sugar alcohols

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Artificial Sweeteners, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another comment on a post at forum.lowcarber.org about sugar alcohol

 

bbmedic413 posted:

What are your opinions towards sugar alcohols? Do you count them towards net carbs or not?

 

My opinion:

Hi bbmedic413,

My opinion of sugar alcohols is I wouldn’t touch them with a barge-pole. Anything that close to antifreeze is not something I’d really want to eat for pleasure which does of course have the advantage that I don’t have to count if there’s any type of carb.

If I do want something to sweeten a dish, I tend to use Stevia either as the fresh leaf or dried although to my taste the fresh leaf does taste better.

As hanfordian says, do be careful snacking on anything with sugar alcohols in. They are very easy to overdo and overdoing sugar alcohols can cause all sorts of unpleasantness digestion wise.

Cheers,

Mark

 

Is Stevia Safe to Use as a Sweetener?

by | Jan 23, 2013 | Artificial Sweeteners, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another copy of my comment on a post Jimmy Moore’s about artificial sweeteners

 

From Jimmy Moore:

Is Stevia Safe to Use as a Sweetener?: http://www.coachcalorie.com/is-stevia-safe ~ Not all stevia is created equal. REAL stevia comes from a leaf and is green ideally. Liquid is next best if you can get your hands on it. The key is to avoid the highly-refined versions and especially most commercially-sold ones which are combined with GMO erithrytol.

 

My comment:

Stevia leaves whether dried or fresh are the best way of using Stevia and you may not be aware of it but you can actually grow Stevia in most parts of North America so you can always have a fresh supply. Certainly throughout the summer months and it’s as easy to dry as, say, mint or any other leaf that you would use in cooking.

It’s the process ones that I find have a metallic taste. If anything, the natural products might have a slight licorice taste but other than that they’re very sweet and the licorice taste, if it doesn’t compliment what you’re eating is often lost in the cooking simply because the sweetness of the leaf is far greater than the licorice taste.

The products I would steer away from are all of the derivatives of Stevia no matter how natural the claims of the manufacturers are. That said, if you want a liquid sweetener it’s easy enough to make it yourself at home without any troubles whatsoever.

For those of you that would like to take this further, there’s a very useful book by Jeffrey Goettemoeller and Kaen Lucke called “Growing and Using Stevia”. It’s well worth reading not just from the point of view of using Stevia but also the fact that it has some recipes in it as well.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Keeping it simple

by | Jan 23, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

This is a post at Jimmy Moore’s where I commented on regarding low carb diet

 

Debs’ post:

Hi

I am 38 , female and from Australia…

After spending years with round about and yo yo diets I find myself with type 2 diabetes and a heart attack scare last year. I also find myself sick and tired of being sick and tired.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes I went to the Australia Diabetes association and explained that when I ate carbs my blood sugar sky rocketed…their answer was that I should keep eating the carbs and they would put me on insulin…I think that was the moment that I realised that I need to take responsibility for my own health.

And for the next few months I did. I ate low carb, the weight dropped off and my bsls were perfect, my trigs dropped too…but then I got complacent and then spent the rest of last year procrastinating and gained back all I had lost and all the good work I had done…more than that…in November I had a massive heart scare….it wasn’t a heart attack but it could have been…

I realised that diet wasn’t an option but life changes were in order.

This time I am learning so much about low carbing and how it works for my body. It’s been nearly 10 days and I’ve dropped weight and sleeping through the night. My bsls are going down and my energy is starting to improve.

At the moment I have no apetite and am listening to my body with regards to what I put into it. 

It’s early days but I am happier and healthier each day.

 

My response:

Hi Debs and a warm welcome from me as well.

Reading your post was quite heartwarming for me obviously not because of all the problems that you have but simply because you’ve decided to sort out your life using the tools and the systems that you know work for you.

I’m really pleased that you’ve had such good success even it’s only been 10 days since you started and my hope for you is yes, that you will listen to your body and that you will put in to it the things it needs because I know if you do that you’ll get the body you want, the body you deserve and the life to go with it.

All the very best,

Mark

Fibre and fat % for still being in fat burning mode..??

by | Jan 22, 2013 | Fat Loss, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Below is a copy of the post over at forum.lowcarber.org that I have commented on about fiber

 

aramaya said:

I was wondering how it works, if i increased My fibre intake i feel it would naturally decrease my fat and protein intake,so example if i ate breakfast of a flax mix with coconut and almond milk,then ate protein,fats and some veg fibres for dinner then possibley flax bread with butter as a snack,would this alter how my body was burning the fat,would it slow weight loss down???as the % will be different..what do you think?

 

My response:

Hi aramaya,

I have very little fiber in my diet and have no problems whatsoever with my digestive system. At the same time I am careful to make sure that I eat the type of foods that looks after my stomach bacteria and is helpful for my digestive enzymes as well. 

As amelia-b points out, we really don’t need as much fiber as many people think we do. In fact there’s been a lot of work over the last few years that has shown that fiber can be quite detrimental to the health of our digestive system simply because the fiber that we eat contained in the vegetables that we consume is largely undigestible and passes through the digestive tract virtually intact and at the same time it provides a very convenient breathing ground for harmful bacteria to multiply in our stomachs during its transit.

If you would like more information about that, visit the blog of Dr. Natasha. She has a wealth of information about how our stomachs really work but more importantly, has a whole list of problems that can be treated through adopting an even more radical low carb diet where the vegetables are more or less cut out completely.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Best low carb diet

by | Jan 22, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another one of my comments on a post at forums.about.com about low carb diet

 

lwilk1987’s post:

I’m looking to start a low carb diet ASAP as want this weight off have about two stone to loose can anyone tell me what the best diet is to follow would fruit for breakfast soup/salad for lunch and meat and veg be good to have and snacks on fruit?

 

My comment:

Hi lwilk1987,

Firstly, congratulations on deciding to start your journey to fitness. You’ve already taken the most difficult step and that’s deciding to do something about your health and fitness.

You’ll find as you start either the Atkins or the South Beach diet that a fruit is a no-no in both of them, really. That’s because as you may have guessed, fruits contain a lot of carbohydrates particularly in the form of sugars. By eating fruit all you’re doing is upset the process of you going into ketosis which is where the body starts using its own stored fat for energy. Quickly you can get into ketosis the quicker you’ll start to see significant weight loss every few days.

Talking of weight loss every few days, you are obviously going to want to be able to measure your progress. My advice to you is don’t rely just on the scales to see how well you’re doing; also rely on your body measurements. You should, before you start dieting, measure around your neck, your bust, your stomach or your waist, of course your hips and around both thighs. Mark down all those measurements and then 7 days later measure again. By doing that you will be able to see clearly just how much fat you’re losing even if from time to time the scales don’t seem to be moving that much.

As ‘nette has said, picking up a copy of “New Atkins, New You” and following the induction phase to the letter will be just the thing that you need to do but equally, providing you follow the induction phase to the letter, the South Beach diet maybe just as effective for you. Personally I would favor the Atkins type of approach as I think that’s an easier one to deal with but that’s just a personal preference.

Once again, congratulations on deciding to take charge of your health. Please do let us know how getting on and if there’s anything in the books you don’t understand you can always come back here for a bit of helpful and friendly advice.

Hope that helps,

Mark

3 weeks in and have a few questions

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Low carb diet, Sensible Eating, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is a copy of a post at forum.lowcarber.org about weight loss that I have commented on just recently

 

greenbaby’s post:

So I hit the end of my third week on Atkins today and I have to say that I am beginning to feel a little bit freaked out. So most of the posts I have been reading worry because they are losing weight too slowly, I am having quite the opposite issue. I weighed this morning and am down to 287, I started at 311 so that is a 24 pound loss in 3 weeks. About 18-19 of that was in induction, but that I have lost 4 pounds in the week after induction when most peoples bodies are starting to stall a little to lose a few inches (from what I understand). I am all for losing the weight but I do want to do it safely and I want to keep it off forever. Also losing my security blanket this quickly is making me very very nervous. I am very happy with the way my menu looks and the diversity of foods I have been eating. I struggle to get to 20 carbs a day, which is probably why I am losing so quickly. I have been working on experimenting with different veggies so I can find what is a trigger for me if any in the veggie area…I am just not sure I can raise my carbs with only veggies as I wind up so contented (stomach wise) that the idea of eating makes me a bit ill. So in short can I safely lose weight this quickly or do I need to work harder to up my carb intake to slow the weight loss? 

Now the second question I have. How long would you advise staying on each rung of OWL? I have been diversifying veggies for around a week now. While I did have some residual cravings those seem to have disappeared even though I am eating the same foods most days. I am not a huge fan of nuts, but I would like to at least see if they have any effect on me, and berries are a serious interest at this point. Neither are necessary, but I am enjoying learning more about my body as I progress through my new WOE. 

I know I had more questions but my brain is still fuzzy from just waking up 1.5 hours ago so I will post more here as I remember them. Thank you all in advance for being so helpful and amazingly supportive.

 

My reply:

Hi greenbaby,

This idea that we should lose weight slowly has a very interesting background that stems mainly from the calorie constriction camp and the reason that they always said that you should lose weight slowly was, quite simply, because that’s all that type of diet could produce for most people under normal circumstances.

Yes you could manufacture a huge short term weight loss but that was not sustainable for most people as the amount that they were allowed to eat was ridiculously small and therefore became totally unsustainable. For those of us on a low carb diet, losing a pound a day is not uncommon and as I’m sure you will have heard in other places, the more you have to lose, the longer this can go on for and you really are to be congratulated for your 24-lb loss. I personally wouldn’t do anything to slow that down simply because your body will start to encourage you towards the changes it wants to see in terms of what foods you feel you want to eat, carbohydrates excluded obviously, in order to make sure that your body’s needs are met. 

Constipation by the way isn’t uncommon. There are a lot of changes going on in your digestive tract at the moment. One of the major ones is that your stomach bacteria population will be changing. Drinking more is good, making sure you have adequate salt is also good and to a certain extent, magnesium will be something you want to consider. I would also add in taking a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement as something of a must.

Perhaps the two things I would suggest you most certainly take are good quality probiotics and also good quality stomach enzymes. These will repopulate your digestive tract with exactly what your body needs in order to adjust more quickly to the new way of eating that’s giving you an increase in health.

Lastly, I’m assuming that you know why you want to lose weight and get fit and healthy and that you have a nice big reason to help carry you through and overcome obstacles such as those around you. I’m sure that your fiance will eventually put your health and well-being above his own wants and desires and if he really loves you, well eventually love the person that you will be as much as he does the person that you are now.

Fermented food I recommend

Fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NEVER commercial versions, as these typically do not contain live cultures and are loaded with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria

Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink that is traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Various pickled fermentations of cabbage sauerkraut,, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash, and carrots

Natto (fermented soy)

Kim chee or gimchi, (Is a traditional condiment made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. It is Korea’s national dish, and there are hundreds of varieties made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber)

Tempeh is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty. Tempeh is unique among major traditional soy foods in that it is the only one that did not originate from the Sinosphere cuisine).

Hope that helps,

Mark