"low carb" news and stories

Recently, Scott and I have been trying to eat a bit more healthfully and shed a few of those winter pounds that crept on over the last few months. We've found that doing Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet helps us both get our eating habits in check and forces us to think a bit more carefully about the food we eat. While I'm looking forward to switching back to oatmeal and other whole grains for my morning meal once this very limited carb phase is over, I've also been enjoying making egg cups for our breakfasts.

These muffin-sized egg bakes (even when not following South Beach, I've made similar recipes in a larger baking dish for brunch potlucks and holiday morning buffets) are essentially portable omelettes that, once cooked, make breakfast prep a snap in the morning. Just grab one and reheat it for a morning meal that contains lots of protein and one healthy serving of vegetables.

The recipe I'm following this week is after the jump.

When it comes to cooking South Beach friendly foods, Scott and I have fallen into something of a rut. We've been eating tons of salads with grilled chicken, chili, turkey burgers (cooked on the ever-handy George Foreman grill) and lots of cauliflower puree (faux-ta-toes!). Last weekend, tired of these tried and true dishes, I started flipping through the South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook that Scott brought with him into this relationship, searching for some new inspiration.

I actually found quite a few things that I thought were pretty appealing, and tonight, I cooked the Mini Greek Meatballs (Phase 1 and on page 216 of the book for those of you following along). They were tasty, filling and easy to put together. The only thing I would change in the whole recipe was the manner in which they were cooked. The recipe tells you to cook them in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Unfortunately, this means that they get crowded into the pan and end up a quarter submerged in the liquid they release by the time they are done cooking. Next time I make them, I will spread them out on a rack on a large cookie sheet, in order to get more surface area browning and prevent them from cooking in their juices.

For those of you who aren't are the South Beach diet, these are still yummy meatballs and could potentially spice up your weeknight dinners. If you want to try them out, the recipe is after the jump. For a more photogenic version of these meatballs, check out the batch that Kalyn made.

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That's the word from Fox News Channel Chief White House Correpsondent Bret Baier, who talks about his quest to get back into shape in the new issue of Men's Health.

Some might already be aware of the blog that Baier has been keeping for the past few months. In the Men's Health piece, Baier's battle is chronicled, but there are a ton of tips and tricks in there too for people who want to get into shape, especially busy travelers like Baier. Some of the "tips from the road:" Forget about the menu (decide what you want before you see all the options), invite a new client to dinner (studies show we eat less in front of strangers), and make sure you check out your hotel and the area to see where the best gyms are.

He says it's hard to eat well when the food on Air Force One is so good, but he's had success. He lost 20 pounds in 8 weeks.

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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