A Couple of Reader Questions
I owe you more posts about recipe substitutions, but I'm feeling thick-headed and stupid from the first cold I've had in two years -- plus the interesting cold medication I took to keep snot from running down my face while I type. So I thought I'd take an easier path, and answer a couple of question I got via Facebook, from reader Barbara Hirschfeld:
Dana, I bought your book and look forward to trying the recipes out. Tell me, is this diet a bit constipating? I used to eat bran cereal for breakfast, what do you recommend as a substitute that is low carb but does the trick? Thanks
That reminds me of another question - wine and a low carb diet - how does that work? Living in wine country, i don't want to give up my wine.
Two great questions that I'm sure will help a lot of people. So here goes:
First of all, whether or not people find low carb constipating is a very individual thing; some do, some don't. I'm convinced one of the reasons fiber looks good in some studies is that most people base their diet around starch, aka paste -- you've heard of pastry and pasta, right? For centuries, flour and water were used as paste for sticking things together. You can see how a steady diet of paste could gum up the works a bit, and require extra fiber to move things along.
Still, even minus the paste some people need a little help. Sugar-free fiber laxatives are fine, but probably not necessary. There are plenty of good low carb sources of fiber. One ounce of All-Bran cereal contains 9 grams of fiber, so let's shoot for that, shall we, while avoiding as much of the 13 grams of usable carb the cereal has. 3 cups of romaine has 4 grams of carb, with 3 grams of fiber, so we're 1/3 of the way there already. An ounce of almonds has 6 grams of carb with 3 grams of fiber, so we're up to 6 grams of fiber, with just 4 grams of usable carb. We'll add a cup of cauliflower, the low carber's best friend, and we've got another 5 grams of carb with another 3 grams of fiber. That's 9 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of usable carb.
The point is that there are lots of great low carb foods that are loaded with fiber. If you eat your vegetables, plus some low sugar fruit and nuts and seeds, you can easily get the fiber you'd find in that bran cereal.
What if you've been eating all those fruits and vegetables all along, and have been adding the bran cereal to the fiber you get from those low carb sources? Consider the virtues of flax seed meal. 2 tablespoons have 9 grams of carb, all 9 of which are fiber. You'll also get 7 grams of protein, a good whack of B1 and useful quantities of B6, iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, and folacin. Oh, and some omega-3 fatty acids, though not as good as the ones from animal sources. Laura Dolson, of the excellent About.com low carb blog, has a good flax focaccia-style bread recipe . You can also buy low carb flax-based cereals, or make your own. I've published a few flax cereal recipes; here's my newest one, which will be in the new edition of 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes:
Almond-Coconut Hot "Cereal"
12 tablespoons almond meal
12 tablespoons flax seed meal
6 tablespoons vanilla whey protein powder
6 tablespoons shredded coconut meat -- finely shredded
6 pinches salt
6 tablespoons almond butter
2 cups boiling water
Mix together the almond meal, flax seed meal, vanilla whey protein, coconut and salt and store in a snap-top container in the fridge. To make cereal, put 1/3 cup mixture in a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon almond butter, and pour in 1/3 cup boiling water. Stir till the almond butter is melted in. Serve with cream or half and half and sweetener of your choice.
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6 servings, each with: 379 Calories; 25g Fat ; 27g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 10g Dietary Fiber; 9 grams usable carb.
You'll notice the usable carb count is only 4 grams less than for All-Bran. But look at that protein content! You're going to be full for hours.
Other considerations: Drink lots of water! All the fiber in the world won't do much without water. Also, make sure you're getting plenty of magnesium; the stuff is a natural laxative. Nuts and seeds, especially pumpkin seeds, are your best low carb sources. If you're taking a calcium supplement -- I sure do -- it should contain calcium and magnesium both. The two are synergistic, plus, all by itself calcium can stop you up. A good ratio is twice as much calcium as magnesium. A gram a day of calcium and 500 mgs of magnesium is a good dose for most people.
What about wine, a far pleasanter topic? Dry wines are okay, they generally have between 1-3 grams of carb per glass. Sweet wines, unsurprisingly, are carb-y.
Remember, though, the cautionary words of a medical journal article I read long ago: "Alcohol profoundly inhibits lipolysis." In other words, alcohol stops fat burning dead in its tracks, and you won't burn any more fat until you burn through the alcohol. I have sadly reached an age where I can't have wine every night and lose -- indeed, when I'm in recipe development I need to skip it most nights just to keep even. Maybe it's impending menopause, I dunno. But if you drink regularly and are having trouble losing, it's a very likely culprit.
That said, there is little question that wine, especially dry reds, is good for you. So if your waistline doesn't object, enjoy!
