Advice

Weight loss is a difficult venture. A simple search on the subject will leave your head spinning with information. Regrettably, you end up with a lot of misinformation and outright deception as well.

When I was a kid, I ate a lot of noodles - generally Butoni wagon-wheels - with Ragu's original "Old World Style" jarred spaghetti sauce and the cheap grated Parmesan out of the green shaker. Loved it. Had it for lunch at least once a week!

I find the pronouncements from the dieticians and the medical industry more and more amusing every day. I recently read a column by a dietician who admitted that all of the research demonstrates that a low carbohydrate diet works for weight loss, and contrary to the dire predictions, actually results in better blood work than a low fat/high carb diet. She also admitted that there have been no indications of a problem with low carb diets long term. Still, she said, people shouldn't go on low carb diets because, after all, antioxidants are terribly important, and to get them we need to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Confession: I am perhaps the only person in the entire state of Indiana who will not be watching the Colts play in the Super Bowl next weekend. It's partly that I simply find football - and other games - dull, and so does That Nice Boy I Married. It's also because having worked with some pro-footballers in my career as a massage therapist, I know all too well just exactly what they're doing to their bodies. I can't watch all those 300 pound guys run sideways into each other's knees. Ouch.

Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, whether it comes from beer, wine, liquor, or mixed drinks. It's also carb-free. It does, however, slow metabolism quite a lot so don't expect to actually lose weight if you're making merry. Includes Dana's City Lights Low-Carb Cosmo Recipe.

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.

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?

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.

Each week Dana will be writing helpful and entertaining articles about the low carb lifestyle at Carb Smart Magazine healthy eating and anything else she wants to write about.

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.