"carb" news and stories

Unless you opted for a light dessert last night, chances are that you might want to cut back a bit to make up for the chocolates, cheesecake and/or creme brulee that you may have indulged in. Cutting a few calories doesn't mean that you have to stick with salads and Dana Carpender's Every Calorie Counts Cookbook: 500 Great-Tasting, Sugar-Free, Low-Calorie Recipes that the Whole Family Will Love is a book that is based around that philosophy and strives to provide a wide range of recipes that will appeal to a wide variety of tastes. It uses healthy fats and whole grains, avoiding sugar and other "bad" carbs, to make every meal as healthy (but still flavorful) as possible, from party snacks to dinner to drinks and desserts. You don't have to be "low carb" in general to appreciate the book, though. The important thing to note here is that with 500 recipes, it is quite easy to use it to slightly modify your standard diet, lightening up meals when you want to cut back and providing healthy alternatives to some of your more fattening favorites. Recipes include Broccoli Soup with Almonds, Coconut Curried Chicken, Mixed Greens Salad with Goat Cheese and Olives, Cornmeal Waffles and Fried Peaches.

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Not all low-carbers like sticking to their diets because they sometimes feel that they are missing out on some of their favorite foods, but one of the most frequently heard warnings is not that anyone on the diet will never be able to eat bread again, but that the high-fat diet is bad for their hearts. It turns out that bit of conventional wisdom might not be true after all.

A new, long-term study, done by researchers at the Harvard Medical School, followed the records of women over the course of two decades. The women followed different types of diets, but were not actually on a "diet," and were actually slightly overweight on average. The study produced some interesting results. First, it found that low-carb/high-fat diets, such as the Atkins diet, do not raise the risk of heart disease. Second, it found that eating a lot of processed foods could possibly raise that risk. Third, and most interestingly, it revealed that low-carbers who got most of their protein and fat from vegetables, rather than from animal sources, reduced their risk of heart disease by an average 30% over the women who ate more animal fat.

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It seems a little late for a company to suddenly be jumping on the low-carb bandwagon (at least, I haven't previously noticed it in my area), but that's pretty much what Heinz has done with their one-carb Reduced Sugar Ketchup. The ketchup has 75% less sugar than their regular ketchup and 2/3 fewer calories. Since it is being marketed as a healthier alternative to regular ketchup, the company notes that it still has plenty of heart-healthy lycopene from tomatoes in it, so anyone who switches to it won't be missing out.

Frankly, it's hard to imagine that a low carb ketchup will really stand up to regular ketchup, let alone to Organic Heinz, and because you don't generally consume ketchup by the cupful, how harmful could a few extra grams of sugar be? They're probably not has unhealthy as the French fries or other food that is being served with the ketchup in the first place.

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Though the very height of the "low carb craze" has passed, millions of people still follow a low or reduced carb diet. A new study reveals that, though they are sticking to it voluntarily, at least 3 out or 5 low-carbers feel limited in what they are allowed to eat and regularly crave forbidden foods, which makes sticking to the diet that much harder. The number one thing that low carb dieters miss are baked goods (50%), followed by pasta (22%) and fruit (9%). More than 25% of respondents said that the prepackaged versions of baked goods and some mixes, though diet-friendly, were not worth eating under any circumstances.

The survey was commissioned by the baking-mix company Krusteaz, and coincides with the release of a new line of low-carb baking mixes, called CarbSimple. For the sake of all those poor, dissatisfied low-carbers, let's hope that the line turns out to be a good one.

But aside from promoting a new product, the results here indicate that the diet is not for everyone. If you constantly (or even frequently) feel that you are missing out, if baked goods of any kind - from blueberry muffins to sandwich bread - are at the top of your "must-have" list, the low-carb diet is going to be a tough one to follow and you might be better off choosing a different eating regimen. Picking one strategy that you can follow long-term - low carb or otherwise - will generally produce the best results because it is one that you can willingly and happily follow.

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Fabe's All Natural Bakery supports healthy living and says that their products are "good for you" because they are free from refined sugar, artificial ingredients and preservatives. While that is certainly an aspect of foods that are "good for you," it seems like they are exaggerating the healthy qualities of their food. After all, a block of organic butter is still not health food, despite being organic.

The most glaring example of this might be their Healthy Dieter Blueberry Muffins. The low-carb muffins are low in sugar, but have 250 calories each (2.5-oz) and 18g fat, including a whopping 41% of the daily maximum intake of saturated fat and 41% of the daily maximum intake of cholesterol. The first ingredient in the muffins is cream cheese - and that doesn't make them sound very muffin-like. The only redeeming feature is that they don't appear to contain any gluten, though the site gives no indication as to whether they are prepared in a gluten-free environment.

Healthy to some? Perhaps, but to say that it is a muffin for more than a handful of "healthy dieters" is an overstatement.

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