About.com Low Carb Diets

Join Laura on Facebook and Twitter

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:18:23 +0000

Do you like to connect with people via social networking sites? You can join me on Twitter and Facebook! Until recently, I posted low-carb related items on my personal Facebook page, but now I have started an About.com Low Carb Diets fan page so that I can be freer to post more about what is going on on the site and new things I'm writing. If you are interested in the science of low-carb eating, another Facebook connection that I highly recommend is the Nutrition and Metabolism Society group.

I've also revived my Twitter account. My intention with Twitter is to tweet interesting items I come across having to do with diet and nutrition, as well as what I'm cooking up in the kitchen. Here's my Twitter page.

Images Courtesey of Facebook and Twitter

Related Resources:

Low Carb Discussion Forum

Free Weekly Newsletter (also RSS Feed)

Laura's Blog

Join Laura on Facebook and Twitter originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 12:18:23.

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Win Valuable Low-Carb Prizes!

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:00:06 +0000

Would you like to have some fun and a chance at a low-carb prize? Low-carb blogger Amy Dungan of the Healthy Low-Carb Living Blog is having her third annual Healthy Low-Carb Living Great Start Giveaway. The best thing about it? There's no catch! Seriously! She's giving away donated prizes to help you on your low-carb journey, just for playing a fun guessing game. The prizes include books, cookbooks, Fat Head DVDs and low-carb products such as Chocoperfection Bars. So don't delay! Join in the fun at Amy's Great Start Giveaway

Image Courtesey of Amy Dungan

Win Valuable Low-Carb Prizes! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 10:00:06.

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Free Blood Glucose Testing at Walgreens

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:00:22 +0000

Did you know that many Walgreens stores and Take Care Clinics are offering free blood glucose testing for the next ten days (until Feb 18). No appointment necessary. This is a great opportunity to get some information about how well your body is processing carbohydrate. For more information, check the Walgreens site.

Photo © Richard Cano

Related Resources:

Why I Test my Blood Sugar (prediabetic)

Low-Carb Diets and Blood Sugar

Six Steps to Help Prevent Diabetes

Free Blood Glucose Testing at Walgreens originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 18:00:22.

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New Recipe: Spinach Bites

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:59:51 +0000

These spinach cheese bites are sort of like baked mini-croquettes. I have two flavors, regular and curry. You can eat 8 of the curry ones for only one gram of carbohydrate - the regular ones have just half a gram more. This is the first time I have experimented using pork rinds as a binder, and they came out well, I think. Check out my Low-Carb Spinach Bites as a Super Bowl snack.

Photo © Laura Dolson

Related Resources:

Low-Carb Pizza Bites

Low-Carb Party Foods

Low-Carb Super Bowl Party

New Recipe: Spinach Bites originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 09:59:51.

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Carbs After Exercise? Maybe Not

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:33:41 +0000

We often hear that the thing to do after exercise is replenish those carbs. Here's an interesting story reported in a blog at the Los Angeles Times: Hungry after a workout? You might want to skimp on the carbs. I haven't read the original study in the December Journal of Applied Physiology, but as the reporter describes it, groups of men ate meals of different compositions after a workout, and it turned out that insulin sensitivity was enhanced most after the low-carb meal.

Photo © Ana Abejon

Related Resources:

About.com Exercise Site

About.com Walking Site

Fitness Links for Overweight and Beginning Exercises

Carbs After Exercise? Maybe Not originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 22:33:41.

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Michael Pollan and "Food, Inc." on Oprah

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:59:33 +0000

Last Wednesday, Oprah devoted half of her show to educating her audience about where our food comes from. I think this is really important, in these days where large food companies are devoting a lot of their resources to keeping this information away from us. Segments from the wonderful documentary Food, Inc. were shown, and food journalist and author Michael Pollan, who appears in the film, was interviewed. He gave some of his "food rules" from his book of the same name. Three of my favorites:

Don't eat anything that doesn't rot.
Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
Don't eat anything with ingredients a third grader cannot pronounce.

From the Oprah Web site:

Image Courtesy of River Road Entertainment

Related Resources:

Low-Carb Super Foods

Low-Carb Vegetables

Low-Carb Fruits

Michael Pollan and "Food, Inc." on Oprah originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 21:59:33.

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Julia Child and Jacques Pepin on Fat in the Diet

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:59:33 +0000

I listen to a lot of cooking shows and podcasts. The other day I came across a radio show called Mouthful which was rebroadcasting a show from 1999 with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin about food and cooking in the U.S. I got a kick out of the parts of the interview when they talked about fat:

The interviewer asked Julia about the effects of the "Fat Police":

Julia Child: "I think it's terrible what fear of fat has done to a lot of our industries. They have ruined the beef industry. We now have second class beef. Only two per cent of our beef is prime, and it's all because of these 'fear of fat people'. They don't want to eat a marbled steak, so it means that the beef has very little flavor any more. It's really something. A lot of people will say, 'oh, I don't like beef very much anyway' and no wonder, because they've ruined it."

Q: What about pork?

Julia: "And they've ruined pork as well."

Jacques Pepin: "When I first came to this country [from France] people liked butter on their bread, and it was fine. Now we are 30% fatter than we were then. After 15 years of torture and total obsession about fat, we are 30% fatter."

Julia (describing a TV interview with a "diet expert"): "He was one of those diet doctors who didn't eat any fat at all...he was a yellowish greenish looking man. He died fairly early...if he'd had a decent meal or two, he might still be around....The thing is: Don't pay any attention to those people at all."

Photo (Julia on her 90th birthday): Thomas J. Gibbons/Getty Images

Related Resource:

Stop Being Afraid of Saturated Fat

Low-Carb Recipes

Low-Carb Menus

Julia Child and Jacques Pepin on Fat in the Diet originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 18:59:33.

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Low-Carb Diet Wins for Blood Pressure Reduction

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:59:41 +0000

It's so interesting to me how different studies will show different things. This one, published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, includes some exciting news for people with high blood pressure.

The comparison in this case was between a low-carb diet similar to the Atkins plan, and a low-fat, low-calorie diet which included the use of Orlistat, the prescription dose of the over-the-counter weight-loss medication Alli. The groups were followed for almost a year. Another difference between this and some other studies was that they did not exclude people with health problems such as diabetes, in fact, a third of the participants were diabetic, with many taking medicine to lower blood sugar and blood pressure.

One most measures, the outcomes were similar. Both groups lost on average a little less than 10% of body weight, and had similar improvements in risk markers such as cholesterol. The one main difference was that not only were more people in the low-carb able to reduce their blood pressure medication (of those taking medication, 47% of the low-carb group reduced or eliminated medication, compared to 21% in the Orlistat/low-fat group), but even with the reduced medication, the low-carb group as a whole had reduced blood pressure compared to the Orlistat/low-fat group. This is especially surprising because Orlistat has a slight lowering effect on blood pressure, and because both groups achieved similar weight loss. In addition to lowering blood pressure medication, more diabetics in the low-carb group were able to lower diabetes medication (81% for low-carb and 68% for Orlistat/low-fat).

Another interesting result I noticed in the study was that even though the low-carb group was not told to limit calories, their calorie reduction was about the same as the group specifically told to reduce calories. One thing low-carbers love is that they don't need to struggle to reduce food intake - it comes naturally! Also interesting was although the low-carb group was eating a greater precentage of fat than before the diet, the amount of fat stayed about the same. The low-fat/Orlistat group had a large fat reduction, but although their percentage of carbohydrates went up, the amount was reduced by 17% (because they were eating fewer calories, they were eating less carbohydrate and fat).

This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a low-carb diet has been pitted against a weight loss medication. In this case, the low-carb diet did as well as the medication for weight loss, with the additional benefit of better blood pressure and medication reduction, and avoiding side effects from the medication.

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Related Resources:

Medications and Low-Carb Diets

Low-Carb Science

6 Steps to Diabetes Prevention

Low-Carb Diet Wins for Blood Pressure Reduction originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 13:59:41.

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Low-Carb Emergency Food

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:59:32 +0000

It's been a wild week where I live, with storms, power outages, and road closures. Earthquakes, floods, mudslides, and tornadoes have all been in the news lately. These are all good reminders of how important it is to keep water and food supplies available for emergencies. A lot of the emergency food lists are carbohydrate-based, but there are lots of foods that all low-carbers should have on hand. Check out my list of low-carb emergency food. (It's also great for when you just don't feel like running to the store!)

Photo © Igor Terekhov

Related Resources:

Your Low-Carb Pantry

Low-Carb Vegetables

Low-Carb Snack List

Low-Carb Emergency Food originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 11:59:32.

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Beware of Fake Alli (And Regular Alli)

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:59:35 +0000

I've been meaning to warn my readers about the diet pill Alli, because I keep seeing so many commercials about it in the last few weeks. But it turns out there's something even worse that the FDA is warning consumers about - a potentially harmful counterfeit Alli which is being sold online. Jennifer Scott, About.com's Guide to Weight Loss has written about it in this article: FDA Warns Consumers About Fake Alli.

If you're thinking about trying to combine Alli with a low-carb diet, be sure to check out my article: Alli and Low-Carb Diets.

Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Related Resources:

Medications and Low-Carb Diets

Fats in a Low-Carb Diet

Is Low Carb Right for You?

Beware of Fake Alli (And Regular Alli) originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 22:59:35.

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