Dana's blog

After my most recent podcast, where I talked about Attention Deficit Disorder, and how it appears to be tied into every other health issue I have, including my lifetime struggle with obesity, sleep disorder, thyroid trouble, and seasonal affective disorder, I had an email from a listener asking for more info, since she had many of the same problems. Here's a quick list of some references:

ADD and circadian rhythm disorders

As I mentioned in the Ham and Mac-and-Cheese post, I baked a ham last weekend. We've been living off it all week, a great demonstration of how cooked meat in the refrigerator is super low-carb convenience food. Finally today I was down to a good meaty bone. Coincidentally, the weather was absolutely foul here in Southern Indiana, cold and rainy and bleak. What more reason could a girl need for making a pot of soup? I didn't measure, but here's what I did:

Found this in my inbox this morning:

Hi Dana,

One of the coolest things that happened during my brief time at the Nutrition and Metabolism Society Symposium last weekend is that I met Laura Dolson, who writes about low carb diets for About.com, and whose work I have long admired. She was there for the whole symposium, so I thought I'd link to her notes and comments on the subject.

We had ham and macaroni and cheese for supper tonight. I had a ham in the garage fridge; I'd bought it when it was on sale, and stashed it for future use. Unfortunately, the garage fridge has given up the ghost. (And it's maybe 7 or 8 years old. And it's already been repaired once. Hmmph. See if I buy a Maytag again.) So I needed to cook and eat the ham.

Had a liverwurst and tomato omelet for breakfast today; I'd been craving one, for some reason. Before I went low carb, one of my favorite sandwiches was liverwurst, lettuce, and tomato, with plenty of pepper, on a toasted whole wheat bagel. Omelets are at least as good!

I sliced the liverwurst fairly thin; I'm guessing I got about 2 ounces, and I used about 1/4 of a smallish tomato, and a couple of teaspoons of minced red onion. Cooked it in bacon grease. And what was the nutrition count on my omelet?

The American Society of Bariatric Physicians (doctors specializing in weight loss) annual conference was held in Baltimore last week. Excitingly, the last two days, Saturday and Sunday, consisted of a symposium presented by the Nutrition and Metabolism Society, covering many aspects of the benefits of low carbohydrate nutrition. Some of the biggest names in the field presented talks, including Dr. Eric Westman, Jeff Volek, PhD, Dr. Stephen Phinney, Dr. Mary Vernon, Dr. Eugene Fine, Richard Feinman, PhD, and Dr. Eric Kossoff.

So there we were, That Nice Boy I Married and I, in New Stanton, Pennsylvania, on our drive to my Mom's memorial service in New Jersey. We'd spent the night in Wheeling, West Virginia, and driven as far as New Stanton before stopping for breakfast.

Did you know that General Mills kid's cereals are now made with at least 8 grams of whole grain per serving? Must mean they're health food!

Let us ignore for the moment whether whole grains are healthy food. Let us ignore, too, whether grain that has been so thoroughly processed, heated, extruded, puffed, etc, can really be thought of as "whole."

The average specified serving of one of these cereals is 30 grams, or just over 1 ounce. That means that 8 grams is 26% of the weight. Are we excited?

My nephew Henry and niece Halliday came to visit this week. I invented these pancakes for them, and they loved 'em.

Egg and Cottage Cheese Pancakes

6 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons Stevia in the Raw (or other sweetener to equal 2 tablespoons of sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder
1 tablespoon butter -- or as needed

A number of you have asked for an update on my egg fast, so here it is: I did nothing but eggs for two days, Monday and Tuesday of last week. I had four eggs per meal, three meals a day. Each of those days, I had them medium-boiled for two meals, and scrambled in 1/2 teaspoon of bacon grease for the third. This came to 6.7 grams of carb per day (eggs do have a tiny bit of carb in them) and fewer than 1000 calories. (I could look it up, but it stick in my mind it was 978.)

These do have that cooling effect in the mouth that comes from erythritol, but we love 'em nonetheless. This is my first try at chocolate meringues, hence the "#1" designation.

Chocolate Meringues #1

3 egg whites -- at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup erythritol
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 300. Line cookie sheet with baking parchment.

That Nice Boy I Married, who grew up in Johnson County, Kansas, verifies that this has a Kansas City sort of flavor.

KC Oven Barbecued Beef Ribs

1/2 cup KC Barbecue Rub (recipe below)
3 pounds beef spare ribs
1/2 cup water -- or light beer or chicken broth
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon molasses

Put half of your rub -- 1/4 cup -- in a bowl, and set aside.

Now sprinkle the rest of your rub all over the ribs, both sides. Place them in a roasting pan, stick 'em in the oven, and set 'er for 300.

Got this email today:

Love your podcast. It's exactly what I need to get through the challenges that come from adopting a low carb lifestyle. I just downloaded your 1000 recipe book on Kindle and it's a lifesaver. Every mealtime is an exciting experience as I try new recipes and work on my cooking skills.

Those of you who hang out on Facebook have probably been following this story, but I thought I ought to tell it here, too, so bear with me: