Dana's blog

Bacon is much beloved, and an iconic low carb food. We're all for the Bacon of the Month Club, bacon band aids, bacon watches, even cuddly, plushy stuffed bacon. We draw the line, however, at Bacon Flavored Jelly Beans.

Well, about darned time. After five or six years of demonizing low carb as that silly fad diet that's sooooo 2003, it looks like at least some of the media are coming back around.

First of all, I'm back to drinking Extra Light Olive Oil, per the Shangri-La Diet. I am not drinking it in the middle of the night, because I've read some things about the value of having at least an over-night fast, and oil in the middle of the night, of course, breaks that fast. So I'm having a good two-tablespoon shot first thing in the morning, and waiting an hour before my first cup of tea.

We've all heard bad diet advice in our day. Heck, many of us went low carb because the ubiquitous low fat/high complex carb advice and the "just eat less and exercise more" advice turned out to be disastrously wrong for us. Then there are the laxative teas, the "drink only this lemon juice/maple syrup/cayenne pepper mixture for a week" crashes, that sort of thing. This sort of thing may take off five pounds before the family reunion, but is not the solution to genuine obesity.

Still searching for the perfect gift for the low carber in your life? A few ideas:

* A nice low carb cookbook! Gee, I wonder where you could get one of those...

* CarbSmart has great gift baskets! A really impressive assortment, with a wide range of prices; you're bound to find something perfect for your favorite low carber.

I only have a couple of weeks to get this radio/podcast show together. For the first show, on New Year's Day, I want to share your stories. So please, tell me your story! The topic for this first show is "How Low Carb Changed My Life." I do want to include as many stories as I can, so please keep it to a few paragraphs, not several pages. :-D

Not-Pea Soup

1 onion
1 carrot
2 celery ribs
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
2 bay leaves, whole
2 pounds smoked ham hocks or shanks (if you can get 'em, shanks are meatier)
3 pounds frozen green beans, thawed
8 cups water
1 tablespoon ham bouillon concentrate
xanthan, guar, or glucomannan
1/2 teaspoon pepper -- or to taste
salt -- or vege-sal, to taste
hot sauce -- optional

Met a really nice woman at my chiropractor's office today, and had a good 15 minutes or so of conversation with her. We're both massage therapists, so we had a major "thing" in common. I mentioned writing about low carb, and it transpired that she eats a gluten-free diet, which has a lot in common with low carbing. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that one of the things I love about the way I eat is that there's no division between types of food.

That Nice Boy I Married recently found this deeply disturbing article. For those of you who lack the time to read the whole thing, it's about obesity-conscious parents who are putting infants on diets, because they don't want fat kids. Some are going so far as to dilute formula, or give their kids water instead of breast milk in their bottles. Frightening.

In at least some editions of 500 Low Carb Recipes, the recipe for Kay's Hot Rum Toddy is missing a crucial ingredient: The butter. The recipe should read:

Kay’s Hot Rum Toddy
A delicious winter libation – for adults only!
2 1/4 cups Splenda
1/2 pound salted butter
2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
750 milliliters top-quality dark rum

Just ran across this med journal abstract.It starts with this statement:

BACKGROUND: Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for coronary artery disease, yet is associated with lower risk of adverse outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

Get that? High cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, but somehow people with high cholesterol have less of a risk of a bad outcome when they, you know, actually have serious heart problems.

They repeat:

Ever wonder what the heck ketosis is, or what the anti-low-carb crowd mean when they say "Oh, that diet puts your body in starvation mode!" Dr. Mike Eades has a great article explaining ketosis.

After reading that article this morning, I'm going to try another experiment. For those of you who haven't had the time (or don't want to take the time) to read it, it's a run-down of diet programs that depend on manipulating flavors and aromas to control appetite. It discusses the Shangri-La Diet, the new Sensa program, the previous diet by the same guy who invented (and sells) Sensa, Scentsational Weight Loss, and another one called The Flavor Point Diet.

Long but very interesting article about the whole concept of flavor-control diets, including Sensa and the Shangri-La Diet.

I'm such a big geek. I love this stuff.

I just saw That Nice Boy I Married off on a road trip; he'll be gone till Sunday evening. I packed him plenty of food, so he wouldn't have to spend time and money at fast food joints. What did I send? Keep in mind that TNBIM has never been fat, and can tolerate a little more carb than I can:

* Sandwiches on low carb bread -- two ham and cheese, two turkey and cheese, and two PB&J (natural peanut butter and low sugar jelly).

* Green peppers with blue cheese dip

* Bananas

* Oranges

* A can of mixed nuts

* Individually wrapped string cheeses

* Sparkling water