Examining the relationship between low-carb diets and dental health Last updated: April 2017 When you eat a healthier diet and lose weight, you can reasonably expect good news from a medical exam. I've gotten such good news in the past few months: lower blood pressure and improved blood lipid numbers. But I wasn't expecting diet-related good news from my semi-annual dental cleaning and exam. I got some anyway. My teeth were fine. I have a bunch of fillings from years ago, and sometimes one needs replacing, but new cavities have been relatively rare in recent years. Even before going low-carb, I had generally stopped eating candy and drinking sugary pop, and I've brushed my teeth at least twice a day for decades. On my low-carb path, snacks are sugar free. Cutting most or all sugar … [Read more ...]
Chia: yet another low-carb seed
The stereotypical low-carb diet is heavy on meat, eggs, butter and cream. To be sure, I've eaten my share of such animal-based fare, but the most notable newcomers to my diet have been plant-based foods such as nuts and seeds. I've always eaten peanuts (which technically are not a nut), pistachios and the occasional cashew. But on my low-carb diet, I've become a big fan of almonds, walnuts, sunflower kernels and flax seed meal. Now I have added chia seeds, the Aztec staple. … [Read more ...]
Super simple low-carb pancakes
The need for super simple low-carb pancakes People new to the LCHF diet and life-style often miss their customary carb-laden comfort food. Personally, I think the best approach is to move on, embrace your new way of eating, and not try to recreate in low-carb form all the breads, pastas, and baked goods you used to enjoy. But a few exceptions may be good for your morale, and not hurt your carb count much or at all. … [Read more ...]
Low-carb road-trip eating
When my wife was 11 years old, she was mesmerized by Peter Tork, a member of the Monkees. Depending on whom you ask, the Monkees were either actors in a TV comedy or musicians in a rock-band. Or both. My wife would say both, and more, but her focus was always on the blond, hazel-eyed Mr. Tork. It still is. All of this explains why she and I drove to Merrillville, Indiana, yesterday to watch the Monkees (three of the four, anyway) perform at the Star Plaza Theatre. It was a stop on the group's 45th anniversary tour. Since "the guys," as Anita calls them, were in their early to mid-twenties … [Read more ...]
Presenting The Best of Life after Carbs
Available across the Web! My ebook, The Best of Life after Carbs, is now in wider release. You can find it at multiple online stores: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Just click this Universal Book Link, and then select your favorite store. The book is part memoir, part how-to. The 30+ chapters in the book are based on posts from this blog. Yes, you could read them all here for free, in some form. But if you enjoy ebooks, and want to support my efforts, here's your chance to do us both a favor. I'll take it as a sign I'm doing something right! A few of the questions addressed … [Read more ...]
Great foods for a low-carb diet (part 1): almonds, avocados, macadamias
If you're like me (which you probably aren't, but let's pretend), you may find your food tastes expanding as you adapt to a low carb way of eating. Over the last few months, I have added several foods to my dietary repertoire, and I have eaten more of some other great foods than I ever did in the past. In general, I eat more whole foods now than processed/ packaged foods. Nuts, seeds, berries and fish are classes of foods that I always liked, but eat significantly more of on my low-carb plan. Of course, I eat somewhat more meat, cheese and eggs now than in my high-carb days, but that … [Read more ...]
Control what you can
Weight control vs. diet control No one has direct control over their body weight, percentage of body fat, or waist circumference. Indirect control, maybe, but not direct control. For example, you can't tell your body "lose five pounds" and expect it to obey. You can't wake up and decide your waist-size for the day will be 36 inches. Sure, you could decide to pull out size-36 pants, and try to squeeze into them, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to. … [Read more ...]
Mice live longer, healthier on ketogenic diet, studies claim
A couple new studies find that a ketogenic diet promotes a longer, healthier lifespan. That's great, but the results have only been confirmed for lab mice. I've written about mouse-based dietary studies a few times over the years. None have impressed me much. Some have seemed quite odd. For instance, way back in 2011, I wrote a post entitled "Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims." Scientists fed some little rodents farmed raised salmon, and some the same diet without salmon, and found the fish-eating mice suffered more insulin resistance, visceral obesity, and glucose intolerance. As the … [Read more ...]
What is a low carb diet?
When I say that I follow a low carbohydrate way of eating, what do I mean? When you say it, what do you mean? I suspect we might all mean something a little different -- or even a lot different -- if we were to get down to specific foods we include or avoid, or to the number of grams of carbs we consume per day. The title of my blog -- "Life After Carbs" -- implies that I don't eat any carbs at all, but of course that's not true. The title ought to be interpreted as meaning, "Life after over-coming my craving for carbohydrates and eliminating most carbs from my diet." However, that's a … [Read more ...]
A low-carb dieter’s blood test results (updated)
When I first began eating my low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet, and losing pounds and inches around the middle, I encountered the occasional nay-sayer -- someone who was sure all that fat in my food was going to clog up my arteries and kill me dead, sooner rather than later. I've escaped that fate for six years. Indeed, within a few months of starting my low-carb diet, I had significantly reduced my belly-fat, and my blood-pressure. Those were powerful indicators that I was improving my odds of avoiding cardio-vascular disease and a heart-attack. But a skeptic might say, "What about the … [Read more ...]
Avocado gadgets reviewed
The avocado is tops among foods that I've come to love on my LCHF diet. As I wrote in an earlier post, I never even ate guacamole until I was in my twenties, let alone a whole ripe avocado. Now I can't get enough of the berry. (That's what Wikipedia says it is.) Apparently, I'm not the only avocado-lover out there. In the United States, per capita consumption of fresh avocados climbed from just over two pounds in 2000 to seven pounds in 2015. Fresh avocado has become so popular that some emergency rooms have reported an epidemic of serious hand-cuts from improperly slicing through the … [Read more ...]