Chicken and Egg Drop Soup

After being nearly poisoned (not literally, but still) by the egg drop soup at a local Chinese restaurant, I came up with my own recipe. It is posted along with a photo here...
Chicken & Egg Drop Soup Recipe

I can't believe I used to eat the egg drop soup at the restaurant and like it! It was nothing more than chicken flavored corn starch! ACK!

My recipe has a little more substance to it even though it is not thickened. It is really cheap to make as well. One chicken breast made enough soup for me to have several lunches worth as well as have a big bowl right after I made it. The most expensive ingredient was the Shitaki mushrooms. If you don't want to spend extra for those tasty pieces of fungus, you can sub in other varieties. Enjoy!!!

How fresh is your food?

Since going low carb, a lot of the food I eat is fresh, local and requires little (if any) processing. As part of my movement to fresh foods, over the years my visits to farmer's markets has increased, I have planted my own herbs, I have some fruit trees and even my own grape vines. Last year I got together with some friends and we started our own community garden. It is only natural that I have taken the next step.

What is the next step? I purchased ducks so I can start getting my own fresh eggs. Sure, I could have gone with chickens, but my uncle raised ducks and geese, and I was just more familiar with them. The back yard poultry movement isn't something I expected to be a part of, yet here I am. I even found a great forum with very knowledgeable people to pester with lots of questions. www.backyardchickens.com

I have taken the plunge and adopted some adult birds. Once the days get longer the females should start laying and I will have my own fresh, delicious eggs from my new family members. Here is the flock...

The drake (Khaki Campbell light brown duck with dark green head) is named Jack. The Dark Khaki Campbell female is Janet. The Fawn Indian Runner is Chrissy, and the Buff duck is Lana. Chrissy and Janet should lay about an egg a day once they get started. Lana is a seasonal layer and will only lay Spring through Fall. She can still produce over 200 eggs a year. Three egg producing ducks might just be enough to keep up with my families consumption.

My latest Examiner post tells the story of another low carber that has taken the plunge in to poultry ownership. Stop by and check it out....
Fresh Food Takes a New Turn

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! Hopefully you are all having a good start to the new year. I just wrote an Examiner article listing some predictions I have for 2009. If you get a chance, stop by and check it out. Be sure to let me know if you think I am on to something :D

Predictions for 2009

Low Carb Gingerbread House

Photos of my gingerbread house made of slim jims, jack links, and beef jerky are up on my Examiner site here.

Making your own "meat masterpiece"? Send me a photo and I will be happy to post it.

Merry Christmas :D

Gingerbread houses are for wussies!

As part of a Christmas party I am attending on Saturday, there is going to be a gingerbread house contest. Not touching sugar and flour for over 18 months has been very good to me, so I really see no need to start now. While I do admit that sugar and flour are better used as a building material than a food source, there just has to be a better way.

Instead of walls made out of gingerbread, candy trim and peppermint wheel windows, I did think about baking sheets of low carb almond cookies and using sugar-free candies. It would have the appearance of a traditional gingerbread house, but lack the traditional toxic ingredients. The more I thought about it, the more lame it seemed. Why pay tribute to sugar and wheat addiction by making a pathetic imitation? Instead, I decided to pay the ultimate tribute to my low carb lifestyle and make my gingerbread house out of MEAT!

You got it! Sausage logs walls, beef jerky "shingles", circles of summer sausage and any other dried meat that will hold its form. For mortar, instead of frosting I will use cream cheese onion dip fortified with a little palm oil. Decorations and trim will be almond slivers, pecan, macadamia nuts and sunflower seeds. There wont be a single gumdrop, licorice whip, or peppermint anywhere near my masterpiece. I think this will be a fitting tribute to low carb living.

So far all I have is $30 worth of dried meat and several packs of cream cheese and a head full of ideas. Stay tuned to see if I can actually pull this off.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is having a tasty and fun Thanksgiving. Here is my dinner before it mysteriously disappeared. There is cooked-ahead turkey in Cream of Chicken Mushroom gravy, sausage and squash stuffing, "Jacked-up" cauliflower, a spinach salad and some sharp cheddar cheese. Who needs rolls!?!

I have recipes for most of these over on my Examiner site as well as instructions on what to do with that turkey carcass (you didn't throw it away, did you???). Stop by and check it out as soon as you recover from your food coma :D

Denver's Low Carb Examiner

Sugar-free Halloween

I was able to find packages of Sugar-Free Double Bubble at my local Walmart, so it looks like I am set for my non-poisonous trick-or-treat offering. Not sure how the kids will take it. I guess I will find out at the end of the night. Either my pumpkins will be fine, which means they didn't notice I slipped sugar-free gum in their bags. Or, I will find smashed pumpkins, a burning pile of copies of "Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution", and "Death to Low-Carb!" spray painted on my VW Golf. Well, it could also be angry militant vegetarians who caught wind of my propensity to eat meat, but I guess in that case, the pumpkins would have been chewed on instead of smashed. I guess I will have play "Pumpkin CSI" to know for sure.

Along with purchasing non-toxic treats, I have also been going through my music collection trying to find a good mix of music to play Halloween night. I usually hook up some outside speakers and play some of the kid-friendly selections for the munchkins that come to my door. I have been working on building this collection for quite a few years, so it is pretty extensive. I was Facebooking with a friend of my hubby's the other night and mentioned I was jamming to some Halloween tunes. He asked what songs I was playing and I ended up typing up the entire list. Through the magic of cut and paste, I am posting it here in case anyone else is looking for some good music to play for treat-or-treaters or at their Halloween bash. Most music genres are represented, and some are a tad corny, but they sure are fun. Just be sure let me know if I left any good ones out. 

Wifezilla's Ultimate Halloween Party Music List

"This is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson (as well as the original from the movie soundtrack)

"Black Magic Woman" by Carlos Santana

"I put a spell on you" by Natacha Atlas (as well as the CCR and Bett Midler versions)

"Every Day is Halloween" by Ministry

"Voo Doo" by Godsmack

"When You're Evil" by Voltaire (comedy song)

"Oogie Boogie Man" from Nightmare Before Christmas

"Psycho theme song"

"De Ja Voo Doo" by Kenny Wayne Sheperd

"Devil with a blue dress" by Mitch Ryder

Theme from Beetlejuice

Theme from Halloween ala Mike Myers

"Monster Mash"

Theme from the Addams Family

"Magic Man" by Heart

"Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen

"Blue Moon" the Platters

"Once bitten twice shy" White Snake

"Nemesis" by Shriekback

"Halloween" by Steven Lynch (comedy song)

"Thriller" Michael Jackson

Amityville Horror Theme

Ghostbusters Theme

Exorcist Theme

Tales From the Crypt Theme

Friday the 13th - Jason's Theme

"Devil in Disguise" by Elvis Presley

"Highway to Hell" by AC/DC

"Psycho Killer" Talking Heads

"Voodoo Lady" Ween

"Weird Science" Oingo Boingo

"Devil Inside" INXS

"Werewolves of London" Warren Zevon

"Blinded me with science" Thomas Dolby

"Zombie" Cranberries

"I'm Your Boogie Man" KC & the Sunshine Band

"Don't Fear the Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult

"Time Warp" Rocky Horror Picture Show

"Dead Man's Party" Oingo Boingo

"Hell's Bells" AC/DC

"Love Song For A Vampire" Annie Lennox

"The Beast"  Concrete Blonde

"Deliver us from Evil" by Bullet for my Valentine
"Evil Ways" by Carlos Santana
"Dirty Deeds" AC/DC
"Abracadabra" Steve Miller Band
and "Evil Woman" by ELO

"Witchy Woman"--Eagles!

"Somebody's Watching Me" Rockwell

"Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult

"Clap for the Wolfman" The Guess Who

"Feed my Frankenstein" Alice Cooper

"Invisible Man" by Theory of a Dead Man

"Blasphemous Rumors" Depeche Mode

"Creatures" 311

"Live & Let Die" Guns & Roses

"Possum Kingdom" the Toadies

"Bad Moon Rising" CCR

"King of Pain" the Police

"Girls are F*cking Evil" by the Ataris

"They're coming to take me away" Napoleon

"If you want blood" AC/DC

"Dragula" Rob Zombie

"Little Devil" Neil Sedaka

"The Killing Moon" Echo and the Bunnymen

"Race with the Devil" by the Stray Cats

"Counting Bodies Like Sheep" Perfect Circle

"Sell your soul" Hollywood Undead

"Bark at the moon" Ozzy Osbourne

"World is a Vampire" Smashing Pumpkins

"Prince of Darkness" Megadeath

"Bloodletting" Concrete Blonde

"Can't fight the Moonlight" by Leann Rimes

"Vampires in Love" Deadlines

"Neon Moon" Brooks and Dunn

"If I was your Vampire" Marilyn Manson

"Poison" Alice Cooper

"My Boo" by Girlicious

"Hungry like the wolf" Duran Duran

"Animal I have Become" 3 Days Grace

"Cold Hearted Snake" Paula Abdul

"Living Dead Girl" Rob Zombie

"Move your body like a snake" R. Kelly

"I can sleep when I'm dead" Jason Michael Carroll

"Devil went down to Georgia" Charlie Daniels

More Halloween Issues

Apparently I am not the only one who has been agonizing about whether or not to poison the neighborhood children with sugar this Halloween. Columnist Brian Cormier also has it on his mind...

"It's a little-known fact that this is also National Dentists Buy Expensive Cars Week across North America. Wherever children go door to door, dentists will be cackling with glee and their receptionists getting to work extra early tomorrow in order to deal with all those calls from moms and dads (probably mostly dads)."  

Please stop by and check out the rest of his blog post. It's a great laugh :D

Why I never have any food in the house....

My 18 year-old settling in for a good old fashioned refrigerator raid.

TB: Yet another reason to ditch carbs

Not only is there a tie between type 2 diabetes and heart disease, there is also a link between diabetes and tuberculosis. The University of Texas Public Health team reports;

"-- Type 2 diabetes, especially Type 2 diabetes involving chronic high blood sugar, is associated with altered immune response to TB, and this was particularly marked in patients with chronically high blood sugar.
-- Patients with diabetes and TB take longer to respond to anti-TB treatment.
-- Patients with active tuberculosis and Type 2 diabetes are more likely to have multi-drug resistant TB.

The World Health Organization estimates that 180 million people in the world have diabetes, and that number is expected to double by 2030. Also, according to the WHO, each person with active, untreated TB infects on average 10 to 15 people per year. "You do the math and it adds up to a major public health threat," McCormick said. "If you have Type 2 diabetes in an area with high rates of TB, your chances of getting TB goes up. In countries where a third of the population is infected with TB, this becomes a real issue."

In a recently published study in linical Infectious Diseases, researchers reported that the immune systems of patients with Type 2 diabetes and tuberculosis respond differently compared with patients with TB alone. "This immune impairment may be what makes patients with diabetes so susceptible to TB," said Fisher-Hoch, whose career as a scientist was recently honored with a Hall of Fame Award from Women In Technology International. " (full article)

Controlling blood sugar is about more than just treating diabetes. Unstable blood sugar seriously effects the immune system and can set you up for many different chronic disease (check my Examiner post on Diabetes and Heart disease for one example). One of the best ways to get your blood sugar under control is to follow a low carbohydrate diet. Check out the websites for Dr. Bernstein, Dr. Briffa and Dr. Mary Vernon to learn how you can avoid additional illness risk if you are already diabetic....or even if you aren't!

Sugar High Brings Heart to New Low

From my latest Examiner post...

"Diabetics have always been at a much greater risk of heart disease than non-diabetics. According to the American Heart Association, approximately three-quarters of people with diabetes die of some form of heart or blood vessel disease. The exact mechanism by which diabetics succumb to heart disease was not totally understood. A new study by US and Australian researchers sheds light on the process that can lead a diabetic to a coronary incident.

"...short-lived sugar highs can trigger changes in gene expression that lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques - the build-up of white blood cells on artery walls that causes the narrowing or 'furring' of arteries and reduces blood flow to the heart."

Full Story

I also posted my Mozzarella Salad recipe, so if you missed it the first time, be sure to check it out...

Recipe

Another post from last week is a quick story about a research student who figured out that high carb + disease makes you even sicker...

Full Story

On a personal note, I got hit on last weekend. I don't get hit on often so it kind of took me by surprise since I am:

1) way taller than most people

2) have been overweight since my early 20's

3) I'm 45 and have been married forever

4) Still need to lose 18 pounds

It was kind of a good news/bad news thing. It is nice to know that someone finds you attractive...but the person hitting on me was a lesbian. Now, this isn't the first time I have gotten hit on by lesbians. It happened quite a few times in college. I must say though, I seem to be attracting an entirely different type than I did in the past. In my younger, fatter days, it was the mullet-wearing, flannel-sporting, Wrangler-wearers with huge belt buckles that thought I was interesting. Last week, it was a tall, cute blonde. I am moving up in the world apparently. Low carb seems to have helped me in a very unexpected way. Even though I am quite happy with my husband and will always have a preference for boys, it's nice to know I have options.

The Halloween Dilemma

Halloween is coming up and I have been off sugar and refined carbs for almost a year and a half now. The candy displays at the grocery store are almost impossible to avoid and I am so torn about what to do when the neighborhood kids come to my door Halloween night. Do I stick to my low carb convictions and give the kids Slim Jims instead of candy? Do I give them dark chocolate, reducing the amount of sugar I am giving them yet still give them candy? Do I give them little toys or coupons? I could get all evangelical and stand on the porch with my copy of "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and read passages from the chapter on sugar, but I don't want my pumpkins smashed or a quick trip to the local mental health care facility courtesy of their parents.

I firmly believe that sugar is destroying the health of adults and children around the world, but I also believe that kids should be kids and Halloween comes but once a year. Too bad I just know these little rug rats are going to be eating sugar in the form of cereal, sugar in the form of pasta, sugar in the form of rice, and sugar in the form of drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup for the rest of their lives. Then their parents and school officials will try to make these poor kids lose weight by making them run, take exercise classes and give them low fat foods. More than the thought of ghost, vampires, zombies and politicians bent on "helping" me, this is my biggest nightmare.

Oh well. I can only do so much, and I am having enough trouble with my oldest son. I've been trying to convince my slightly chubby 20 year old that low carb is what he needs to drop the 5 lbs the Army wants him to lose before he enlists. If I can't convince my own stupid kid to drop the sugars, how can I expect to save the entire neighborhood?

I guess I will go with the dark chocolate option. At least if nobody shows up, it is something I can eat myself.

Sugar isn't the only problem with breakfast cereals

Here is a new article I wrote for the Examiner about breakfast cereals...

"Consumer Reports released an article today stating that many breakfast cereals are more than 50% sugar.

"The bad news is that 23 of the top 27 cereals marketed to children rated only Good or Fair for nutrition. There is at least as much sugar in a serving of Kellogg's Honey Smacks and 10 other rated cereals as there is in a glazed doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts. "
Examiner Article: Sugar isn't the only problem with breakfast cereal

While it's very easy to get upset about added sugar in cereal, nobody seems to notice all the damn CARBS in that crap!!!

Who needs noodles when you have low carb 'cabboodles'?

Here is my latest examiner post with a handy noodle replacement... shredded cabbage noodles, or, as I like to call them, "CABBOODLES"!

Low Carb Noodles

I also reposted an old recipe of mine for Almond Ricotta Pancakes. Check it out if you missed it the first time...
Low Carb Pancake Recipe

Dr. Sears' New Theory

Dr. Barry Sears, author of The Zone Diet has a book coming out in which he proposes a new theory on obesity.

"Rather than looking at obesity as a condition of sloth and gluttony, Dr. Sears shows it is much more productive to think of obesity as a form of cancer that is driven by silent inflammation. Furthermore, the epidemics of weight gain and diabetes in America are primarily caused because the genes in susceptible individuals are being activated by recent changes in the American diet. Once those genes are turned on, obesity and diabetes are the inevitable outcome. The cause of those genes being turned on is the rapid increase of arachidonic acid (i.e., toxic fat) in our bodies." (Full Story)

The theory may sound a bit far-fetched, but after recently learning that Alzheimer's Disease may actually be a form of diabetes of the brain, it doesn't seem so wacky after all. With many random diseases (heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer) turning out to be generating from the same cause (excess carbohydrate consumption), Dr. Sears may actually be on to something.

Once I get a copy of his book, I'll read in to it further and let you know what I think.

Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet

I have a few new Examiner posts you might find interesting. One that I think came out rather well was "Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet". I wrote that as part of the Examiner's BEST OF project and it was published yesterday. Links are below. I've marked the articles I published earlier on this blog as RERUNS so you can skip over those if you caught them the first time. All other posts are new.

Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet
Are Diabetics Suffering for No Reason? (rerun)
Don't Have a Heart Attack. Dark Chocolate is Good For You!
Carbohydrates Clog Your Brain (rerun)
A Day At The Farmer's Market
Vitamin K(ale)

Fellow low carber and columnists Jamie Van Eaton has a new "best of" post too...
Five Best Low Carb Breakfast Ideas
Happy Reading :D

Meet "Space Doc"

I stumbled on a very interesting website today. Created by Duane Graveline, MD, MPH, Former USAF Flight Surgeon, Former NASA Astronaut, and Retired Family Doctor, it documents his disastrous experience with statins along with his take on low carbohydrate diets.

"No more than 40-50% of our daily caloric intake should be from carbohydrates and it should be from the complex variety and for fats we must return to the natural fats that were the foundation of the American diet five decades ago.

We also should remember that our strongest antagonists in what I chose to call "back to basics" diet will be the food industry for there is relatively little profit in basic foods. I fondly remember the words of Doctor Paul Dudley White, cardiologist to the presidents back in the mid-fifties. When pressed to support the politically motivated "prudent" diet of fat and cholesterol restriction replied, "See here, I began my practice as a cardiologist in 1921 and never saw a myocardial infarction patient until 1928. Back in the MI-free days before 1920, the fats were butter, whole milk and lard, and I think we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had when no one had ever heard of corn oil."

Today most people have forgotten all about Dr. Dudley White and his prophetic words of advice. If Dudley White had been in control of our dietary destiny then, cardiovascular disease would probably not be the immense problem it is today."
http://www.spacedoc.net/heart_disease_carbohydrate.htm

When you get a chance stop by this interesting and informative website.

A Better Use for Sugar: Gasoline!

While not ready for prime time, new technology is in the works that can convert sugar to gasoline at an efficiency rate of 65%. It works by passing the sugars over nano-sized metal catalysts and requires very little energy input to run unlike current fermentation processes. Better yet, this method results in gasoline, NOT ethanol, which can be damaging to metals and rubbers used in car parts.

"An alloy of the precious metals platinum and rhenium triggers the first step of the conversion. Dumesic and his colleagues deposited 2-nanometer-wide specks of this alloy onto surfaces made of pure carbon. When a liquid mixture of water and plant sugar flows over the platinum-rhenium particles at the right temperature and pressure, the metal atoms act as catalysts to cleave chemical bonds in the sugar, releasing oxygen and leaving behind a mixture of molecules containing carbon and hydrogen — the principal elements in gasoline and diesel."
Full story

There is still a lot of work to do on this process and catalyst costs may be an issue, but hopefully this line of study will result in getting sugars out of American's diets and in to something much more useful that wont cause obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Cancer Support Event Fail

The Denver Zoo was host to the recent "Paint the Zoo Pink" event to support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. According to a 9 News article, "The Denver Zoo's hippos, Bert and Mahali, eagerly supported the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation Sunday afternoon. Their jobs during the event were very important: they had to open their mouths wide and eat two pink sponge cakes which were dropped in whole." (Full Story)

While fund raisers like this are very helpful in raising money and awareness about the cancer battle, there is a slight problem with this particular event detail. Sponge cake is made from refined flours and sugars, which are the two of the leading suspects in the rise in cancer rates over the last 20-30 years. Refined carbohydrates are behind all the diseases of civilization...heart disease, diabetes, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and yes, even cancer. Gary Taubes in "Good Calories Bad Calories" carefully outlines the available information on tribes of people in various corners of the world who were observed during a switch from their native diets to Western foods. Things went from cancer being so rare that in the few instances it did occur, it was seen as very remarkable and was closely studied by health care workers to having obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease being common, and even rampant in populations who didn't even previously have words for these diseases.

As long as the medical community seems to be steeped in denial about the cause of diseases of civilization (including cancer) I fail to see how throwing cake at innocent herbivores is supposed to help. The 9 News story provided this quote...
"Breast cancer survivor Hollen Ferrendelli said she hopes the hippos' afternoon dessert will push our legislators to make health care a top priority during the coming legislative session."

So who exactly do I have to throw pink-tinted baked goods at to get people to realize that the very food they may be eating is increasing their risk of getting cancer? I don't have any hippos handy, and I wouldn't want to harm my cats by having them eat garbage after all the time and effort I took getting them on their own version of the Atkin's diet. I guess I could throw Zingers at the squirrels, or better yet, some anti-low-carb doctors and a politician or two.

New Food Pyramid

BlueSojrn from the Active Low Carb forum has come up with a great new food pyramid for low carbers. View it on my Examiner post here.

It's perfect for Barry Groves "Natural Health and Weight Loss" fans since it lists FAT at the base. Unlike the USDA grain-based food pyramid, following this one wont make you SHAPED like a pyramid :D

Best of the Forums: Why There is Resistance to Low Carb

Those of us who have had success on a low carb diet are often confused when we see so much resistance to this way of life. It is hard not to be confused when so many of us lose weight, control our blood sugar, reverse heart disease and more. Forum poster Advantagec recently put his feelings about the situation on the Active Low Carb Forum.

"LC provides an effective way for most people to lose weight and maintain the loss with relatively little effort or discomfort. There is plenty of evidence that it works. There is plenty of evidence showing that flour, sugar and starches are detrimental to health.

So why is LC not the gold standard of weight loss? Why does the recommended "balanced diet" still include loads of carbohydrates?

Money.

Who profits financially when someone buys an Atkins or Protein Power book for 25 cents or a few bucks, signs up on a free message board and then embarks on a new way of eating? Nobody makes any significant amount of money from it.

On the other hand, look at the money involved in WW, Nutrisystem, weight loss clinics, and weight loss surgery. How about the lobbies for sugar and HFCS? All of that is big money. For those with financial interests aligned with these companies or industries, ineffective weight loss efforts are the gift that keep on giving. When WW helps a 25 year old lose those 30 pounds they have gained a customer for life.

The financial interests of a relatively small number of people stand in the way of the health interests of a huge number of people. It's a shame."

My comment to his post?

"The breakfast cereal industry alone is worth billions. I think they will do anything to keep people hooked on their tasty poison."

Quickies

After the scale not budging for months, I got on the scale this morning to discover I unexpectedly dropped 3 pounds. Woo hoo!
***
I had temporarily lost "custody" of my youngest cat Xena. Technically she is my oldest son's cat, and while he was going to college, moving, deciding not to go to college, etc... she stayed at our house. A few months back, he finally decided he was in a nice apartment and wanted his baby. That lasted a little while before he went out of town with friends and needed us to kitty sit. Now he has decided to join the army. Not only do we get to keep Xena, he just asked us if we can keep his OTHER cat, Zeus. Cookie will not be happy, though Xena will enjoy having seeing her buddy again.

Xena is now 13 pounds. Up a little since living with Calvin. While I told him she needed to be low carb to keep off the weight, I have no doubt she was eating pizza and french fries right along side him. Grrrr.
***
Speaking of Cookie, she turned 19 a couple of days ago. She is pretty darn spry for the cat equivalent of 88. Here is a cool age chart I used to come up with that number. CHART
***
We put our youngest son on low carb over the summer. He has adapted well to the "legal" food choices and lost 20 pounds. He will still eat chips, pizza, and drink sugary sodas if given the chance, but I just don't keep those items in the house. Fortunately, Sam's sells big tubs of pork rinds and hot salsa by the gallon...Max's new favorite treat.
***
My skinny vegetarian friend went to her doctor lately complaining about weight gain. Sure, she still looks plenty skinny to me, but I guess if you are normally very skinny, blimping up to just skinny would be annoying. Anyway, he doctor told her that at 40, weight creep was common (especially around the middle) and if she wanted to combat it, she needed to CUT HER CARBS. I guess I shouldn't have laughed, but she thought I was insane when I went on a low carb diet. Now her much respected doctor is telling her what I have been for the last year. I am just glad to know the good news is getting out the the GP's.
***
I have a couple of more posts up on the Examiner site. One is a recipe I posted on this blog last year for Chicken and Squash Stir Fry. The other is about common salad mistakes. Stop by and check them out. As always, your feedback is much appreciated.

I will be posting some old recipes as well as new content in the upcoming months both here and on the Examiner site. I will post links so they are easier to find.

Gary Taubes Strikes Again

Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories has made quite a splash in the dietary world since unleashing his research volume on diet and exercise. He vindicates Dr. Atkins by showing the science behind low carbohydrate diets and even points out that exercise doesn't make you skinny - just makes you hungry. His latest article appearing in Mother Earth News reiterates some of the dietary wisdom from his book. It turns out this is information our grandmothers knew all along...

"If you’ve been trying and failing time and time again to lose weight by dutifully eating less and exercising more, perhaps its time to try your grandmother’s diet instead. Stay away from the fattening carbohydrates, stop worrying about how much fat you eat and see what happens. Let your weight and your waist circumference tell you whether the diet you’re now eating is a healthy one."
Full Article

This is a great article and those who don't have the time to dive in to Good Calories Bad Calories might want to check it out.

Wifezilla becomes a columnist!

I am proud to announce that I will be joining fellow blogger, forum junkie and low carb writer Cleochatra as a columnist for the Examiner!

My first article is already up thanks to Cleo's patience. (link below)

As always, I look forward to your feedback.

Thanks!

Denver Low-Carb Examiner

First Column: Fair food is often foul.

Notable Quotable

As I struggle to figure out why so many medical professionals spout off dietary advice (eat less fat, cut calories, eat more soy, eat less meat) that does not help their patients, and in fact causes them further harm, it looks like novelists Leo Tolstoy understood all along...

”I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

A Crazy Exercise Update

I blogged earlier about my history with exercise and how I went 2 years working out 1 hour a day, six days a weeks and never lost a single ounce. Then I quit working out (but kept my 1 hour a week dance class) started low carbing and dropped 40 lbs. When I tell people this story, they often treat me like I am insane. "It's impossible!" they say, or "maybe you needed to cut back your calories" or " I bet your fat level was still too high". They can't understand how someone can work out, always feel hungry, cut their fat levels way down, cut calories, and not lose weight while feeling miserable the entire time. In their minds, maybe I was stupid, couldn't count, or outright lied about my works outs and food intake.

If that really were the case, then how would they explain the past two months? I started picking up the amount of work outs I do, gone back to walking once or twice a week, and added back in one of my water aerobics classes while still continuing my weekly dance class. The amount of weight lost in 60 days? Zero.

I track my food intake on fitday.com and it varies from 1700-2000 per day. There was no increase in overall calories, and no change in the macronutrient composition, just adding several extra hours a month of working out. The result was no change in my weight at all. Now, obviously I see reasons to exercise or I wouldn't waste my time with it. I do it for the socialization, for the increased flexibility, not to mention that release of nice brain chemicals you get from a good work out, but I certainly don't do it for the weight loss.

Good thing people like Barry Groves and Gary Taubes exist or my friends would have had me hauled off to the loony bin for insisting that exercise doesn't mean weight loss. I have sent several dozen people links to Gary's Scientist and the Stair Master article, though I doubt many read it. They just can't wrap their heads around the fact that exercise makes you hungry instead of skinny, or that you would have to climb 20 flights of stairs to burn off the calories in a single slice of bread. The few that have read it don't think I am crazy (or a liar) anymore. They just think I am some kind of genetic freak. Brain washing by the fitness industry is very effective apparently.

I guess I shouldn't mention to them how I jump started my weight loss again the other day. I accomplished it by doing something so far removed from what they believe causes weight loss that bringing it up may inspire my craftier friends to sew me my own designer straight jacket. I started drinking a low carb beer at night. Oh, and also eating lots of cream cheese. So a full 8oz of cream cheese with coconut cream, cocoa powder and some liquid splenda whipped with a hand mixer in the morning, some kind of meat and salad at lunch, maybe some coffee with coconut cream in the afternooon, a little grazing at dinner, and then just one low carb, icy-cold Michelob Ultra about 7pm. Three days later, I break a 5 month long weight loss stall* by dropping a full pound. No sweating or grunting required.

Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Don't tell anyone. Especially my friends. On second thought, a designer straight jacket might be a good idea. My husband can use from now until November to keep me from bashing the tv in with a baseball bat just so I don't have to listen to another political speech. Just tell them remember to allow some extra room for my wide shoulders and to stick to cool colors....it brings out the green in my eyes.

*Even though I haven't lost weight since Spring, I was still losing inches, so technically it wasn't a stall

Killer Carbs: Scientist Finds Key To Overeating As We Age

An interesting article from Science News gives clues as to why some people develop appetite problems...

"A Monash University scientist has discovered key appetite control cells in the human brain degenerate over time, causing increased hunger and potentially weight-gain as we grow older. The research by Dr Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with Monash University's Department of Physiology, has been published in Nature.

Dr Andrews found that appetite-suppressing cells are attacked by free radicals after eating and said the degeneration is more significant following meals rich in carbohydrates and sugars."
Full Article

Spaghetti Squash and Low Carb Lasagna

As much as I hate to admit, Fall is on the way. While Fall does mean colder temperatures, it also means an inexpensive abundance of squash at farmer's markets and in the grocery stores. Fortunately, squash can be great nutritional bargain. With a low cost, high vitamin content and low carb count, spaghetti squash, acorn squash and other varieties are frequently on my menu.

One of my favorite varieties is Spaghetti Squash. It gets its name from the tendency of the flesh to come apart in noodle-ish strings when cooked. It does make a pretty good spaghetti replacement and I use it for just that purpose. After you cut it in half and seed it, the squash can be baked, boiled or (if your microwave is big enough) steamed. Once the squash is cooked, you just take a fork and drag it across the flesh (long ways) and fluff it to get your "spaghetti" strands. (Instructions for preparing here)


At that point you can just use your spaghetti like you would for any regular spaghetti recipe. Top with pesto, a marinara sauce with meat balls, or even a tasty chicken alfredo. Another option is to use your spaghetti as a replacement for lasagne noodles. There is no law that says you HAVE to use a flat pressed noodle to make your lasagne, and I have (in my high-carb days) used spagetti noodles instead of lasagne noodles before. Making a switch to spaghetti squash works just fine.

To make your own Spaghetti Squash lasagna, you can use any favorite lasagna recipe and just swap the spaghetti squash for the noodles. Easy! The recipe below is based on the one mom used and it was always a family favorite.

Wifezilla's Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

1 1/2 lbs. Italian Style Turkey Sausage (or ground beef, or ground turkey or any combination of the three)
1 (26 oz.) Hunt's No Sugar Added Spaghetti Sauce (or other low carb sauce...meat flavored is often your best bet.)
4 cups Mozzarella cheese
1 (8 oz.) container of Ricotta (or cottage cheese - drained)
1 large spaghetti squash
1 cup chopped red onions
2 tsp dried basil (or 4 tsp fresh minced)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp dried oregano (or 2 tbsp minced fresh)
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups fresh grated Parmesan cheese (ok...use dry if you must!)
Olive Oil to grease pan
Optional: 2 cups sliced mushrooms

• Prepare spaghetti squash and flake in to "noodles". (Instructions here)

• While the squash is cooking brown the ground beef. Add the onions and garlic and cook until onions are clear. (You can also add the mushrooms at this point.) Pour off any excess fat.

• Add your spaghetti sauce and spices to the ground beef. Simmer for 15 minutes.

• Preheat oven 350 degrees.

• Spread a generous layer of olive oil on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

• Add a layer of spaghetti squash noodles.

• Next, cover with a layer of meat sauce.

• Add a layer of ricotta cheese

• Then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

• Repeat layers of noodles, sauce, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella. You should end up with 3 layers.

• Sprinkle the top layer with Parmesan cheese.

• Bake in oven 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.


TIME SAVER: Mom was smart...since making lasagna can take a bit, she would make several pans of lasagne at one time. Once they were assembled, she would par-cook 3 or 4 of them and then throw them in the freezer after wrapping them in tinfoil. For just a little extra work and about the same amount of mess, she several dinners done in one shot. So, don't be afraid to triple or quadruple this recipe.

One More Reason To Avoid Fruit Juice

Since becoming a low carb practitioner, I have avoided fruit juice. Sure it tastes good, and yeah, there are some vitamins in it, but let's be serious. It's basically just sugar water. A single cup of apple juice has 29 carbohydrates...over half of the total carbs I eat in a typical day. Once you remove the juice from the fruit, you turn it in to a blood glucose raising, rapidly digested liquid that heads straight for the liver where it is easily converted to body fat. As for the vitamins, if heat was used in processing the juice, most of those vitamins are destroyed anyway. It really gets me that parents give this stuff to kids because it is "healthier" than soda. I know my parents thought that. My mouth full of fillings hint at how "healthy" all that juice can be.

If you're a grown adult, and if you want to drink sugar water, go right ahead. Just don't give it to your children on a daily basis and don't kid yourself that juice is healthy. Besides, now we learn that juice isn't just a potential source of cavities and a contributor to obesity, it can seriously screw up your medications. The general population seems to understand that grapefruit juice can be a problem when taking blood pressure pills, but grapefruit juice isn't the only problem....

"...grapefruit, orange, and apple juices decrease the absorption of several important medications:

The allergy drug Allegra, available generically as fexofenadine
The antibiotics ciprofloxacin (Cipro, Proquin), levofloxacin (Levaquin), and itraconazole (Sporanox)
The beta-blocker blood pressure drugs atenolol (Tenormin), celiprolol, and talinolol
The transplant-rejection drug cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral)
The cancer chemotherapy etoposide (Toposar, Vepesid)"
Full Story

David G. Bailey, PhD, one of the people who originally discovered the connection between medication problems and grapefruit juice in the 90's goes on to say, "This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure we'll find more and more drugs that are affected this way".

While the substance in grapefruit and orange juice that interferes with medications has been identified, it still isn't known exactly what in apple juice is causing all the problems. Since apple juice is often used as a mixer for other fancier juice blends and cocktails, if you are a juice drinker, it can be pretty hard to avoid.


If you are taking medication, just skip the juice. All that sugar isn't good for you even if you aren't sick. Drink water and eat your fruit whole and fresh in limited quantities. Who knows, by doing just that you might not need the medication in the first place.

A Quick Breakfast

Breakfast can be a bit of a pain. First of all, you are TIRED in the mornings, you would rather be asleep anyway, and standard morning fare can get a bit boring. Seriously, how many ways can you cook eggs before you decide you need a change? My latest quickie breakfast is easy to whip up and it tastes more like a dessert than a breakfast, but with a low carb count, a good fat and protein ratios, and a nice shot of calcium, who can resist?

Almond Butter & Chocolate Yogurt

1 cup full fat Greek style or plain yogurt
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp natural, unsweetened almond butter or peanut butter
Da Vinci Simple Syrup to taste (or other sweetener of choice)

Stir everything together and enjoy! If you have time, throw the bowl in the freezer for a few minutes to make it even thicker. Yum!


Nutrition Breakdown

Made with Almond Butter and Greek Yogurt
Calories: 425
Fat: 33.9
Carbs: 19.7
Protein: 19.4

With Greek yogurt
Calories: 534
Fat: 40.4
Carbs: 18.9
Protein: 17.0

With plain whole milk yogurt
Calories: 384
Fat: 25.4
Carbs: 23.3
Protein: 10.5

If you use sweetener packets, you will need to add a few more carbs to the total. Whether or not this is a good option for you will depend on your particular low carb plan.

Carbs Clog Your Brain

Sure, my title is a little sensational, but according to Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, eating foods that spike your insulin levels can encourage the development of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is associated with the build up of toxic beta-amyloid proteins in the brain. If your brain is full of insulin from bread, rice, potatoes, sugar or other carby foods, the enzymes responsible for getting rid of those toxic proteins can't because they are too busy trying to get rid of the excess insulin. So, in a sense, your brain gets clogged.

Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, who lost his own father to Alzheimer's, believes that carbohydrates are about as healthy as cigarettes. "Binging on carbs is like smoking cigarettes each time we do it; it leaves a residual “amyloid” deposit on the brain like a cigarette leaves tar on the lungs."

Considering all the carbs I ate up until one year ago, the brain cells I killed during my misspent youth, and a family history of Alzheimer's, ingesting carbohydrates isn't something I can afford to do.

Dr. Fortanasce recommends a diet low in refined carbohydrates and sugars, but still advocates whole grains. Taking the doctor's analogy a bit further, refined carbs can be considered an unfiltered Camel cigarette and whole grains would be a filtered Virginia Slim. No thanks! At least he recommends lots of anti-inflammitory fish, nuts, berries and vegetables and states that you should eat proteins and fats first. His recommended anti-Alzheimer's diet might not have a low enough carb level for me, but you have to admit it is far superior to the standard American diet.

So next time you consider scarfing those cupcakes, drinking that sweet tea, or even eating whole wheat pasta with a side of multi-grain garlic bread, think about what it will do to your brain. Can you really afford the cost later in life? I already lose my purse and keys on a regular basis, forget birthdays or meetings, and leave my cell phone in the refrigerator (still not sure how I ended up doing that, but yeah, I really did do that). It may already be too late for me, but for goodness sake...save yourself!

Wifezilla vs. Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld

Doctor Isadore Rosenfeld is a frequent guest on Fox New Sunday. According to his Fox News bio, "With nine best-selling books to his credit (as well as a textbook for doctors), Dr. Rosenfeld is one of the leading and most effective proponents of the medical enlightenment of the American public. He is a contributing editor of Parade Magazine, with 82 million readers." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34772,00.html

I find him to be very likable, and I enjoy his news segments. Fortunately I have learned to take his recommendations with a grain of salt. Sunday morning, for example, he had an interesting segment on eggs. Once believe to be a contributor to heart disease, Dr. Rosenfeld pointed out a study that showed eating eggs did not raise cholesterol and can actually contribute to weight loss. No big surprise to us low carb fans, but it was sure nice to hear that reported in the main stream. However, a few seconds later he uttered this little sentence..."Saturated fat raises cholesterol levels."

This is a widely held belief, and it is something that is a cherished view of vegetarian activists.

"Saturated fat raises the level of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol is present in animal foods but not plant foods. It is essential for metabolism but is not needed in the diet as our bodies can produce all that is needed. Raised blood cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of heart disease."
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/fats.html

"Well-planned vegetarian diets provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh, eggs, and dairy products." http://www.goveg.com/healthconcerns.asp

The whole animal fats bad/plant oils good idea ignores the reality that not only are animal fats NOT bad for you, not all animal fats are even saturated. "The reality is that both animal and vegetable fats and oils are composed of many different kinds of fats, each with it's own chain length and degree of saturation, and each with a different effect on cholesterol. Half the fat in beef, for instance, is unsaturated, and most of that fat in the same monounsaturated fat as in olive oil. Lard is 60% unsaturated; most of the fat in chicken is unsaturated as well." - Gary Taubes, "Good Calories, Bad Calories"

But before you drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what percentage of each animal product is unsaturated, you should realize, that despite spending millions trying to prove that animal fats, saturated or otherwise, as well as plant based saturated fats like coconut and palm oils are bad for you, the evidence just doesn't pan out.

"The longest, most prestigious and widely quoted long-term study on CHD (coronary heart disease), the Framingham study, clearly shows that those who eat the most saturated fat have the lowest cholesterol levels."
http://www.thincs.org/Malcolm.choltheory.htm

"Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease, or any other chronic disease of civilization." - Gary Taubes, "Good Calories, Bad Calories"

So, despite popular wisdom and the words of kindly but misguided Dr. Rosenfeld, saturated fats, though they may or may not raise cholesterol, aren't even bad for you. At worst, they are neutral. At best, they may even be protective.

"We have all been brainwashed into believing that eating foods with any type of fat is a heart attack on a plate, despite the fact that saturated and mono-unsaturated fats have never been shown to cause heart disease, but have been shown to protect against this and many other serious diseases...

Before the twentieth century, most of the fatty acids in the diet were either saturated or monounsaturated, primarily from animal fats such as butter, lard and beef and mutton dripping. In those days, fewer than one in twenty-seven people got cancer and heart disease was so rare that very few doctors had even heard of it, let alone seen a case. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, most of the fats in the diet are polyunsaturated from vegetable oils, and cancer now affects one person in two and heart disease is a major killer." - Barry Groves, "Eat Fat Get Thin"

Dr. Rosenfeld is a great example of why people need to do their own research. Despite what we are often told in the media, the evidence is out there that saturated fats aren't bad for us, cholesterol isn't the cause of heart disease, and people who do intentionally lower their cholesterol don't necessarily live longer. The culprit in the whole heart disease issue is, instead of saturated fat, carbohydrates. I will leave it up to you to dig up the carbohydrate information on your own. Getting a copy of "Good Calories, Bad Calories" will give you a good start.

The funniest thing about the Doctor Rosenfeld segment wasn't his obviously wrong interpretation of what constitutes a bad fat, but what happened later in the segment. Someone had written in about cocoa butter and wondered if she should stop eating it for health reasons. Doctor Rosenfeld said there was no reason to stop since cocoa butter was really good for you and he spent quite a bit of time singing its praises. While I agree that cocoa butter is good for you, obviously Doctor R. didn't realize that cocoa butter is comprised primarily of...you guessed it...saturated fat. Yet, saturated fat is the very thing he warned against just minutes earlier.

This story is a good illustration of why your shouldn't let a kindly face and an authoritative voice on TV, or even a blogger like myself, sway you too much when it comes to something as important as your health. Take everything you hear or see with a large grain of salt and do your own investigation.

A picture is worth 1000 words...

It is all fine and good to talk about low carb, but I realized I hadn't posted pictures to SHOW what low carb has done for me. While I still have a ways to go, I think the progress is pretty visible. Hopefully you will find this inspirational.

44lb Cat Goes Low Carb

When a 44lb cat ended up in a Camden, NJ shelter two weeks ago, he made headlines because of his enormous size. Nicknamed "Prince Chunk", he is making news again after getting a new home and clean bill of health. Other than his obesity, he is a perfectly healthy cat. According to news reports, he is now being placed on a high protein/low carb diet to get off those excess pounds.

"Chunk has been put on a weight loss and exercise program by his vet. The animal doctor also prescribed a high-protein, low carbohydrate diet."
Full Story

Knowing how well low carb has worked for me as well as my cats, I am betting Prince Chunk will have to get himself a new name in no time flat.

Diet Fail

The general public really doesn't seem to get the destruction that refined carbs and sugars can do to people, particularly to people with diabetes. Restaurants don't either. Of course, that doesn't stop them from trying marketing to this segment of the population....sometimes with hilarious results. Take this sign appearing in a recent FailBlog.org post for example...

Soon everyone will be fat

A government-funded study is reporting that in 40 years all U.S. adults could be overweight. It's not that hard to believe either considering 2/3rds of the population is already considered obese.

From Reuter's... "some groups of U.S. adults have extremely high rates of overweight and obesity; among African- American women, for instance, 78 percent are currently overweight or obese.

The new projections, published in the journal Obesity, are based on government survey data collected between the 1970s and 2004.

If the trends of those years continue, the researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight."
Full Story

While the story does admit that this prediction is based on the big assumption that the trend will continue, as long as health officials recommend eating plenty of carbohydrates and reducing saturated fat intake, I see no reason to believe it wont.

The only thing that will reverse American fattening is an admission that the official diet advice handed out over the last 30 years has been complete crap. Since those giving advice have multi-million dollar revenue streams dependent on people eating lots of carbs and contracting long-term health issues requiring loads of prescription medicines, I wont be holding my breath waiting for the retraction.

The Mainstream Gets a Clue

It has taken them over 30 years, but the mainstream is reporting good news about low carb diets. Better late then never I guess.

"Critics have long acknowledged that an Atkins-style diet could help people lose weight but feared that over the long term, it may drive up cholesterol because it allows more fat.

But the low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. For example, someone with total cholesterol of 200 and an HDL of 50 would have a ratio of 4 to 1. The optimum ratio is 3.5 to 1, according to the American Heart Association. "

Full Story

Cooking with Banana Leaves

We recently had a Mexican grocery store and an Asian market open in the area. My visits have exposed me to a variety of interesting foods and new ingredients. I make an effort to try something different every time I go. Since both of these new stores carry banana leaves, that got me curious. What do you do with banana leaves? After all, they are inedible. Turns out you use them as an organic form of tinfoil. Instead of wrapping food for the grill in silvery packets, you wrap them in the banana leaves which allows the food inside to gently steam while giving it subtle flavor and aroma.

My first experiment with banana leaves involved several pieces of marinated swordfish. The swordfish was covered in lime juice, ginger, garlic, pepper and soy sauce and left to marinade overnight. The next day it was gorgeous outside and perfect for grilling. I preheated my gas grill and pulled some banana leaves out of the freezer to thaw. I place a marinated swordfish steak in the center of a banana leaf round smeared with a thin layer of coconut oil. I then folded up the edges and tied it in to a neat little package with some kitchen string.

These fish pockets went on the grill along with a couple packages of chicken I needed to cook. Fish cooks pretty quickly, so they went on the top rack. I wasn't really sure exactly how long to leave them on, but with the gas on low, I thought 15 minutes would work fine.

Turns out I was right. The fish came out perfectly. While it was steaming on the grill, I took the remaining marinade, added some butter, hot pepper, and some pieces of finely chopped fresh cherries and use it to cook up a batch of beech mushrooms that I also got at the Asian market. I poured the sauced mushrooms over the fish, leaving it all on the banana leaf which now served as a plate liner.

It was delicious. I ate my swordfish sitting on the back patio in the sun. The food was good and the setting relaxing, though I did lack a drink with an umbrella in it. I will be using banana leaves again when my book club comes over in a couple of weeks. Instead of swordfish, my next experiment will be with mahi mahi. I think it would also work quite well with vegetables, so I will have to come up with some side dishes to try as well.

Banana leaves are inexpensive and handy...no need to worry about fish getting stuck to your grill grates. Plus it gives your food a nice decorative touch. While I mainly go for ease and flavor, there is no reason it can't look interesting as well. And next time I wont forget the umbrella drink.

Vitamin D and Leptin

Here is an interesting article brought to my attention by Demi at www.lowcarb.ca. Scientist have known for a while that vitamin D levels in obese people and type 2 diabetics are low. Here is a clue or two as to WHY...

"Researchers at Aberdeen University found that obese people produced 10 per cent less vitamin D than people of average weight. The study also found that excess body fat absorbs vitamin D, stopping it entering the bloodstream."

Here is also some insight in to why a lack of vitamin D can help lead to obesity...

"The study found that low levels of the vitamin in blood interfered with the function of a hormone called leptin, which tells the brain when the stomach is full."
Full Story

Remember, the Sun is your friend!

As I have done my own experimenting with vitamin D over the Summer, I have noticed improvements in my skin and mood when I get my daily dose of sunshine. While my weight hasn't changed, my body composition is still changing and I am still losing inches. I have not really noticed a difference in appetite , but I really wasn't paying attention and it fluctuates wildly anyway. These clues about the interaction of vitamin D and leptin are very interesting.

According to metabolic specialist, Dr. Ron Rosedale, author of The Rosedale Diet :

"Leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it. Studies have shown that leptin plays significant, if not primary, roles in heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, and perhaps the rate of aging itself."

By following standard medical advice to eat plenty of carb and stay out of the sun, we set ourselves up for a lot of diseases, like heart diases, diabetes, obesity and more. Good thing I choose to ignore people who seem hell bent on keeping me fat and sick. As more information comes out about the role of vitamin D in health and obesity, I will be sure to post it. In the mean time, I will be out in the sun, without sun screen, reading a good book. It's for my health ya know!

Price Watch: The Meat Market

As prices for food have risen over the Spring and early Summer, one price is on the decline. The cost of meat has taken a downturn and sales on hamburger, chicken, and pork are showing up at the super market. The good news is there is still time to stock up because the BAD news is these good deals wont be around for long.

There is actually a logical reason for the price downturn on meat and it has to do with the price of feed. As prices on corn, soy and other feed grains skyrockets, it becomes too costly for farmers to feed their cattle. Rather than waiting for them to get larger like they typically do, farmers cut their loses by taking them to market. This results in a temporary flood of cheap meat.

From NewsandTribune.com

“There’s definitely liquidation of livestock happening,” and that will cause meat prices to rise later this year and into 2009, said Brenneman, who is also the vice chairman of the American Meat Institute." Full Story


According to Joelle Cremeen, manager of a Colorado Springs, CO bakery surplus store frequented by area ranchers, they are dumping their cattle as quickly as possible.

"All of them are telling me the same thing. They had to get rid of their cattle NOW and the prices they are getting just aren't very good. " said Joelle, "They also all told me to stock up while the meat is cheap because low prices are not going to last. I am going to start pricing chest freezers."

I already have my freezer and have been filling it with 99¢/lb ground beef and 99¢/lb chicken breast. As I see sales on chicken, pork and beef, I will buy as much as the weekly grocery budget allows so I can ride through the prices increases to come. I suggest you do the same.

Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July everyone. Hopefully you are all out eating some great low carb grilling. For today, instead of a low carb tirade or a recipe, I am including a guest post from one of my favorite bloggers, Captain Capitalist. Enjoy and have a safe holiday. - Wifezilla



"Tis the season to reflect on what it means to be an American. What is it we’re so proud of? What makes this country unique in the world?

Is it our “shared values”? That hardly seems possible since we so often and so vehemently disagree on so many of them. Is it capitalism, democracy? No, those are great things, but not unique to America.

So what can we point to and say “That’s what being an American is all about.” I would submit that America’s greatest asset is not its capacity to induce conformity to a common way of thinking, but its capacity to enable hundreds of millions of individuals with a wide variety of opinions, viewpoints, perspectives and values to live, work and play together in relative peace. Our uniquely American common value is the recognition that so long as we agree to a few fundamentals rules of engagement among individuals, we don’t need to all have the same values.

When I see political opponents going at it tooth and nail one minute and making fun of themselves and each other the next, that’s America. When I look around the grocery store and see whites, blacks, hispanics, asians, and arabs browsing and greeting each other and nobody’s throwing rocks or blowing anything up, that’s America. When I’m at a social gathering and an openly gay person is debating a fundamentalist Christian about gay rights and they agree to disagree just before moving on to discussion of the Bronco’s prospects for next year, that’s America.

In other countries around the world discontent and dissent are expressed with violence and a seeming urgency that if one group’s view doesn’t win out over the other group’s view, life as we know it will come to an end. The emphasis is on the group, whether it be a political party, a religion an ethnicity or some other entitity that has been raised above the individual.

What has made the American experiment a success is the recognition that the core of independence, the foundation of freedom, is the individual. That doesn’t mean we all agree with each other. It doesn’t mean we all accept the validity of other’s choices. In fact the word “tolerance” has become widely misused and misunderstood. If you agree with or accept something, you’re not tolerating it. When you disagree with something or someone, but allow them to be as wrong as they want to be so long as they do you no harm, that’s tolerance.

It’s an odd dynamic. We are a diverse group held together by the will to preserve our individuality. That’s what makes us strong. That’s America. That’s what our men and women in uniform put themselves in harm’s way to protect and preserve every day.

I hope we never lose sight of that. Happy Independence Day!" - Captain Capitalist

Free Zevia Sample

More than one of my blog posts contains the phrase "check it out yourself". When it comes to products I review and recommend, I say the same thing. No reason to just take my word for it. After all, I am just some ADD infested weirdo on a website with an advanced case of sarcasmitis. What do I know anyway?

After my recent review of Zevia soda, I ran in to one of the founders of the Zevia company on an online forum. He has generously offered a free sample for readers of my blog so they can check it out themselves and not have to rely on the ravings of a 6' tall red-headed reptile. Here is his message and instructions on how to get your sample...

"Hi,

I am Ian one of the founders of Zevia.

We want you to KICK THE DIET SODA HABIT!

I did and I feel great! Zevia is all natural and has no artificial ANYTHING!

For a limited time I will give out free samples od Zevia to readers of Wifezilla's blog.

If you like it just promise to print out our GET YOUR ZEVIA form (available at http://www.zevia.com/retailer_request.html )and take it to your local retailer.

You can email me at ian at zevia dot com."

Thank Ian for making this offer. I am sure my highly-intelligent, good-looking, and discriminating readers will be glad to try your product and get back to you with their well thought out opinions.

REVIEW: Zevia Diet Soda

Artificial sweeteners seem to be both a blessing and a curse. As it helps some people break their sugar addiction, others report using things like Equal and Splenda cause headaches, nausea, joint pain, monsterism and the condition known as 'hotdog fingers'.

Alternatives to mad scientist inspired sweetener products are sought after by low carbers, diabetics, and parents who don't want to pay a plastic surgeon to remove their child's chemically induced 3rd ear or finance a dentist's vacation home. They all want to avoid the evils of sugar and high fructose corn syrup without accidentally turning themselves into a newt. One natural sweetening option is Stevia.

Stevia is an herb known as "sweet leaf", and, while it is sweet, it also can be bitter and has a bit of a licorice aftertaste. Stevia products I have tried in the past have been hit or miss. One of the most vile being a Kool-aid type powder (who's name escapes me at the moment) that tasted like a combination of ground anise seed, pixie stix and shredded bicycle tire.

With that previous experience, I was a bit nervous about trying the can of "Zevia - Sweetened with Stevia" I saw on my last trip to Vitamin Cottage. However, I did promise my son a soda if he would quietly stay in the car dismantling my dashboard instead of coming in to the store with me and dismantling all of the store displays. Plus a single can was only 85¢. Well worth the 2 minutes of peace and quite it would buy me as a rummaged for Greek yogurt in the dairy section.

They had the orange and twist flavor cold and I picked the orange. Once I got back to the car and redid the headlight wiring, I popped open the can and cautiously took a sip. It reminded me a bit of a flavored seltzer more than, say, a diet Orange Crush, but it was good.

My son Max, who is a bit picky when it comes to soda, also didn't seem to mind it. He didn't inhale it like he would a can of Diet Pepsi, but he did finish the can and didn't tell me it was yucky, so I guess we can count him as approving too.

I want to give the other flavors a try, and based on the orange, I can say they are definitely worth a shot. The flavor was crisp and clean with a nice amount of sweetness and no bicycle tire after taste. The Orange was closer to a tangerine flavor than what you would expect from an orange flavored drink, but that isn't a bad thing. It was rather nice actually.

I give Zevia a thumbs up. I think it is a good alternative for those who want to avoid chemical sweeteners, but are bored to tears by just plain water. Stop by their website to see if they carry it near you, or check out their online order option.

Zevia

Gettin' Squirrely

I noticed today I was getting really squirrely lately. No, I'm not losing mental stability (you have to have some in order to lose it), but I am beginning to hide stores of supplies in odd little places like a squirrel stashing acorns.

In my purse, I have several packets of splenda and some sugar free gum. In my desk drawer at work I have more splenda, a dropper of liquid stevia, a packet of almonds, some unsweetened cocoa and a small jar of coconut butter. In the mini-fridge, I have a batch of almond bark, some leftover grilled chicken, a container of greek yogurt, a small assortment of condiment packets and a container of cream. I also have in the cabinet by the coffee maker, a jar of coconut milk, a large container of Da VInci Sugar-Free carmel syrup, an assortment of artificial sweetener packets and a can of tuna.

In my black catch-all bag, I also keep a small zip-lock full of splenda packets, a pack of Walnuts, and some pumpkin seeds. Like a squirrel, I like to be prepared for an eventual shortage. Instead of preparing for winter, I am just preparing for those occasions when low carb eats are not readily available. The world remains, for the most part, low carb hostile, and not being ready can lead to serious temptation.

The other day, I was supposed to be in the office for an hour while my husband went on a sales call. His meeting ended up running long, and other clients called and he had to go visit them at their offices. As can happen, my 1 hour turned in to more like 6, and rather than starve or sneak accross the street to 7/11 and fall face first in to a bag of Doritos, I was able to ride out the day enjoying some fabulous low carb treats.

First, I mixed the unsweetened cocoa in to the Greek Yogurt, added a few Splenda packets and had some rich, creamy chocolatety goodness. A few almonds on top were just an added bonus. A hour or so later, I made myself some coffee and added the heavy cream and the sugar-free carmel syrup. How can you not love low carb when the coffee with cream is so filling it can almost count as a meal? Seriously! As it came time to lock up, I had a few more things to finish before I could head out the door, and I also knew that waiting till I got home to eat would be a mistake. If I got too hungry when I got to the kitchen, it would be way too easy to go over board and stuff my face. So I heated up a bit of the chicken I had in the fridge and munched on that while wrapping up my projects.

I didn't cheat, I didn't binge, and I didn't feel deprived for a single second-all because I was following the example of some rather fuzzy and clever little rodents. Sure, I still hate squirrels. After all, these are the creatures that cause hundreds of dollars worth of damage to my garden each year by destroying bedding plants, eating my veggies and tearing up my lawn furniture cusions. Despite their destructive nature, they did teach me to be prepared...which is why I now keep a loaded pellet gun near the patio door. I'm just paying back the squirrels by teaching THEM something this time.

Supermarket Cart Snooping

I admit it. I am a cart snooper. I take sneaky glances at other people's shopping selections as I pass them in the isles. Sometimes it is to remind myself of the stuff I used to buy and how unhealthy it made me (cereals, whole grain bread, low fat products...eww!). Sometimes I look for clues as to why someone's kids are bouncing off the walls and acting like little jerks (Oh goody! Mountain Dew, Little Debbie's Snack Cake and Macaroni and Cheese! I hope they put money aside for Ritalin and fat camp!). Other times I look to see what a thin person is eating and how can they possibly look that good trudging through a Walmart at 11pm (Maybe there are secret clues to thinness, longevity, and full pouty lips? Fat-free yogurt, tofu burgers and Zima? Never mind...I'll stay chubby and poutless.)

I also get a good laugh playing "Spot the Bachelor". A married man shopping alone will buy milk, bread, cheese, vegetables, and even, if he thinks nobody is looking, feminine hygiene products for his wife and/or daughter. A bachelor heads right for the frozen food section, grabs anything with the name "Hungry Man" on it, adds a 12 pack of soda and bolts out the door as fast as he can. Maybe I need a new hobby, but for me, this qualifies as entertainment.

As much as I snoop at other people's carts, I am actually shocked if I notice someone else giving my cart the eye. Sometimes "the eye" comes with "the smirk", as in "No wonder you are fat lady! You have MEAT, CREAM and CHEESE in your cart!" Yeah, whatever bitch. I used to weight 280lbs. Now I weight 210. Bite my shrinking ass. I have also noticed a few looks of longing lately, usually from some poor man who, I assume, has been placed on a low-fat diet by his vegenazi wife. The accompanying whimpering and drooling are heartbreaking to say the least. One thing I never noticed before was a look of admiration...until the other day.

I went to my local Safeway to take advantage of a weekly sale on London Broil. At $1.98/lb, it was a great deal. I often braise this cut in a small amount of white wine or beer, add California blend vegetables, and then mix sour cream right before serving. ...delicious! So when it goes on sale, I stock up. I also had a rain check for cheap chicken since they ran out the last time I was there plus I always troll for other discounted items and manager's specials. What I ended up with is over 15 pounds of London Broil, 4 family packages of chicken thighs, 2 big bags of chicken wings, 2 1lb packages of beef liver, 5 Cervelat Summer sausages ($2.98 each manager's special....usually $5.98) and 3 huge packs of 99 cents/lb beef ribs that looked like the brontosaurus ribs right out of the Flinststones cartoon. Then I headed to the dairy section and added 2 quarts of heavy whipping cream, a large brick of pepperjack cheese, and a large tub of sour cream.

As I walked out of the dairy section, I passed a young man who, not so inconspicuously, glanced in my cart, then looked at me, smiled, then gave me the ultimate sign of male approval...the upward chin snap. You know... that slight upward tilt of the chin one guy gives to another guy. It is usually reserved for acknowledgment of important things like cool motorcycles, impressive tool collections, or riding lawn mowers with flame graphics on the side. Yet here I was, a girl, getting this high mark of honor and recognition. All I could do was grin as I walked toward the check out. I honestly think that if I asked him to marry me at the moment, he would have cheerfully followed me home.

This got me thinking. I have a friend who is smart, cute, has a good job, her own home and a fun personality, yet she can't seem to find a descent boyfriend. Maybe it is because she is a vegetarian. If a handsome single man saw her walking through the store with a cart full of Boca Burgers and Tofu, he would run in the other direction lest he end up like some of his starving, whimpering brethren. I tried to tell her about my experience the other night and suggested she try slipping a few packages of chicken or steak in her cart for show if she sees a cute guy at the Safeway, but she just gave me a nasty look. I guess telling someone they should do the dating equivalent of tying a pork chop around their neck to get someone to pay attention to them wasn't a good idea. If I keep this up, I might not have any girlfriends left. At least I know I can load up a cart full of meat and make new guy friends. Good thing I don't mind talking about lawn mowers.

Weight of the Evidence: Battling Dogma

One of my favorite health and low carb blogs is "Weight of the Evidence" by Regina Wilshire. Her recent blog post about a study on the Masai people of Africa points out how entrenched dietary dogma prevents officials from seeing the incredibly obvious.

The Masai have very little heart disease or diabetes despite a diet high in animal fat. Researchers concluded that is because they get a lot of exercise. Of course, once you understand that the energy TO exercise comes from a good, nutritious diet with high fatty acid content and plenty of protein, it is easy to understand that a low carbohydrate diet is what is helping the Masai have all that energy in the first place. So, it isn't the exercise that makes them healthy and energetic , but their natural high fat diet. Of course, the mainstream will never report it this way...so it is a good thing we have Regina around!

"I would contend that while it's ideal to be active, that is not the driving force in 'health' or lack thereof - it's dietary habits that dominate our health outcomes, our level of activity may be important too, but activity in and of itself is no solution to a piss-poor diet.

We need, before activity, a proper diet to enable us to perform phyisical activity, not the other way around! So while the researchers here could not bring themselves to even consider that the habitual diet of the Masai - high-fat and low-carbohydrate - was the driving force in their good health and enabled high levels of activity, I'll say it!"
Weight of the Evidence

The original study (and stupid conclusion) here

Nutrisystem Revisited

Back in April, I blogged about Nutrisystem and their latest spokesmodel, Jillian Barberie. She was touting a 41 lb weight loss in a series of TV ads and I made the observation that her clothing in the before photo appeared to be maternity wear. From the information I could gather at the time, Jillian had lost weight after giving birth even though she was crediting the Nutrisystem program. (See initial post here)

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, we now have a photo of the before and after featured in the Nutrisystem ads. It clearly shows a maternity dress and it even appears to show her baby bump. Thanks to me having a short attention span, we also now have a post about the same commercial on a consumer affairs website confirming that she is wearing maternity clothing.

"Debbie of Perris CA (05/05/08)
I think the public needs to know that the Nutrisystem commercials are very deceptive. Their latest ad with Jillian Barbari is a great example. I watch her on a local morning TV show a few days a week. The before picture they show of her in the commercial was taken when she was pregnant! I even saw her in the same dress on the morning show -- and she was pregnant at the time! Of course, she lost a lot of weight after her baby was born! This is very deceptive and misleading."
ConsumerAffairs.com

Along with this comment are several posts about the bad taste and smell of the Nutrisystem meals, the gas caused by the "food", the expense of the program as well as how much of your own fresh produce and dairy you have to buy along WITH the program food, and a litany of people having a hard time getting a refund despite Nutrisystem's advertised 30 day refund policy. Check it out yourself.

I was already pretty outraged by lying celebrity tools like Jillian Barberie as well as, apparently, Marie Osmond, who once credited her weight loss to training for Dancing With The Stars, but now says it was Nutrisystem (no doubt after being presented with a large check with her name on it). Now I am even more outraged after reading so many examples of refund, billing and shipping shenanigans. I can say with total conviction that Nutrisystem is a complete rip off. It looks like it is time to take some action. Reporting them to the FTC? Calling networks to complain?? Getting consumer advocates on board? I will be formulating a plan of action and will let you all know what steps you can take if you are interested.

Butternomics: The Economics of Making Your Own Butter

A while back on one of the heath forums I frequent, someone asked what they could do with excess whipping cream. They had bought too much and did not want it to go to waste. It only took seconds for that poster to flush out all the Midwesterners, who cheerfully posted, MAKE BUTTER!

Apparently, in 1st or 2nd grade, every kid living within smelling distance of a dairy farm does "the butter project". Each kid gets a small baby food jar with a splash of cream in it and the teacher has the kids shake the jars (most likely in a futile attempt to burn off excess 6 year old energy) until each jar is filled with butter and a little bit of buttermilk. Then the butter was spread on crackers, which, of course, are loaded with carbs, and would counteract any tiredness incurred from the butter making activity (stupid teachers). I guess the forum poster was an under-privileged city kid who had to learn important survival skills like how to flag down a taxi in the rain or how to secure a rent-controlled apartment and missed out on the Dairy Studies portion of her education.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how easy it was to make butter, and I wondered if it made sense for me to start making my own. I have done it on occasion when I ran out in the middle of a recipes and really did not feel like trudging to Walmart in my jammie bottoms, tie dyed t-shirt and flip flops (standard chef's uniform at the 'Zilla household). Sure I saved myself the embarrassment of running in to an important client or friendly city official who might not be impressed with my "Family Guy" Brian Print wear, but did it economically make SENSE for me to do it.

I decided to find out.

1 half gallon of regular (not heavy) whipping cream weighs about 2 1/2 lbs. I weighed out 1 lb of the whipping cream and put it in my food processor. After about 3 minutes, I managed to turn that cream in to butter and buttermilk. I took out the butter and then weighed that on the scale. My 1 lb of cream was now 10oz of fluffy butter once the liquid was poured off. So if I were to whip up the entire half gallon, I would have 25oz of butter from my $5.86 container of cream. Since most butter is sold by the pound, doing a little math, my butter weighed 1.5625 lbs. making it $3.75/lb. Not exactly a bargain with retail butter prices being somewhere around $3.25/lb (even cheaper on sale, or at Costco). Making my own butter actually cost me more than getting it at the store.

At first glance that might make you decide not to try and make your own, but if you consider time and gas going to the store JUST for butter, I call it a wash. If you actually use the buttermilk it can even become good bargain, plus you should definitely make your own butter rather than let cream go to waste. The final decision on weather or not to make your own butter on a regular basis is going to be an individual thing. If you live far away from a store, no access to a Sam's Club or Costco, or have access to cheap fresh cream, making it yourself is a great idea. It can also be a good idea if you want more control over what goes in your butter and want it to be as fresh as possible. After all, who knows HOW long that stuff at the Super Center sat on the shelf? Just carefully weigh all the factors (including weather or not you have access to a hyperactive grade schooler and some baby food jars, which takes access to electricity out of the equation) and go from there.

RECIPE: Mozzarella Salad

Summer is salad season....at least for me. Fresh vegetables are less expensive in Summer and, since they are truely in season, they taste much better this time of year. I actually start to crave salads, and when the temperature hit 80º here in Colorado yesterday, it felt like Summer and I found myself thinking a salad would be perfect for lunch. One of my favorites is a Mozzarella Salad. Not only does it taste good, it can be made in minutes and easily be adjusted to use whatever different ingredients you have on hand.


Wifezilla's Mozzarella Salad

Ingredients
1 Large Diced Cucumber
Cubed Mozzarella Cheese
Grape Tomatoes
Italian Seasoning
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic or Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Splenda to taste

You may have noticed the lack of measurements on all the items except the cucumber. That's because I never measure. I very seldom have the same amount of any of these ingredients available from one day to the next. Hubby is a tomato thief and my youngest son thinks the olive oil is his very own personal property. Plus my oldest stops by to help his father with projects and raids the refrigerator for cheesy goodness. Basically the only ingredient I can really count on having is the cucumber. So here is what I do....

Directions
Dice the cucumber and place in a large salad bowl. Rummage through the refrigerator and see if you can find any fresh tomato. I know you just bought a 5 lb container at Costco yesterday, but it has been 24 hours and your husband has been home. If so, great, if not, try using bits of the sun dried tomatoes you have hidden in a bag behind the box of baking soda.

Next, see if you have any cheese left. Are there signs your oldest son, who has his OWN APARTMENT and his OWN REFRIGERATOR last time you checked stopped by? Is the front door wide open? All your soda gone and the empty cans on the coffee table? Nevermind... just plan on buying cheese on your way home from work. While mozzarella works best, Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack are also good substitutes.

Then drizzle with olive oil IF your youngest hasn't take all the olive oil and used it to fry something. You will have no idea WHAT he fried, but look and see if there is a pot full of dirty oil and various pieces of goop stuck to the outside of the pot. If you see that, then look for the almond oil or sesame oil you hid behind the cookbooks because the olive oil is gone.

Next add the vinegar. If you are worried about the carbs in the balsamic vinegar, use red wine vinegar instead...you just may need a touch more Splenda if you go with the red wine. Then add the Italian seasoning. If you can get fresh herbs, those work great too. Mix well. Add salt, pepper and a little bit from one Splenda packet and mix again. Give it a taste. Add any extra spices as you feel you need. I sometimes add minced garlic or chives right from the garden. You can also add things like leftover grilled chicken, sunflower seeds, unsweetened dried cherries, or whatever tiny bits of food you find stuck on mostly empty tinfoil covered plates the ravaging horde left for you.

This salad is best eaten fresh. This in not one you want to make ahead of time. If it is destined for your lunch bag, keep the oil, vinegar and spices separate and mix with the cucumber and other items right before eating.

Summer is a time for fun, so have fun with this. See what local fresh produce you have available, what morsels of food you can hide from the family, and be creative.

Quote of the Week: Mike Huckabee

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee used to be fat. Not only was he fat, he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. By using an expensive University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences liquid diet program he was able to get the weight off and avoid having to take diabetes drugs. He is keeping that weight off by avoiding processed foods, eating lean meats and lots of fruits and vegetables. 

While I think a $500 liquid diet plan that also required $60 a week just for supplements is unnecessary with a low carb diet, and I take issue with his focus on only lean meats, there is something I agree with him on 100%. Processed foods are bad news.

His profound statement on a recent installment of  the Fox & Friends Morning Show is what makes him our source for the quote of the week....

"If it wasn't food 100 years ago, it probably isn't food today."

Think about that next time someone offers you a Twinkie. 

USA Today Article

Review: Trader Joe's

While on a weekend get-a-way with friends, I had the opportunity to visit the Santa Fe, NM Trader Joe's. Similar to Vitamin Cottage or a mini Whole Foods, Trader Joe's offers a variety of healthy foods at much lower prices than even a Super Walmart. Since I went on a Saturday night, the place was packed. Even with the large crowd, the staff was very helpful and pleasant. The isles were a bit crowded with stockers trying to keep up with the demand, but they were helpful and courteous as well.

Here is short list of some of the great buys we found...
Ground Almond Meal - $3.69/lb
White Balsamic Vinegar (17oz) - $1.99
Sumatran Coffee (small can) - Less than $5? (A friend bought this so I didn't see the actual price. The taste was AWESOME!)
Coconut Milk - $1.04 (same sized can is now $1.12 at Super Walmart)
Vitamin C Lotion (16oz) - $2.50 (high end lotions with similar ingredients are closer to $20 for a much smaller container)

One of the best bargains at Trader Joe's is their wine. The Charles Shaw brand wine is affectionately known as "Three Buck Chuck" since they sell at only $2.99 a bottle. Despite its low price, this is AWARD WINNING wine! I picked up a bottle of White Zin and one of my girlfriends picked up an assorted case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine

While there is no Trader Joe's in Colorado, and due to our insanely stupid liquor laws, there may never be one, a yearly trip to Trader Joe's may be something I have to schedule. Even with the high gas prices, the money I saved on the 6 bags of almond meal I bought pays for the trip since it retails for over $14/lb at my local King Soopers...IF you can find it. Besides, the drive from Colorado to New Mexico is beautiful. Having cheap, drinkable wine and affordable heath food at the end of the trip is just a bonus.

http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html

Low Carb Cats: Meet Amira

My girlfriend Abi has a very cute little Siamese mix kitty named Amira. Amira is a very active cat...active to the point of being a bit on the spastic side. She climbs book cases, chases anything that isn't nailed down, talks continually, climbs on people, demands attention, and grooms herself constantly. 

Amira in her favorite spot...on top of a 7' tall bookcase.

She had been grooming herself so much that there is practically no fur on her tail and back legs. Since she is such a spazz kitty, Abi just assumed her cat was on the mentally interesting side and really did not worry too much about. She always got good marks on her vet checks, did not seem to have any infections or disease, and other than the missing fur, was quite healthy. 

Recently Abi moved and Amira now has a new vet. The vet took one look at the cat and basically said "She has allergies. Most likely from grains. She grooms herself so much because she itches all the time." Abi immediately switched the organic grain-based food she had been feeding her cat to Wellness brand low carb cat food. The change was immediate. Amira stop the excessive grooming and now she even has fur coming in on her legs, stomach and tail. 

It is interesting that 2 very different cats like Amira and my cat Xena can have very different problems caused by the same thing. Xena got fat and Amira got allergies so bad she made herself half-bald...all from ingesting grains. This is also something you see in people. Some, like me, get fat, and others, while they may stay skinny, can get high blood pressure, allergies and heart disease. Neither humans or felines evolved to eat easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars like corn, wheat, barley, oats and rice. Unfortunately these items are the basis for the average human and feline diet. Whether it comes in a big bag from the pet store or in a cereal box from the grocery store, they can cause health problems and they need to be avoided.

Recipe: Low-Carb Refrigerator Pickles

Every Summer, my mom would make batch after batch of "refrigerator pickles" from all the cukes growing in our garden. Unlike regular canned pickles, these aren't shelf stable and must be kept cold. Allegedly they can still last from 2-3 months preserved this way, but neither mom nor I have had a batch last more than a week, so we can't say for sure.

Refrigerator pickles are so easy to make and are a great way to use up cukes you grow yourself or bulk purchases from the farmer's market. You don't even have to limit yourself to cucumbers. Many recipes call for using bell peppers and I even added some jicama to my last batch. All the pickled veggies tasted fantastic. This basic recipe, besides tasting good, allows you to save money by not having to trash produce you don't use fast enough...just give it the "fridge pickle" treatment and enjoy!

Wifezilla's Low-Carb Refrigerator Pickles

Ingredients:

6 large cucumbers - skinned and sliced

1 large sliced red onion

1 bell pepper (red or orange) cut in strips

1 cup of jicama cut in strips

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup erythritol (or more depending on taste)

1/4 cup Da Vinci's Simple Syrup (or powdered Splenda equivalent)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp minced garlic or dried powdered garlic

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1/2 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp powdered cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

Heat the vinegar (either on the stove or in the microwave in a medium-sized bowl) and then stir in the erythritol to dissolve. Add spices and allow to cool. Place sliced veggies in to a large jar or ceramic dish that has a tight fitting lid. Pour the cooled brine over the sliced cucumber mix and stir. Allow to set overnight in the refrigerator.

Variations:

Any regular refrigerator pickle recipe can be adapted to low carb by using erythritol and splenda instead of regular sugar. Just use the same amount of erythritol as sugar called for in the recipe, and then add splenda to taste. Here are a few interesting recipes you may want to give a try....

This refrigerator pickle recipe uses carrots and daikon radishes. Interesting combination!

Veggie Venture

How about a green tomato version?

Kuskokwim Campus

This recipe uses cauliflower and beets which gives you "Purple Pickled Cauliflower". (Scroll down past the pickled egg recipe)

A Chicken In Every Granny Cart

Be sure to post your versions in the comment section!

Review: Starbucks-They've Finally Done It!

I have friends who are Starbucks junkies. Any time we are out and about, one of them will inevitably shout "Hey! Let's stop at Starbucks!" Before I found low carb, I also used to indulge in those Starbucks expeditions, and, on occasion, I would be the one doing the shouting. But over the last year, I had to scratch Starbucks off my list of indulgences. No matter what words I used, what combo I tried, or which store I was in, I just could not get a descent cup of low carb coffee. 

At first I thought it was their sugar-free syrups. The vanilla concoctions I had gotten in the past were particularly vile. But now that I think about it, I am betting since I was trying to order sugar-free drinks, the baristas assumed I also wanted low fat and were giving me skim milk as well (gag!). All I know for sure is that while my friends would get their drinks and be happily sipping away,  I was at flavor bar trying to turn my coffee in to something drinkable.

 At nearly $5 a pop, nasty disgusting coffee wasn't my idea of a good bargain, so I totally gave up on Starbucks for a while. When my friends insisted on Starbucks, I would just order a green tea, or bring a diet Mt. Dew in my purse so I could still get a caffeine fix. Then Starbucks had a nationwide retrain, even going so far as to close down  stores to allow managers to go over every aspect of drink making. Apparently that effort paid off...at least in my case.

I went with my Starbucks junkie friends down to Santa Fe, NM over the weekend, and naturally, among all the stores, museums, diners, Indian jewelry vendors, poorly dressed tourist and homeless people, somehow my friends managed to pick out the Starbucks quicker than you could say "Vente!". It was still nippy out and I was tired from sleeping on the strange bed in our rented condo, so some kind of hot caffeine was in order. Even though I was reluctant to plunk down another $5 only to end up with swill that would put Army coffee to shame, I figured I would give it another shot.

When I got to the register, I noticed that I had gotten a trainee. While this gave me second thoughts, the supervisor was nearby and was constantly providing gentle instruction, so I relaxed and gave it a shot.

"Do you have heavy cream?" I asked.

"Why yes we do" came the reply.

"Do you know how to make an Atkins Carmel Latte?" I ventured. Some of my online forum buddies have said this is the term the use to order their low carb drinks so I thought it might be worth a try.

The trainee helplessly looked to the supervisor who quickly said "No, but I am sure we can get you whatever you need."

"I need a latte made with heavy cream and caramel sugar-free syrup" I stated.

This did not even phase the supervisor, though the trainee looked a little confused. She quickly started writing on the side of the cup as she showed her newbie how to ring everything up. I felt kind of bad for giving the poor girl writer's cramp and apologized for being so much trouble, but she assured me that my order was simple compared to many she gets in a typical day.

I went over to the area where you wait for your finished product and used my vantage point as a way to keep an eye on the barista. She didn't flinch either. Maybe the people in Santa Fe were as creative with their coffee drinks as they are with their art and clothing choices (black socks, sandals, rainbow rayon, and raccoon skin being just one colorful combo we spotted). Regardless, I had my "Atkins Caramel Latte" ready in short order. Then it was time to taste test. 

I was pretty shocked when my drink was good. Not just good...excellent! I was so happy I finally got a quality coffee drink...thick, hot and rich with delicious real heavy cream. Yummm! Maybe it was the retrain from a few months ago. Maybe it was invoking the name of the Patron Saint of low carb dieters, Dr. Atkins. Either way, I finally got my $5 worth. 

It will be interesting to see if I can repeat the excellent results I got from the crew at the Santa Fe Starbucks here in Colorado Springs. Now that I know what a good low carb coffee drink from Starbucks is SUPPOSED to taste like, I wont settle for anything less. Too bad I will never be able to recoup all the money I spent getting crappy drinks in the past. I guess I will just have to think of more complicated versions of the Atkins Latte to get even.

Vente, sugar-free, half caramel, half vanilla, 6 pumps, decaf, extra hot, breve with heavy creme instead of half and half, and whipped cream on top anyone?

Making Yogurt

After my previous experience trying to find full-fat plain yogurt in the grocery store, I got the wild idea that I should try and make my own. A quick Google search for the keywords "yogurt making" gave me more results than I could possibly read in a lifetime. Fortunately, this site had pictures, and, being the visual person that I am, I used their guidelines.

A cooler, jars and a candy thermometer were things I already had on hand. The Walmart that frustrated me by not carrying yogurt DID have Stoneyfield low fat yogurt to use as a bacteria source and inexpensive heavy cream. (If I was going to go through the trouble to make yogurt, I was damn sure going to get my fat!)

I cleaned everything, sterilized the heavy cream and let it cool. I added the Stoneyfield to the warm cream, filled some containers with hot water, put the cream mix in glass jars and popped it in to the cooler.

6 hours later, I checked what I hoped was now yogurt. It was close. While it did thicken up a bit, it was a tad on the runny side, but it did taste like yogurt. The richest creamiest yogurt I ever tasted. Other than the texture, I was pretty happy. I took a chance and poured the slightly runny yogurt in to a coffee filter lined strainer and put that in a bowl and it all went in the fridge. (This is the method used to make "yocheese" or an approximation of Greek style yogurt.)

The next morning I checked my mix and I had a nice thick creamy yogurt. Only about 1/4 cup of whey drained off, but it was enough to firm everything up. Some of the heavy cream yogurt went to make salad dressing, some was mixed with unsweetened coco and splenda for a delicious chocolate dessert, and there is even some left. Maybe. Hubby has been home for an hour now and I am still at the office. Hummmm...

Anyway...I will sure be doing this again. Even with a slight goof it still worked. Maybe I'll be using half and half next time to make it an even better bargain and a little less rich (it is almost TOO rich even for me using only heavy cream....almost :D ). If you are feeling brave, check out the tutorial and give it a try. If scatter-brained me can do it, you have a good chance at creamy success.

Review: Flat Earth Crisps

The new TV commercial for Flat Earth Crisps proudly announces there is 1/2 serving of fruits or vegetables in every 1oz portion. It really gives the impression that Flat Earth chips are healthy. The woman featured on the commercial is quite thin, healthy looking, and attractive which furthers the idea. While a healthier chip would be nice, I was skeptical and decided to check things out for myself.

First, I stopped by their website and this is what greeted me on the front page...

"Hello. Welcome to FLAT EARTH®. Where nutritious and delicious have finally come together. In fact, they’re friends. Sound impossible? Well, at Flat Earth, we believe you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Like combine nutrition with real chip taste.

That’s right, there’s a half serving of fruits or veggies baked into every ounce of our delicious crisps. They’re not impossible, they’re IMPOSSIBLY GOOD®."

After stopping by the nutrition pages for the various Flat Earth flavors, the main word that should be focused on is IMPOSSIBLE and certainly not NUTRITION. Instead of the combination of nutrition and taste, all I found was the combination of marketing spin and bull. Flat Earth chips are no healthier or more nutritious than plain old Lay's Classic Potato Chips or even the epitome of snack food decadence–the Chili Cheese Frito.


Flat Earth Chips
Serving Size 1oz. (28g/About 12 Crisps)
Amount Per Serving Calories 130
Total Carbohydrate 19g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 3g
Protein 2g

Chili Cheese Fritos
Serving Size 1oz. (28g/About 31 Chips)
Amount Per Serving Calories 160
Total Carbohydrate 15g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Sugars 1g
Protein 2g

Lays Classic Potato Chips
Serving Size 1oz. (28g)
Amount Per Serving Calories 150
Total Carbohydrate 15g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Sugars 0g
Protein 2g

You can see by the nutrition information that both the Fritos and the Lays have fewer carbohydrates than the Flat Earth chips. Carbohydrates are what fuel obesity and Flat Earth Chips have plenty. Even if calories are your main focus, there isn't much difference between the three. Flat Earth may be marketing it's chips as a health food, but as a division of Frito-Lay, of one of the largest pushers of carbohydrates on the planet, they are just delivering more of the same old same old.

I have no problem with any company creating new snack foods. Flat Earth Chips are just another new offering in the already crowded snack food market. What they are not is a nutritious alternative to unhealthy traditional munchies. Tricking people in to thinking they are is pretty despicable. Will there ever be a good-tasting, truly healthy chip with the "crunch and appeal of the seasoned fried potato"? Maybe...when pigs fly.

View the commercial

Where has all the fat gone?

I went to Super Walmart this morning to pick up a few things in the grocery section. Since I am a low carber, I can actually get in and out of a Walmart fairly quickly. (It is amazing how many isles are loaded with refined, sugar-filled garbage that I can totally ignore.) I grabbed the baby clams I needed for my Tropical Clam Chowder, and right on the other side of the isle is the coconut milk that completes that recipe. I also grabbed some diet soda (yeah yeah yeah...artifical sweeteners. So sue me!) and then headed over to the dairy isle to get some yogurt.

I was in for quite a rude awakening as it dawned on me that there wasn't a single brand in that 24 foot long, 6' tall dairy case that was plain and full-fat. There were thousands of containers of Yoplait , Dannon, Brown Cow, Great Value and a few others I didn't even recognize. There was yogurt for digestive health, yogurt with cereal added, yogurt with extra calcium, and even a line of yogurt just for babies. There was plenty of plain low-fat, reduced-fat or fat-free varieties, as well as a rainbow of flavored versions loaded with fruit juice, sugar and high fructose corn syrup. But I did not see a single carton of unadulterated, plain, fat intact, delicious creamy yogurt. Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things, I read several dozen labels quite carefully and all I got was a headache and eye strain for my trouble.

The fat is the most nourishing part of the yogurt. It provides essential fatty acids your body and brain need to function properly. It helps with vitamin absorption and makes you feel full. If you are eating a healthy diet, fat should be your primary source of energy. Sure, yogurt also contains beneficial bacteria, but I use yogurt as a way to make sure I am getting plenty of healthy fat and to stave off hunger. I want my fat dammit! Seriously, when is the last time you said "I'm so full! I just ate several million bacteria cultures."?

So of course I was a bit miffed that I was not be able to find any QUALITY yogurt and couldn't help but wonder where the hell all the fat went. Are they throwing it out? Shipping it overseas? Are food company executives keeping it for themselves as they take the least nutritious part of the product, load it with sugar, corn syrup and chemicals and then put it in brightly-colored packages with a premium price tag? If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would have to give that last thought some serious consideration.

Fortunately I live in an area with quite a few stores and Safeway is only 5 minutes from Walmart. I knew THEY had real yogurt. They carry Mountain High brand, which, aside from the typical sugar-poisoned flavors, includes a very thick and tasty plain, full-fat version. The store was crowded and it took a bit to work my way back to the dairy section, but there was the Mountain High ON SALE! I grabbed two large containers and headed toward the check out. It wasn't until I scanned the cartons in the self-checkout lane that I noticed that I had NOT grabbed plain, full-fat yogurt, but vanilla flavored sugar-filled yogurt! The containers were almost identical to the plain variety with the exception of a small flower on the front. The lids were the same for both, and since they were on the bottom of the case, it was the lid I used to pick the cartons. I handed them to the clerk, explaining I grabbed the wrong kind, and then just left. I was too weak to fight my way back to the dairy case and I didn't feel up to reading any more microscopically small type trying to make sure I actually got what I wanted.

As I sit here typing this blog entry, yogurtless and annoyed, I am taking back what I said earlier. Apparently there is a conspiracy and those rat bastards at the Mountain High Yogurt marketing and design department are also in on it. But I am not ready to give up yet. I will try to find yogurt again next time I go to the store, but not before I grab a magnifying glass and my tinfoil helmet.

Article On Cancer Cells and Glucose

Just a quickie with a link to an interesting article at Science Daily. I would post more, but, unfortunately, earning a living is seriously interfering with my messing around time!

"Tumors Use Sugars To Avoid Programmed Cell Death -  Researchers at the Duke School of Medicine apparently have solved the riddle of why cancer cells like sugar so much, and it may be a mechanism that could lead to better cancer treatments.

Jonathan Coloff, a graduate student in Assistant Professor Jeffrey Rathmell's laboratory in the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, has found that the tumor cells use glucose sugar as a way to avoid programmed cell death."

Full Article

Hungry for Breakfast? Have Some Candy!

When I first saw the tv ad for iHop's new "Who-cakes" (a promotional tie-in product for the movie "Horton Hears a Who") I thought I had a great target for my "Signs of the Apocalypse" series. 

5 pancakes in a large stack covered in sugary syrup, sprinkled with little candy bits and topped with a lollypop is definitely something that should make any responsible parent cringe. Seriously, do you want to be with any kid for the 2 hours they completely spazz out AFTER indulging in this sugarfest? Do you have any idea of how hard it is to peel a 4 year-old off a ceiling after they bounced on all your furniture, broke all your lamps, shredded all your library books, and feed cat food in to your dvd player? I think I would rather have another root canal.

iHop's Whocakes. No wonder Horton is hearing things!

After I had time to get over the initial shock, I changed my mind about making "Who-cakes" an apocalyptic food nominee. When you think about it, iHop may finally get across the message that most of what we see as "breakfast" today, is in fact, nothing more than candy. By sticking a sucker in to their latest carbohydrate concoction, iHop may have actually done parents a big favor.

I tried to look up the nutrition information on these things, but for some reason, iHop does not list the calorie or carbohydrate count for Who-Cakes on their website. A quick look at their regular pancakes is telling enough. 5 regular buttermilk pancakes is 85 carbs. Add another 58 carbs if you only use 2oz of syrup for a total of 143g of carbohydrates. This is close to 3/4 cups of pure sugar. I can only imaging what the sugar content of the Who-cake version might be. 

A Snickers bar only has 35g of carbohydrate for a 2.07oz size and 68.4g in a king size bar. The big candy bar has 74.6 FEWER grams of carbohydrates than iHop's most famous breakfast offering. If you want to eat candy for breakfast, that's your choice. Just don't delude yourself that forming it in to a pancake instead of a bar makes it any healthier. 

Are diabetics suffering for no reason?

A great article from "across the pond" asks a very important question. Are current recommendations for diabetics doing more harm than good? Dr Katharine Morrison tells her patients to follow a low carbohydrate regime to control blood sugar as well as eliminate diabetic side effects like limb ulceration, sight loss and possible kidney failure. While her patients are doing well, there is still resistance to low carb for diabetes control...

"Three factors are still hindering wider take-up of the low-carb message, Morrison believes. The first is a reluctance by the medical profession to concede possible mistakes. Secondly, drug companies and food manufacturers have a vested interest in promoting the high-carb option, she argues. A whole industry depends on medicating diabetics and providing them with specialist foods, which Morrison believes low-carb diets will eliminate.

But the third is also a significant hurdle: the low-carb regime is onerous for patients. In a recent briefing that she sent to her own health board, Ayrshire and Arran, Morrison admits that even her own patients have mixed reactions.

These range from the resistant - she quotes one type one patient who said: "I would rather die than give up my porridge in the morning" - to the indignant. "Look at these blood sugars - they are normal! Why wasn't I told about this years ago?" she says one patient told her."

(Full Article)

Monkeying Around with Heart Disease

As one of the leading causes of death, heart disease is obviously a concern if you are a human. Our cousins, the Great Apes, are also having issues with heart disease. In a recent news article (here), zoo staff were stunned when an apparently healthy gorilla in the prime of his life dropped dead. But Mopie from the National Zoo in Washington isn't the only gorilla dead or ill due to heart disease...

"Gorillas in zoos around the nation, particularly males and those in their 20s and 30s, have been falling ill - and sometimes dying suddenly - from progressive heart ailments ranging from aneurisms to valvular disease to cardiomyopathy.

Just two months before the deaths at the National Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo had lost a lowland gorilla named Pogo to heart disease. A week before that, the Memphis Zoo lost one named Tumai the same way. And in previous years, there were others: Akbar at the Toledo Zoo in 2005, and in 2000 both Sam at the Knoxville Zoo and Michael at the Gorilla Foundation in California.

Now zookeepers are scrambling to understand what factors may be causing the illnesses and what might be done to save the 368 lowland gorillas that currently reside in 52 zoos across North America.

A 1994 study of 74 captive gorilla deaths, published by veterinarians Tom Meehan of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and Linda Lowenstine of the University of California at Davis, found that 41 percent - and 70 percent of males older than 30 - were from heart disease, mainly fibrosing cardiomyopathy."

When I read this article, my first question was "What are these gorillas eating?" Since I researched pet food to help my obese cat, I knew that companies that manufacture cat and dog food sometimes make "monkey chow". It took me less than five minutes to find clues to the possible cause for heart diseases in Great Apes.

The Brookfield Zoo posts on their website what the ape's natural diet is along with what they are feeding the apes...

"Wild diet: fruit, leaves, stems, vines, and shoots

Brookfield Zoo diet: monkey chow, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans, spinach, lettuce, kale, escarole, romaine, parsley."

http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/pagege...lowland+gorilla

The Philadelphia Zoo also lists their primate diet information on their website and they have 40% of their ape's diet being "primate biscuits". http://philadelphiazoo.blogspot.com/2007/03/national-nutrition-month-primates.html

A quick check of the ingredients of Monkey Chow and the primate biscuits put up HUGE red flags...

ZuPreem ® Primate Diet Dry

From the manufacturer: It is not necessary to provide a supplemental source of vitamin C with this diet, if the diet is fed within one year of the date of manufacture. It is also not necessary to supplement this diet with fruits or vegetables that may upset the balance of the diet.

Ingredients: Ground corn, Soybean meal, Cracked wheat, Sucrose, Wheat germ meal, Animal fat (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), Dried whole egg, Dicalcium phosphate, Calcium carbonate, Iodized salt, Vegetable oil, etc...

Mazuri® Primate Brown Biscuit

Ingredients: Ground Corn, dehulled soybean meal, dried beet pulp, sucrose, corn gluten meal, ground aspen, powdered cellulose, dried apple pomace, fructose, calcium carbonate, soybeab oil, flaxseed, etc....

I can't say for sure at this point the dry primate food is the exact cause since I have no way of telling what each individual zoo is feeding their apes. However, when a primary food for these creatures is based on CORN, WHEAT, SUGAR AND SOY (and at least one manufacturer claims you don't need to add fresh fruits/veggies which may "upset" the balance of the diet), it is no surprise to me that heart disease is killing zoo apes.

Corn, wheat, sugar and soy are all carbohydrates and all turn to glucose in the blood stream. Gorillas did not evolve to eat these easily digestible carbohydrates. Of course, neither did humans, which is why so many people these days are getting fat, sick and end up on medication. In many cases, you can get off of diabetes medication, reverse heart disease, lower blood pressure and lose weight by eliminating carbohydrates and following a low carb diet. Has this been tried with zoo apes?

Most of these dry food ingredients do not even grow in an ape's natural habitat. Is feeding them foods they did not evolve to eat a good idea? The REALLY scary thing is the monkey chow ingredients look a lot like the nutrition label from a typical American breakfast cereal! What is a diet high in grains doing for humans? The "obesity crisis" pretty much answers that one.

"My heart hurts, and I don't understand why I can't lose weight!"

Obesity among zoo primates is also an issue, and obesity, heart disease and diabetes often come as a package deal.

"Two main problems with zoo animals include obesity and diabetes. Orangutans typically eat fruits and leaves in nature, and very little animal matter. The leaves and fruits they consume are drier, contain less sugar, and much more fiber than our "store-bought" fruits. Some of the zoo problems may be associated with diets that are too easily digested, along with not enough exercise or activity in obtaining foods. See, they have the same problems as many humans!" http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4583

So our cousins are experiencing the same health problems we are and I am guessing that the cause is the same...eating foods they did not evolve to eat and basing their diet on carbohydrates that are too rapidly digested. I think it will be a bit of a race to see who admits that carbs can be dangerous to health first...the zoo community or the medical community. Hopefully human AND non-human primates will finally start getting the information they need to protect their hearts and overall health.

Nutrisystem's Deceptive Advertising

I never understood the appeal of Nutrisystem. Paying way too much for processed food then still having to buy my own fresh fruits and vegetables never sounded like a good bargain. Their commercials, aside from being generally annoying, always show people with dramatic weight loss while flashing RESULTS NOT TYPICAL on each photo. A recent Nutrisystem campaign features shapely football commentator, Jillian Barberie, touting a 41 lb weight loss which she credits to Nutrisystem. Her before picture took me by surprise because I watch plenty of football and I never remembered seeing Jillian look that fat.

I have seen her commercial several times and something about that before picture bothered me. At first I just assumed it was because the dress she was wearing was really ugly. Someone as cute as her, no matter how fat, shouldn't wear something that shapeless and frumpy. But this morning, I happened to be walking right by the tv screen when the commercial played and got a REALLY good look at the before picture in the ugly brown dress. Then it hit me. The reason that dress looked like a shapeless tent is because it is a MATERNITY DRESS!

That's right folks. Jillian's BEFORE photo is a photo of her pregnant. According to internet reports, the 41 pounds she gained was BABY WEIGHT. If you check medical sites or have ever had a baby yourself, you would know that doctors recommend a healthy, normal weight woman gain between 25 and 37 pounds.

AmericanPregnancy.org provides a handy breakdown of where that gain comes from...

• Baby = 7-8 pounds
• Placenta = 1-2 pounds
• Amniotic fluid = 2 pounds
• Uterus = 2 pounds
• Maternal breast tissue = 2 pounds
• Maternal blood = 4 pounds
• Fluids in maternal tissue = 4 pounds
• Maternal fat and nutrient stores = 7 pounds

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/eatingfortwo.html

So even with her gaining 4 pounds more than recommended, and her baby weighing closer to six pounds, seriously....how much of her weight loss is due to Nutrisystem? Apparently the secret to looking smoking hot after gaining 41 pounds is to be smoking hot in the first place and then give birth. Shame on Nutrisystem and shame on Jillian for misleading the public about her weight loss.

Unforseen Consequences of a Low Carb Diet

In this PREVENTION article, Gary Taubes, author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories" discusses a unique consequence of a low carb way of eating.....becoming a social outcast!

"I've learned there are indeed some side effects to this dietary regimen--primarily social and marital ones. First of all, gone are the days that my wife and I will be invited over for a simple meal--the "let me put some spaghetti on the stove with a nice sauce" type of thing. (Friends who are exceedingly fond of grilling or barbecuing are the exception.) Invitations to dinner parties are offered with trepidation and a "what can you eat?" tone, as though whatever it may be will require a special run to the slaughterhouse. A whiff of resentment hovers in the host's kitchen, as though my dietary faddishness forced a menu change for everyone else, all of whom now have to eat a thoroughly mediocre leg of lamb when they could have enjoyed the host's signature buckwheat rigatoni with broccoli rabe and tofu instead."
Prevention Article By Gary Taubes

Recipe: Low Carb Very Berry Coconutty Smoothie

Smoothies are a quick, easy way to make a tasty low carb drink. Depending on my schedule, I sometimes use them as a quick meal replacer. With the weather finally starting to warm up, I find myself making them more often. One of my recent favorites uses a coconut milk base. Along with the great taste, coconut milk contains Lauric Acid, which is a proven antiviral and antibacterial agent. The great berry flavor comes from frozen strawberries and some raspberry sugar-free syrup.

Very Berry Coconutty Smoothie
1 can coconut milk
6 large frozen strawberries
6 ice cubes
2 Tbsp Da Vinci Raspberry Syrup*
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Optional: Scoop of whey protein

Place all ingredients in to a blender and liquify. Pour in to an insulated mug and enjoy.

The entire pitcher contains approximately 16 grams of carbs...closer to 19 if you add the protein powder. While this recipe is not for those on Atkins induction, it is just fine for maintenance or Barry Groves fans. (His plan allows up to 60g of carbs per day.)

* If not available, use whatever sugar replacer you prefer. 2 packets of Splenda and 2 packets of Equal works well.

Low Carb: A Great Zit Zapper!

When I was a teenager, back in the stone age when dinosaurs roamed free, I had my share of pimples. Nothing was more devastating than to have some big red painful bumps on my face since they seemed to like to show up right before school photo day or a big dance. My mom used to blame those zits on junk food. Particularly the greasy kind.

"All that grease you eat ends right up on your face ya know!" was a common mom-ism.

Her "remedies" for my break outs usually included some kind of caustic cleaning agent that left me with dried out, cracked, bleeding skin still covered in pimples. I remember having tubes of Clearasil, containers of rubbing alcohol, lots of concealer and big tubs of Noxema at the ready. None of them really seemed to help, but at least my face wasn't as bad as my neighbor's. That poor kid was put on some prescription that made him look like and extra from the movie "The Mummy". He honestly looked better with the zits.

As my mom continued to blame grease and oils for our break outs, news was released that 2 studies proved that junk food had nothing to do with zit outbreaks. It was a hormonal thing. You either got zits or you didn't. Apparently I was just one of those unlucky people who was destined to have hideous red marks on her face at a time when appearance was very important, self esteem was at rock bottom, and I was already too tall for most guys to ask out anyway.

Like a lot of what I learned as a kid, it turns out those studies were complete crap.

"One compares real chocolate bars with fake ones and was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with funding from the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. But that's comparing sugar with sugar, as Treloar says, and the fake chocolate bars were also loaded with trans fats known to trigger inflammation. The other study examines sugar in the diet of a small group, but, Treloar says, does not take into account what we know now about how glycemic loads from other foods such as white flour and potatoes affect insulin levels."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2007/12/16/a_clear_connection/?page=3

Despite the shoddy science, dermotologist dogma and "popular wisdom" became "diet does not effect acne". In the 30 years since I was was a pimply-faced kid, millions upon millions were spent on creams, washes, ointments and pills as embarrassed teens tried to get rid of the horrible zits. All the while the real culprit got a free pass. That culprit is carbohydrates.

"Associate Professor Mann and PhD researcher Robyn Smith, in conjunction with staff from the Department of Dermatology at Royal Melbourne Hospital, recruited 50 boys and divided them into two groups.

One group consumed a typical teen diet of sugary snacks and processed foods, while the other followed a more natural diet higher in protein and with low-GI foods such as wholegrain bread, pasta and legumes replacing the normal high-GI foods such as potatoes, rice, white bread, cakes, biscuits, soft-drinks and sugary snacks that elevate blood glucose levels and insulin levels so dramatically..."The acne of the boys on the higher protein-low GI diet improved dramatically, by more than 50 per cent, which is more than what you see with topical acne solutions," said Associate Professor Mann.

“A diet high in processed foods pushes glucose and insulin levels higher, exacerbating the problem, but low-GI foods do the opposite. The mechanism and the results are as clear as day.” http://www.sciencealert.com.au/diet-causes-pimples-5.html

While this study does give insight in to the pimple problem, it only gets it half right. By concentrating on low Glycemic Index foods, it ignores foods that do not raise blood sugar, but do raise insulin because they directly effect the liver. Glycemic Index does give clues, but it is a confusing and incomplete measure of what is going on. It appears to me that limiting carbohydrates of ALL KINDS may very well bump the 50% helped number up to 80% and beyond. 

Can reducing carbohydrate consumption end THIS?

Instead of relying on harsh prescriptions and mostly useless creams or lotions, your key to clear skin is to eliminate sugars, starches, and grains from your diet. While many of us use a low carbohydrate diet to lose weight, eating protein, healthy fats, leafy greens, and low carbohydrate fruits can also clear up your skin. Not only will teens have a good chance at avoiding the soul-crushing "pizza face" moniker, it will set them up for continuing health throughout their entire lives. 

Signs of the Apocalypse: Part 1 - Cap'n Crunch Shake

We all see things that make us question the ability of the human race to continue to thrive. From politicians to wars to the latest debutard being promoted as a "role model", is it any wonder that more people aren't ready to go over the edge? The world of food also has it's share of "what the hell were they thinking" moments. I had one of those moments yesterday when I drove past a Carl's Junior.

Carl's Junior is already a place I avoid just because of their commercials. Watching people try to cram a huge, oozing burger in to their mouths while making as much noise as possible as stuff slops all over their clothes isn't something I find appealing. Their slogan, as far as I'm concerned, may as well be "Carl's Junior, the restaurant for disgusting slobs." Knowing my feelings about this place, it would not surprise you that I generally ignore them as I drive by. But yesterday I happened to accidentally glance at their billboard, and what I saw was so shocking that I almost ran in to the curb as I read it.

"Now Serving Cap'n Crunch Shakes!"

WTF?

What sick, twisted weirdo decided to combine one of the most sugar ladened cereals on the planet with a frozen blob of sugar ladened over-processed milk? Was there a public outcry for such a product? Is this really something that should be served to children without a doctors note and a parental release form?

A check online for the ingredients and "nutrition" information showed the Cap'n Crunch shake to be even more toxic than I thought it could possibly be...

Shakes: Lady Kemp Vanilla Slow Melt Ice Cream: Milkfat and nonfat milk, sugar, corn syrup, mono and diglycerides, natural flavors, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan, annatto (vegetable color).
Syrup, Vanilla
Corn sweeteners (high fructose and corn syrups), water, propylene glycol, potassium sorbate as a preservative, caramel color, and artificial flavor.
Foster Farm's 1% Milk
Land O Lakes Whipped Topping
Water, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, sugar, contains less than 2% of each of the following: sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), polysorbate 60, mono and diglycerides, soy protein isolate, artificial flavor, sorbitan monostearate, disodium phosphate, hexaglyceryl distearate, carrageenan, beta carotene (color), propellant: nitrous oxide.
Captain Crunch
Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Coconut Oil, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Nonfat Dry Milk, Whey, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil Adds a Dietarily Insignificant Amount of Trans Fat, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Strawberry Juice Concentrate, Malic Acid, Niacinamide One of the B Vitamins, Reduced Iron, Zinc Oxide, Yellow 5, Red 40, Mono and Diglycerides, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Thiamin Mononitrate One of the B Vitamins, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride One of the B Vitamins, BHT a Preservative, Riboflavin One of the B Vitamins, Folic Acid One of the B Vitamins

These items combined give you a shake with 740 calories, 35 grams of fat, 24 grams of saturated fat, 100 mg of cholesterol, 320mg sodium, 94 grams of carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 79 grams of sugar, and 15 grams of protein.

94 grams of carbs is the equivalent of eating almost 1/2 cup of pure sugar with a spoon. The ironic thing is that the OREO COOKIE shake also offered by Carl's Jr. has FEWER carbohydrates. Yes people, the shake based on COOKIES has less sugar than the shake based on a BREAKFAST CEREAL.

Why is it so hot and what am I doing in this hand basket?

Happy Easter!

Recipe: Wifezilla's Low Carb Whiting and Artichoke Stew

Whiting is a pretty inexpensive fish. Not very fancy and very mild in taste, it was once considered food for peasants. A few choice ingredients gives the lowly whiting an upgrade to an high class dish suitable for any occasion.

Wifezilla's Low Carb Whiting and Artichoke Stew

Ingredients
9 whiting fillets (I buy them frozen and in bulk. Very inexpensive this way.)
16oz bag of frozen California vegetables (or 16oz of steamed fresh broccoli, cauliflower and chopped carrots)
1 stick of REAL butter
6.5 oz jar of artichoke hearts (drained)
13.5 oz can of coconut milk
1 Tbsp dry diced onions
1-1/2 Tbsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp fish sauce
Olive oil (for frying fish)

Directions
You will need 2 pans for this one. In one, fry the whiting fillets in olive oil on medium heat until meat is flaky. While fish is cooking, in a larger separate pan, cook vegetables in butter then add spices, coconut milk, and artichokes. Flake fish meat in to bite sized pieces and add to the vegetable mix.

You will end up with a very thick, tasty stew. In the future, I think will try this with some fresh fennel bulb. I had a carb-junkie girlfriend drop by while I was making it and had her give it a try. She liked it and she is picky, so that is a good sign.

(photo coming soon)

Blame Canada

Low carb diets have always been the "ugly red-headed stepchild" of the dieting world. Despite over 100 years of evidence that reducing your intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates can help you lose weight, lower your blood pressure, raise good cholesterol, and reverse type 2 diabetes, low carbing is still called a "fad". Not only that people who promote the diet are called quacks, zealots, and accused of endangering people's health. As long as a few random doctors (like Atkins and Eades), or a lone science reporter (like Gary Taubes) sang the praises of a low carb lifestyle, it was easy to dismiss them as a wacko minority who just didn't understand the truth.

The "truth" according to the mainstream is that saturated fat causes heart disease, all calories are created equal, and you should eat lots of whole grains (carbohydrates). If you weigh too much, you need to cut calories and exercise more. This "diet" advise has resulted in ever-growing obesity numbers and has a miserable 95% failure rate. For the longest time, people were told their obesity was their own damn fault and evidence that sugar, carbohydrates, and things like high-fructose corn syrups are to blame was ignored.

But now a group of people in Canada are proving, once again, that refined carbohydrates and sugars are the primary cause of obesity and disease. In 2007, the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay, Canada gave up refined foods and sugar and returned to a more native diet. Their rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes were up to five times the national average. Dr. Jay Wortman, Senior Medical Advisor - First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada, believes that the introduction of western carbohydrate-rich foods which replaced the traditional diet is the primary cause. By returning to native food sources of wild salmon and oolichan grease (a fish oil) but still allowing grocery store foods like vegetables, beef, pork, bacon and eggs (basically foods with protein and fat but no starch or sugar), they were able to make an approximation of their traditional diet without requiring people to go out and kill a moose with their bare hands. It was, in a way, the Northern Exposure version of the Atkins Diet.

From the CBC website article about the diet: "Permitted foods include; beef, pork, chicken, fish or seafood, cauliflower, broccoli, all the salad greens, eggs, cream, but not milk. Milk contains lactose, which is sugar.

Not permitted are starches like pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and sugar. Dr. Jay Wortman believes that it was the introduction of these by Europeans over a hundred and fifty years ago that caused the rise of diabetes and obesity.

And so the key to this diet is the avoidance of starch and sugar because those were not common components of a traditional diet.

An interesting component is oolichan grease. It's a very healthy fat and in the fact it was a big part of the diet in the past, was one of the reasons it was such a healthy diet."
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/wortman.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/

While the final data is still being evaluated, this diet study sponsored by Health Canada and the University of British Columbia has produced profound results. A reduction in study participant weight, lower blood pressure, diabetics able to reduce or eliminate medication, lower bad cholesterol numbers, etc... Study participants are now encouraging other First Nations to return to their native diet to reap the health benefits enjoyed by their ancestors.

The documentary about this study entitled "My Big Fat Diet" is currently being aired in Canada. Until it is available on DVD, there are some YouTube video clips available (below) as well as a radio interview with Dr. Wortman that can get started on your own quest to "go native". Remember, you don't have to be a member of the First Nation to start a low carb diet to lose weight and improve your health. Anyone can do it! If, however, you want to bury your head in the sand about how healthy a low carb lifestyle is and you still want to believe fat people are stupid, lazy gluttons, things are going to get much harder for you. Don't blame me, blame Canada.

Video Clips
Challenge from the Cheif
Intoduction to "My Big Fat Diet"
More from "My Big Fat Diet"

Radio Interview
The Current

Magic Pants

To guys, pants are a piece of clothing that keeps delicate things warm and protected while providing convenient pockets to hold wallets, scraps of random paper and loose change. To a woman, what starts as a simple piece of cloth and some thread goes through a transformation that turns them in to something powerful and unique. Something magical.

A woman can try on hundreds of pairs of pants trying to find just the right one. It's more than just finding the right waist size and length. It's finding that pair that makes your butt look good, makes your calves look shapely and hides that mommy roll right below your belly button. A pair of pants like that can lift your mood, put a smile on your face and make you feel like a million dollars. The magical perfect pair can boost your confidence and put a spring in your step and, if a woman doesn't have a pair, she actively searches for one every time she gets anywhere near a mall.

My pair of magic pants comes in the form of a cute pair a denim capris. I got them at a thrift store 2 years ago. I bought them because they were the right size, but I did not try them on. At $3.75 I wasn't too worried if they didn't fit. Turns out they didn't at the time. I could barely pull them up and there was no way in hell I could button them or pull up the zipper without doing serious damage to myself. Since they were cute and I was hopeful that someday I would lose weight, I put them in the back of a dresser drawer and there they sat until last Summer. 

During a clothing clean-out (I had lost weight after starting low carb), I found them again. I tried them on and this time I could get them up AND button them. They were still tight, but compared to last year, I could see improvement. I even braved wearing them for one day in August, though they did make me a bit uncomfortable. As it got cooler, I tucked them away again and didn't find them again until today.

I am tired of the cold weather and decided that even though it was going to be cool today, I was also tired of wearing long pants. I wanted to wear my cute capris. I cautiously slid them on and was totally surprised that, not only could I button them, but I could zip them up and they were a little loose in the waist. There was even room in the seat! I instantly felt euphoria and began dancing around the bedroom. I even braved the scale and I was down 2 lbs over the past 2 weeks. More dancing ensued. My husband gave me "the look" as I tried to explain to him the wonders of a woman's pair of magical pants. Then he pulled on his boring, non-magical guy jeans and immediately stuffed the pockets with loose change and random bits of note paper.

The magic of the pants has stayed with my throughout the day. I have checked myself in the mirror several times....which is something I normally don't do. I have stayed cheerful despite the fact that it is gloomy outside AGAIN and the size of the stack of work on my desk has doubled. There is also a pile of laundry and a small mountain of dishes waiting for me at home. But who cares? My butt looks good today. It is amazing what some fabric, arranged in the proper configuration, can do for a woman.

Got Vitamin D?

Vitamin D deficiancy is on the rise. The following videos tell you why you should care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNO6jNNjpNs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=enB6BuOjXY8
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_PYsXQ16Ztg&feature=related

Recipe: Low Carb Tropical Seafood Chowder

I really wasn't sure if I should label this a "recipe", because it was more like happy accident than anything. I was in a hurry and wanted to throw something in the crock pot before heading out the door. I had just recently bought 2 large cans of baby clams, so chowder popped to mind. Of course, a good clam chowder required some bacon, which I was out of, and cream, which was ALSO gone. At that point I could have just tried something else, but I hadn't done the week's shopping yet and pickings were slim. Besides, it was cold and crappy out and there was a fresh covering of snow on the ground. I wanted chowder dammit!

I rummaged through the cabinets and freezer and was pleasantly surprised at the results. This chowder version does call for coconut milk instead of cream, but the coconut flavor is subtle once all the flavors blend and it really compliments the shrimp and clams. And while I did not use bacon for flavoring, I see no reason why you should pass up the opportunity to use it if you were (unlike me) smart enough to stock up ahead of time.

Low Carb Tropical Seafood Chowder
2 large cans of baby clams (including liquid)
2 cans of coconut milk
2 cups of frozen cooked tail-off shrimp
1 lb of frozen mixed vegetables (like a broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix)
2 whole cloves
1 Tbsp of minced garlic (I use the stuff in a jar)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dried minced onions
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme (lemon thyme if you can get it)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Throw everything in a crock pot and let it cook on low while you are at work. Running around like and idiot while you try to find ingredients is completely optional. Try not to look too surprised when it actually tastes good.


Warning!
The measurements given are an APPROXIMATION! I honestly didn't even pick up a spoon or any other kind of measuring device when I made this. Don't be afraid to make your own adaptations or adjustments. Cooking is more art than science, so don't be afraid to be creative!

God Hates Carbs

As the debate rages over whether we should eat low carb with plenty of fat or low fat with plenty of carbs, people look to different experts and authorities to help them decide. There are plenty of doctors, nutritionists and other diet gurus to choose from, but who do you trust the most? Who is the highest authority? Well, how about God?

From Genesis... Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

So there you have it people. From the ultimate authority. Carbohydrates are not deserving of respect.

Of course, we all know what happened next. Cain, no doubt in a carbohydrate-fueled frenzy, lured his brother away to the fields and killed him. So, apparently, not only are carbohydrates considered undesirable by the Lord, they turn you in to a sneaky murderer. Next time a vegetarian offers to show you his crops...be very careful!

Adventures in Family Cooking

Most of our meals are prepared from scratch and I am always looking for ways to make tasty healthy food at the lowest possible cost. Someone suggested recently that I give pork neck bones a try. This is a dish often served "down South". Being from "up North", I had never tried them, but many people had described very flavorful meals that you can make from this particular cut. When I found a package in my local Safeway for $1.49/lb. I decided to give them a try. Sure it was a package of bones, but there was an awful lot of meat on them. This allowed me to quiet my Tightwad side ("$1.49 for a pack of stupid bones? Are you crazy!") long enough to get them out of the store.

Cooking them in the crock pot seemed like a good idea. I wasn't sure what the final product would be, but slow cooked tender pork always leaves many different opportunities for a tasty dinner. I spiced the meat covered bones and put them in the slow cooker in late afternoon. I checked on them a few hours later and noticed they did not produce a lot of liquid like some pork chop cuts do, so I added water, some more spices and just left it on low to cook overnight. Before bed I checked on it one more time, and it appeared to have cooked down quite a bit. That was disappointing and my Tightwad side started up again. ("SEE! I told you that was way too much to pay for a stupid bag of bones!")

As I was thinking of nasty retorts to Tightwad voice, my husband walked up behind me and said "That meat is really tasty, but it sure does have a lot of bones!".

After mentally flipping off my Tightwad side I turned to my husband and lovingly said, "Hey stupid! Those are neck bones! Of COURSE there are a lot of bones in it. I am cooking them up to use for a soup or stew or something. Now stay the hell out of the crock pot!"

What remained of the neck bones was left to cook overnight, and in the morning, eyes still bleary, I pulled the meat out of the liquid and put it in a large bowl to cool off so I could start the deboning process. Since I wanted to take care of that before going to work, I placed the bowl in the refrigerator and went to take a shower. After getting myself ready, getting my son off to school, and listening to my husband describe the day's early financial news in excruciating detail, I went to the kitchen to take care of those pork bones.

Something was wrong when I pulled out the bowl. It still being morning (which is NOT my best time of the day) and my brain being numbed by listening to interest rates, foreign markets, and something about a nerdy looking guy named Bernanke, it took a minute to register. Apparently there was shrinkage. The pile looked so much smaller. Tightwad voice quickly emerged from the economics induced stupor and was about to start mouthing off again when the rest of the brain woke up. A quick glance in the trash showed 3 large pork bones, almost half of what should have been in the bowl sitting on top of the pile.

He did it again! Husband had gotten in to the crockpot! I started yelling as he flew out the front door claiming he had a meeting and didn't have time to talk. The truth was he did have a meeting but didn't have time to go to the emergency room first if I ever got a hold of him.

I deboned what little was left of the pile and added it back to the liquid. I had found an opened jar of diced green chilis in the fridge and thought that might go well with the pork. I added cilantro, red peppers and anything else I could think of to the mix and tasted it. It WAS good. A little THIN, but good. I figured that despite my husbands interference, I could really make something out of it. I still had a 1lb package of pork sausage in the freezer (bought with Tightwad's assistance...99¢/lb managers special thankyouverymuch!) and if I added that, it would be a nice, thick tasty Southwest pork stew. I pulled out the pork sausage to thaw, and planned on browning that up at lunch and adding it to what was left of the pork meat.

Life messed up my schedule (as usual) and I didn't get home until late. By the time I made it home, husband had been there with my son for a couple of hours, and when I walked in the door, I had totally forgotten about my ealier cooking attemp. I was tired and weak with hunger and dreading having to make something. I walked through the living room and into the kitchen and then saw the bowl I had placed the frozen pork sausage in to thaw. It was empty. Memories returned as I rushed to the crock pot. It was almost empty. All that was left was a tiny bit of brown liquid on the bottom and a few green chili fragments stuck to the sides. Just then husband yelled from the living room "I saved you some soup!"

The fact that I hadn't eaten anything for most of the day probably saved my husband's life. I still don't know if I would consider neck bones to be a good bargain. I guess if you are a man married to a woman who cooks, they are a fantastic deal. If you are a woman trying to cook a descent meal for yourself as well as your family, you may have to pick up a side of steak to keep you nourished through the cooking process. Or maybe you just need a new accessory for your crock pot - like a lock...or possibly even an ill-tempered Doberman. Now if you can just convince Tightwad to turn over the check book...

Great Low Carb Recipe Site

Adopting a low carb way of eating always seems to bring up the question "What do I eat NOW?" After all, there are only so many ways to cook eggs and even steak gets tiring after a while. Good thing there are people like Linda Sue wandering around out in cyberspace.

Her website features an extensive collection of recipes, menus, and low carb links that can keep you from dietary boredom. Some of the recipes are her original creations and there are creative adaptations of traditional recipes. There are also recipes created by others that she reviews and rates. 

One of the recipes I recently gave a try was Beefy-Mushroom soup. It is one she adapted from a pumpkin and sausage soup recipe. Yes, I said pumpkin. The pumpkin thickens the soup, but does not overpower the other delicious flavors. She gave this recipe 5 stars and so do I. 

My version of Linda Sue's Beefy-Mushroom soup

Whenever you are in need for some new recipe ideas, be sure to stop by Linda's place. Your taste buds will thank you.

Linda Sue's Low Carb Recipe Site

Prostate Cancer: The Low Carb Option

An article on prostate cancer in today's New York Times leaves the impression that patients are equally screwed no matter what treatment option they choose. Whether the treatment was surgical removal, radiation, hormone therapy, or "watchful waiting", no one method stood out as being superior.

The Times article provided this quote, which illustrates doctor's frustrations at a lack of helpful data.

“Having been involved in this area for a long time, it was not shocking, but it is disappointing,” said Dr. Timothy J. Wilt, lead researcher on the report, from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research. “Information is really lacking to determine whether over all one treatment is more effective and preferred.” - Feb. 26th, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/health/26well.html?ref=science

Considering traditional treatments can leave a man impotent, incontinent, or hoping wondering if something else will kill them before the cancer turns deadly, I am a bit surprised there was no mention of a very promising treatment readily available to all men...a low carb diet.

"A diet low in carbohydrates may help stunt the growth of prostate tumors, according to a new study led by Duke Prostate Center researchers. The study, in mice, suggests that a reduction in insulin production possibly caused by fewer carbohydrates may stall tumor growth." - Science Daily, Nov. 14, 2007 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071113074933.htm

A week later, Science Daily reported that diet HIGH in carbohydrates was related to prostate tumor GROWTH.

"Having too much insulin in the blood, a condition called hyperinsulinemia, is associated with poorer outcomes in patients with prostate cancer. Vasundara Venkateswaran, Ph.D., of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and colleagues investigated whether high insulin levels caused by eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates would lead to more rapid growth of prostate tumors in mice."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071127161824.htm

As doctors scratch their heads trying to figure out which potentially dangerous treatment plan to use on their prostate cancer patients, the dietary aspect of cancer appear to be ignored. When an easily implementable option like eliminating carbohydrates holds the possibility of shrinking tumors, it should be obvious that impotence and incontinence are no longer acceptable risks.

Since prostate tumors grow so slowly and "wait and see" is already a position many doctors take, why not try "wait and see while low carbing"? If the tumor does not shrink with a low carb diet, there is still plenty of time to try surgery or radiation therapy. If eliminating carbohydrates DOES shrink the tumor, there is no need to risk having to spend the rest of your life wearing adult diapers.

Loafing Around: Low Carb Meatloaf in a Bundt Pan

My husband went to a network group meeting last night and somehow came home with a Pampered Chef bundt pan. No, he didn't sneak off to a clandestine cookware party, it just happened to be one of the door prizes that was given out and he was a lucky winner.

Before low-carb, I would be using something like this to create zucchini cakes and other sugary goodies. Even the pan came with directions on how to make about a dozen desserts, all including not only sugar, but brown sugar AND powdered sugar as well (don't EVEN get me started on the white flour!). I considered giving the pan away, but I figured it would just be used to perpetuate the evils of carbohydrate consumption and that just didn't seem right. Neither did it seem right for this outstanding piece of finely-crafted stoneware to sit in a cupboard collecting dust. The only thing that could do it justice was to bake something in it...something low carb...something healthy...something made of MEAT!

Wifezilla's Low Carb "Loafing Around" Bundt Pan Meat Loaf

Ingredients

3lb ground beef, ground turkey, or any combination of the two

1/8 cup flax meal

1/8 cup chia seeds (or just use more flax if you don't have these on hand)

1/4 cup powdered parmesan cheese

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/4 cup Heinz One Carb ketchup (plus extra for a glaze)

4 large eggs

2 Tbsp dried onion

4oz cream cheese (softened)

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp Mrs Dash

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp sea salt (or regular table salt)

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Lightly press mixture into a well greased bundt pan. Bake at 350º for approximately 1 hour or until a meat thermometer reads 170º (can be 160º if you are using only beef). Remove from oven and carefully overturn bundt pan on to a cookie sheet. Slowly lift bundt pan off of cooked meatloaf. Glaze with Heinz 1 Carb Ketcup. Return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes to allow glaze to bake in to the top. Slice and serve.

The meatloaf mix

Ready to bake

Just before returning to the oven to finish the glaze. (Ok, it's more of a "blobbing" than a glazing, but what can I say? I really like Heinz 1 Carb Ketchup!)

Deal or No Deal? Is Prescription Pet Food Worth it?

As I began my research in to low carb cat foods, I came across a type of Purina cat food (Purina DM) that appeared be something that might benefit my overweight cat. With 50% protein, 37% fat, and only 13% carbs, it was much closer to a cat's natural diet than regular commercial cat foods. The only problem was that Purina DM requires a prescription. So does Hill Science M/D brand with 43% protein, 44% fat and 13% carbs. These two formulations are designed specifically for cats with diabetes, so I thought that maybe there was some kind of medication added to the food. If there was, that would explain why you need a note from your doctor in order to get them.

A check of the ingredients set me straight...

Purina dry DM:

Poultry by-product meal, soy protein isolate, corn gluten meal, soy flakes, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), corn starch, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, fish oil, animal digest, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, DL-Methionine, taurine, choline chloride, powdered cellulose, salt, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

Hill's Science Diet dry m/d:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Pork Protein Isolate, Powdered Cellulose, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Dried Egg Product, Chicken Liver Flavor, L-Lysine, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Iodized Salt, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), L-Carnitine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Do you see any medications in that list? Any antibiotics? Any insulin? Anything that might make you believe it requires a trained medical professional in order for you to purchase that food for your pet? Anything to justify the huge price tag? Me neither. Instead there are just the same ingredients, including unhealthy cereals and fillers (but in different proportions), found in the cheapest dry cat food at Walmart priced about 50¢ a ton.

Why would leaving out or reducing the level of these fillers bump the food in to prescription territory? Walmart and PetsMart already feature several types of non-prescription pet foods designed for a specific condition (hair ball control, digestive care, weight loss, senior, kitten, etc...), so why are some formulations by prescription only?

A British website provides the answer...

"Some pet foods are sold only through veterinary surgeons. This is not because they are POM [prescription only] medicines. In fact they are not medicines at all. Their use is restricted not by law but by a marketing decision by the manufacturer to restrict the supply of their products. They argue that this is because pets suffering from disease should be under the care of health care professionals and that the diets should only be used in the light of an accurate diagnosis."

http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk/veterinary_diets.htm

As long as pet food manufacturers base their "prescription" food, even the low carb varieties, on grains and cereals, I can't take seriously their claim that they need to come from a vet. Any vet who has done their home work would never suggest CORN, SOY and WHEAT for a carnivore like my cat, or even an omnivore like the typical family dog. These prescription foods are no more than an easy profit center for vets and a steady income stream for the pet food manufacturers.

Fortunately, small pet food producers like Innova, Nature's Instinct, Core, Blue Buffalo and others have recognized the need for a pet food that is closer to a natural diet and offer low carb options. These foods also come at a premium, but at least they aren't pretending to be a "prescription" item. They are also much healthier in the case of the low carb varieties because they do not contain wheat and corn. So, without a prescription, you can get the high fat, high protein low carbohydrate food your cat needs, yet a prescription is required to get corn, wheat, soy and other garbage that should never pass the lips of your furry little carnivorous friend. Having a prescription for a low carb cat food makes as much sense as me having to go to the doctor to get a prescription for a mixed greens salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing and a piece of grilled fish while having cheap over the counter access to donuts and sugar coated breakfast cereal.

If your vet ever prescribes one of these foods, ask them specifically how this will benefit your pet and if there are other alternatives. Any recipes for homemade food? Would a raw diet be more beneficial? Different non-prescription brands than the ones they offer? An honest vet will give you the options and point out the pluses and minuses to each feeding method. A greedy quack will act insulted that you even asked these questions and didn't just blindly purchase their over-priced garbage. In that case, before shopping for unnecessarily expensive prescription pet food, you can just start shopping for a new vet.

RECIPE: Low Carb Sugar-Free Almond Cookies

On a diet or not, sometimes you just need a freakin' cookie!! By using almond flour and Splenda, a cookie goes from a sugar-ladened no-no to a tasty low carb treat. These whip up in minutes and taste a lot like those cookies you get at the Chinese restaurant...only better!

Between my son and my husband, this batch of cookies only lasted about 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups almond meal flour

2 large eggs

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 

1/4 cup Da Vinci sugar-free simple syrup with Splenda

2 tbsp heavy whipping cream

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp baking powder

12 whole roasted almonds

Directions

Mix coconut, vanilla extract, almond extract, cream and Da Vinci simple syrup together and set aside. In a separate bowl, mix almond meal with baking powder, then add the eggs and stir. Add to the coconut mixture and mix well. Drop the resulting dough on to a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. The cookies don't spread out much, but they do puff up a bit so make sure that aren't piled high. Place a whole almond in the middle of each cookie.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes in a 350º oven or until the edges on the bottom begin to turn golden brown.

Pop Medical Media: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Over the weekend, I read some interesting stuff in the newspaper and online. One thing gave me hope that the medical community might actually be getting a clue about obesity and illness in general. The other stories....YIKES! Check below to see for yourself.

THE GOOD
Parade magazine, available online as well as in many Sunday papers, printed an excellent article by Dr. Mark Liponis. It lists 5 important medical tests most doctors would not think to run, but may help keep you well. By knowing your C-reactive protein levels, vitamin d levels, checking for h.pylori (the bacteria that causes ulcers among other things), doing an aspirin check and testing your insulin levels, you can prevent a number of debilitating diseases.

The part of his article of most interest to people following a low carb life style comes under the insulin test category. Insulin levels, type 2 diabetes and obesity are all tied together, with insulin driving obesity and insulin resistance leading to type 2 diabetes. The article clearly stated the importance of knowing your insulin levels and what you can do with that information.

"If the results indicate that you’re at a higher risk for diabetes, the good news is that you also have time to take action. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented by adopting a lifestyle that includes daily exercise, weight control and a low-glycemic diet that reduces the intake of sugar, refined grains and starches."

Full article
More about Dr. Loponis

If I had only stopped at that article, I would have been left with a warm, fuzzy feeling towards major news organizations and medical pros. Instead, stupid me had to turn the pages in my copy of Parade and read this...

THE BAD
Dr. Karen Halligan wrote an article called "When your pet is overweight". Her recommendations include decreased calories and enforced controlled feeding. These are typical recommendations also given to obese humans to control their weight. The success rate for people who count every calorie and closely monitor portions is somewhere around 3%. Based on the continuous stream of fat pets I see going in to the vet's lobby next door to my office, I would guess the success rate of calorie restriction for pets is pretty similar.

Pet obesity is caused by the same thing that causes human obesity - easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars in the pets' food. By eliminating corn, wheat, rice, oats, barely and other carbs from your pets' diet, they will quickly and easily lose weight. No need to closely measure each food morsel, no need to make your pet a food obsessed neurotic mess. All you need to do is feed them the diet that they evolved to eat....one with plenty of protein and fat and without corn gluten, wheat gluten or other cereals.

By restricting calories without paying attention to nutrient content, you may make your pet a little skinner, but, unlike Dr. Halligan claims, it wont "extend your pet’s lifespan and improve its quality of life." What it will do is damage their muscles as the body robs them needed protein, increase behavior problems as your pet tries to deal with constant hunger and make you both miserable. Too bad she isn't familiar with her fellow Parade contributor Dr. Liponis. I think they should have coffee and talk.
Full article

THE UGLY
This was brought to my attention by Jeff from the Magic Bus forum. WebMD, the popular medical website, apparently doesn't know the difference between ketosis (a benign state where your body burns fat) and ketoacidosis (a dangerous condition that can lead to coma and death).

From the site ...."Unhealthy metabolic state (ketosis). Low carb diets can cause your body to go into a dangerous metabolic state called ketosis since your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy. During ketosis, the body forms substances known as ketones, which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis can be prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day." Full Article

Considering the amount of people who stop by this website and rely on it for medical information, it scares me that this kind of drivel is being published as fact. There is plenty of medical evidence that low carb eating is very healthy, can reduce the risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer cell growth, as well as cure obesity. I get angry thinking about all those people still struggling with diseases that could easily be prevented by adopting a low carb diet. I get even angrier when the professionals who are supposed to know better get it so wrong.

Cholesterol & Saturated Fat Were Framed

It is "common knowledge" that cholesterol and saturated fat cause heart disease. This "knowledge" comes from the same people who believe that obesity is caused by over eating and a lack of exercise. Both of these theories may SOUND good, but, like the belief in big foot, ghosts and the Loch Ness monster, it just doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny.

This series of short videos show Dr. Malcolm Kendrick speaking at a British Medical Association meeting in Leeds. He examines the "common knowledge" and seriously makes you wonder how people came to believe it in the first place.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5

RECIPE: Crock Pot Pork Chops

My mom used to go to work at 3:00 in the afternoon. My brother and sister and I got home from school at 4:00pm and dad would finally roll in around 6:00pm. Though my dad could cook, making food for 3 cranky kids at the end of a 12 hour day just wasn't on his agenda. Though mom worked, her job didn't require as many hours as dad's, but she wasn't there when the food needed to be ready.

Fortunately, there was the crock pot. It cooked the food while mom was at work and ensured there was hot, tasty food ready for 3  kids and a grumpy hard-working husband at the end of the day. One of our favorite things to find simmering in the crock pot was pork chops. Mom would brown them up and toss them in along with Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup. When I got my home it was my job to make Minute Rice and cook up a veggie while my siblings set the table.

We always made quick work out of those pork chops, and even occasionally remembered to save one for mom to eat when she came home at midnight. It was one of those recipes that I liked so much I introduced it to my husband when we got married. He loves those pork chops as much as I do. It is something we fed to our kids growing up, and when my oldest moved out, I gave him a crock pot so he could make his own.

Fortunately, with a few small changes, it is something I can still make now that I am eating low carb. I no longer serve it with Minute Rice, and I have had to change the sauce a little, but they are still tasty and easy...and now LOW CARB! Seriously, what could be nicer than walking in to the house at the end of the day to the smell of delicious, tender pork chops all ready to eat?


Wifezilla's Crock Pot Pork Chops

INGREDIENTS
Pork Loin Chops (enough to fill crock pot)
2 cans Campbell's Chicken Mushroom Soup* (lower carb than the original Golden Mushroom Soup mom used to pick)
2 cups sliced Portabella Mushrooms
Butter
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper powder, and garlic to taste (Mrs. Dash seasoning also works great for these.)

INSTRUCTIONS
Spice pork chops. In a large frying pan, brown in olive oil or bacon grease over medium heat. Transfer to the crock pot. Pour both cans of soup over the top of the pork chops but DO NOT add any water. Saute mushrooms in butter then add to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low while you work (or at least 4 hours). When you get home the pork chops will be tender and ready to eat.

You may need to remove the pork chops from the crock pot so you can stir up the sauce if it does not blend well on its own. Serve with a salad and a side of fauxtatoes (mashed cauliflower). The sauce tastes awesome poured over the top of the cauliflower and don't forget to drizzle a little on the chops.

Yum!


*Sauce alternative
If you want the carb count even lower, you can make your own sauce from scratch. Follow the recipe as above, just leave out the soup. When the pork chops are done, pour out the liquid in to a sauce pan. Add 3 egg yolks, heavy cream and powdered parmesan cheese and cook over low heat while stirring. Spice to taste. When the sauce is thickened, pour over the pork chops and fauxtatoes.

The Everyday Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook: Over 120 Delicious Low-Carb Recipies That Cook Themselves No Synopsis Available

Breakfast on the Quick

I only had 15 minutes to throw together breakfast the other day. Being crunched for time, I had to rule out bacon, and the sausage I had was frozen solid in 1 lb tubes. One thing I did have that was quick and handy to make were frozen hamburger patties. Since it was 7:30am, I wasn't really in the mood for a burger and really wanted eggs. Just eggs would have been boring though, and I was starting to grumble when inspiration struck.

Why not put the eggs ON the burgers? This would satisfy my egg craving while taking advantage of the easy to cook burger patties. I cooked the eggs in one pan and the burgers on the griddle. Once everything was done I placed the over-easy eggs on the hamburger patties and topped with grated cheese. It didn't take long and tasted great. If you are ever pressed for time, you might want to give it a try.

Wifezilla's Bunless Breakfast Burger

RECIPE: Low Carb Strawberry Cheese Cake

I love this no bake recipe because it's easy AND my non-low carb friends can't tell it is made without sugar. The topping is a Wifezilla original and uses a very unique ingredient....CHIA SEEDS (yes, the stuff used on chia heads)! They are available at most hippy-infested health food stores and its gelling properties are very cool. It doesn't hurt that it is an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids and taste much better than fish oil!

Low Carb Strawberry Cheese Cake

Crust
2 cups almond flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 packets of Splenda

Mix ingredients together and press in to the bottom of a large pie or cake pan coated with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 degrees until crust turns light brown. Allow to cool before adding cheese cake filling.

Topping
12 large frozen strawberries
3 tablespoons chia seeds
2 packets of splenda
1 packet of equal

Place in a bowl and allow frozen strawberries to partially thaw. Slice strawberries and add sweetener. Add chia seeds and stir. Allow strawberries to completely thaw. The chia seeds will absorb the strawberry juice and turn into a gel. Add more seeds if the topping appears to be a bit runny. If it looks too thick, add a few more strawberries.

Filling
2 8oz packets of cream cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Da Vinci Sugar-Free Simple Syrup or other low carb sweetener to taste
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice

Using a mixer, whip the cream cheese, vanilla and lemon juice together. In a seperate CHILLED bowl, whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream and cream cheese together and spread over the crust.

Cover the cheese cake with the strawberry/chia topping and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve to sugar junkies but don't tell then it is sugar free. As they take their last bite, THEN tell them. It is hilarious watching them trying to shout "NO WAY" with a mouth full of cheese cake. As they are coughing tell them there are chia seeds in the topping. "Like the stuff on the CHIA HEADS?" ::cough::sputter:::

Birth of a Sugar Junkie

Now that I understand the actual mechanism involved in weight gain (elevated insulin levels due to excess carbohydrate consumption), it is no surprise to me that there is an obesity epidemic. All I have to do is take a little trip in the "wayback machine" and think about the things I used to eat as a kid.

When I was around 5 or 6, this was typical fare in my home. To the right is the approximate carb count.

Breakfast
Kellogs Corn Flakes (2 cups) - 48.43g
Milk (1 cup) - 11.71g
Orange Juice (1 cup) - 25.79g

Lunch
Peanut Butter Sandwich - 41.64g
Apple Juice (1 cup) - 28.97g

Snack
Banana - 27.65g

Dinner
Chicken Pot Pie - 41.5g
Milk (1 cup) - 11.71g

Dessert
Ice Cream (1 cup) - 31.97g

Total - 269.37

This is what would be a "healthy" day with mom keeping a tight lid on the sugar bowl. The times when mom & dad were working a lot, we had a babysitter in the afternoons, and just dad watching us at night while mom worked. It was more typical during that time to add in a couple of sodas at 41g of carbs each, swap sugar smacks for the plain corn flakes (64g of carbs), and add in a Hostess Ho Ho or three (54g of carbs). That would push the approximate carb level from 269 up to over 420.

Now remember, carbs = sugar. It doesn't matter if it starts out as toast, a soda, a banana or a chocolate donut. 50 grams of carbohydrates = 1/4 cup of pure sugar once that food is digested. Even without added sugar in my example above, I was still getting over 1 1/4 cups of sugar a day. When the parents weren't paying attention, I was getting over 2 cups.

My teen years were even worse. I had a serious Mountain Dew habit, had Snickers Bars and Little Debbie Snack Cakes several times a week, and ate burritos and grilled cheese sandwiches from the school cafeteria. Then I discovered beer.

Later I made a foray in to vegetarianism. This was supposed to be a way for me to be healthier and stop the weight creep. Instead it got worse since an even larger portion of my diet was composed of carbohydrates. By this time I was a full blown sugar junkie and didn't even know it. I thought I was eating healthy by choosing oatmeal instead of sugary breakfast cereals, whole wheat bread instead of white, and eating pretzels instead of potato chips. But I had actually swapped one form of sugar for another.

By finally avoiding sugar in all its forms, I am regaining my health. I still get angry thinking about how I used to eat, and the foods my mom thought were good for me. That poor woman read a lot about diet, went to Weight Watchers for her own problems, but never knew the real facts. By not knowing carbs = sugar, she inadvertently turned me in to a full-fledged sugar abuser. Now I know that sugar can be disguised as pasta, rice, bread, corn, potatoes and more. I also learned that it is an unhealthy addictive substance that ruins your health. Kind of like the food equivalent of crack.



As long as the medical community and government officials ignore the fact that carbs = sugar, parents will continue to turn their kids in to spastic little addicts. At first they will wonder why their kid is so hyper. Then when they get older, they will wonder why their kid is fat and how they ended up with type 2 diabetes. It's kind of like wondering how someone grows up to became an alcoholic when you have been giving them daily shots of Jack Daniel's since birth.

Attack of the Killer Potato

The Idaho Potato board is once again bombarding the airwaves with ads touting the health benefits of the potato (see below for actual ad). I am of Irish/German descent and originally from the Midwest. So you can just imagine the number of potatoes I ingested in the form of potato salad, mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, german potato salad, potato pancakes, spatzel, tater tots, potato dumplings, potato chips and french fries. That fact that I know how to make everything I just listed from scratch, with the exception of the tater tots, is a bit of an indicator (and given some time and a grater, I think I could make a passable approximation of the tater tot). So if the potato is so healthy, why would I, an avid potato lover, gain so much weight while eating them?



According to my mom, the potato was perfectly healthy. It was all the stuff we added to it that made it in to a dietary disaster. It was the sour cream, butter, cheese, and cooking oils that were to blame. That's what was reported in all the magazines mom read and in the weekly food section of the local paper. That is also what she learned at her Weight Watchers meetings. That's what EVERYBODY "just knew". Once again, everybody was dead wrong.

According to Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, "Potatoes are a great way to survive a famine. My grandparents survived the Depression on potatoes. But in a contemporary, sedentary society, potatoes are unhealthy, with a very big glycemic load. We've seen in our studies that higher potato consumption is related to a risk of diabetes. They are very rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream-more than eating pure sugar: sugar is only half glucose when it's broken down, potatoes are 100 percent glucose. There's not very much in terms of redeemable nutritional value that you get for the calories. Unless you are extremely lean and extremely active, you can't tolerate them. If you really like potatoes, you can have them in moderation now and then, but the trouble is that a big mountain of potatoes on your plate twice a day is how many people eat."

"Actually, careful studies have shown, demonstrated that you get a bigger rise in blood sugar after eating potatoes, a baked potato, say, than you do from eating pure table sugar."

The typical large restaurant-sized baked potato, with approximately 50g of carbohydrates, is nothing more than 1/4 cup of sugar in disguise. Sure it contains vitamins and minerals, but so does a strawberry danish. The difference is the danish isn't pretending to be a health food. It is amazing to think that I was taught that potatoes were good, sour cream and butter were bad, and if I got fat, it was my fault for being weak and lazy. All the while the very basis of my diet was messing up my blood sugar, causing intense food cravings, and helping me on the way to 280lbs...my all time highest weight. Had I just thrown out the potato and eaten the butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, and bacon bits out of a bowl with a spoon, I would have been perfectly fine.

Instead, I, just like mom, bought the great potato lie hook, line and sinker. I ate them plain, I ate them with low fat yogurt instead of sour cream, I used margarine instead of butter. Then word got out that potatoes were good with fat-free salsa and I tried that too. My weight continued to climb and I felt worse all the time. It wasn't until very recently that I understood that the potato was the real problem all along.

I do understand that potato farmers need to make a living, and there are quite a few people who can scarf starchy foods with little health consequence. I am just not one of them. I can, however, find a way to continue to help the potato farmers. I will just make myself a potato canon. Then I can actually use the potatoes in a healthy way...as ammo to shoot at people who try to tell me potatoes are good to eat!

Make your own potato canon!


The latest "lievertisement" from the potato council...

Low Carb Cats Update

I am long overdue for an update on my furry little friends Cookie and Xena. For those of you just joining my blog, once I learned how grains, sugars and other carbohydrates lead to weight gain, I decided to also put my cats on a low carb diet. Chubby fuzzbucket Xena went from 22lbs down to 14 in a short period of time. My older cat was not overweight, but did lose a pound or so and stopped barfing all over my bedroom floor. Here we are months later and the cats are thriving on a grain-free low carb diet.

Xena at 14 pounds and holding

Xena is still 14 pounds. Like me, her weight has stalled but her build and body composition are still changing. She looks less and less like a furry bowling ball and more like a CAT every day. This has been an exceptionally cold winter here in Colorado, so she isn't going out side like she normally does. I know her activity level is way down, yet she still is maintaining her weight loss.

Chasing bugs in the garden has been put on hold until the weather improves.

Cookie is still chugging along. At 18+ years old it is amazing that she can still jump up on to tall tables, counters, and other places she has no business being. The grain-free wet food is something she looks forward to every morning. Along with their favorite flavor of Fancy Feast (Turkey & Giblets), she has been a sport about occasional substitutions of different grain-free store brands. Albertson's, Safeway and Super Walmart all have a couple of grain-free flavors of their generic "house" brand. She wasn't too fond of the Special Kitty Walmart wet food, but the Safeway & Albertson's brands were fine by her.

Cookie the cranky senior citizen

Their dry food is either Innova EVO or Blue Buffalo Wilderness. It all depends on whether or not I remember to place an internet order of the EVO before they run out. Blue Buffalo Wilderness I can just get at PetsMart. While neither one is what I would consider a perfect cat food (both contain potatoes), they are way better than the standard garbage most pets end up eating.

I will continue low carb for the cats just as I keep low carb for myself. All three of us are eagerly awaiting Spring so we can spend time in the back yard. Before it hits, I might have to do some more research on Xena's food intake. How many carbs are in bugs anyhow?

If I Never Lose Another Pound...

My weight loss has stalled over the Winter, but I am not discouraged. I usually GAIN weight during the colder months, and despite not losing pounds, I am still losing inches. I know it is easy to get discouraged about a diet if you aren't seeing movement on the scale, but eating low carb isn't just about weight loss. It is about my health.

I was talking about this very topic on the Low Carb Friends forum, and started to list reasons I would still eat low carb even if I never lost another pound. I think it is important to list and expand on them here, not just as a reminder for my forgetful self, but to show others who may be stalled (or miserable on a restricted calorie diet) that the scale number is NOT the most important part about being healthy and fit.

If I Never Lost Another Pound, I Would Still Eat Low Carb Because...

• Eating low carb reduces my chance of developing type 2 diabetes*.
• Eating low carb does not cause inflammation and blood vessel damage like eating carbohydrates and sugars does*.
• Eating low carb means I am eating less processed foods, and I think Monsanto and ConAgra have enough money already.
• Eating low carb also means I am supporting small local farmers because I shop at farmer's markets instead of the super market whenever possible.
• My eating low carb makes militant vegetarians seriously pissed off and I find that amusing.
• That goes double for PETA members.
• Did I mention I like meat?
• I never turn down an excuse to use my bbq grill.
• Eating low carb reduces my chances of developing heart disease*.
• I am no longer plagued by constant hunger pains.
• Since I stopped eat grains, I fart a lot less (seriously).
• I no longer get the shakes and break out in a cold sweat from a blood sugar crash even though I have just eaten about an hour earlier.
• I'll take any excuse I can get to keep eating cheese.
• I can easily eat this way for the rest of my life without being miserable.
• By eating low carb I have less monthly bloating.
• Eating low carb does not deplete my body of vitamins like high carbohydrate food does*.
• Heavy cream ... droooooollllll
• Eating low carb reduces the ability of cancer cells to develop and spread in my body (more).
• Eating low carb is healthier for my skin and reduces collagen damage (more) - I have enough wrinkles already!
• Because I really love putting melted butter on stuff.
• Bacon!

Are these enough reasons for you to continue with low carb eating? Enough reasons for you to look beyond the scale? Enough reasons for you to consider starting? If nothing else, it will give you something to think about.

*Sources - "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, "Natural Health & Weight Loss" by Barry Groves, "Protein Power" by Drs. Mike & Mary Eades and more.

Low Carb is for the Birds!

I have always tried to be kind to little woodland creatures (well, except squirrels, they are evil and often trash my garden). I thought I was doing a good thing by putting out bread for all the little birds that live outside my office. Turns out I was doing them the same disservice I was doing myself by turning to carbohydrates.

Several wildlife sites warn of the dangers of feeding bread to wild birds.

"Bread and other processed foods are not part of a bird's natural diet and may lead to malnutrition from eating foods with little or no nutritional value. The balance of fiber, fats, micronutrients, carbohydrates and protein in a bird's natural diet is radically different from a scavenged diet consisting mostly of human food."
(more)

"DO NOT FEED BREAD - bread is often the first kind of food humans give to birds but, especially in the winter when there is little other food available, birds receive very little nutrition from bread and may die from a diet high on bread as this can cause malnutrition."
(more)

So just like I have taken myself off of the unhealthy carbohydrates, I have taken the birds off as well. Instead, I have replaced the bread, muffins, and bagel pieces with suet.

Suet is actually beef fat. Why would a bird eat beef fat? Because this fat replaces the energy birds usually get from insects.

"fat plays a very important role in both human and avian diets. Along with protein and carbohydrates, fat is one of the three dietary sources of calories - or energy. Fats are concentrated forms of energy and, per unit weight, provide more than twice the caloric energy as protein or carbohydrates of equivalent weight. This is very important for birds because their metabolisms are extremely accelerated. Fat energy helps them sustain activity levels longer between meals." (more)

Suet feeder just outside my office window and one of the "regulars".

Mixed with seeds, nuts and berries, a suet cake is just what those little birds need to thrive though a Colorado winter. You do your neighborhood feathered friends a great favor by getting them off of sugar and carbs. Save the unhealthy bread and donuts for the evil squirrels.

Wifezilla's Low Carb Golden Clam Chowder

I'm on a roll with all the cooking (sorry if I am making you hungry)! Here is what I made this morning and left cooking in the slow cooker while I went to the office. Based on a traditional clam chowder recipe, it has a few low carb adaptations. The golden color comes from the rutabaga.

Wifezilla's Low Carb Golden Clam Chowder
(Slow cooker directions)

Ingredients
6 slices of thick cut bacon (or hog jowl slices)
1 large rutabaga
2 cans of minced clams
1 Tbsp dried minced onions
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp crushed dried rosemary
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
2 cloves
2 cups water
1/2 cup heavy cream
dried or fresh chopped chives for garnish

Directions
Peel and chop rutabaga in to small pieces. Cook bacon in a large frying pan. Remove when well done and drain on paper towels. Put rutabaga pieces in the bacon grease and cook until a bit soft (don't worry about cooking them completely at this point...remember...this is all going in to the slow cooker). Add in all the spices except for the cloves. Add in both cans of minced clams including liquid and stir well. Once everything is warmed up, transfer contents to your slow cooker. Crumble the bacon and add that in as well. Pour in 2 cups of water and stir well. Place the 2 clove pieces on top of the mix, or wrap the 2 cloves in a piece of cheese cloth or put in a tea ball. You want to be able to remove the cloves before serving.

Put your slow cooker on low and let this mix cook while you work or run errands. When you get home, fish the cloves out and stir in the cream. It will take a few minutes for the chowder to warm back up to temperature, so pour yourself a martini, or have a few slices of cheese as an appetizer. Relax. (Or you could just say "To Hell With Waiting!" and nuke some...to each his own.)

Once the chowder has warmed up, help yourself to a bowl and sprinkle with some of the chives. No, you should NOT serve this with oyster crackers like a traditional chowder. That would blow the whole point of me adapting this to low carb. You could make yourself some cheese crisps or flax crackers, but I think another martini might be more fun.

UPDATE: lisabinil from Low Carb Friends was kind enough to run the numbers on this. Thanks Lisa!

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 413 Calories; 31g Fat (67.3% calories from fat); 19g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 88mg Cholesterol; 357mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 5 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Wifezilla's Instant Blueberry Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream? With all the sugar in regular ice cream, I have had to avoid it. I did try some no-sugar-added ice creams, but they contain sugar alcohols. Not only did they not taste good, I got a stomach ache for my troubles. I tried making ice cream in my ice cream maker, but it was a mess, took forever, and cost me more in ice and rock salt than the resulting goo was worth.

Luckily, I did some experimenting with my food processor the other day. The result is a recipe so fast and easy, I could kick myself for not coming up with it sooner. It literally takes less than 1 minute to put everything together and have creamy, tasty low carb ice cream read to eat. In fact, I have an electric ice cream maker if anyone wants it. I wont be needing it anymore!!!

Wifezilla's Instant Blueberry Ice Cream
(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp Da Vinci sugar-free simple syrup

Substitution options: You can use packets of Splenda or Equal if you don't have any Da Vinci syrup. Try 2 of each (mixing sweeteners tends to lower aftertaste). You can also use frozen strawberries, but they must be cut in to smaller pieces. Whole frozen strawberries are too big and hard to mix/cut properly. You can partially thaw them and slice, but they must be mostly frozen for this method to work. You can also dice fresh fruit and freeze it. Just keep the chunks about blueberry-sized and it will work great.

Directions: Place ingredients in a food processor with a chopping blade (mine is an old Black & Decker ShortCut). Pulse for a few seconds until heavy cream & blueberries turn in to nice, creamy, soft serve looking mix (you can also use a blender, but you have to mix & pulse repeatedly to get it evenly whipped). You can set it a bit more by placing in the freezer, but honestly, it seldom makes it that far. Hubby and I just take the food processor container and grab a couple of spoons (fewer dishes to wash!).

Yummmmmm....Low Carby Blueberry Goodness! Drooollll!

I am not sure what the texture would be like if you froze it overnight, but I do have some in the freezer right now. I will check it after work and see if it is still edible or if it turns in to a rock.

Here are the approximate carb and calorie counts. I list this recipe as making two servings, since hubby and I share a batch and it is very satisfying. This is not something you want to eat if you are on Atkins induction unless it keeps you from diving in to a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Other phases of Atkins, Barry Groves plan, or maintenance phases should have no trouble with this if you keep track of your total carbs for the day.

Per Serving...
Calories: 243
Fat: 23g
Total Carbs: 12
Fiber: 2
Net Carbs: 10


Enjoy everyone!

UPDATE: I froze some for about 6 hours and it did get kind of hard, but it also seemed to get "dusty" and crumbly. Yuck.  I recommend only making what you immediately need.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Hood Calorie Countdown Chocolate Milk

When it comes to cravings, I have learned that trying to ignore them can make you a bit nutty and even trigger a binge. It is often a better idea to find a way to calm the craving than to try and pretend it doesn't exist. One of my occasional cravings is for chocolate milk. With the high sugar content of regular chocolate milk, this is one of the things I had taken off the menu. I had tried to ignore the times I had cravings for chocolate milk and made myself some coco mocha instead. While it did help a bit, there is something about a super cold glass of chocolate milk that still made me want a glass every time I walked by the dairy section at the grocery store.

Imagine my surprise (and relief) when I saw this at my local Walmart! Did I now have a way to drive the chocolate milk craving out of my head without derailing my weight loss? Plus I had to wonder if the 60% fewer calories, 90% less sugar and 84% fewer carbohydrates than regular chocolate milk would mean it was an undrinkable mess. Since it was only $2.98 for a half gallon, I figured it was worth a try.

I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and creamy the texture was. The flavor was nice and chocolaty. It calmed my chocolate milk craving in no time flat. It is sweetened with Splenda and did have a bit of an artificial sweetener aftertaste. Someone new to Splenda may not like it, but as an artificial sweetener veteran, it wasn't too bothersome. I did notice that the aftertaste was less noticeable the colder the drink is (I am one of those weirdos who puts ice cubes in their milk...once I put the ice in and tasted the Hood chocolate drink again, the Splenda taste was less apparent).

The price isn't too bad for a specialty product and the texture is awesome. Other than the little Splenda twinge, this is a really good product. Next time you get a chocolate milk craving, you may want to give it a try.

Rating (out of 5 stars)
Product ****
Value ****

Buffalo Hot Wings, Low Carb Style

Buffalo hot wings are an inexpensive, tasty snack that can work very well with a low carb diet. Wings have a good percentage of fat and protein with very little carbs...and that only comes from the sauce. Your best bet is to make them from scratch. Most premade bags of wings contain brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or worse yet, a flour batter. (As any true wing lover will tell you, REAL buffalo wings ARE NOT BATTERED!)

So next time wings go on sale at the local super market, buy a bunch and follow the recipes below for an awesome low carb treat!

BUFFALO HOT WINGS
Basic Directions
1. Cook your wings
2. Mix up your sauce
3. Place sauce and wings in a bowl and toss together
4. Eat with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.

Wings coated in Wifezilla's Sweet & Spicy Hot Sauce

1. Cooking Directions
Wings always sounded so easy, yet time after time I ended up with inedible slimy yuck that only slightly resembled wings until I learned the proper cooking method. The trick is to deep fry them in small batches. They should be crispy on the outside and properly done on the inside. As you finish each batch, drain them on paper towels, then place them in a warm oven while you finish cooking the rest of the wings. If you don't have a deep fat fryer, you can use a wok or large pot....pour a couple of inches of peanut oil in the bottom. If you don't have enough oil to deep fry them, follow the oven fry direction at the end of the post.

2. Sauce Recipes
Hubby and I like very different flavor profiles. If a sauce contains a lot of vinegar, like a traditional sauce, all I can taste is the vinegar. I came up with a sweet & spicy variation that cuts back a little on the vinegar flavor while still delivering a zing. Choose which ever option suits your fancy.

TRADITIONAL HOT WING SAUCE
(coats 1 dozen wing segments)
1/8 cup Louisiana Hot Sauce or Franks® Red Hot Sauce (or any hot sauce that contains peppers, vinegar, and spices. Watch for added sugars!)
1/8 cup melted butter

WIFEZILLA'S SWEET & SPICY HOT SAUCE
(coats 1 dozen wing segments)
1/4 cup Heinz One Carb, No Sugar Added Ketchup
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic (I use the stuff out of a jar)
1-3 tsp cayenne pepper powder (adjust based on your personal preference)

3. Putting it all together
Simply place your sauce ingredients in a bowl along with the crispy hot wings and toss until coated.

4. Serve!
Put your coated wings on a plate, but don't forget the extras! Celery sticks with blue cheese dressing are the perfect companions for hot wings. The blue cheese can help cut the heat if you get carried away with the spices, and the celery adds a nice fresh crunch to things.


Oven Frying
Take a large non-stick baking pan with high sides and coat the entire bottom of the pan with a thick layer of bacon grease (or shortening, but bacon grease makes it taste better). Place in a 350º oven for a few minutes until the grease melts. Add wings and cook until outside starts to get crispy. Flip and continue cooking until wings are well done.

Oven-fried wings cooked in bacon fat.

The Zilla Awards

At the end of each year, along with New Years Resolutions, there are a bunch of awards shows, "best of" lists, and retrospectives. Who am I to fight such a popular trend? So, it is with great pride that I announce the First Annual 'Zilla Awards! The categories are not what you might typically see and will change from year to year, but what did you expect from a giant award-granting mutant lizard anyway? So here are the awards for 2007.

Category: BEST BOOK BY A COMPLETE GEEK
Winner: Gary Taubes - Good Calories Bad Calories
Anyone who can take that much science and make it readable to my ADD riddled brain is aces in my book! Hell, I read the WHOLE THING...TWICE! He takes about 1000 years of dietary research and literature and makes it logical, understandable, and :gasp: Interesting! He even manages to sound like a human in person during interviews and lectures promoting his book. Gary Taubes is one chic geek!

Category: BEST VIRTUAL VIGILANTE JUSTICE
Winners: The Duck Squad (and many others!) from Low Carb Friends
When an online diet guru's story of losing 198 pounds in less than a year started to smell a little fishy, this group of people started digging. What they discovered is that "Kimmer" (Heidi Diaz), founder of the Kimkins diet was, in fact, an obese con artist. She was charging $59.95 to join her website so you could lose weight just like her, but the "after" photos she used were lifted from a Russian mail-order bride website. So were the photos of several other of her "success" stories. They became the DUCK SQUAD after a blogger named Ducky began posting information about the Kimkins con and Kimmer mentioned on her website that she was suspicious of anyone with a duck avatar. Soon duck images were popping up all over the place. As a result, Heidi "Kimmer" Diaz has had her assets frozen (which included a house purchased with CASH) and is the target of a lawsuit for her fraud as well as for health problems caused by following her plan (basically a twisted, starvation version of Atkins and Stillmans). Despite nay-sayers on diet message boards, the duck squad continues to watch the principle players in the Kimkins scam lest they individually or together try to launch another site and defraud more innocent people.

Category: BEST LIVING EXAMPLE OF THE WORD IRONY
Winner: Jane Brody
Jane Brody is a columnist for the New York Times. She isn't exactly a big fan of the low carb lifestyle and writes often about the dangers of not eating carbs. Here is what she says about her way of eating... "What do I and my slender friends eat? Mostly -- but not exclusively -- whole grain breads and cereals; lots of vegetables, salads and fresh and dried fruits; poultry, fish, meat and dried beans and peas and skim milk. But we also eat mostly white rice and pasta, potatoes, winter squash, avocados, regular cheese, eggs, cookies and ice cream and an occasional piece of cake or pie." {more}

It is no big surprise to those of us in the low carb world that she ended up with slightly elevated cholesterol numbers (I mean seriously, white rice, pasta and potatoes are basically sugar as far as your body is concerned..and sugar triggers artery damage..and cholesterol is what REPAIRS the damage caused by the SUGAR). Even though her doctor tells her not to worry, she cuts out cheese, further limits her red meat intake, eats more low-fat products, etc... and instead of having a lower cholesterol number for all her efforts, it jumps up even higher. She then goes on statins. Is that going to help? (more)

Cardiologist Mike Eades provides the answer...
"She is obviously relieved that she’s fallen into the bosom of the ever-effective statins despite the fact that the preponderance of properly done studies have shown that statins confer no health benefits to women of any age and that women over the age of 65 (she is 65) who have high cholesterol live longer than those who have normal to low cholesterol. And she missed the studies that show that both men and women over the age of 65 who take statins have an increased incidence of cancer. So, she’s volitionally taking a drug that a) has been shown to be worthless for her, b) has been shown to cause cancer, and c) has its own list of side effects, some of them fatal. An interesting choice for a supposedly smart woman to make." (more)

So keep on trashing low carb Jane and keep taking your statins. Then we can update dictionaries to include your picture next to the word IRONY, right along side a picture of Jim Fixx, the jogging guru, who dropped dead of a heart attack...while jogging.

Category: BEST BACK PEDDLING
Winner: The American Diabetes Association
After decades of warning people about the dangers of a low carb diet, the American Diabetes Association, who until now recommended ingesting NO LESS than 130g of carbohydrate EACH DAY (the equivalent of almost 1 1/2 cups of sugar), has finally decided low carb might not kill you. No, they haven't gone as far as recommending a low carb diet, which seriously restricts sugar intake for those with a blood sugar issue, but have released the following...

"The evidence is clear that both low-carbohydrate and low-fat calorie restricted diets result in similar weight loss at one year. We're not endorsing either of these weight-loss plans over any other method of losing weight. What we want health care providers to know is that it's important for patients to choose a plan that works for them, and that the health care team support their patients' weight loss efforts and provide appropriate monitoring of patients' health." (more)

I think the evidence is clear that they are having trouble ignoring the growing evidence that low carb leads to better blood sugar management, but still have no intention of admitting they were wrong all the years they told people to be sure to eat plenty of sugar. For a bunch of individuals who have dedicated themselves to eliminating diabetes, they still have no idea what they are talking about. The scariest part is this policy revision puts them MILES ahead of the American Heart Association (which around here is now called The American Heart Attack Association).

Category: BEST PISSING OFF OF AN ENTIRE COUNTRY
Winner: China
Earlier this year, pets by the score were being brought in to animal hospitals with kidney problems. The FDA investigated then announced that it identified melamine in wheat and rice gluten imported from China that had been used in pet foods. A derivative of melamine, an industrial chemical utilized in plastics manufacturing, is used in fertilizers in Asia. There was an extensive pet food recall effecting several manufacturers. Factory owners in China have admitted to routinely adding melamine to pet foods to boost their nitrogen content, which makes it appear that they contain more protein that they actually do (more). While it is impossible to judge the actual number of pets killed or injured due to the contaminated pet food, one food manufacturer is now the target of 90 class action suits. (more)

One sure way to make a bunch of Americans angry is to poison their pets, but China isn't the kind of country to do anything half way. They must have decided American's weren't mad enough about their puppies and kitties being killed, so they decided to take it one step further and taint children's toys with lead and date rape drugs (more).

Lets have a big round of applause for all of our winners. Winners, if you would like to have your plaque mailed to you, just drop me a line. China, you all have to share one.

Resolve not to get ripped off! New Year's Diet Plans

As the end of the year approaches, many start thinking about New Year's resolutions. Losing weight is a perennial favorite, and the diet industry is well aware of this. Ads for prepackaged food plans, diet pills, exercise equipment and gym memberships abound in print and on the air waves this time of year. Unfortunately, most of them will not help you lose weight, and some are an outright rip off.

Dr. Barry Groves, author of Eat Fat Get Thin and Natural Health & Weight Loss has a great understanding of the core issue. "The overweight are a ready source of income....They rely on you for a very comfortable living."

According to a CBS report in December of last year, Americans spend somewhere near $35 billion a year on weight-loss products. Yet, for all that money spent, obesity rates are not going down. Not only are people making money off of you if you are fat, they aren't doing what you paid them to do...help you get skinny.

So when you see the latest diet, the newest exercise gadget, or the hottest new weight loss pill, pause for a minute and think about those 35 billion reasons they are being pushed on you. Below are just a few examples of how an overweight person and their money can end up being parted.

Meal Programs: Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem are two well-known examples (though they are not the only ones). For a fee, they ship you prepackaged, pre-portioned foods. The good news is they will actually send you the food if you pay for it. The bad news is that you could make the same foods for yourself for much less. Those tv ads you see for these plans? Next time one pops up, look for the following words...RESULTS NOT TYPICAL. They are there on every single skinny person shown as an example of what their diets can do. What are the typical results? More like the results for diets in general, which have an abysmal failure rate of over 95%. Instead of forking over the money for a plan like this, take a cooking class instead. Or go to the book store and pick up some low carb cook books. It will cost a lot less and you will most likely actually lose some weight.

Gyms: Gyms love New Year! This is when they get the most sign-ups, but by Spring time, up to 30% of paying members are no longer around. Of course, they are still PAYING, because a gym membership can be as hard to quit as a crack habit. Long term contracts you can't get out of even if you move, get injured, or just don't use the facilities, don't sound like a good idea to me. Add the fact that exercise has been shown to have little effect on weight loss (Good Calories, Bad Calories - Gary Taubes), gym memberships are just not worth it in my book. A local community center that has a pay as you go plan, or per class charge is a much smarter option. You can also always use the local park for free. (more)

Membership Websites: There are online sites that charge you to join to get access to their diet plans, discussion forums and recipe sites. Some charge per month while others offer a lifetime membership. The problem with these sites is you can't see what the plan is until you've already ponied up the cash to join. You have no way to evaluate the quality of the information being offered, or if the dietary advice you are getting is even medically safe or sound. In one well publicized case, a woman running a diet site claimed to have lost 198 pounds in a year, and maintained her weight loss for over 5 years. Her site offered the way to lose weight just like her if you paid $59.95. After an investigation prompted by a disgruntled business partner and upset members who were denied access to the site after paying for the "lifetime" membership, it was revealed that the diet's founder was, in fact, over 300 lbs. She had not lost 198 pounds. Her "after" photo she used on her site and in an issue of Women's World magazine was lifted from a Russian Bride website. Not only was her photo faked, several other "success" stories were fictitious, their photos also coming from Russian dating sites. (more) This diet founder is now the target of a lawsuit for her fraud as well as health problems experienced by those who followed her plan.

There is really no need to pay an upfront fee for recipes, articles or forums in the first place since these are already available for FREE. Two excel