Low-carb diets support thread

Edwardia

Morning all, nearly Easter ! Got an email from Morrisons with Easter offers which I will plonk on Low carb supermarket bargains. There were some recipes too and this one is low carb if you ignore the new potatoes.

Parma-wrapped lemon sole
www.morrisons.co.uk/Food-and-Drink/Recipes/Index/P/Parma-wrapped-lemon-sole-with-new-potatoes/

Mercy - just been through the links you gave, Sheila54 I think the first one would be particularly helpful.

Spotted this about sugar..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2125217/How-giving-sugar-20-years-looks.html

Angelfeathers

Hi, can I join, please? I've been reading through the last few pages and have already learned a lot. I came into low-carbing via the paleo diet, since a friend had lost a load of weight and gained a load of energy on it, and everything I read about it seemed to make sense. I also have a diabetic friend at work so have been gradually learning about blood sugar over the last few years and beginning to realise that mine was spiking and crashing a lot. I was always hungry, and got really grumpy if I didn't eat every few hours. And because I'd read that carbs filled you up, I made sure to eat lots of carbs! But the paleo diet made so much sense that after Christmas, once I'd got over the nasty nasal infection I'd had and had enough mental energy to deal with working out different stuff to eat, I decided to give it a go.

At the time, I was more concerned with avoiding grains and gluten, as that seems to be the main thrust of paleo, and to be honest I think I am rather sensitive to gluten, though I'm still having small amounts of it as I'm cooking for a family and it just makes things easier. But as a side effect, I was eating a hell of a lot fewer carbs and guess what? My mood completely stabilised, except when I was really tired, which is to be expected.

So low-carbing came about as a side effect, really, of trying to avoid gluten, but it's really working for me. I haven't lost a load of weight yet (though I have shifted 5lb since Jan, which I'm very pleased with) but the effect on my mood and energy levels has been incredible. And having read some of this thread, now, I've started looking at which foods are higher in carbs and which aren't, so maybe I can start shifting some more of that weight, as I still have about a stone of post-baby fat (he's 6 *g*) that I'd like to lose!

My main problems are chocolate and baking. I love to cook and I love to bake, though since cutting out a lot of sugar I've realised that actually I've never been much of a fan of it anyway. I always preferred un-iced cakes, for instance, and dark choc to milk or white. Unfortunately, my son and husband *love* sweet stuff, so I need to cater for everyone. But I've been doing quite a lot of baking with gluten-free stuff (Elana's Pantry has some wonderful almond flour and coconut flour recipes), most of which my son is open to even if my husband doesn't really like it. The problem is, though, that if it's available, I'll snack on it and even if it's high-protein and low sugar it's still not as healthy to snack on as something completely savoury. Still. It's working as a compromise at the moment.

My other problem is that I have Oral Allergy Syndrome, which means a lot of raw fruit, veg and nuts give me an itchy mouth/throat because their proteins resemble those of the various pollens I'm allergic to (which seems to be most of them). I haven't had this checked at the doctor's, but as soon as I started reading up about it I could see it made complete sense. So I've stopped trying to eat salads and raw fruit etc. because they were 'good for me' because I've realised they're actually not if they make me react that way! It does, however, mean that in order to eat lots of veg for paleo/low-carbing, most of my meals need to be cooked, which is a bit of a chore and needs more planning than just grabbing cereal for lunch and a sandwich for lunch! However, I seem to be managing, and it feels really freeing not to have to try and eat raw stuff and low fat stuff because it was supposed to be good for me!

Anyway, I think I've rambled on enough! Just wanted to say, thank you for the thread and I look forward to learning a lot more! :-)

Edwardia

Hi Angelfeathers ! I'd never heard of Oral Allergy Syndrome that sounds awful.

I can't claim to know anything about baking myself but there are people who post on the thread regularly who do.

Welcome

Angelfeathers

Heh, I'd never heard of it either until a few months ago, when I suddenly thought to google 'allergy to raw fruit and vegetables'. It's a bit annoying but I've been living with it a long time. At least now I realise it's better for me to just take a bit of time and cook some veggies instead of eating a salad - and I've always preferred cooked veggies to salad, I just didn't realise why! :-)

The reading also pointed out to me that lamb's lettuce/corn salad isn't usually an irritant and having tried it, it's fine. Plus I really like it, plus you can eat it raw or lightly cooked, like spinach, only it's nicer than spinach. I'm growing some in the garden now to cut down on the cost!

daska

In addition to the references suggested earlier (taubes, briffa etc) I'd recommend Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek's book "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable" It's a bit heavy on the actual science which makes it a perfect one for shutting up people who want to claim it's all a fad promoted by people who aren't real doctors (They also contributed to "New Atkins, New You")

I learned a lesson today: making strawberry jam on Monday, fresh butter on wednesday and then baking a loaf of bread today is a recipe for disaster. I could resist the jam and the butter isn't a problem but the moment I smelled the bread baking I started to feel ravenous. By the time it was ready I was so hungry it was painful, even a spoon of coconut oil and some nuts and a cup of tea didn't do anything to help. And eventually I succumbed, I had the crust with butter and jam and it was delicious and I just know I could go on to eat the whole loaf. It's not as if I even really miss sweet things, I eat 99% chocolate !!!!!!!

Edwardia

Commiserations on the bread I ate a small packet of Kettle Chips last week.
Where do you get the 99% cocoa chocolate from please daska ?

SHEILA54

Hi Angelfeathers :wave:
Thank you for the recommendation for Elana's Pantry, there are some great recipes on there
http://www.elanaspantry.com/
I see that she uses honey or agave nectar to sweeten but I am sure that it could be converted to sweetener as it is high in carbs.

daska - thanks for the information, I appreciate it. Understand about the bread as the smell, freshly baked, is difficult to resist. I have had one slice in 10 months now but like marmite and really fancy a bit of marmite on toast.

If I look at the number of calories that I have a day it is around 1500 with 20 - 30g carbs. The coconut oil and seed mix take 200 cals but I take them for the benefits that they give. I wonder if this is too much as I still need to lose weight but I am using the exercise bike each day.

Edwardia & daska - I wish I was like you and could eat 85 - 99% chocolate but guess that, even after all this time, my tastebuds haven't adjusted as 70% is my limit.

sistercas

99% :eek: the highest i can manage is 85% i do like that though. I have tried 100% in hotel ch0colat - yuk

i have gained a lb this week , no idea why ive kept to my diet . last weeks weight loss was probably an anomaly . i think i am going to have to work for every pound

ive had a lovely piece of salmon with sweet chilli sauce for my tea - it was reduced in t3sco and only 3.2g carbs per fillet

bossymoo

Hi
I have moved up to 25g today, after my slip up yesterday. I gave in and ordered some Atkins bars. I need the snacks as can plainly be seen from yesterday. I had a chocolate decadence one tonight. Very nice.

Hoping I'll find it easier now. Chin also covered in spots so suspect TOM might have played its part.

Happy Easter all x

daska

I pick Lindt Excellence up when I find it, which is not very often. I eat it very infrequently but I'm on my last bar of Lindt Excellence 99% at the moment which I'm pretty certain came from Waitrose near my Dad's but I can only find the 90% in my local. I used to buy it in Whittards in the King's Road but it was a good many years ago I was last there and I've not seen it in my local.

I was actually trying to find some more earlier today and ended up looking at the chocolate trading company. They even stock 100% chocolate domori and pralus as well as 99% Michel Cluizel. They also do bags of 99% chips which I thought I might try.