It's Almost Spring! Time for Eggs! -  I just love eggs. I am fortunate to be able to get a weekly share of super-fresh eggs from a local farm, and they are delicious. However, during the winter the hens don't lay enough for me to get them every week. Now that the light is returning, so are the eggs! So celebrate spring with nutritious, delicious eggs! Egg Nutrition Info, Plus Recipes
Photo © Giedrulis Gummy
Related Resources:
It's Almost Spring! Time for Eggs! originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 20:59:37. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Whole Foods Promoting High-Carb Diet? -  There have been some ruffled feathers in the low-carb community about the recent launch of a new "healthy eating" program at Whole Foods Markets which has been dubbed "Health Starts Here". Some of the recommendations are fine: eat nutrient-dense foods, eat a "colorful variety of plants", and choose foods that are whole and unprocessed, eliminating processed foods and those "void of nutrients". All of that is great advice, in my opinion.
So what are the problems with the program? Here's my take on it:
1. Emphasis on Vegetarian/Vegan Diet - Although I understand why some people want to be vegetarians and I provide information about low-carb vegetarian eating, I'm not at all keen on the idea of widely promoting them as being the best way for most people to eat. Whole Foods is clearly going in the direction of saying that everyone should adopt a vegan, or at least vegetarian, diet. I have a few specific concerns about these diets, which I will write about in a later blog, but I'll briefly touch on 2 of them:
a) Well-known issues with vegetarian diets - The Whole Foods Web site summarizing these potential problems on this page, and gives advice about how to get around them. I would only comment that starting out with a diet which has "problems to get around" may raise an alarm or two. (To be fair, very low-carb diets (less than 40 grams per day) have a few similar issues to pay attention to, but the vast majority of people eating low-carb are not in this category, at least for more than a few weeks.)
b) Lesser-known or as-yet unknown issues - Especially with vegan diets (which is what Whole Foods is pushing), we are clearly talking about taking animals (us) who are natural omnivores (eating plants and animals) and turning us into herbivores (eating plants-only). I think we mess with our basic biology at our peril. These days we are continually discovering more chemicals in plants that have positive effects in our bodies - because we are looking for them. For the most part, we aren't looking in the animals we eat, but even now we know about some nutrients important for our health which are absent in plants, or found in very small amounts. Not only do vegan diets tend to be low in nutrients such as choline and niacin, they have zero of those such as Vitamin B12 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). My guess? Since we have evolved to eat animal products, it's a good bet that there lots of different good things in there for us.
2. Referrals to programs which cost money. The materials available at the stores and online give some general eating guidelines. However, to get to specifics they point to two programs, both of which cost money, to find out more about. These are:
a) Eat Right America - This program is based on Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. The link from Whole Foods leads you right to a page where you are encouraged to subscribe to their service for $6 per month. The program is a mainly-vegan program with emphasis on fruits and vegetables which are high in nutrients, with few processed foods, and only one or two servings of whole grains per day. There is some information on the site, including some sample menus.
b) The Engine 2 Diet - This is a vegan diet, but it's very difficult to find out anything else without buying the book or signing up for their 28-day program. There is no specific information about the diet on the Web site. Jolinda Hacketti, About.com's Guide to Vegetarian Food, provides a brief overview of the diet.
3) Emphasis on a Low-Fat Diet - Can we please put this one to rest? So many large-scale studies trying to prove the worth of low-fat diets have come up with nothing. The American Heart Association has stopped recommending them. We need fats in our diet, period, and keeping them "low" is just not helpful.
My Field Trip to Whole Foods
I don't live near enough to a Whole Foods market to shop there regularly, but I did go recently to check out the store and their new program. Here are a couple of my observations:
1. Very well-informed store personnel - As I made my way through the store, I talked to number of different employees about products in the store. I was particularly impressed with the meat counter, where they could tell me where all the meats came from, how the animals were kept, and what their diet was.
2. A surprising amount of sugar, and lots of starch - Naturally, packaged foods such as crackers and baked goods had a lot of sugar, but I was particularly surprised at the difficulty of finding choices without added sugars in their prepared foods, and in the beverage aisle. I get the impression that they have bought the "fat bad, sugar OK" line, and that starches (just long chains of glucose) are particular great.
A Turn-Off to Low-Carbers?
The excellent produce and meats at Whole Foods has been a draw to low-carb eaters. But will the latest push towards veganism, as well as the general "carbs are good" atmosphere turn them off? I can understand people wanted to find alternative places to buy their organic produce, grass-fed meats, etc. But I hope they don't decide to forgo grass-fed meats altogether rather than shop at Whole Foods. I think Whole Foods needs to keep hearing that there is a demand for high-quality meats from animals which have been treated well, as well as other nutritious low-carb food choices
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Related Resources:
Whole Foods Promoting High-Carb Diet? originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:38:16. 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
Related Resources:
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
Low-Carb Foods for Lent -  Do you follow certain food traditions for Lent? Perhaps you forgo meat on certain days, or animal products altogether. There's no doubt that the tendency is to substitute high-carbohydrate foods in place of the protein, but it needn't be that way. One thing to do is to eat more fat if you're cutting back on protein. For example, add more oil in your salad dressings and vegetables. Also, find high-protein substitutes for meat dishes. I have recipes on this site to help, and you can also check out this collection of Lenten recipes compiled by About.com's Guide to Catholicism, Scott Richert. There are some good low-carb ideas as well as those higher in carbs.
Photo © Nicola Stratford
Low-Carb Lenten Resources:
Low-Carb Foods for Lent originally appeared on About.com Low Carb Diets on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 14:59:33. Permalink | Comment | Email this
|
