HoldTheToast

So I've been working since November on a paleo diet cookbook. It's the hardest book I've done so far, because of the additional restrictions on ingredients, especially no dairy, and no artificial sweeteners. Too, it's just a LOT of recipes in a very short time; I confess I'm not at all sure I'll make it by deadline.

Still, I've come up with some very cool stuff, and it gets easier as I go along, partly because I'm getting used to cooking this way, and partly because I've come up with some foundational recipes -- paleo versions of ketchup, sour "cream" (from coconut milk), chipotles in adobo sauce, stuff like that.

But here's the really interesting part: My blood sugar is superb -- 86 this morning. I was a little worried, because before I started I'd been using alternate-day fat fasting to keep my blood sugar under control, but this sort of intensive recipe development doesn't allow for that. I was a little worried, but am pleased to report that my fears were misplaced.

Just as heartening, I haven't been piling on the cookbook weight. Part of that is due to a policy of very rarely eating anything that isn't for the book, but I wonder if it's also the paleo thing? All I know is that I weighed 136 this morning, and that's the lightest I've been in quite a while.

I'm still keeping a sharp eye on carbs, of course. I've been doing some recipes for starchy vegetables, including sweet potatoes, but mostly feed those to That Nice Boy I Married. I do eat a little more fruit than I usually do. I don't know what to attribute the ease of weight control to. But I sure do enjoy it.

Like the dinosaur I am, I have a seven-day subscription to the dead-tree edition of the local paper. Yes, it's available online, but the paper version has stuff the e-version does not, including the funnies. I mean, what's the point of a morning paper without the funnies?

Another thing the dead-tree edition has is inserts. Since Wednesday is the day the food section of the paper comes out, we also get, once a month, a free magazine called "Dash," claiming to give us "Simple, Fast, Delicious" recipes. Whatever, I like recipes, so I flip through it.

In the February Dash, which arrived in this morning's Herald-Times, there was a question from a reader regarding her French Silk Pie recipe. The recipe, she said, called for her to beat in four eggs, one at a time, but that the filling was not cooked after adding the eggs. Was this safe, she wanted to know?

Side-stepping the question of whether the other ingredients in the pie, no doubt including sugar and flour, were safe, I was horrified by the Dash editor's response. Oh, no, she said, those eggs were not safe! The pie was not safe! She needed to either find a recipe that called for cooking the filling, or she needed to try this super-easy recipe for a chocolate pie that was safe-safe-safe: Mix instant chocolate pudding with Cool Whip, spoon into a pie shell, and chill.

Let me get this straight: A combination of:

SUGAR, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE (FOR THICKENING), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, TETRASODIUM PYROPHOSPHATE (FOR THICKENING), MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES (PREVENT FOAMING), RED 40, YELLOW 5, BLUE 1, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, BHA (PRESERVATIVE)

And:

WATER, CORN SYRUP, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (COCONUT AND PALM KERNEL OILS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LESS THAN 2% OF SODIUM CASEINATE (FROM MILK), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, XANTHAN AND GUAR GUMS, POLYSORBATE 60, SORBITAN MONOSTEARATE, BETA CAROTENE (COLOR).

plus some milk is "safer" than raw eggs? This, when it's estimated that something like one in every 25,000 uncracked, properly refrigerated eggs is contaminated?

What is this hysteria? Am I crazy to think that it's at least in part fomented by the food processing industry, to convince us that packaged, processed food is our salvation?

I use raw eggs. I often make my own mayonnaise, and other dressings that call for raw eggs. I make That Nice Boy I Married smoothies with raw eggs in them. Shocked? Really? Ask yourself how many times you refused to lick the beaters after making a cake, or scrape the bowl after making cookies. Didn't that batter, that dough, have raw egg in it? I'm betting that raw egg was one of the few truly nutritious ingredients in that cake batter or cooking dough.

Let's keep our eye on the ball, folks. Yes, Louis Pasteur's discovery that microbes are the cause of many common diseases was one of the great breakthroughs of medical science. But as we've learned since, microbes are hardly the only cause of disease, and in our time, and in the industrialized world, they're not the most common nor the most deadly cause of disease. It's the stuff we consider "food" that's killing us.

Buy the cleanest food you can. Keep your body strong. But don't eat processed crap in the name of "health."

Here's the Facebook page for the low carb cooking and health advice show that Dana and Dr. Jim Carlson hope will find a network home. Please, go like it! Share it, too. The more people like it, the better our chances of getting picked up, and there being a low carb show on your television!

Hot Chocolate

This is very rich and thick. You could add another 1/2 cup of water and still have a creamy consistency. We just like it this way. This would make a great fat fast food, by the way.

13 1/2 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
8 drops chocolate liquid stevia
8 drops vanilla liquid stevia
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Simply combine everything in a heavy bottomed saucepan, over low heat, and stir well. Heat through, and serve.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3 servings, each with: 248 Calories; 26g Fat; 3g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber

NOTE: I used NOW brand chocolate and vanilla liquid stevia, which I bought at my local health food store. If you've got a different brand, you'll want to go by taste.

Hi folks! It's TNBDM here with a guest blog for today. I was inspired to write about this by a recent Facebook exchange. As with most people, I have Facebook friends who are all over the spectrum when it comes to diet and nutrition -- some low-carbers, some who are health-conscious but choose other paths, many who don't pay much attention to health -- and even some who I know don't want to hear from me at all when it comes to these issues. Among the health-conscious, there are some who will eat up any new information on low-carbing, others who simply will not countenance the idea that eating "all that fat" won't "make you fat." And then there those who are in between -- willing to embrace some new LCHF-related information, but only up to a point. That's okay! Around our place, Dana and I have a saying, which is "information, not enforcement." It is counter-productive to browbeat people, and it's not very conducive to making and keeping friends. And I like friends!

Anyway, it's that third category of people that can be the trickiest to work with, because you often just don't know how far you can go before hitting that wall. Sometimes they will give you signals, but not always. I have a Facebook friend, whom I have never met, but know through another friend. I like her a lot -- she's a bit edgy and definitely opinionated. (Gee, who'd have thought I would find that appealing?) She posts interesting things, and I often comment on them. I know she is health-conscious, and good on her for that! This morning, she posted about the fact that she was severely cutting the sugar out of her diet, and was using Truvia. (Good stuff, Truvia.) Natually, that grabbed my attention, and I started reading through the comments. Inevitably, someone mentioned agave nectar, and I had to speak up. Agave is very high in fructose -- considerably higher, in fact, than HFCS, and it is rarely necessary to convince anyone about the dangers of HFCS. They get it, and the "more HF than HFCS" angle often works. I went on about how glucose can be used as fuel, but fructose is converted by the liver into triglycerides, which in turn get stored as fat. She had not been aware of that, and thanked me for the information.

I should have known not to mention honey.

Honey, sad to say, is similar -- closer to table sugar than to HFCS or agave, but still more fructose than glucose. It's processed "naturally," but it's still processed, and it is still highly concentrated sugar. (And remember that Mother Nature put bees around honey.) Like agave, it's trendy, but not the healthful alternative to sugar that people think it is. "Not my locally-raised raw honey!" And anyway, "glycemic impact means little unless you are diabetic -- even then, calories are calories."

Ah, the old "caloric equivalence" theme! Here was someone who had, just minutes before, accepted the idea that fructose and glucose, both simple sugars, react differently in the body. And yet, the difference between a sugar calorie and a fat calorie? No difference -- a calorie is a calorie. Danger, quickly approaching wall!

I, wisely, decided to step back from that one. Dana and I have both been at this long enough to know when to stop, when "offering" information starts to sound like enforcement, or at least being way too pushy. We're not food-nazis.

Don't browbeat people. Watch for the signals. Pick your battles.

FYI, this website and our spinoff site, My TotalGym Transformation, will be "going black" on Wednesday, January 18th, in protest of the proposed internet censorship legislation being considered by Congress this week. More information about the strike, including a list of participating websites (Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, icanhazcheezburger, and many, many more) is available at the Strike Against SOPA website. More information about the House and Senate bills, and how they would "break the internet", is available here, along with a form you can use to send a message to your Congresspersons and Senators, urging them to vote against this legislation.

This fignt is non-partisan. This would affect everyone who uses the internet for any purpose whatsoever. If you operate a website, please consider joining this strike. There are plugins available for Drupal and WordPress that will blackout your site all day on the 18th, returning it to normal after the event.

Hmmm. New Year's Resolutions. I feel like I should write about them, since it is, after all, the 2nd of January. (I confess to slarging about all day on New Years Day.) So here goes:

I like New Year's Resolutions. Yes, I know most people don't keep them for very long. However, I also know that life change often requires repeated attempts. If I recall correctly, the average smoker tries to quit eight or ten times before successfully giving it up. What if, having failed once or twice, he or she said "These resolutions just don't work. Heck with it."? I think it's always a good idea to rededicate ourselves to actions that we know will benefit our lives. And if we don't carry through the first, or the fifth, or the fifteenth time, it's good to know we can try again -- and, it is to be hoped, "try smarter," incorporating knowledge we have gained from previous attempts.

So if you're here for the first time, having just rededicated yourself to nutrition and weight loss, welcome! I very much hope I can help. I don't have any amazing secrets, but I can tell you a few things that will greatly improve your odds of success:

1) Get support. This is the single most powerful success strategy. Overwhelmingly, readers cite support as the most important factor in their sticking to their low carb nutrition program long-term. A supportive spouse is pure gold (and I have one. Newbies, you will be hearing about That Nice Boy I Married, sometimes abbreviated TNBIM. That would be Eric, aka The Webmaster, and he has been unfalteringly supportive, not only of my low carb program, but of my career, and of everything I attempt. No, he does not have a brother, and yes, the world would be a better place if we cloned him.) If your spouse is not outright supportive, see if you can at least inveigle him or her to not outright undermine you.

Then look for support elsewhere. Some successful low carbers enlist friends as diet buddies, I've heard from others who dieted with their moms or their kids.

There are also remarkable resources online, from Facebook groups (I have a fan page, go join!) and blogs to message boards. A great co-resolution is to stop in to at least one or two Facebook groups or message boards every day, to read and post. You might also resolve to pick a low carb blog or two to read daily, though not all of us post every day. My friend Jimmy Moore does, and he's a terrific source of both information and encouragement. I love Dr. Mike Eades' blog at Protein Power for explaining scientific stuff. Amy Dungan, at Healthy Low Carb Living, is a dear friend, one of my favorite people. Oh, and I would be remiss if I failed to mention CarbSmart Magazine, where I am both the Managing Editor and a contributor.

There are also podcasts galore, if you're more "ear-minded" than "eye-minded." Pick one or two, and resolve to listen while you run errands, or work out, or cook dinner.

The point is that there are thousands of low carb resources available to you online, nearly all of them free. Find them, use them, make friends, feed your brain positive messages. It works.

2) Never, ever apologize for being low carb. Do not say "Oh, gosh, I'm sooo sorry I can't eat the birthday cake you brought to the office!", or "Oh, gee, I hate to be a bother, but do you think I could substitute steamed vegetables for the potato with my steak?" Nope. Be proud. Not rude, of course, but a simple "No, thanks" is all that's needed (except for that waiter you want to bring you the steamed vegetables; he needs a direct request.) If someone tries to pressure you, say "No, thanks" as many times as necessary, a technique known, quaintly, as "the broken record." Even better, say "No, thanks," and then immediately change the subject: "Hey, does anyone know when the new season of Mad Men starts? I am dying to know if Don's marriage to Megan is working out." Makes the nagger look silly if she then persists.

3) Make a list of your favorite low carb foods, things you've been denying yourself because you were sure that they were bad for you: macadamia nuts, rib eye steak, brie cheese, whatever. Your favorite sugar-free dark chocolate. Buy 'em. Eat 'em. Yes, I know the budget is tight -- my VISA is about to spontaneously combust. Still, every time you lose, say, five pounds, treat yourself.

4) Try new recipes. Obviously, I'd love it if you bought one of my cookbooks. Or all of my cookbooks. Even better, multiple copies of all my cookbooks. But there are plenty of other low carb cookbooks out there, many of them quite good.

Others suck. Really. I've seen "low carb" cookbooks that call for white flour, rice, noodles, even sugar. Make sure the cookbook is genuinely low carb before you pony up your hard-earned bucks. To this end, may I recommend that you borrow a few from your local public library before you actually buy?

There are also tons of low carb recipes online, not a few of them here, if you go back through the archives. But there are also plenty at other blogs and at message boards. And they're free. Help yourself!

The point is this: If you resolve to try, say, two new recipes per week, pretty soon you'll have a whole pile of new favorites. You know those recipes that you made over and over, because they were easy and good and the whole family loved them? The ones you've ditched because you've figured out they were killing you? You'll have new favorites just like that, except they'll actually be good for you. That's a very, very nice place to be.

So what about my resolutions? I am resolving to do my breathing exercises every single day. Since they take only fifteen minutes, and don't involve changing clothes, messing up my hair or makeup, or cracking a sweat, that's very doable. And, with all the love and respect in the world to Fred Hahn, my friend and strength-training guru, whose Slow Burn has made me a much stronger woman (married to a man with a much better body), it's the breathing exercises that most seem to make me just... shrink.

That said, I also resolve to be more consistent about Slow Burn, aiming for every fifth day. Very good stuff, Slow Burn. We do ours on a Total Gym, that thing you see Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley advertising. Works great.

And I resolve to become more regular about the podcast, which has been languishing in the face of my life becoming dizzyingly busy for the past couple of months. I need to hit on a production schedule I can keep up with and still get this book written, blog pretty regularly, and attend to the rest of my life.

Oh, and the usual stab at becoming a somewhat more organized and tidy individual, a fruitless pursuit, but one worth continuing to plug away at.

How about you? What are your resolutions? Are they new, or are you re-resolving? If you're trying again, what new nugget of knowledge do you bring to the task?

Here's to trying again! Happy New Year!

As I write this, it is December 30th, 2011, and tomorrow is the biggest party night of the year. If I don't write my annual article about alcohol today, I'll just have to skip it till next year -- and think up something else to write about. So here goes:

Contrary to popular belief, alcohol does not turn to sugar in your bloodstream. However, it it is carbohydrate-derived; alcohol is what yeasts pee out after eating sugars. Doesn't that sound yummy? Hey, it doesn't stop me. Alcohol does behave like a carb in one important way: your body burns it preferentially. Just as eating carbohydrate shuts down fat burning, so does drinking alcohol. Or as a medical journal article I read donkey's years ago phrased it, "Alcohol profoundly inhibits lipolysis." Furthermore, at 7 calories per gram, nearly twice the calorie count of carbs, it can take you longer to burn through the booze. This is why alcohol, despite some genuine benefits, is always an indulgence when you're trying to lose weight.

Because alcohol is carbohydrate-derived, there are a fair number of alcoholic beverages that contain residual carbohydrate. Beer is the worst offender; your average can of beer has in the neighborhood of 15 grams of carb, and dark beers and "red" beers can run considerably higher. Some of those red beers have sugar added, too.)

Really, the only beers that fit into a low carb diet are the lightest of light beers, those with 5 grams per 12 ounce serving or less. Miller Lite and Michelob Ultra are probably the best known of these; Mich Ultra is a teeny bit lower carb than Miller Lite, but I think Miller Lite tastes enough better to be worth the extra half-gram or so. Milwaukee's Best Light, a big favorite with the frat boys here in town, is made by Miller brewery, has the same carb count as Miller Lite, and tastes the same to me. Since it's cheaper, it would be my choice, but I caution you that beer snobs will make fun of you. However, since they'll make fun of you for drinking light beer at all, I don't see why it should make a difference. If you're a beer snob, the best tasting beer I know of for 5 grams per bottle is Amstel Light.

Do not assume that all light beers are under 5 grams per serving. READ THE LABELS. They vary a lot.

Wines run the gamut from quite dry to quite sweet. If you only like sweet wines, you'll do better to drink something else; sweet wines have a lot of sugar in them. We have an award winning winery in town -- yes, the fine wines of Indiana -- and they're known especially for their sweet wines. Oliver's Soft Red tastes for all the world like Welch's Grape Juice for Grownups. Tasty, but very hard on the blood sugar. (For my pagan and Ren Faire friends, I'm sorry to tell you that most mead is also very hard on the blood sugar.)

The rule of thumb is "If it tastes sweet but isn't artificially sweetened -- or sweetened with stevia or the like -- it has sugar in it." That said, if you're new to low carbing, your taste buds probably aren't sensitized yet; wines that would be cloying to me won't taste sweet to you. Best is to go to a store where they have a knowledgeable wine staff and ask "Is this dry or sweet?" (If you're at a bar or restaurant, a good waiter or bartender should be able to tell you.) If you don't have such a store near you, here's a short list of wines that can be counted on to be reasonably dry:

* Cabernet Sauvignon
* Bordeaux
* Burgundy
* Merlot
* Shiraz
* Chianti
* Malbec
* Pinot Noir
* Pinot Grigio
* Rhine
* Chablis
* Chardonnay
* Sauvignon Blanc

All of these should have in the neighborhood of 1-3 grams of carb per 6 ounce glass.

If you're a champagne-on-New-Years-Eve kind of person, it's good to be aware that the driest champagne will not be labeled "dry" -- indeed, dry champagne is generally pretty sweet. The driest is "extra brut." Me, I find that champers gives me a hangover before I even catch a buzz. Give me dry red wine or a good tequila, thanks. If, like many, you prefer the trendy prosecco, go with one labeled "extra dry."

Beware flavored wines, like Arbor Mist. One of the flavors they add is sugar.

Likewise, stay away from alcopops -- wine coolers, hard lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezers, etc, etc, etc. They're all sugary as heck. If you're a wine cooler fan, have 4 ounces of wine in a tall glass of ice, filled with diet lemon-lime soda or club soda. If you're fond of hard lemonade, try a shot of vodka -- citron vodka would be good here -- on the rocks, filled with half sugar-free lemonade, half lemon sparkling water.

(May I insert here, parenthetically, my old lady what's-the-matter-with-kids-these-days grousing about the fact that so many young people seem to be unable to drink any alcoholic beverage that isn't sweet? From my parent's generation, who drank their coffee black, their whiskey straight, and their martinis made from gin and vermouth, we've come to a place where coffee tastes like milk shakes, and booze tastes like Kool-Aid. Just doesn't seem very grown up to me, she said, sipping her unsweetened black tea. A little sophistication, if you please.)

(Oh, and just because you serve it in a V-shaped glass does not make a drink a "martini." Martinis are made of gin and dry vermouth, or possibly vodka and dry vermouth. They come with either an olive or a twist of lemon. They do not involve apples, caramel, chocolate, or any other sweet flavor. This has been a public service announcement.)

Hard spirits are, for the very most part, sugar- and carb- free -- vodka, bourbon, scotch, Canadian, rye, gin, rum, tequila, etc. It's the mixers you need to be wary of, a good argument for a nice scotch-on-the-rocks, or my favorite, tequila sipped slowly from a rocks glass. Again, if it tastes sweet and isn't "diet," it has sugar in it. This includes soda, juice, sour mix and margarita mix, of course, but also tonic water, which may not taste sweet to you, but sure tastes sweet to me. Fresh lime juice is quite low in sugar, but the ubiquitous Rose's Lime Juice has sugar added; ask the bar staff what they're using.

Possible low carb mixers include:

* Diet soda. Duh.
* Diet tonic water
* Club Soda
* Flavored but unsweetened sparkling water -- La Croix and the like.
* Diet cranberry juice cocktail (go easy, it's not carb-free, just lower than the regular stuff.)
* Crystal Light and other sugar-free drink mixes
* Fresh lemon or lime juice
* Baja Bob's sugar-free margarita and daquiri mixes, but it's a tad late to order them for tomorrow.

I can't think of another place to put this, so I'll insert it here: A nice substitute for a margarita is a shot or two of tequila in a tall glass of ice, with a wedge or two of lime, filled with orange sparking water. Oh, and Splenda works great in mojitos: Muddle a sprig or two of fresh mint and a squeeze of lime juice with a teaspoon or so of Splenda. Add ice and a shot of rum, and fill with club soda.

Spirits may be carb-free, but liqueurs and cordials most definitely are not. Remember the rule: If it tastes sweet, it's sugary. Midori, Bailey's Irish Cream, Amaretto, Kahlua, Hot Damn, Buttershots, creme de menthe, creme de cacao, etc, etc, etc, are all syrupy-sweet. Jagermeister, too, though the heavy herbal flavoring can make you miss it.

Sugar-free syrups can help here. Combine a shot each of sugar-free Irish Cream syrup, heavy cream, and Irish whiskey, and you have a passable substitute for Irish Cream. I'm betting you could use the chocolate-flavored syrup plus a little vodka in place of creme de cacao, and possibly DaVinci's watermelon syrup plus vodka in place of Midori, though Midori is more honeydew-flavored. Still, it would give you a melon note. If you're fond of fancy mixed drinks, this could be an interesting path to walk.

Oh, and I have a recipe for Mockahlua in 500 Low-Carb Recipes; it's super-easy to make, and great mixed with cream. You could, instead, have coffee and cream with a shot of sugar-free vanilla syrup and a shot of vodka or rum. Similar flavors, you know?

One more thought: There was an article in our local paper today regarding warding off hangovers. This is a subject dear to my heart, since my tendency to feel it the day after seems to have increased with age. There are many supposed hangover preventives and cures out there. Here are the few I really think are worth your attention:

* Eat a good low carb supper before partying, or be sure there are low carb party snacks at hand -- deviled eggs, chicken wings, cold shrimp, nuts, cheese, breadcrumb-free meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, likewise breadcrumb-free, all are party snacks that will please low carbers and carbivores alike. The point is to buffer the absorption of alcohol, and keep your blood sugar on an even keel.

* Speaking of blood sugar, keeping your libations low in sugar will also help ward off a hangover, again, by preventing a blood sugar crash.

* Drink a non-alcoholic beverage for every alcoholic one you down. I learned this one the hard way. I'm a thirsty person, always have to have something to sip on, or I'm rapidly uncomfortably dry. If all there is in front of me is booze, I'll keep sipping just because I'm thirsty, with predictable results. I've learned to keep a good supply of sparkling water at hand, and use that to quench my thirst. Makes a HUGE difference. On the Low Carb Cruise I buy the unlimited soda package -- pay a flat fee for the week for all the soft drinks you can swallow, which otherwise run $2/can -- just so I can suck down club soda while we're all out in the bars and lounges at night. Not only does this help to moderate drinking, but it also prevents dehydration, which is a big contributor to hangovers.

* Since dehydration does, indeed, contribute to hangovers, downing a big glass or two of water before hitting the sack is a great idea. Gulp down a couple of aspirin or ibuprofen with it, and your prospects for a good New Years Day become even brighter. Here's another public service announcement: DO NOT TAKE TYLENOL FOR HANGOVERS. Both alcohol and acetaminophen are rough on the liver; taking the two together can cause permanent liver damage, or even liver failure.

* Pop a multivitamin with those aspirin, to replace the water soluble vitamins you've washed out.

* I don't have to tell you not to drive drunk, right? Many towns have free public transit on New Years Eve; take advantage. Around here, the cabs run free, but will only take you home, not to another bar. It's a huge public service, and I laud them.

That's it! Have a fabulous time, do some dancing and freelance midnight kissing, get home safely, and I'll see you on Sunday, when we'll talk about resolutions.

Have you noticed the new ads for Activia? I've written about this stuff before , pointing out that their claims about "bifidus regularis" in no way mean that theirs is the only yogurt that has a beneficial effect on digestion, or even that theirs is the only yogurt that contains that particular strain of bifidobacteria.

What's bemusing me now is the fact that they've gone from stating that one serving per day of Activia will help regulate your digestive system, to telling us that it takes three servings per day. Three! That's a whole lot of yogurt.

Going by the nutrition info on Activia Strawberry, that's 360 calories per day of yogurt -- and 66 grams of carb, 57 of 'em from pure sugar. Furthermore, for all that sugar you'll only get 4 grams of protein per serving, or 12 grams for the day.

The question on my mind, though, is why? Why this sudden change in advertising strategy? Is it just because they think that they can get everyone to think that it's a typical, reasonable thing to do to eat three servings of highly processed yogurt per day, and therefore make triple the money they were making with their one-a-day advertising strategy?

Or is there something more behind it? You may have noticed that the ads for DanActive, which was being flogged as improving your immune system, went away some time ago. That's because they got busted for making unsubstantiated claims. So now I'm wondering if Dannon got a little love note from the government, asking for some proof of their claims, and research demonstrated you need considerably more yogurt than they said to make a difference?

I don't know. I just find it interesting, that's all. And I reiterate my assertion that any good plain yogurt with a nice broad range of bacteria will give you all the benefits yogurt can give, without all the sugar that's in Activia.

Gingersnaps
Crisp and gingery-cinnamony, these cookies are nothing short of extraordinary.

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup Splenda
1/4 cup sugar alcohol (I'd use erythritol now, but I originally used maltitol)
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (or dark molasses)
1 egg
1 cup almond meal
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Using your electric mixer, beat the butter, coconut oil, Splenda, sugar alcohol sweetener, blackstrap, and egg together until mixture is creamy and fluffy.

Beat in the almond meal, vanilla whey protein powder, and gluten, then the baking soda, salt and spices.

Dough will be fairly soft, but cohesive. Spoon by the scant tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets, shaping a bit with the fingers to make little balls. Flatten balls slightly with the back of your spoon or fingers. Keep in mind when placing cookies on sheets that they will spread.

Bake at 350 for about 7-9 minutes, or until just getting golden around the edges. Cool on wire racks, and store in an air-tight container.

About 42 cookies, each with: 76 Calories; 5g Fat; 7g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 2 grams usable carb.

Utterly Addictive Pumpkin Seeds

1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
1/4 teaspoon anchovy paste
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or other Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 cups squash kernels (shelled pumpkin seeds are, indeed, squash kernels.)

Set oven to 250. Put the coconut oil in a roasting pan, and put it in the oven to melt as the oven heats.

In the meanwhile, in a small dish, mix together the coconut aminos, anchovy paste, and tabasco sauce, stirring till the anchovy paste dissolves.

In another small dish, mix together the onion powder, garlic powder, and seasoned salt.

When the coconut oil is melted, pull the pan out and dump the pumpkin seeds in the pan. Stir till they're all coated with the oil. Now pour the coconut amino mixture over them, and stir again. Finally, sprinkle the seasoning blend over the whole thing, and stir to coat.

Slide 'em in the oven, and set the timer for 20 minutes. When it beeps, stir 'em up, put 'em back, and set the timer for another 20. When it beeps again, check that they're dry. If not, give them another ten minutes. Assuming they are, pull them out. Either way, when they're dry and golden, let them cool and put them in a snap top container to store. Hide them in an obscure, hard to reach place if you hope for them to last longer than a day or two!
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8 servings, each with: 299 Calories; 24g Fat ; 19g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 6 grams usable carb.

Note: Coconut aminos are a sauce quite similar to soy sauce -- to my taste a little sweeter -- but made from coconut sap. Great for those who wish to avoid all soy products, but still love Asian food. I've been using them for this paleo book. You could use soy sauce instead, if you wish; I might add a half-teaspoon or so of sweetener in that case.

Yikes! I just realized I haven't entered the coconut aminos into my nutrient database yet, so this may be off a little.

It seems like every time Dana mentions "Chicken Chips" in any blog entry or post on Facebook, someone will ask, "What are chicken chips???" (The other common question is about fat-fasting. We'll get to that shortly.) So we decided to give Chicken Chips a page of their own, with an easy link that can be quickly used pretty much anywhere.

Ingredients:

Chicken skin
Salt

1) Preheat the oven to 375^F.
2) Take any and all chicken skin you have on hand -- chunks of chicken fat will work, too -- and spread them out as flat as you can on the broiler rack.
3) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the skin gets brown and crunchy (thicker pieces take longer than thinner ones). Sprinkly with salt and eat like chips -- these are not to be believed!

Yield: This will totally depend on how much chicken skin you bake, but here's the info that really matters: There's no carbohydrates in here at all!

(From Dana's best-selling 500 Low-Carb Recipes: 500 Recipes from Snacks to Dessert, That the Whole Family Will Love , page 244.)

It occurred to me, as I was stashing away the various leftovers last night, that there's a really cool thing about Thanksgiving dinner traditions, one that I really think is special to Thanksgiving: So much of what makes Thanksgiving dinner special is the vegetables. Sweet potatoes and green beans seem to be the most canonical, but in general it seems that people prepare more vegetable side dishes, and take more care with them, for Thanksgiving than for any other meal of the year.

Furthermore, despite the common notion that vegetables aren't as yummy as a lot of other things, I think a lot of us look forward to those vegetable side dishes. When a friend asked if she could bring something to dinner last night, what she wanted to bring was sweet potato casserole. Another mentioned that the dish she was most excited about was the roasted brussels sprouts. The green beans almandine also drew praise.

Perhaps we should take a cue from this, and pay a little more attention to the vegetables the rest of the year -- though, please, let's skip the cream of mushroom soup. Butter and nuts and bacon are tastier anyway.

I thought I'd post my menu for tomorrow -- and I'm having 5-count-'em-5 last minute guests! (FUN!)

Roast turkey with giblet gravy, thickened with xanthan
Apple-Walnut Dressing (see my most recent podcast transcript at Dana's Low Carb For Life.com)
Green Beans Almandine
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Fauxtatoes
Mashed Rutabaga (in the slow cooker as I keyboard this -- rutabaga takes a heap of cooking to get soft.)
Pumpkin Pie with a Pecan Praline Crust
Whipped Cream

I should be baking the pie right now, but I'm wiped. I'll do it in the morning. I have to have the turkey in at 9:30, but fortunately I am the proud owner of a tabletop convection oven. The pie can bake in that.

The hardest thing about writing -- well, the hardest thing about writing is getting one's act together to sit down and do it. Or, as the old joke goes, the hardest part of writing is application -- applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. And now that we all write on internet-connected computers instead of typewriters (Children, a typewriter was an abysmally stupid word processor with no cut-and-paste, no "undo," no delete, and no multiple copy capability. I learned to type on one.), there is also the challenge of forcing one's self to actually write, rather than check Facebook, or read the latest advice columns.

But the second hardest thing about writing, at least in the old-fashioned dead-tree format that so much of my stuff has been published in, is that whatever you've said is there, out in the world, like a child you've raised, but whose behavior you can no longer control. What you said, you said, and the fact that you've learned a few things in the intervening decade or so doesn't change it. Your thoughts from all that time past are out there, still telling people you think this when you now actually think that. Every single time I have sent out a manuscript for publication, I have had the the thought, "Geez, what part of this am I going to regret later on?" Because it is inevitable. This is one of the reasons for revised editions.

Many years ago, in my first book How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds, I stated that we all knew it was inevitable that we were going to deviate from our diets -- something I prefer to call an Indulgence, rather than "cheating" -- and that the main thing was to do it infrequently, and plan for it.

I still think that if you are going to have an Indulgence, you should indeed do so very infrequently, and that it is imperative to plan for it. It's the question of whether it's actually a good idea to accept this and build it into one's dietary life that I now question.

In my first few years of low carbing, I had an Indulgence maybe three to five times per year, but they have grown rarer and rarer over the years. I just care less about carbs. I don't miss them. I'm happy with how I eat. I also, of course, have developed a whole lot of recipes that provide me with wonderful alternatives. That said, I have demonstrated to myself that a handful or two of potato chips at a party will not send me into a tailspin.

My email, and personal encounters with low carbers, tell me that for many people this is not true. Over and over I have heard stories from folks who were doing great on their low carb diets, had lost weight, sometimes a great deal of weight, had improved their health, and were happy with the whole thing -- until they listened to that little voice in the back of their heads that said, "I can have just a couple of cookies. It's Christmas," or "I'm on vacation! I can have a treat." And they crash and burn. I hear from them months or even years later, having gained back their weight, not to mention their health problems, and starting all over again.

So tread cautiously, very, very cautiously. If you have been low carbing for a long time, you likely know your own strength. If you have a history of "just this once" turning into "Oh, geez, I've gained 15 pounds this month," you need to accept that even on holidays Indulgences aren't for you, any more than a sober alcoholic can have a glass of wine with Christmas dinner. Instead, you need to start planning a truly special holiday menu that also happens to be low carb -- it may have more carbs than your average dinner; my Thanksgiving dinner will, but it should have no sugar, no bread, no potatoes.

Here are some suggestions for those of you who do plan to Indulge for Thanksgiving:

* Get it through your head that your Indulgence is for Thanksgiving Dinner only -- not for all of Thanksgiving Day, not, Atkins forbid, for all of Thanksgiving weekend. If you can't do this, you'd best not Indulge at all. A weekend of watching video movies with the family while eating Hot Browns and leftover pie will leave you very, very unhappy come Monday, not to mention up five or six pounds as you go into the Christmas season.

* In the interests of not eating carbs all weekend, give away the leftover pie, stuffing, whatever. "Here, Grandma! Take this along, and then you won't have to cook this weekend." (Do not do this to people who are low carbing!) If you're having Thanksgiving at someone else's house, refuse all offers to take leftover pie home. You might, if you're close to the hostess or host, ask if you might take home a little leftover turkey instead.

* Plan something to do after dinner other than sit around the house picking at the leftovers. If the weather's nice, a stroll around the neighborhood is great. If it's wretched, brave the crowds and go to a movie, or start a Wii Just Dance tournament, or get out the board games. Pull out the Christmas decorations and start decking the halls. Pull out the old photos and ask the elderly relatives who all those people are. Staring at the television is conducive to eating, and you know it.

* Eat breakfast on Thanksgiving Day, your usual protein-and-fat combo. Do not figure you'll make up for dinner by skipping breakfast. Hitting the feast table starving will shred every last vestige of self-control and good intention that you possess.

* If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, make sure there are plenty of low carb side dishes that you love along with stuff that you plan to Indulge in. If you are going elsewhere, you could offer to bring something, then bring something low carb and wonderful.

* Assuming you know the Thanksgiving menu in advance -- my mother served exactly the same dishes every single year -- give some thought to which carbs you really, really care about, and which you've eaten over the years just because they're tradition. For illustration, let me run through the carbs in my mother's Thanksgiving menu, back the day:

Mashed potatoes. I liked 'em, but wasn't wasn't head-over-heels about them. I would have a small spoonful.

Stuffing. Love the stuff, so I'd have one full-sized portion.

Creamed onions. These had a flour-thickened white sauce. I never cared much about them, so I'd skip them entirely.

Candied sweet potatoes. Ditto, just never a favorite of mine, and all that sugar! I passed on these, too.

Banana bread. Didn't like it; never been a banana fan. Pass.

Mom's oatmeal-molasses bread. This is the bread that won Mom first prize at the county fair, and part of my childhood. I'd have a half a slice, with plenty of butter.

Cranberry sauce. Crazy about it, and it's super-easy to decarb; I'd take ten minutes and make sugar-free cranberry in Mom's kitchen, as often as not.

Gravy. Flour-thickened. I love gravy, and making the gravy has been my job since I had to stand on a step-stool to reach the stove. I'd have gravy on my potatoes, stuffing, and of course my turkey.

The rest of the meal was low carb, and I'd fill up on that -- turkey, of course, but also Green Beans Almandine (or as That Nice Boy I Married and I call them "green almond beans"), rutabaga, celery and olives. These would take up most of my plate, and if I wanted seconds, these would be what I'd choose.

The other carb, of course, would be pie -- apple pie at Mom's, not pumpkin. Sometimes I'd have a half a piece, sometimes not.

You get the idea: Don't ever Indulge in anything that is not exactly, precisely what you want.

"But, Dana," I hear you cry, "My mother/mother-in-law/grandma always pushes me to eat everything! She gets upset if I don't!" (You'll notice that it's always a woman doing this. Does anyone's father push them to eat the sweet potato casserole?) I wrote about this last year, and I still think it's good advice.

What if you have decided that you really don't want to or can't afford to have an Indulgence for Thanksgiving? This is where I am; I just don't do it. For this, it very much helps if you are hosting the meal yourself, or if you are visiting a sympathetic, supportive relative or friend. If you're visiting the passive-aggressive, always taking potshots, takes refusal-as-an-insult, wants-to-see-you-fail relatives, well, it's probably too late to change plans now, but consider making this the last year you sit at their table. Yes, you can refuse to have Thanksgiving dinner with the family.

If you're hosting the feast, here are some menu ideas that shouldn't put anybody's nose out of joint:

* Thicken your gravy with guar or xanthan instead of flour. I'm guessing nobody even notices.

* Ditto sweetening cranberry sauce with Splenda, erythritol, xylitol, or another sweetener of choice. Won't help if your family is devoted to the jellied stuff, put on a plate still in the shape of the can, but whole-berry cranberry sauce is, as I mentioned, a snap to make. Buy a bag of cranberries, the instructions are on the bag. Follow them, subbing for the sugar. Takes ten minutes.

* Those green beans almandine are way easier than the gooey, sticky casserole made with the cream of mushroom soup, and way tastier, to my mind.

* How about roasted brussels sprouts? So good, and you can do 'em while the turkey is "resting" and you're making the (guar or xanthan-thickened)gravy. Trim the bottoms of the stems and any bruised leaves, and halve them. You can do this ahead of time, even the day before. When the turkey comes out, crank the oven up to 500, and put your brussels in a roasting pan along with a few tablespoons of the fat of your choice -- I've done this with coconut oil, but bacon grease would be fantastic. Butter will burn, and olive oil might be unhappy. Toss the brussels with the fat. Slide 'em into the ove, and let them roast, stirring (carefully!) every five minutes until they're spotted brown all over. Salt, pepper, and serve.

* Pumpkin pie works wonderfully with sugar-free sweeteners, because the texture comes from the pumpkin, eggs, and cream. I make mine with a crust of chopped pecans.

* I've served Fauxtatoes to guests, only to have them take two or three bites before realizing they're not mashed potatoes. At any rate, be sure to have Fauxtatoes for you.

* Here's the dressing I'll be serving this year; you'll find it in 300 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes.

Apple Walnut Dressing
This dressing has no grain of any kind in it, and still tastes great. Serve with a simple poultry or pork dish.

4 tablespoons butter
1 crisp, tart apple (I use a Granny Smith because I like the flavor, but one with a red skin would look prettier)
2 large stalks celery
1 medium onion
1 cup shelled walnuts
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
3/4 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal
1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning

Start the butter melting in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Quarter the apple and trim out the core, whack each quarter into two pieces (making eighths), and drop them in your food processor with the S-blade in place. Whack each stalk of celery into 4-5 big chunks, and throw them in, too. Quarter the onion, peel, and throw it in, and then dump in the walnuts. Pulse the food processor until everything’s a medium consistency.

Dump this mixture, along with the mushrooms (which we’re assuming you bought already sliced – if not, just chop ‘em with everything else), into the butter in the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and saute everything for a minute or two, stirring. Then cover it, and let it cook for 10 minutes, uncovering every 3 minutes or so to stir the whole thing again.

Stir in the salt and poultry seasoning, let it cook for another minute or two, and serve.

6-8 servings. Assuming 6, each will have 9 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 6 grams.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

My head is about to explode. Today, at the American Heart Association conference, a panel from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will be recommending cholesterol testing for children as young as 9. The reason? Screening more than 20,000 fifth graders turned up a bunch of undiagnosed cases of high cholesterol. Since high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease -- more on this in a moment -- obviously we have to catch this early! We have to intervene! We have to do it for the chiiiilllldreeeen!

This is not just wrong. This is evil. This is diabolical. I strongly suspect that this is nothing short of an attempt by the pharmaceutical industry to dig up a whole new market for statin drugs.

"But, Dana," some of you are thinking, "these kids have high cholesterol, and that could give them heart disease. Why not intervene now?" I'm afraid there's no short-form answer to that question. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, and I'll tell you.

First of all, let's get back to the whole question of risk factors. I've written about this in the past. "Risk factor" sounds like it increases your risk. It does not. It simply means that two things are correlated -- happen together. And one of the primary rules of science is (let's all say it together) Correlation is not causation. Just because two things happen together does not mean that one causes the other. You see more people wearing white shoes in the summer. That does not mean that an increase in white shoes causes sweltering heat and sauna-like humidity. Wearing white shoes will not end a cold snap. Changing to a nice pair of black patent leather pumps will not end a heat wave. Got it?

Roughly half of people who have heart attacks never had high cholesterol. This alone tells us that elevated blood cholesterol cannot be the cause of heart disease.

You'll notice that they're not recommending that we test children for LDL/HDL ratios, triglycerides, or LDL particle size, all of which are far more predictive of heart disease than total cholesterol -- and all of which predictably improve with a low carbohydrate diet, I might add. Why? Could it be because there's no drug that fixes these problems?

You know what's going to happen: They're going to test kids, especially fat kids (God bless 'em, I was one of them, and it's a very hard row to hoe), for total cholesterol, and, surprise, surprise, they're going to find that some of them have cholesterol over 200 -- which, since cholesterol over 200 is actually pretty damned normal, is to be expected. And what are they going to tell the parents? "You've got to put Junior on a low fat, low cholesterol diet, with lots of healthy whole grains."

And sure as Congress is going to disappoint us this year, that "healthy diet" is going to fail miserably. The kid is going to get fatter, and -- since a low fat, low cholesterol diet does nothing beneficial -- his blood work is going to stay ugly. That's when the doctor, going on the information coming from the "experts" at places like The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and American Heart Association, is going to recommend that Junior start on Lipitor.

The very idea fills me with horror. Why? Because what all the ads pushing statins don't tell you is that 1) there is NO EVIDENCE that statins do anything to prevent heart attacks in anyone who hasn't already had one, and 2) -- and more importantly -- these drugs have major, ugly side effects.

Most common is muscle pain and weakness. You know that along with that low fat diet, Junior is going to be told to switch from X-Box to exercise. Yet at the very time that children should be approaching their physical peak, we may be pressured to put them on drugs that make them weak and tired.

But more frightening, much more frightening, are the reports of transient global amnesia and even dementia associated with statin use. This is being hotly denied by the pharmaceutical industry, but the anecdotal reports are many and disturbing. Dr. Duane Graveline's SpaceDoc site has a lot of info, including Graveline's story of his own experience.

It's not particularly surprising. After all, the brain is extremely rich in cholesterol; is it a big shock that using powerful drugs that lower cholesterol levels may affect cognition? It's bad enough that most kids no longer eat cholesterol and DHA*-rich eggs for breakfast, having traded them for highly processed, sugar-laden cold cereals. Now it appears we are heading toward giving brain-killing drugs to those whose brains are still developing -- with absolutely NO RESEARCH regarding the long-term effects of those drugs on children. I have a nightmarish vision of an America where millions have dementia before their hair turns gray, brought on by early statin use.

All of this to treat a "risk factor" that actually causes no harm -- and in the process, further line the pockets of Big Pharma. Hey, eventually they can sell them all Aricept, too.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health, and receives federal funding, it is true. Ignoring entirely the huge influence of big money over the federal government, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute website has an extensive list of other funding sources:

* Alpha-1 Foundation
* American Asthma Foundation
* American College of Rheumatology
* American Heart Association
* American Lung Association
* American Thoracic Society
* Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation, Inc.
* Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
* Barth Syndrome Foundation, Inc. (Cardiomyopathy, Neutropenia, Skeletal Muscle Weakness, Growth Delay)
* CFIDS Association of America, Inc. (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome)
* Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF)
* Children's Heart Foundation
* Cooley's Anemia Foundation, Inc.
* Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
* Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc.
* Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research
* Francis Families Foundation - the Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program in Pulmonary Research
* Histiocytosis Association of America
* Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
* LAM Foundation (Lymphangioleiomyomatosis)
* Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
* Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.
* Lymphatic Research Foundation
* Lymphoma Research Foundation
* National Blood Foundation
* National Hemophilia Foundation
* National Marfan Foundation
* National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.
* National Sleep Foundation
* Preeclampsia Foundation
* Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation
* Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Inc.
* Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation
* Scleroderma Foundation
* S.L.E. Foundation, Inc. (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
* Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Alliance

Sounds tremendously serious and right-minded, doesn't it? Until you remember that too often the term "association" or "foundation" is a screen for big corporate money. Various business and political interests form "associations" and "foundations" all the time. I looked at the websites of several of these foundations and associations, and discovered that while they all have links you can click to become a corporate sponsor, nowhere do they list those proud corporate sponsors (in contrast to the American Diabetes Association who, last I knew, listed their "Banting Level" donors on their website.)

However, further googling turned up info on the best-known of these organizations, and the one to which this paper is being presented. It came as no surprise to me that The American Heart Association accepts tens of millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, and a couple million more per year from deals with food processors, selling them the right to put the AHA "check" on their packages. (Did you know that General Mills and Quaker and Pepperidge Farm pony up big bucks to get the AHA's imprimature? It's a trademark, nothing more.) Corporate contributors of over $100,000 include:

* AstraZeneca LP
* Sanofi-Aventis
* Bayer Corporation
* Braman Motors
* Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
* Centocor Inc.
* Clear Channel Outdoor
* ConAgra Foods
* CV Therapeutics
* GlaxoSmithKline
* IBM Co.
* King Pharmaceuticals
* KOS Pharmaceuticals
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Microlife Co.
* Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
* Omron
* PacifiCare
* Pfizer, Inc.
* Procter & Gamble Company
* Reliant Pharmaceuticals
* Roche Diagnostics
* Ross Stores
* Sanofi
* Schering-Plough Corporation
* Subway
* Taketa Pharmaceuticals North America
* Toyota Motor Co.
* Walgreen Co.

Toyota? I'm not sure why they're there, but Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Schering-Plough, Merck, GlaxoSmith Kline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer, AstraZeneca, these are the big boys of the Big Pharma world, and ConAgra is one of the biggest of the food giants. I have long considered the American Heart Association to be nothing more than salesmen for the pharmaceutical companies and food processors.

I'm sure they'll be very excited about the idea of testing a whole, new potential market. People, protect your children.

* DHA is the primary structural component of the brain and nervous system.

Schlepped across town to Aldi today, because I had a wallet full of cash. I was only going to "buy a few things," but of course wound up spending $100 -- three cases of sparkling water, three cans of coffee, five cartons of cottage cheese, 3 quarts of half and half, 6 blocks of cheese, etc. They don't call it "the stock-up store" for nothing.

So there I am in line, waiting to check out, and I overheard the nice young man ringing the register explaining to the elderly lady ahead of me in line that the reason she can't use her credit card is because Aldi does everything they possibly can to keep prices at rock-bottom levels -- no credit cards (they do take debit), no baggers, no people out in the lot rounding up the shopping carts -- heck, no shelves, stuff is just stacked on pallets.

When my turn came, I told the nice young man that the last time I'd come to Aldi I had written about it at my blog, posting all the prices from my receipt. Cool, he said. I wrote?, he asked. Yep, I told him, I write about nutrition and cooking and stuff. Interesting, he replied, he was into nutrition. Well, I said, I'm kind of the anti-vegan. He liked that, said he ate a lot of meat, too. I'm one of those Atkins people, I said, I eat low carb. He lit up -- had I heard of a documentary called Fathead?

Hah! When I told him that Tom Naughton is a friend of mine, that I know him from the Low Carb Cruise, you would have thought I said I knew Jack Black or Will Ferrell. He thought that was the coolest thing ever -- he'd seen Fathead, gone low carb, and lost fifty pounds. I told him he needed to start planning for the cruise, and he, too, could hang out and sing karaoke with Tom Naughton.

Sure made a routine trip to the grocery store more fun. And I hope he comes on the cruise! (You should too, of course.)

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago for CarbSmart. Thought I should publish it here, too, plus an update, to let you know how this is going:

Well, isn't this interesting.

Background: I have been asked to tape a pilot for a possible low carb cooking show. I am very excited about the whole thing, but like anyone else faced with the prospect of going on television, I'd like to knock off a few pounds between now and then - "then" being early November.(Since writing this, that date has been changed to early December -- the 9th, to be exact. After all, I've never claimed to be a skinny girl, only to be a skinnier girl. For the past year or two, I've been wearing size 10 jeans, which at 5'2" makes me normal-to-mildly-plump.

I had, in the past, tried the much-written-about HCG protocol. I had been willing to try it because it was clear that Dr. Simeons, who developed it, had a deep distrust of carbohydrates. I figured that made him my kind of guy. Indeed, his basic instructions for maintenance are "No starch or sugar for the first several weeks, and be cautious with them for the rest of your life." The Simeons protocol is radical - inject low doses of HCG (human chorionic gonadatropin) once a day, and eat a low everything diet - just 500 calories a day. (I, characteristically, left out the allowed bread stick or Melba toast.)

The Simeons protocol had worked as advertised for me, though it was not a rollicking good time. Still, since then I'd talked to two doctors who did, indeed, feel that HCG was a safe and useful adjunct to weight loss whether you used Dr. Simeons protocol or not. One of those doctors was the fellow who diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome and attention deficit disorder. Quite a lot of his practice revolves around weight loss, and the effects of diet on straightening out hormones, and the effects of hormones on weight. He knows whereof he speaks.

So I thought I'd try the Simeons protocol again. But something unexpected happened. Since my last go at the Simeons protocol, because of my PCOS diagnosis, I'd started taking my fasting blood glucose every morning. I was on a couple of medications for blood sugar, metformin and Victoza.

I discovered that the Simeons protocol made my blood sugar go seriously wonky - up as high as 126 one morning. I started taking my blood sugar after meals, and discovered quite quickly that a supper of chicken breast and cabbage (a very tasty salad) left me with sugar of 147 two hours after dinner. Clearly this was not working out for me. I quit after just two days of the 500 calorie per day phase of the protocol.

(I will insert parenthetically that I know folks for whom the Simeons protocol improved their blood sugar, sometimes substantially. I am not one of them.)

But I had the HCG in the house, and the assurance of two doctors I respect that low-dose HCG is safe, and helpful for weight loss in general. I decided to keep using the HCG and try the Atkins Fat Fast. I'd read about it for years, of course, but never gotten around to trying it. Based on the work of Kekwick and Pawan in the 1950s, and Dr. Frederick Benoit in the 1960s, demonstrating substantially greater weight loss with the same calorie count when most of those calories come from fat, the basic jist of the Fat Fast is quite simple: 1000 calories per day, 90% of them from fat. It's recommended that you have 5 small "feedings" a day, each of about 200 calories.

This is harder than it sounds. No, not because I'm ravenous all the time, I've actually been remarkably comfortable on what is, admittedly, still not a lot of food. I don't have any ketostix on hand, but I suspect I am in quite a deep ketosis, which should suppress appetite. My energy level has been fine, too. No, what's hard is actually getting 90% of my calories from fat. I haven't gotten there yet; generally I've hit the 80-85% mark.

What do I eat for those 1000 calories? For breakfasts I've splurged and had three slices of bacon, with two eggs scrambled in all the grease. I'm Breakfast Girl, so having my biggest "feed" first thing worked well.

After that, I've eaten stuff like:

* 1/2 ounce of pork rinds with 2 tablespoons whipped cream cheese, and a few sweetened jalapeno slices.
* Tofu shirataki noodles turned into Fettuccine Alfredo by melting in 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon onion-and-chive whipped cream cheese, plus 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
* One ounce macadamia nuts - this is 1/4 cup. Yes, I measured.
* One ounce pecan halves, fried in butter.
* Traditional shirataki made into sesame noodles with a sauce of 1 tablespoon each either almond butter or peanut butter, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 1 tablespoon chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, a touch of garlic, and Sriracha sauce to taste.
* "Chocolates" made of coconut oil and cocoa powder, plus a little liquid Splenda, and shredded coconut meat.

Servings are very small - for instance, just one of those little chocolates, made in a mini-muffin pan, would be it for a few hours. My breakfast holds me for at least 5 hours, and after that, I have just enough of one of these fatty foods to make me not-hungry, but certainly not enough to feel full - just keeping hunger at bay. It's just enough food for that, I find.

Dr. Atkins said not to do the Fat Fast for more than 3-5 days. I stuck with it for six. In the past couple of days I have liberalized, aiming for 1300-1500 calories per day, but staying with the super-high fat percentage.

The results? As I write this, I have lost six pounds in just over a week, and it looks like more, I think. (This may be a result of the HCG. It seems to help the body lose fat where it most needs to lose it.) That makes me very happy.

What makes me even more happy is what this super-high-fat diet has done to my blood sugar: It is normal. Normal, normal, normal. I have stopped taking my metformin and Victoza, and my morning blood glucose is consistently in the 80-95 range. This thrills me to the core.

I don't know whether the very high fat percentage is responsible for this, or if it's the caloric restriction, or both. My best guess is that it's the fact that I'm eating considerably less protein than I formerly have - apparently my body is really good at converting protein into sugar. (It should also be noted that I am not drinking alcohol these days, again, in the interests of looking as good as possible for the television taping. I do not know what effect this has.)

I think I have found my new "normal" low carb diet - super high fat, super low carb, moderate protein. I also think I will do perhaps three days of the Fat Fast at least a couple of times a month; clearly my body approves. I've been toying with the idea of doing the Fat Fast Monday through Wednesday, then liberalizing from Thursday through Sunday. This sounds very liveable to me.

We frequently hear low carbohydrate diets referred to as "high protein diets." I have known for a long time that this was not so, and try to remind people that properly done a low carb diet is a moderate protein/high fat diet. Still, many people panic at the idea of eating "all that fat", and still have a sneaking suspicion that they should choose mostly lean meat and vegetables.

Clearly, for my body at least, this is not so. Not that I've been choosing all lean meats; I'm a rib eye and pork shoulder steak kind of girl. But from here on out, I'm likely to eat 6 ounces of good fatty meat, not 12 - and to melt some butter or coconut oil over them. I will be aiming for my minimum protein requirement for the day (about 70 grams), rather than eating the 125 or so grams of protein that has been my usual intake. And I will be searching for new and creative things to do with super-fatty foods.

My blood sugar is normal! Without medication! HOORAY!

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Since I wrote this, I have changed my approach a bit: I am Fat Fasting every other day, while on the days in between I am eating ad lib, as much as I like, but still focusing on staying quite low carb and getting enough fat. I have not been losing more weight, though I have been maintaining with ease. However, my blood sugar is still stone normal. Was 92 when I got up this morning. It appears that so long as I eat this way, I don't have any blood sugar trouble at all.

This both thrills and annoys me. The "thrills" part is obvious. The "annoys" part is because I did not realize when I started this experiment that I was signing on for a lifetime of limiting myself to 1000 calories, mostly of fat, every other day. If you hadn't figured it out from the career of writing cookbooks, I like food. I like cooking, I like trying new stuff, I like eating interesting and varied meals. I'm not crazy about being borderline hungry all day every other day. I also miss being able to have a little wine on those evenings. And I have yet to figure out how to work in my gelatin on Fat Fast days, since it would increase my protein, something I don't want to do on those days.

However, I am very, very happy to be running normal blood sugars. Every time I got up in the morning and my blood glucose was over 100, I would think in dismay, "I'm rotting!" Elevated blood sugar, even modestly elevated blood sugar, speeds aging, causing irreversible damage. It is, officially, A Very Bad Thing.

So I will persist, because as irritating as it is, it works, at least for me. I may well do another 5-6 day stretch of the Fat Fast before I shoot the television pilot.

Being me, I have been coming up with new things to eat within the parameters of the diet -- can't resist the recipes. I've been planning to try Fat Fast Chocolate Truffles, made of cream cheese, baking chocolate, and liquid sucralose. Also think I'll try sour cream with a little liquid sucralose and vanilla, the way I would sweeten yogurt, with 1 or 2 strawberries cut up in it. I also have quit the bacon and eggs on most Fat Fast days -- turned out they were using up more of my 1000 calorie allotment than I thought. The exception is when I wind up doing my Slow Burn weight training on Fat Fast days -- my guru Fred Hahn insists that I have a good whack of protein after lifting.

Complicating matters is the fact that Fair Winds Press just sent me a contract for another cookbook, this one of paleo recipes. I'm generating ideas at full speed, but can only try them on myself every other day, which hamstrings me considerably. On my Fat Fast days, That Nice Boy I Married is the official recipe taster, but of course that means that I can't test recipes with ingredients he dislikes on those days.

Still, the bottom line, the most important factor in the equation, is that I have found a way of eating which -- at least for now -- has completely normalized my blood sugar. I don't know if it will do the same for you, but if you're eating low carb and are still medicated for blood sugar problems, it's worth a shot, I'd say.

Standard Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on television. This information is just that: Information. While I did this without doctor's supervision, I am a daredevil hotshot, and also took my blood sugar a lot in the process. Depending on your medication, it is possible that you could have a hypoglycemic episode by doing this, though I did not. Be cautious, especially as regards motor vehicles and heavy equipment, and any other circumstance that might make getting light-headed or woozy more dangerous than it otherwise might be. Consulting your doctor is a fine idea, unless your doctor is a total anti-low-carb dork, at which point I recommend you consult a different doctor. Permanently.