes, and it turns out eggs
contain *all* the vitamins needed to lower homocysteine to healthy
levels. Oh, the humanity.
Dr. McCully also recommends supplementing one's diet, especially if you
have a family or personal history of heart disease, or if you have eaten
a poor diet most of your life. As all my readers know by now, I'm a big
fan of dietary supplements.
It turns out that homocysteine is easily tested from a blood sample, and
the cost of such testing has recently come down. I plan to ask for a
homocysteine test next time I get bloodwork done, and I certainly
recommend that you do the same.
In the meanwhile, how about an omelet and a big, leafy green salad for
supper?
(Information on homocysteine and Dr. McCully's work from an interview
with Dr. McCully in this month's Delicious Living magazine. Information
on vitamins from Earl Mindell's Vitamin Bible. If you'd like a copy of
the Vitamin Bible -- the single best-selling nutrition book *ever*, and
certainly a very, very useful reference, you can get it at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446607029/lowcarbohysoluti )
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Fall Low Carb Retreat!
No details yet, but we're planning a fall Low Carb Retreat in Galena,
Illinois, probably the first weekend in November. Should be lots of
fun! Watch this space for details as we have 'em!
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Reader Review of _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_
Don't let the cover fool you! This book gets 10 stars!, July 4, 2000
I bought this book and read it in 2 days. It should be a "must" have for
any low carb dieter. Dana gives info on all the various low carb diets
out there, so you can choose which works for you. She gives you a wealth
of information that I didn't find in the Heller's book or the Eades'
book. She tells you what works and what doesn't.
I almost didn't buy this book because the cover looked, well, weird.
Never judge a book by its cover! The inside flap has a wonderful before
and after shots of Dana, and she is quite pretty. The book had cute
little cartoon guys and girls that made me smile.
If your still in doubt, read through Amazon's listing of her table of
contents. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? I almost gave up my low carb
diet in spite of the benefits because I was struggling with some things-
but Dana cleared up some things. Like I was gnashing my teeth a lot, and
Dana gave a lot of info on supplements (do not buy the store
multivitamin junk- not sufficient at all! ). I gnashed my teeth because
I was not getting the correct minerals and vitamins. Read the book, find
out more!
This book is awesome! I have lost 15 lbs in 2 months and this book will
help me reach my goal, and live happily ever after. What more could you
ask for?
sleeplessincs, MI
Thanks, Sleepless -- hope you're sleeping better! ;-)
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 , along with the foreword and the table of
contents. And a FAQ, and a whole bunch of other stuff!
You can order the book through the website, or you can go to
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966883101/lowcarbohysoluti and
find it at Amazon.com, along with a whole pile of other nice things
people have said about it!
Or, for that matter, you can visit
http://www.webbalah.net/carbsmart.html , and order
it from Carb Smart, where it's at a discount. Low Carb Grocery has it
at a discount, too -- http://www.lowcarbgrocery.com .
If you'd like to buy the book from a bookstore, you'll probably have to
special order it. If you're in the USA, this shouldn't be a problem --
just tell them that you want to order _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and
Lost Forty Pounds!_ by Dana Carpender, and that the ISBN is
0-9668831-0-1. You could also tell them that they can order it through
Baker and Taylor; one of the country's biggest book wholesalers. We do
ship to Canadian bookstores.
If you're outside of the US, your best bet is to order from Amazon.com.
We can ship internationally from here at Hold the Toast, too, but we're
not set up for it big-time like Amazon is. If you're a book wholesaler
outside the US and interested in carrying _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet
and Lost Forty Pounds!_, we'd love to hear from you!
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Snacks Galore!
We have lots of the top rated products from the Low Carb High Life
Cruise! Just the Cheese Chips! Pumpkorn, in *lots* of flavors!
Wonderful jerkies, in all sorts of flavors!
Low Carb Outfitters, the Best Gear for the Low Carb Journey!
http://www.lowcarboutfitters.com
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What sort of travel are you planning for this spring? Make it a
cruise!
A cruise is a *perfect* honeymoon -- you can travel to several romantic
places,
taking the hotel with you!
How about having your family reunion on a cruise?! Sounds easier -- and
more fun! -- than having them all to your house, doesn't it?
But who needs hassles, guess work, and details? Vacations are supposed
to be *fun*! Let Cruise Horizons plan your cruise for you, and all
you'll need to do is play!
Call Patty at Cruise Horizons for the vacation of your life!
1-800-529-AHOY
Check out Cruise Horizons website at http://www.cruisehorizons.com .
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Product Review
Sheesh, I *still* haven't reviewed all of the products we tried on the
cruise yet!! Here are a couple more!
Looking for low carb beverages? On the cruise we tried three beverage
mix products; Keto Kooler, and Ket-OJ, both from Life Services
Supplements, and Stevita lemonade mix, a stevia-sweetened beverage mix.
The reviews on these products were mixed.
We didn't much like the Stevita; we found it bland and too sweet.
However, it does have the advantage of being stevia sweetened. There
are some low carbers out there who are trying very hard to avoid
artificial sweeteners as well as sugars, and for their sakes, I don't
want to dismiss this product out of hand. It might well be improved by
adding some extra lemon juice. Of course, you could just make a pitcher
of lemonade with lemon juice, water, and stevia, but I think that would
be more work than mixing up a glass of the Stevita powder with a little
extra lemon juice.
Stevita is available through Low Carb Outfitters
http://www.lowcarboutfitters.com .
The Ket-0J and the Keto-Kooler aren't quite so simple.
The Keto-Kooler is also a lemonade flavored drink -- pink lemonade, this
time -- and like the Stevita, we found it too sweet, and sort of bland.
However, I've played around with it some since I got home, and I've
found that I rather like it if I mix it stronger than the label says --
at least half as much again of the mix in the water -- plus I add a
teaspoon or two of lemon juice. (I use bottled.)
The Ket-OJ is advertised as tasting like fresh orange juice. No such
luck; it tastes very much like Tang. Now, that's not necessarily bad;
Tang has been popular for a long time. (For my international readers,
Tang is an orange-flavored drink mix, enriched with vitamin C, which was
invented by NASA, our space exploration administration, for the manned
space flights of the 1960s. It was *terribly* trendy in the '60s
because of that "astronaut" tie-in. It's been on the market ever
since.) But if you try the Ket-OJ expecting it to taste like fresh
orange juice, you'll be disappointed.
Over all, we liked Ket-OJ the best of these three beverages.
All of this may sound like damning with faint praise, but there is more
to say about the Keto-Kooler and the Ket-OJ. These products are
enriched not only with vitamin C -- always a good thing -- but with
various other nutrients. Ket-OJ has the more impressive nutritional
breakdown; it has vitamins the Keto-Kooler does not, including the folic
acid mentioned in the article about homocysteine, above. It also
contains 200 mgs. of calcium, a not-inconsiderable amount. (Daily
requirement is 1000 mgs, so this is a fifth of what you need every day.)
Both of these products are enriched with nutrients that LSS feels will
help prevent blood sugar swings. In particular, chromium is essential
to proper glucose metabolism; there are 50 mcg. of chromium in each
glass of each of these beverages. There are a number of other vitamins
and minerals.
However, the most interesting ingredient is the amino acid, glutamine.
I have only just started to research glutamine, although I've known for
a long time that glutamine has been used to improve memory and
cognition. I have recently seen some articles indicating that glutamine
can calm carbohydrate cravings, and *that* is a very good thing. It
seems pretty clear that glutamine can alleviate alcohol cravings in
alcoholics, and it is theorized that it works through the same pathways
to lessen carbohydrate addiction as well. It might well help with the
brain fog that some folks get in the early days of a low carb diet, as
well. I need to learn more, but glutamine makes these two products
pretty darned interesting, if you ask me.
These products contain another amino acid, taurine. The label claims
that taurine supports "health blood sugar and insulin sensitivity"; I'll
have to do some reading to see whether I think this claim is valid.
Still, it looks like these products do have an advantage over sugar free
Tang or Crystal Light.
Keto Kooler and Ket-OJ are also aspartame-free. Keto Kooler is
sweetened with Ace-K (acesulfame potassium), an artificial sweetener
that's been on the market for years, but hasn't gotten much press.
Ket-OJ has both Ace-K and stevia.
Keto Kooler and Ket-OJ are both available through Synergy Diet
http://www.syergydiet.com
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"G. Robinson of Virginia reports that although she loves the benefits of
a starch blocker for weight
control, she has noticed that the other ingredient Maca, has totally
eliminated her PMS and has allowed her for the first time in years to
have a regular menstrual flow."
Dr. Kanter's Slenderpro is a starch blocker, and contains no ephedrine,
guarana, caffeine or steroids! Completely safe.
http://www.justsaynotocarbs.com 1-800-428-3328
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That's it for this week! See you next week!
Dana W. Carpender
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