Low-Carb "Grits" Discovery! -  I'm very excited about this! It turns out that if you boil almond meal for a couple of minutes, it thickens! This is a great discovery and I'll admit to being pretty proud of this one. The texture is similar to grits or polenta, and since almonds have a mild flavor, it can be flavored in many ways. This recipe for low-carb grits/polenta is based on classic Italian polenta with Parmesan cheese. But it can easily be made thinner or thicker -it can even be a serviceable cheese sauce! Readers are already creating variations. My favorite use so far is with greens (I wrote up the serving suggestion at the bottom of the recipe), but I have lots of ideas to experiment with.
Photo of Almond Grits/Polenta Garnished with Chives © Laura Dolson
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Low-Carb "Grits" Discovery! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 21:59:51. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Saturated Fat Study Largely Ignored -  Around the time when I wrote about the important study which showed no link between saturated fat and heart disease, not many people were writing about it. Since it was put online ahead of the print publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition this month, I was curious to see what the response in the media would be when the print version came out.
As expected, there was no big barrage of headlines proclaiming this study. This is interesting, because big studies about diet, especially in major scientific journals, usually dominate the health news headlines. The people who wrote about it early on were mainly Web-based. Since then, there has been a trickle of articles, some of them in the mainstream press, but very little on television. As far as I can tell, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times have ignored it so far.
Interestingly, some publications have written about the story, but under a different headline. For example, in the Washington Post reporter Jennifer LaRue Huget writes about the new Atkins Diet book, and uses that to lead into writing about the study.
There were a few noteworthy exceptions to the general burying of the story: The Wall Street Journal (story available online at the Globe and Mail), the Boston Globe, and Reuters provided articles where the study was the lead.
The good news is that many online publications wrote about this study, and that most of the mainstream ones who did write about it included paragraphs about the evidence for carbohydrates being more problematic than fat when it comes to heart disease.
Looking at this issue is important, partly because there is so much we don't know about saturated fats. It seems that once it was decided that "it's bad" the door to research on specific saturated fats all but closed. A couple of years ago at a conference about saturated fat, I had the opportunity to ask a panel of experts a question. I said, "We've been talking about saturated fat as if it's all one thing. What can we say about the different effects of these fats? For example, what can you say about the medium-chain saturated fats in coconut oil?" Lipid expert Dr. Bruce German just shook his head. "It's embarrassing", he said, "how little we know".
Photo of Whipped Cream © Angelo Gilardelli
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Saturated Fat Study Largely Ignored originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 21:59:34. Permalink | Comment | Email this
New Recipe: Sugar-Free Raspberry Chiffon Squares -  Looking for an easy, low-carb dessert? These raspberry jello squares made with cream cheese are easy to make and are a fun dessert for only 2.5 grams of carbohydrate. If you want to go "super-simple", they can be made without the pecan crust, but I think it adds a lot to the dessert. Check out this recipe for Low-Carb Raspberry Chiffon Squares.
Photo © Laura Dolson
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New Recipe: Sugar-Free Raspberry Chiffon Squares originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 19:59:45. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Is There a Low-Carb Diet Gene? -  There have been reports in the media in the last few days about a study from Stanford University, presented at an American Hearth Association conference in San Francisco last week. Because the study has not yet been published, I do not have access to is, but here is what I can gain from other reports:
138 overweight women were assigned to one of four diet groups. The diets were modeled after three popular diets (Atkins, Zone, and Ornish) and the U.S.D.A Food Pyramid. In this way, the researchers apparently attempted to include diets which were very low in carbohydrates, very low in fats, moderately low in carbs, and "standard diet recommendations".
In terms of weight loss, the results were what we usually see in diet studies - some weight loss, and no big difference between the groups. But then came the big twist. Of the hundreds of genes which have been associated with obesity, the researchers chose three which were judged to potentially have an impact on how individuals metabolize food. When these genes were analyzed in the study participants, the whole picture of weight loss shifted. As Jennifer Thomas of HealthDay reports:
"Women assigned to the correct diet based on their genotype lost two to three times more weight at 12 months than those who were assigned to a diet that was inappropriate. When the researchers looked at only the most extreme diets (Atkins versus Ornish), the results were even more stark. Women assigned to their correct diet for their genotype lost five times as much weight as those on the incorrect diet, the study found."
Now, before anyone gets too excited, the researchers are emphasizing that this is a very prelininary study, and lots more work needs to be done before anything conclusive is discovered. I would also point out that this is not yet a peer-reviewed study (that is, it has not been published in a scientific journal). However, it is obviously fascinating, and potentially ground-breaking, possibly changing our whole view of who should be eating what. Some of my reflections:
- There have already been a few studies which have looked at different diets for different groups of people - for example, a small 2005 study showed that people who were insulin resistant lost more weight on a low-carb diet, while people whow were normal in terms of insulin did better on a low-fat diet.
- It also makes sense that the people who are going to benefit the most from cutting carbs have underlying issues with insulin and glucose. People who don't process sugar well simply do better with less of it, and all carbs are sugar. So I would guess that some of these genes are involved with carbohydrate/sugar metabolism.
- Some of the genes in the study are apparently involved with fat metabolism, which also makes sense in terms of what kind of diet would be best for an individual.
- One of the frustrating things about large diet studies is that while we are told the differences in the outcomes between the diet groups (which is often small), we are usually not even given hints of how much difference in outcome there was between the people within each diet group. This is potentially very important. If some people did great and some did terrible, the fact that there was a mediocre average simply does not tell the tale. We need to know why some people did great and some did terrible. This has usually been chocked up to compliance (the people who did terrible didn't "follow the rules"). But what if it was because of factors which had nothing to do with compliance and everything to do with a person's genetics and metabolism and physiology?
One of the main points I try to make over and over is that different amounts of carbohydrate are right for different people. Perhaps someday we can evaluate our genes to give us this information. Until then, we have to experiments on ourselves. If our blood glucose is not entirely normal, that is one clue (any fasting blood glucose above 90 in probably not truly normal). But all the trial and error is definitely worth it, if we are looking for the healthiest body we can get.
Photo: Dimitri Vervitsiotis/Getty Images
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Is There a Low-Carb Diet Gene? originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 12:00:04. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Low-Carb Oscar Party - 
I admit it, I am a sucker for the whole gaudy nonsense that is the Academy Awards. My husband and I have been going to a movie every week for over 20 years now! We're gotten into a yearly ritual where I make our favorite low-carb pizza, some snacks such as spicy nuts, and sometimes a fun drink like a strawberry daiquiri. Then we settle in to alternately admire and make fun of people, and cheer on our favorites. I guess you could say this is my Super Bowl.
Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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Low-Carb Oscar Party originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 14:59:13. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Live Webcast Wednesday with Dr. Richard Bernstein -  I once got a comment on my blog, "If I ever meet Dr. Bernstein, I will give him a big kiss...for saving my husband's (and my) life!"
Many people have had this reaction to reading and applying the work of Dr. Richard Bernstein, author of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution and The Diabetes Diet: Dr. Bernstein's Low-Carbohydrate Solution. Now, there is an opportunity to hear him speak and ask questions! On this Wednesday, February 24 at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, there will be a live Webcast, where Dr. Bernstein will share his thoughts on the latest developments in diabetes treatment, and answer questions. To register for the webcast, go to this page.
Image Courtesy of Pricegrabber
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Live Webcast Wednesday with Dr. Richard Bernstein originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 19:59:37. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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