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Hey, Gang -
Happy Autumn! Well, to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. A very Happy Spring to those of you on the far side of the planet!
I'm excited - I finally have a copy of my new book, 500 Low Carb Recipes, in my hand, and it looks wonderful! You can check out the cover at the Hold the Toast website. I know that if I saw this book in my local bookstore with somebody else's name on the cover, I wouldn't make it out of the store without it! It should be in bookstores coast-to-coast (and at Amazon.com, of course) by early October. Watch for it!
And in the meanwhile, Read On!
Dana
All contents © Copyright 2002 Hold the Toast Press. All commercial reproduction is expressly prohibited. If you think your friends will enjoy Lowcarbezine!, please forward them the WHOLE ISSUE. Please, do not post articles or recipes elsewhere on the internet without permission. My attorney tells me that I'll have to come scold you and tell you to cut it out if you do.
A lot of people have inquired about advertising; we actually are going to launch new ad rates and a sign up page as soon as the webmaster is through with grad school for the semester. Watch this space!
There are carb cravings, and then there are carb cravings. We can crave starches and sugars for a variety of reasons - because we like the way they taste, because they're a traditional part of a particular event, and most particularly because we're at the low point of the addictive high-low blood sugar cycle, and our body is demanding that we get that blood sugar up now. I've dealt with all of these cravings, and found that they're relatively easy to lick - you come up with tasty low carb substitutes, invent new traditions, eat your protein and keep your blood sugar stable. As a result of strategies like this, I very rarely experience a carb craving of any kind anymore.
But there is another sort of carb craving that is much more difficult to deal with, because it comes from a deeper and more profound place, and that is the emotional carb craving. This is the sort of carb craving that is most likely to permanently torpedo low carb aspirations, because it comes from a place of true human misery, and even desperation. So, what causes the emotional carb craving, and how can those who experience them learn to deal with them? After all, feeling calmer and happier is a deeply flawed experience if it's accompanied by obesity and disease.
Here's the deal: eating carbohydrates causes a rapid, if short lived, release of serotonin. You may have heard of serotonin, at least in passing, because Prozac, Paxil, and other widely used antidepressants work through increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. But what the heck is a neurotransmitter?
Your brain cells have microscopic gaps between them, called synapses. The way that messages are carried from one cell to another is by various chemicals flowing into those gaps, and filling the space for a split second. Once the message is transmitted, the chemical is pumped back out and recycled for reuse. Serotonin is a chemical that carries the message, "You are calm, relaxed, and cheerful."
Prozac and Paxil fall into the class of drugs called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs. What this means is that they slow the mechanism that pumps serotonin back out of the gap, so that there is more serotonin stimulation in your brain. This results in feeling calmer and more cheerful.
Interestingly enough, it also often results in weight loss. Unlike earlier drugs used for depression and anxiety, which often caused weight gain, SSRIs often cause weight loss. It seems likely that the reason is a reduction in carb cravings, and therefore in carb consumption.
Does this mean that everybody who has emotional carb cravings should go get a prescription for Prozac or Paxil? Boy, am I ever unqualified to make a judgement about something like that! Geez.
However, if you suspect that you are, indeed, depressed, and that giving up carbs has thrown that depression into a clearer light, I would certainly recommend seeing your doctor. That goes double if you have ever had a problem with alcohol, since for many alcoholics sugar is a substitute addiction when alcohol is abandoned, masking the basic, underlying problem of brain chemistry.
Maybe you've seen your doctor, but for one reason or another do not want to go on antidepressant drugs. (Let me state here, quite clearly, that I do not have a negative opinion of such drugs. I do feel that they have been somewhat overused, because they're far cheaper than talk therapy for health insurance providers, but I also know people, some of them among my near and dear, for whom SSRIs have been nothing short of a miracle. I simply know that there are, indeed, some people who wish to avoid them.) Perhaps you don't have serious depression problems, just occasional blues that cause you to crave carbs. Or perhaps you have a life that is full of stressful moments - phones ringing, spouse nagging, kids hollering - until you want to tear your hair out - or tear into a pint of Rocky Road. What can you do for yourself? And what should you keep in mind?
CYA clause: I repeat, I am not a doctor. Nothing written here is meant to substitute for your doctor's advice. If you suspect you are clinically depressed and do not get a doctor's advice, you are behaving foolishly. If you know you are clinically depressed, and decide to change your treatment without your doctor's knowledge and supervision, you are moving beyond foolish to suicidal. Don't do it.
That being said, here are some things that may help with the blues and the stress, and the carb cravings that can come with them, and also just some good stuff to keep in mind:
* How is your cholesterol level? Total cholesterol below 170 is strongly associated with depression, and even with violence and suicide. Low cholesterol diets have also caused mood disorders in lab animals. If you've been on a very low fat, low cholesterol diet up until recently, you may actually be cholesterol deficient. Achieving a somewhat higher cholesterol level - combined, of course, with a high HDL and low triglycerides - may alleviate the problem.
* Encourage your body's own serotonin production. Eat plenty of foods high in tryptophan, the amino acid the body uses to make serotonin - some of the best sources include turkey and chicken, fresh pork, and cheese.
* Along with using tryptophan to make serotonin, your body also uses it to make the B vitamin niacin (B3) if you're a bit short. By supplementing your niacin, you can encourage your body to use the tryptophan you eat to make serotonin instead. As always with water soluble vitamins, you should not take supplemental niacin unless you are also supplementing the other water solubles - the other Bs, and C. A good, strong multiple vitamin or a "stress complex" is a good idea; if you like you can add an extra 100 mg or so of niacin on top of that. See the article on niacin, below, for more about this vitamin.
* Consider taking 5-hydroxy-tryptophan. This is a substance that is further along the biochemical pathway to serotonin than tryptophan is; your body should readily convert 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (often called 5-HTP) into serotonin. In clinical tests, 5-HTP performed as well as SSRIs for alleviating mild to moderate depression and anxiety in many subjects. 5-HTP is widely available in health food stores. Clinical tests have also specifically shown a reduction in appetite for sweets and starches among subjects taking 5-HTP. (5-HTP is also useful for inducing restful sleep, as this on-and-off insomniac has reason to know.) DO NOT TAKE 5-HTP IF YOU ARE TAKING ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS. More info about 5-HTP http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/substances_view/1,1525,747,00.html
* Take a look at St. John's Wort. Originally thought to work as an MAO inhibitor - breaking down a substance in the brain that causes fear and anxiety - the active constituent of St. John's Wort, called hypericin, is now known to slow the uptake of not only serotonin, but also dopamine and norepinephrine. This certainly explains why St. John's Wort has traditionally been used to improve mood. St. John's Wort also has an anti-inflammatory effect, and is being studied as a preventive for Alzheimer's disease. Once again, the warning: DO NOT TAKE ST. JOHN'S WORT IF YOU ARE TAKING ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS. Also be careful regarding sun exposure; St. John's Wort can cause photosensitivity. More info on St. John's Wort: http://www.tfn.net/HealthGazette/johns.html
* It is NOT recommended that you combine 5-HTP and St. John's Wort without a doctor's close supervision. One or the other, not both - and I repeat, neither of them in combination with antidepressant drugs.
* Consider using low impact carbs quite deliberately, to self-medicate. If you know that you are subject to severe emotional carb cravings, you may want to consider a diet that includes some concentrated carbohydrate foods, so long as those foods have a low glycemic index. By deliberately eating a modest portion of one of these foods on an empty stomach, 20 - 30 minutes before a meal, you should be able to boost your serotonin levels - and, incidentally, reduce your appetite - without torpedoing your diet too badly. You probably won't maintain ketosis, but you may very well still lose weight, should still get most of the health benefits of a low carb diet - and may be able to slowly wean yourself away from even these carbs as the higher tryptophan and niacin intake and the improved cholesterol status work their beneficial effects on your mental health.
If you choose this path, here are some low impact carbs to consider:
Whole wheat pita bread, 1/2 round
100% whole grain rye bread 1 medium slice (find this at a good health food store - grocery store rye will NOT do.)
Yam or sweet potato, 1 small
Split pea, lentil, or bean soup, 1 cup
Steel-cut oatmeal, 1/2 - 3/4 cup
Brown rice, 1/2 cup
Whole wheat pasta, 1/2 cup
Jerusalem artichoke pasta, 1/2 cup (many health food stores carry this; a company called De Boles makes it. Sounds weird, but tastes just like regular pasta - with a gentler blood sugar impact.)
Whole grain barley, 1/2 cup
Hummus, 1/2 cup (you could make this 1/4 cup hummus, and 1/4 whole wheat pita, which really makes more sense...)
Fruit - 1 average serving. (Bananas are higher carb than most, but a good source of tryptophan.)
Tomato juice or V-8, 1 cup
Milk, 1 cup (Milk also provides tryptophan, making it a particularly excellent choice for this purpose.)
I do not recommend that you use foods and beverages sweetened with refined fructose for self-medication. Fructose does show a low glycemic index, but it is still a highly refined sugar, meaning it has no nutritional value, and it also induces high triglycerides. Steer clear.
I feel it's best to schedule these low impact carbs regularly, a half an hour before meals. Eating them this way, on an empty stomach, allows a greater serotonin "rush" than if you ate them with your protein, fat, and low carb vegetables, yet still avoids that "I'm free to eat carbs whenever I want" feeling that can end up as a carb free-for-all. And eating a meal a half an hour later will prevent the crash and the hunger that would surely come later if the carbs were all you ate. However, if something really crazy is happening, and you're about to crack right now, surely it is better to have an unscheduled serving of one of these low impact and nutritious carbs than a half a bag of Chips Ahoy.
Helpful Hint: Notice the steel cut oatmeal on the list. This is different from the oatmeal most of us grew up with, which is properly known as "rolled oats" - oat grains that have been squashed flat between heavy rollers. Steel cut oats are oat grains that have simply been cut in a few pieces each - it's a different texture, and one that makes for slower digestion and absorption - which is why it has a lower blood sugar impact. Many grocery stores carry a brand of steel cut oats called "McCann's". A good health food store will probably have them in bulk, which is cheaper.
Steel cut oats cook more slowly than rolled oats (and certainly more slowly than instant oatmeal, which you should shun.) If you really need a low impact carb fix in the morning, because you know you have a trying day ahead of you and will end up at the candy machine if you don't, here's what you do: The evening before, you rinse a thermos bottle with boiling water to preheat it, then pour in your measured steel cut oats, and the boiling water to cook them. Screw the lid on tightly, and let it sit overnight. When you get up in the morning, your oatmeal will be cooked and waiting for you. Eat it with cream and Splenda, and a little cinnamon, if you like.
Or if that's too much trouble, you could just have fruit. Either way, remember that even these low impact carbs, eaten by themselves on an empty stomach, will likely leave you hungry soon after. Tote along some easily eaten protein - individually wrapped string cheese, a couple of hard boiled eggs, a protein bar - to eat a half an hour after your carb "fix", or you'll be ravenous by 10, and may still end up at the candy machine. Again, you don't want to trade low serotonin levels for the blood sugar roller coaster!
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Low Carb, Cholesterol, and You
Once again I have had a couple of readers write me, saying that their cholesterol has increased alarmingly on their low carb diet, so I thought it was time to tackle this subject once again.
Here's the deal: It's beginning to look more and more like high blood cholesterol has more than one cause, and different people get high cholesterol for different reasons. For many of us, the reason is high insulin levels from eating too many carbohydrates. Sustained high insulin levels mess with your body's ability to take cholesterol out of your bloodstream to use it for making hormones, or repairing cell walls, or any of the other things your body uses cholesterol for. As a result, you have low cholesterol levels in the cells, and increasing cholesterol in the bloodstream. Since your body only knows how much is in your cells, it thinks it doesn't have enough, and starts cranking out extra cholesterol in your liver. Your cells still can't get to it, it keeps piling up in the blood, and presto! High cholesterol. If this is the sole cause of your high cholesterol levels, then you will be among the many, many people who find that their cholesterol comes down on a low carb diet.
Or perhaps you were one of the people for whom a very low fat diet did, indeed, induce low cholesterol - even very low cholesterol (along with low HDL and high triglycerides, most likely.) Perhaps your cholesterol was down to 150, or even lower, and since going low carb, it's gone all the way up to 180, or even 210, and you're alarmed. Relax. One of the big medical secrets of the past 50 years is that very low cholesterol is at least as bad for you as very high cholesterol. As mentioned in the article above, cholesterol under 170 is associated with depression, violence, and suicide. At least as alarming, low cholesterol is also associated with cancer, and with an overall increased risk of mortality. So long as your HDL is high and your triglycerides are low, total cholesterol of 180 - 210 is nothing to worry about; you've gotten healthier, not less so.
However, there are some people who really do have an unhealthy increase in their cholesterol levels after going low carb. There is some controversy over why this should be. Some feel that there is a subset of "saturated fat reactors", others feel that these people are reacting to arachidonic acid, a fatty acid. Since saturated fats and arachidonic acid are found largely in the same sources - meat, eggs, and dairy products - it's easy to reduce them both at the same time, without going back to the low HDL and high triglycerides (not to mention energy swings and obesity) caused by a high carb diet. It's important to note that there is no inherent reason why a low carb diet has to be heavy in these foods; there are plenty of other foods available to us.
Here are some easy points to keep in mind:
* Eat less red meat, and more poultry and fish. When you do eat red meat, choose lean cuts, such as pork loin and round steak. Lay off the bacon.
* Use less butter, sour cream, heavy cream, and cheese.
* Use plenty of olive oil, peanut oil, or canola oil.
* If you like the taste of butter in cooking, here's an old "health food" trick: Soften a cube or two of butter, and whip it with an electric mixer. Now pour in an equal quantity of olive or peanut oil, and beat until well combined. Pour into a tub and refrigerate.
* Eat fatty fish - salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, and tuna - several times a week. The EPAs in these fish are brilliant for lowering cholesterol.
* Throw away every other egg yolk (or feed them to somebody else.) Two whites and one whole egg make a very credible omelet. I don't recommend Egg Beaters; I think they taste nasty, but you may use them if you like.
* If you dislike fish, take one or two fish oil (EPA) capsules each day. Look for "cholesterol free" EPA capsules - not because you should be avoiding cholesterol (oddly enough, there's never been much evidence that eating cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol),but because such capsules have been filtered, which removes toxins that may have been absorbed by the fish during its life and stored in its fat. Store fish oil capsules in the refrigerator or freezer!
* Incorporate flax into your diet. Flax seed is a good plant source of those same healthy EPAs that you find in fish. It is also an excellent source of soluble fiber, which can also help lower cholesterol. Buy flax seed at the grocery store or health food store, and grind it into a meal in your food processor or blender. You can simply put a spoonful or two on your tongue and swallow it down with plenty of water, or you can incorporate it into cooking.
If you are one of the folks who have found that your cholesterol goes up, rather than down, on a low carb diet, I would also highly recommend that you read The GO-Diet, by Goldberg and O'Mara. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967084601/lowcarbohysoluti This is a true low carb diet, staying under 65 grams of carb per day, and under 15 grams per meal - but it emphasizes eating monounsaturated fats instead of saturates. It also puts an emphasis on cultured milk products like yogurt and buttermilk, and on fiber consumption. Very much worth the read!
Gee, so far we've done vitamins A, B1, and B2. Wonder what could be next?
Yep, it's B3, also known as niacin. The discovery of niacin is another one of those classic stories of nutritional science. From the mid-1800s through the early part of the 20th century, a disease called pellagra was a true scourge among the poor, especially in the south, where the diet consisted mostly of cornmeal, white rice, beans, and pork fat. Pellagra was a particularly hideous disease, characterized by "the four Ds" - dermatitis (skin rashes), diarrhea, dementia - madness that eventually became indistinguishable from acute paranoid schizophrenia - and death. Pellagra was not a nice way to go, and thousands were dying from it - 10,000 in the United States alone in 1915
Because germ theory was fairly new, and very hot in the medical community, doctors and researchers were searching high and low for a pellagra germ, which, of course, was never found. The US Health Department sent a doctor named Joe Goldberger to the deep South to find "the germ" - but after observing that the inmates of asylums, who ate cheap cereals, got pellagra at a great rate, while those who tended them - who ate far more meat, eggs, and dairy -- did not, Goldberger concluded that the disease was not infectious, but rather nutritional in nature.
Unfortunately, the medical community did not want to believe him. Goldberger went so far as to inject himself and other volunteers with sloughed off skin and pus from the sores of people with the disease, to prove that there was no "pellagra germ". Slowly but surely, the light dawned, and pellagra was finally recognized as stemming from a dietary deficiency. It was not, however, until 1937 that niacin was isolated and identified as the anti-pellagra vitamin.
Here are some useful things to know about this member of the B complex family:
* Like all the Bs, niacin is water soluble, so it's hard overdose unless you really go nuts. It also works best in combination with the other B vitamins.
* The RDA for niacin is 13 - 20 mgs. per day, although doses up to 100 mgs. per day are generally considered safe.
* Niacin is quite stable, and withstands heat, light, and storage well.
* Unlike most of the Bs, your body can make some niacin and avert a severe deficiency if there is enough tryptophan in your diet. However, if you're short on B1, B2, and B6, your body will not be able to make this conversion.
* Niacin is essential for your body to be able to make sex hormones, as well as cortisone and insulin.
* Niacin comes in two forms - niacin, and niacinamide. The big difference between the two is that niacin causes a "flush" and niacinamide does not. The flush is actually a release of histamine, the same substance that causes allergic reactions - you turn hot, red, and itchy all over for about 15 minutes. If you don't know it's coming, the flush can be alarming - when I worked at a health food store in my 20s, people used to return niacin from time to time, certain they were allergic to it. I've always found the niacin flush sort of a rush, myself, but many people find it irritating or annoying. If you hate it, you'll want to take niacinamide, or "no-flush" niacin.
* However, there is one benefit to niacin that flushes that the other forms lack - it can lower total cholesterol, while raising HDL, often more effectively than pharmaceuticals, and certainly more cheaply. However, it takes some good-sized doses to do this - at least a few hundred milligrams a day, and as much as a gram or two a day in some people. Once you get above 500 milligrams a day, there is a real risk of liver inflammation, so if you want to try niacin to improve your bloodwork, talk to your doctor, and have him or her monitor your liver function. Remember, "natural" does not mean "safe".
* Some people find that niacin helps reduce the frequency and severity of migraine headaches.
* The sort that flushes will certainly improve your circulation!
* As you might suspect with a nutrient whose deficiency pattern mimics paranoid schizophrenia, niacin is very good for mental health. This may be because it spares tryptophan to enter the serotonin pathway. (An odd sidelight to this is that back in the '60s and '70s, folk wisdom was that niacin could stop a bad acid trip. I don't know enough pharmacology to know why this should be so, but it strikes me that acid does seem to mimic schizophrenia. This may be the link.)
* Since niacin deficiency can cause skin problems, it's not surprising that some folks find it improves their skin.
* Niacin often will alleviate canker sores.
* If you are taking sulfa drugs, estrogen, some sleeping pills, or if you drink much alcohol, your need for niacin increases.
* There are plenty of low carb sources of niacin! Liver is one of the very best, as it is a great source of the whole B complex. Lean meat is a good source, and of the lean meats, pork is a superior source. Fish, eggs, poultry (especially white meat), avocados, and peanuts are also all good sources of niacin - so you can see that a low carb generally provides plenty of this essential nutrient.
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 lowfat 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 as bad nutrition - not all diets are for everyone but for the people that this kind of diet works for it is god send - which is more deadly being 100lbs overweight or eating meat and veggies? You decide- Thanks Dana your book is great.
Canadian Customers! Order from Amazon.Ca
Weird Science Factoid of the Week
No doubt all of you are aware of the myriad health dangers that go hand-in-hand with obesity - they're part of why you eat the way you do. We've all had it drummed into our heads for so long that overweight is unhealthy, that it comes as something of a shock to discover that there are illnesses that are associated with being slim and fit.
Heard of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis? Commonly called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is a motor neuron disease - in this case, a fatal nervous system disease that progressively robs its victims of movement, finally trapping them in immobile bodies. Finally, the diaphragm is paralyzed, and the victim suffocates. Usually ALS kills in a year or so, but there are cases of people - most notably famed physicist Steven Hawking - who survive for decades, wheelchair-bound and often speechless. This is one nasty disease.
Because of the fame of baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died of ALS, the disease has long been associated with athletes. But a new study, published in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology, shows that the association is more than coincidental. Researchers found that people who had always been slim were more than twice as likely to develop ALS and other motor neuron diseases, and people who had been varsity athletes were 1.7 times more likely than the general public to develop these diseases.
Nobody has any idea why this should be, nor whether slimness or early participation in sports actually causes these diseases. We just know that the correlation is there. Much more study is needed. It is important to keep in mind that only a small number of people get ALS and other motor neuron diseases, thank God, history of slimness and activity or no.
Still, it's sort of refreshing to know that there's at least one sort of illness for which my lifetime struggle with obesity doesn't put me at risk.
ALS is a horrible disease; my brother-in-law's mother - a charming and lovely woman, who had, indeed, been slim and active all her life - died of it a few years ago. The disease also received a great deal of publicity when well-loved soap star, Michael Zaslow, died of it in 1998. There is an organization in his honor, raising money for research into preventing and/or curing ALS. If you would like to help, you'll find them at http://www.zazangels.com I encourage you to give generously.
This delicious, fresh-tasting Caribbean chicken stew/soup is not a quick recipe, but it's not terribly complicated, either. It's great to make over the weekend, when you're getting other things done; you'll just check in with your food every so often. And it reheats like a dream!
Chicken Sancocho
1 whole chicken, about 5 - 5 1/2 pounds
Marinade:
4 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 medium green pepper
1 large ripe tomato
1 medium onion
1/2 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Stew ingredients:
1 quart chicken broth
1 large carrot, sliced
1 1/2 cups cubed rutabaga
1 1/2 cups cubed fresh pumpkin
1 small turnip, cubed
1 cup cauliflower florets and stems, cut in small chunks
3 cups shredded cabbage - prepared cole slaw mix works nicely
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon hot sauce, or to taste. Use Caribbean scotch bonnet sauce if you can get it!
Remove any giblets from the chicken's body cavity (toss them, use them in soup, or feed them to the pets, whatever you like), and place the chicken in a soup pot. Put all the marinade ingredients in a food processor with the S-blade in place (you'll want to cut everything in big chunks first, and peel your onion and core your pepper and all), and pulse until you have a coarse slurry. Pour this mixture over the chicken, and using clean hands, rub it all over, including into the body cavity. Stick this in the fridge, and let the whole thing sit overnight, turning the chicken over once or twice if you think of it.
The next day, pull your pot with your chicken out of the refrigerator, put it on the stove, and pour the quart of chicken broth over the chicken. Cover it, put the whole thing over medium heat, bring it to a simmer, turn it down to low, and let it simmer for an hour. Turn it off, and let the pot sit on the stove top and cool until you're ready to finish up the stew. (Obviously, you want this to be the same day, or no longer than the next day!)
When you're ready to complete your Chicken Sancocho, remove the chicken from the broth (a big tongs works well for this), put it on a platter, and set it aside. Skim the excess fat from the broth, and skim out the vegetables that were in the marinade - I used a Chinese skimmer for this, but you could just pour it through a sieve if you like. Be sure to press any broth out of the vegetables, back into the pot, before you discard them!
Put the pot of skimmed broth back on the stove, and turn the burner beneath it to medium-high. Stir in the carrot, rutabaga, pumpkin, and turnip, and let the whole thing simmer for a half an hour. While that's cooking, remove the skin from the chicken and discard it (or around here, feed it to the dog!) Then remove the meat from the bones, discard the bones, and cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. About 20 minutes before serving time, stir the meat, the cauliflower, and the cabbage into the pot, along with the hot sauce. Add water if needed, so that the broth is level with the top of the meat and vegetables. Simmer for 20 minutes, and serve.
This is about 8 servings. My nutritional analysis program says that there's 13 grams of carb, with 3 grams of fiber, in each serving, but since some of the vegetables are skimmed out and discarded, both those figures are a tad high. I'd figure no more than 8 - 9 g. of usable carb per serving - and about 40 grams of protein. A terrific source of beta carotene, too - over 5000 I.U.s per serving. Oh, and because of that acidic marinade, more calcium than usual should leach out of those bones, and into the broth. A nutritional bonanza all the way around - and really, really tasty.
That's it for this issue! See you next issue!
Dana
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