The party season is upon us! From now until January 2nd, there will be caroling parties, open-house brunches, tree-trimming parties, gift-wrapping parties, and just plain all-out merriment.

Dana Carpender discusses the benefits of a hot cup of coffee on a low carb diet. Americans have long chosen coffee over tea, some say as a result of the British tax on tea that led to the Boston Tea Party. But in the past twenty years coffee has gone from national habit to national obsession. Is all this coffee on a low-carb diet good for us or bad for us? Depends.

Oh, boy. This obesity research stuff just gets more and more interesting. Did you know there's research suggesting that there may actually be an obesity virus?

Dana, What are your thoughts on Agave Nectar? The bottle says it has 16 grams of carbs per tablespoon and 60 calories, the same as honey. But it also says it has a low glycemic index. Is agave nectar easy on the blood sugar after all or not?

For quite some time now I have made a name and a some-time living as a nutritional heretic. I don't believe in a "balanced diet," I think animal fat and cholesterol are among the most healthful foods, I consider fruit juice to be little better than soda pop, I'm all for cutting whole categories of food out of my diet. Here's my latest heresy: I am unconvinced of the value of fiber.

Dana Carpender shares the many ways pumpkin can fit into a low carb diet including her Low Carb Chili Lime Pumpkin Seed recipe. If your only experience with pumpkin has to do with jack-o-lanterns and high-carb pie, rethink this tasty vegetable. Pumpkin is lower carb than most winter squashes, and one of the best sources of pro-vitamin A around.

The best perk of my job is free Low-Carb food. Manufacturers send me samples, hoping I'll like their products well enough to mention them. Andrew here at CarbSmart.com sends me food to try. And one year, my publisher subscribed me to the Bacon of the Month Club. I swear I'm not making that up. What a great gift! A new variety of small-farm, boutique, gourmet bacon every month.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who talks back to the television. Okay, what I really do is yell at the television. I yell at politicians, and the people on my soap operas. I yell with real gusto at food ads.

I have, over the years, resolutely kept my political views out of my writing about carb-controlled nutrition. Not that I don't have such views, you understand. I'm just as opinionated in that part of my life as I am about food. I just had this mental image of someone with severe metabolic syndrome reading my work, finding some political view he or she disagreed with, and saying, "I'm not going to listen to anything that nutcase says!" After which, of course, they'd get their feet amputated and go blind from diabetic complications, and it would all be my fault. Or at least partly my fault.

"Organic" is no kind of guarantee of nutrition. Please don't get me wrong. I am not against organic food. I buy a lot of local, small farm, organically raised stuff myself.

Folks often complain that while their low carb diet has led to weight loss and improved health, their budget is taking a beating. It's true that meat and vegetables are more expensive than pasta and rice. I've long countered that there's nothing cheap about "food" that makes you fat, tired, hungry, sick, and cranky, and that good food is an investment you can't afford not to make. I will forever stand by that argument.

Low-Carb, Keto, Gluten-Free Pizza Chicken Recipe