Low Carb Diets

I am a real fan of Dr. Mary Vernon, co-author of Atkins Diabetes Revolution. I've heard her speak many times, from Nutrition and Metabolism conferences to the Low-Carb Cruise. Often, she is educating other physicians about how to effectively use a low-carb approach with their patients.

If you can't get to a conference, I have a video for you: Swedish physician Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt interviewed Dr. Vernon for his blog. It would be helpful for your doctor to see as well, as she explains what led her to begin to use a low-carb approach with her patients, and her clinical experience with them. Dr. Vernon says such provocative things as: "Nobody needs to count calories." "Everybody should eat low-carb" (but the amount of carbohydrate a person can eat varies according to the individual), and that she doesn't care about a patient's weight (though people usually do lose weight); instead she focuses on their about metabolic health. Intrigued? Catch the Interview Here.

Photo © Jimmy Moore

Related Resources:

• My Interview with Dr. Vernon
  
  
• How Much Protein do you Need?
  
  
• Carb Counts of Common Foods

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Why go out to a restaurant when you can have a simple, yet romantic Valentine dinner at home? Check out these tips for a Low-Carb Valentine's Day.

Photo © Janet Goulden

Related Resources:

• Pan Seared Scallops
  
  
• How to Make a Good Cheap Steak
  
  
• Low-Carb Chocolate Mousse

Last year saw the publication of the book The New Atkins for a New You by Drs. Westman, Phinney, and Volek, which I highly recommend. Now the companion cookbook, The New Atkins for a New You Cookbook by Colette Heimowitz has been released. Last week I had the opportunity to chat for a few minutes with Ms. Heimowitz, and also chef and Food Network personality Donatella Arpaia, who is using the Atkins diet to shed weight after having a baby last year.

Ms. Heimowitz is a nutritionist who was the Director of Nutrition for Dr. Robert Atkins and now serves as Vice President of Nutrition and Education for Atkins Nutritionals. I asked her about the current goals of Atkins Nutritionals and of her new cookbook. She said that the company is doing very well, and is now outselling all of its competitors in the weight loss product category. I think that says a lot about how low-carb eating is progressing in the minds of people. For the cookbook, the main focus is on simple, quick and easy meals that can be made in half an hour. Read More...

The Super Bowl -- in the U.S., even people who aren't football fans often get pulled in. Like most parties, those around the Super Bowl are often loaded with chips, brownies, and other high-carb fare. But you can fight back with delicious low-carb treats. If you're having a party, you'll need a strategy. If you're going to one, here are lots of ideas of things to bring. Check out my game plan for a Low-Carb Super Bowl Party.

Photo © Jack Puccio

Related Resources:

• Low-Carb Party Foods
  
  
• Alcoholic Beverages on a Low-Carb Diet
  
  
• Low-Carb Cocktails

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth? About.com has put a boatload of new low-carb videos on my site in the last few weeks, and I'm starting to sort through them to make them more accessible. If you've ever wanted to see a video to guide you through a recipe, you may find these helpful. These videos take you thought how to make cheesecake, flax crackers, spaghetti squash, mashed cauliflower, and more. Some are based on my own recipes, and others are from other sources. Check out:

• Low-Carb Snack and Dessert Videos
  
  
• Low-Carb Vegetable Videos
  
  
• Low-Carb Main Dish Videos

Photo of Beef Fajitas © About.com

Related Resources:

• Top Low-Carb Cooking Tips
  
  
• South Beach Diet Recipes
  
  
• All Laura's Low-Carb Recipes

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I think we can say that the Low-Carb Cruise is now an established annual tradition. This year is the fifth one, and will be sailing the Caribbean this May 6-13. I went on last year's cruise (my first cruise ever), and I was hooked!

The way the cruise is set up is that the on the "port" days, we're free to do whatever we want, and there are lots of options at each port (this year's ports: Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman). Then on the "at-sea" days, we have truly fabulous speakers on subjects pertaining to low-carb eating. This year, there are three at-sea days instead of two, so we'll have even more wonderful information to absorb! Read More...

It's Chinese New Year, and I love Chinese food! Unfortunately, a lot of it has a fair amount of sugar and/or starch. Did you know that the Hoisin sauce and plum sauce you can buy in the store can be up to 19 grams of carb (almost entirely sugar) for 2 tablespoons? Yikes! But we can celebrate Chinese New Year in a low-carb way. For example, try my recipe for Moo Shu Chicken with Sugar-Free Plum Sauce.

Photo © Hywit Dimyadi

More Low-Carb Chinese Recipes and Resources:

• Chinese Five Spice Chicken
  
  
• Low-Carb Spicy Asian Noodle Dish
  
  
• Eating Low-Carb in a Chinese Restaurant
  
  
• Low-Carb Chinese Recipes from Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide to Chinese Food

This week, Food Network star Paula Deen, known for her Southern home cooking, announced on the Today Show that she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago, and that she is beginning a new venture called "Diabetes in a New Light" with pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk (makers of the diabetes medication Victoza). This has caused quite a furor, with chefs, food writers, bloggers, and health reporters railing away at Deen. Most of the commentators are blaming Deen for not only causing her own diabetes, but promoting foods that will do the same for her viewers. The Today Show's Dr. Nancy Snyderman criticized Deen, saying, "her behavior is egregious...let's be real; you can't blame your genes for everything...we know that obesity is now the number one killer". (In the same segment, when asked whether New Jersey governor Chris Christie's weight would be likely to impair his chances in a future election, Snyderman said "we need a president with the fortitude to push himself away from the table".) Read More...

It's always fun to hear about how the image of low-carb eating is faring in countries other than the U.S., where I live. I've written before about Sweden, where what they call "LCHF" (low-carb high-fat) is now well-established -- as of last spring, up to 25% of the population was at least partially attempting to follow this way of eating, and in a recent podcast interview with Jimmy Moore, Swedish doctor and blogger Andreas Eenfeldt reported that he has the strong impression that interest continues to be on the rise, judging by the interest in his Swedish blog (English version). (Dr. Eenfeldt was a speaker on the 2011 Low Carb Cruise and at the Ancestral Health Symposium). Read More...

You're losing weight...but are you really losing fat? We tend to think that "the scale tells the tale", but two people can have the same height and weight, but very different amounts of body fat. Especially if you are trying to lose fat, understanding your body fat percentage can be very valuable.

Photo by Sharon Dominick

Related Resources:

• Body Fat Calculator
  
  
• Charts - Healthy Body Fat for Women and Men
  
  
• BMI (Body Mass Index) Calculator