Low-carb diets support thread

~daisy~_2

didnt think you could have yoghurt at all on atkins ??

ive done the bubble and squeak type thing before - very nice but very delicate - think ill bake them in oven next time or add a little almond flour to bind - but that isnt induction friendly im afraid - no nuts on induction

fruitycar

I've had 2 HM hot cross buns fresh from the oven, with LC butter on and now my stomach is really sore

HanSpan

fruitycar wrote: »

I've had 2 HM hot cross buns fresh from the oven, with LC butter on and now my stomach is really sore

Nonononono. Don't mention the hot cross buns. They are my most serious weakness. My OH brought some home last week being 'kind' as I was having a grump. Grrrrr.

Hello all. Been too busy to keep up for a while but have skimmed madly to catch up. Sorry to hear some of you are having a horrid time - having skimmed so fast I've lost track of who is doing well and who is in the naughty corner - I'm swaying between the two as ever

I found a few things to reply to but my machine conked out so rather than try and find them in the past umpty pages I'm going to just post and hope those who were talking about the subject remember after all this time!

aliasojo

HanSpan wrote: »

Sorry to hear some of you are having a horrid time - having skimmed so fast I've lost track of who is doing well and who is in the naughty corner - I'm swaying between the two as ever

Never mind the corner....I'm not even in the room at the minute! :cool:

HanSpan

Someone asked about how to disguise the taste of yoghurt as its too 'yoghurty'. I feel that way sometimes, and also that cream is too 'creamy', my solution is to mix Lidl (or Total) yoghurt half-and half with extra thick double cream. About the same carbs in both and for me far more exciting than either on their own.
Which leads me on to what I often mix that with - Granola.
Someone was asking about the Lizi's Treacle and Pecan Granola (at least I think it was that flavour). I eat that occasionally and have two sources:
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk who sell it for £3.29 and have minimum of £35 (I think) to get free postage, and
http://www.lowcarbmegastore.com who sell it for between £2.99 and £3.49 depending on flavour but with a far higher minimum of £75. However they have far more options and I usually buy the Kitchen Granola in Maple Oat which is slightly lower Carb, far lower sugar and I like it much better. They also stock Erythritol which is my sweetener of choice (as well as lots of very naughty sugar free sweets and chocolates that I can't resist)

HanSpan

aliasojo wrote: »

Never mind the corner....I'm not even in the room at the minute! :cool:

Wandering along the lane outside whistling nonchalantly?

aliasojo

Yip, kinda. (Probably with an onion bhaji in one hand and wine in the other.)

Our family hasn't been the friendliest lately so we're going out for lunch tomorrow to regroup as it were, lol. Monday has been earmarked for an icing re-start.

HanSpan

For those who bake I've found something fab. 99% cocoa cooking chocolate drops. You do need to adjust sweetener slightly to compensate but its good quality, less expensive than most high cocoa content bars and has the advantage that unless you're really dedicated any leftovers are hard to consume in any quantity.

They come in a 1000g bag!!! for £19.95 from the Chocolate Trading company:
http://www.chocolatetradingco.com/moreinfo.asp?ID=799

Its my favourite place to shop for chocolate when feeling extravagant- not very MSE except that its so good I eat less (at least that's what I tell myself).

They also have some indulgent treats for us low carbers like a small (55g) box of Michel Cluizel high cocoa content chocolates with ganache centres. 8 pieces half with 85% centres and half with 99% centres for £5.95 http://www.chocolatetradingco.com/moreinfo.asp?ID=821 . They are strong but very yummy. I should have posted this a week ago shouldn't I - so you could all ask for them for Easter. Sorry - useless person.

I can also recommend the 100% Pralus bar (for the brave) http://www.chocolatetradingco.com/moreinfo.asp?ID=658, but not the Domori 100% which I found unpleasantly bitter. Also recommended for a novelty is the 75% chocolate with chilli from Venchi http://www.chocolatetradingco.com/moreinfo.asp?ID=316.

Back to the cooking chocolate. I made a double batch of Mercy's 'best low carb chocolat sponge' using this stuff with three little packets of splenda and 11 Tbsp of my favourite Erythritol (half mixed with the chocolate when melting) and both the muffins and the small thin loaf of leftovers came out fab (quite strong so anyone without my love of very strong chocolate might want more sweetener). Even my OH who often sniffs at my low carb baking experiments is hooked on these - served warm with double cream or, better yet, cold spread with butter (I know I'm disgusting!)

HanSpan

aliasojo wrote: »

Yip, kinda. (Probably with an onion bhaji in one hand and wine in the other.)

Our family hasn't been the friendliest lately so we're going out for lunch tomorrow to regroup as it were, lol. Monday has been earmarked for an icing re-start.

Mmm Onion Bhajis. I've banned the ordering of those from the takeaway as they are impossible to resist once they are in the house.

Hope tomorrow's lunch goes well, and the icing from Monday.

HanSpan

For those of you who end up in rows with people about how healthy or otherwise low-carb is I'd highly recommend watching this and passing it on to them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo
I found it very watchable as well as extremely informative. (its very long so you need to pause till you're buffer fills quite a bit or its horrid and juddery)

As ever the comments about it give different interpretations' of people's understanding but my take on it:

A vegetarian, PhD professor from Stamford University did a reasonably real life study of various diets from very low carb (atkins) through more moderate options all the way to very low fat (Ornish). He reluctantly (as a vegetarian who had aimed for lowish fat) has to present the fact that - on average - the low carber's lost more weight and had better blood results at the end (although that might just be down to losing weight).

It appears to me that it is possible that the low-carbers did better because low carb is easier to stick to than low-fat, although the vast majority on either of the VERY low something diets drifted towards the middle so those on atkins actually ended up eating more 'protein power' type diets by the end. He talks about some 'outliers' on Ornish who stuck rigidly to it and lost loads but to me it seems sticking to a long term way of reasonably controlled eating is the key. Reducing either carbs or fat seems to work - both together is the killer - and reducing carbs seems easier to stick to.

My own experience also fits with this theory - I'm most certainly not eating very low carb, just lower than most and avoiding (almost) altogether sugar, potatoes, white flower, rice and pasta. I didn't lose weight fast - about a stone over a year - but I've kept that off with very little effort for over two years now. Yes I bounce up a few pounds when I've had a bad week or two, and yes I could do with losing more, but I'm at the top of the 'healthy weight' band for my height now and not miserable or beating myself up. Unlike when (years ago) I tried low fat and did lose but was really miserable and bad tempered and put it all back on and some once I relaxed a bit.

It makes me wonder if those who struggle trying to stay at Atkins level carbs and end up falling on and off the wagon might be less miserable and more successful, albeit losing very very slowly, if they relaxed the rules a bit and aimed for lower (rather than very low) carbs.

For those who like internet wandering I came upon this following links from the Ben Goldacre bad science website http://www.badscience.net/ which I looked at having read the book of the same name which I'd recommend to anyone as a brilliant read.
From there I wandered to David Colquin's Improbable Science's site comments about the Gary Taube book - good calories/bad calories (published as the Diet Delusion in the UK) http://www.dcscience.net/?p=2584&cpage=2#comment-6130. Within all the chat there are proponents of the other side but, having followed most of the links and read most of the reviews for and against (except where the science just baffled me too much) I come out on the low-carb side every time.

Phew that was long - sorry about that - feel free to gloss over if you're eyes glaze!