Besides tracking my own weight-loss and healthy living progress, recording low-carb recipes, and showing off my considerable vocabulary (or lexicon) on this blog, I also keep an eye on media reports about diet, nutrition and fitness. Frequently, I am angered by the stubborn low-fat, high-carb bias of these reports, as well as their general lack of informed thoughtfulness, as was the case in yesterday's post on the claim that saturated fat may be the cause of inflammation. Every now and … [Read more...]
Low-carb brunch on a summer Sunday
I took a walk this morning, swinging around the city cemetery (always inspirational), and came loping home with an appetite. That, of course, is the rub for all those who think they can work-out to lose weight. The more you work, the hungrier you get. Having eaten a modest breakfast four-and-a-half hours earlier, I figured a low-carb brunch was in order. Here's what I made myself: Pictured are two eggs scrambled in coconut oil, a salmon patty, and five halved fresh strawberries. The salmon … [Read more...]
Progress Report 8-6-11
On May 7, already a couple months into my low-carb way of eating, I set a weight goal of 215 pounds by Labor Day 2011. At that time, I weighed 241 pounds. Today, I weighed in at 219.8 pounds. Five weeks ago, on July 3 when I gave my last progress report, I weighed 227.6 pounds. Thus, I lost a touch under eight pounds in those five weeks, an average of 1.6 pounds per week. My weekly weight-loss average since May 7 is 1.63 pounds. Before setting my goal, I had already lost about 20 … [Read more...]
Protecting discs, joints, bones: other motives for a low-carb lifestyle
Yesterday I was talking shop with one of my department colleagues when she suddenly switched the topic: "How much have you lost?" she asked. "Twenty-five or thirty pounds?" I told her it was more like thirty-five or forty, but who was counting. She asked how I was doing it, and I said "low-carb," but before I could elaborate, she added: "It's very important for your back." I gathered that by "your back" she actually meant her own back. I haven't had any back pain for years, but the … [Read more...]
Coffee = Life = Coffee
Early on in my low-carb adventure, I ran across the advice to stop drinking coffee. That nearly ended my low-carb adventure right then. There are some things you can't give up. Coffee's at the top of my list. Repeat after me, friends: "Coffee is life, life is coffee." That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Coffee is low-carb -- right? There are carbs in black coffee -- about a tenth of a gram in a cup. S0 coffee is low-carb, though not quite as low-carb as plain water. In … [Read more...]
Reviewing some good and bad advice for spotting bogus diets
Is a diet "bogus" because it bans "fat, sugar or carbs"? Yes claims an article at USA Weekend: Five ways to spot a bogus diet. I'll get to the other signs of dietary bogusosity in a minute. Let us first examine the assertion that banning or limiting particular foods or nutrients from your diet is "both nutritionally deficient and not sustainable." Sure, banning all fat would create a diet that is seriously deficient and unsustainable; in fact, it would kill you. Therefore, no one ever … [Read more...]
Why Americans say they diet
More American adults say they have changed their diets to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables (71%) than say they have changed their diets to lose weight (65%). Right away, you have to wonder how honest the people polled were. Or you have to wonder if they know what constitutes a fruit and vegetable. Two-thirds of Americans say they changed their diet to improve their health. Only one-third say it was to change their appearance. I'm with the majority on this question, but who … [Read more...]
Pasty cravings
I am just back from a quick trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was my first visit to the UP since going low-carb. My main observation from the trip is that someone needs to invent a low-carb pasty. First, a little history. In 1835-36, the Territory of Michigan and the State of Ohio fought a war over the Toledo Strip, a parcel of border land that includes the present-day city of Toledo, Ohio. You may think Ohio won the war, given that it currently possesses the Toledo Strip. In … [Read more...]
Big lunch can be dinner, too
It's funny how after you've been eating low-carb for a while, you look at food differently than you did before. Looking over the high-calorie entrees pictured in the Xtreme Eating Awards 2011 (PDF file) from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), I notice the carbs first, which come in the form of bread, buns and fries. There's also a pasta dish and a porterhouse steak accompanied by a big serving of mashed potatoes. The accompanying text from the CSPI focuses on the … [Read more...]
Have we been “brainwashed against carbs”?!
“We are brainwashed against carbs. But it is the wrong message" -- Frances Largeman-Roth, RD, coauthor of The Carb Lovers Diet and senior food and nutrition editor of Health Magazine, quoted in Diet Review: The Carb Lovers Diet and Resistant Starch Foods. WebMD. Before I discuss this brainwashing claim, let me explain the context. Most mornings, I get up early, brew coffee, eat breakfast and turn on the TV to catch the local news and weather. The best local TV news happens to be on an … [Read more...]
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