Advice

"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.

A story I've heard quite often is this: Someone will start out on their low carb diet, paying attention to their nutrition, feeling better physically and mentally. Then something awful will happen - a death in the family, a job loss, a divorce, something like that. The dieter will be derailed. They will start eating chocolate and pasta and anything else they can get their hands on in the vain hope that it will somehow make them feel better. The exercise program will go out the window. And pretty soon, in addition to the pain caused by the initial, awful incident, they'll be dealing with the unpleasant side effects of bad nutrition and physical stagnation.

I'm not a huge fan of soy. I certainly do not believe it is the Wonder Health Food Of All Existence it has been made out to be.

Going on a picnic is one of the great joys of summer. Few things are more pleasant than spreading a blanket under a tree and lazing away an afternoon, noshing on simple but tasty foods. A picnic is a great way to entertain friends, too - because you won't be stuck running back and forth to the kitchen while everyone else is enjoying themselves!

It's that family vacation time of year! This means that many of us will be at the mercy of truck stops, or worse, airlines. Here are some suggestions for making it through the flights and the road trips without carbing out:

Sometimes the articles just write themselves. I was futzing around on line when I found this webpage: A Low Carbs (sic) Diet is Hazardous to Your Health For Ten Reasons. It was so off the mark, I had to write a response. Then, as I finished it, I realized I'd just written my article for this week!

Your life, I mean. No, I'm not talking theologically; let's not get into issues of divine creation and salvation and such; we're here to talk diet and health. I'm talking about the indisputable truth that 90% of the time, our lives, good or bad, are largely the result of the choices we make. Yes, your genetics play a role. Yes, your upbringing influences you. Yes, the tides of history can intervene, and wash away all trace of the life you carefully created for yourself - ask anyone in a war torn land. Still, and always, our choices, our actions, are the single most powerful influence we have on creating our lives, for good or ill.

Once you start paying attention to food advertising, you start to realize how much our attitudes about food have been shaped by it - and generally not for the better.

Reading your email over several times, the thing that jumps out at me is fear. You're afraid - afraid of food, afraid of getting out of control. And your way of containing that fear is to wall yourself off with your safe and familiar foods, to stay home, to stick to a single routine. It's become a ritual of protection.

Jimmy is very pleased to share his interview with Dr. Atkins’ very own hand-picked registered dietitian, Valerie Berkowitz. Valerie, besides being a nutrition specialist and wife of former guest Dr. Keith Berkowitz, is the nutrition consultant for the magazines Prevention and Men’s Health, and the co-author of the book The Stubborn Fat Fix: Eat Right to Lose Weight and Cure Metabolic Burnout without Hunger or Exercise.

Low-Carb Life in the real world! That's what I'm living. And life in the real world is an endless series of choices, and an endless series of compromises. That's what's real in our Low-Carb world.

Don’t be alarmed – I’m not launching into a lecture on the cosmos, here. Today’s subject is much more relevant to our everyday lives: crispy chicken.