Health

I have a new dietary discovery that has me more excited than anything since low carb itself. I have, for two weeks, been taking gelatin as a supplement. Just plain gelatin, the stuff you'd find in a box labeled "Knox" or similar at your grocery store. (Gelatin is available from CarbSmart here.)

In the Belly Fat Cure and other low sugar diet plans, getting your sugar grams as low as possible is very important. It is also important to eliminate artificial sweeteners in your diet. This leaves only a few options, mostly stevia and sugar alcohols. While I had used sugar alcohols on Atkins years ago, I had never heard of Stevia. In the beginning I used Stevia sweeteners in lots of things, as I was getting rid of the taste of sugar. Now, though, I really only use it in my hot teas or in some iced teas when I am out. I carry a little "sweetener bag" in my purse and always have them handy!

Let's talk a little about vitamin A. Vitamin A is important stuff, but it's a bit complex. Vitamin A is essential for your health, but because it's a fat soluble vitamin and can be stored in your body, it's possible to get too much. It also comes in a couple of forms, both with their virtues and their drawbacks.

"Morbidly Obese" Those words dangled from my medical chart like a scarlet letter. How could the doctor have used those words to describe me? Surely, the doctor made a mistake, or maybe my eyes were mistaken. Perhaps it was someone else's chart. Cautiously, I looked at the chart and read the name: April Bradford. I was only 25 years old at the time. I was mortified and shocked, but I could not deny those words staring back at me from my own chart. The walls seemed to close in around me. How did I arrive at this place? How did this happen to me?

Jorge Cruise's latest book is a companion guide to the Belly Fat Cure. The book is small, 5x7 inches and slim. It's the perfect size to keep in your bag for shopping and dining out. This book was really necessary, since most nutritional value books don't list the sugar content, a sure sign that most people are not concerned with their sugar intake.

For the last glorious holiday weekend of the summer, a cookout seems mandatory. So call up some friends, throw some (light) beer in the cooler, fire up the barbecue, and let's make an end-of-summer feast that will be filling and memorable without any nutritional regrets. Includes her Low-Carb Salmon Recipe

When I started low carbing in 1995, low fat/high carb mania was still in full swing. Snackwells were selling like crazy, pasta salad and bagels were still "healthy," and I was clearly nuts. (Well, that had been clear for quite a while, but for other reasons.) Even I was worried I might keel over dead in the first six weeks.

Some of the harshest criticism about low-carbohydrate diets such as Atkins has been the supposed negative heart health implications due to elevations that take place in the cholesterol levels of dieters who restrict their carbs in favor of more fat and protein. Additionally, it is presumed that any weight loss that occurs on a high-fat, low-carb diet is quickly gained back making it a uniquely ineffective means for managing weight. Finally, bone health is supposed to suffer for people following a carbohydrate-restricted diet because the higher protein content allegedly promotes bone loss. However, all of these theories about low-carb diets have been summarily shot down by a brand new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the August 3, 2010 edition of the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

A whole cup of fresh basil leaves has just 11 calories, and about 5 million metric boatloads of flavor. You'll get 2 grams of carbohydrate, but it's virtually all in the form of fiber. And you'll get one gram of protein, but who eats herbs for the protein? You'll also get 33% of your vitamin A, 13% of your vitamin C, 7% each of your folacin, calcium, and iron, 6% of your potassium, and 2% of your niacin and zinc.

Years ago, some furious online detractor of low carb diets threw at me the accusation that I ate "pork rind cake." This is not true. I have never eaten a cake made from pork rinds, and had never heard of such a thing till the accusation was made. And though she subsequently posted a link to a recipe, that is the only time I have ever heard of pork rind cake in my near-decade on a low carb diet.

Writing a column on convenience foods goes against the grain for me - I'm always nagging people to just cook something, will you, for crying out loud?! A little simple, plain cooking is your best defense against bad food, not to mention a sky-high food budget. But I am aware that many people rarely eat anything that takes more preparation than three minutes in the microwave. Even folks who do cook occasionally have days when they just want something fast.