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coastcat

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  1. There is such a thing as a no-carb diet. The Stillman diet is one such diet, meant to be used for a very short time under a doctor's supervision. It's basically all-protein, with no carbs and very little added fat. Someone on the Stillman diet isn't going to be buying dessert items - unless you've got a recipe for beef cookies It's the same for low-carbers. We get the majority of our carbohydrates from vegetables, with additional carbs coming from dairy, low-glycemic fruits, nuts, and spices (yes, spices have carbs, and they count!). It's not nearly as limiting as people seem to think - two cups of chopped broccoli have a mere 4.3g of usable carbs (after deducting fiber). When you switch from weight loss to weight maintenance, you add whole grains and more fruits. The typical fat level for an Atkins eater is higher (50-65% during weight loss, percentage on maintenance varies depending on how many carbs your body can handle without regaining weight) than what dietitians recommend. Then again, dietitians generally recommend the USDA food pyramid with its emphasis on carbohydrates; I gained a whole lot of poundage trying to follow that diet by eating lots of healthy low-fat pasta dishes. Oh well, works for some, just not for me. FYI, Atkins For Life is the book for weight maintenance. Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution is the one for weight loss; some believe that Protein Power by the Drs. Eades (husband and wife team) explains the science better. The official Atkins website has some useful info about diet and diabetes.
  2. A liquid sweetener is fine for flavoring cookies or cakes, but does nothing for the structure. Unfortunately, I don't think Splenda creates much structure, either. For home-baked cookies and cakes, you're better off using recipes that create dense items like the almond cookies and flourless chocolate torte. This is why you'll find many recipes for low-carb cheesecakes and ice creams - you don't sacrifice texture. If I were making a low-carb dessert item for sale, I'd make mini cheesecakes (in cupcake wrappers) using sugar-free syrups for sweetening and flavoring. Diabetics and low-carb eaters don't necessarily have similar dietary guidelines. According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetics can safely eat some sugar as recent research indicates sucrose does not affect blood glucose levels more than starch does. Well, perhaps, but low-carb eaters avoid both starch and sugar - even if they have an equal impact on blood glucose, they both still have an impact! On the LC support boards you'll find a lot of Type II diabetics using low-carb eating to reduce weight and blood sugar. Type I diabetes is a different creature, though, since it's not triggered by lifestyle the way Type II often is. (note: I switched to low-carb when tests showed I was pre-diabetic; after three months, my glucose is still a little high, but significantly lower than before) Recipes which are simply sugar-reduced or sugar-free are probably suitable for diabetics, but low-carbers also need starch-free recipes (again, this explains the popularity of cheesecake and ice cream). Whole grains are fine for low-carbers who are maintaining weight or are following a less-restrictive version of low-carb eating like The Zone. Fat may be an issue for diabetics (the ADA recommends low-fat diets), but not for low-carbers. You want to avoid saturated fats and trans-fatty acids as much as possible, though, but that's good advice for everyone. It's all a bit complicated.
  3. Atkins mix = Atkins bake mix Protein mix = Probably refers to protein powder, the stuff bodybuilders use. It can be made with soy, egg, vegetable, or whey protein; some brands mix two or more types. Both products are readily found at GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, health food stores, and online retailers (I like Netrition). Wal-Mart tends to carry a lot of low-carb products, and mainstream supermarkets and drugstores are starting to carry them as well. However, I prefer to avoid "Frankenfoods". Try focusing on the recipes that use nut flours instead, like the peanut butter cookies or almond cookies from the Low Carb Luxury site (the almond pound cake is also irresistible). You can make your own nut flours with skinless nuts and a coffee grinder. Of course, nut flour is also available from health food stores (I think some Trader Joe's carry almond flour, too).
  4. Sigh. The Wheaton branch is the closest Asian market to our house (7 miles away), and I usually keep on driving to get to the next market. This particular HAR is somewhat small and is located in a shopping center with lousy traffic flow. The produce selection is impressive, but navigating the narrow paths amid the mob is always a challenge - it makes the parking lot seem like a wide open prairie by comparison! The selection of Korean and Vietmanese products is excellent, but I've had problems finding the Japanese and Thai items I like (this has improved recently, however). There's a bare minimum of prepared hot foods. And I still haven't figured out where they hide the bean curd skins. The checkout ladies never seem to smile. OTOH, there's an amazing array of kimchee, the veggies are good and cheap, the tofu selection is indeed vast, they carry Lee Kum Kee's Guilin Chili Sauce to which I'm addicted, and then there's that fish counter...
  5. coastcat

    Fantasy sandwich

    Here's my all-time favorite... Take one crusty Italian roll. Split it and slather both sides with good garlicky pesto. Fill with a generous amount of proscuitto and freshly-made mozzarella (buffalo if you can get it, of course). Find someplace where you won't be disturbed, and eat with abandon.
  6. We eloped to the county courthouse. Wow, what a charming wedding. Montgomery County MD has an exceedingly ugly courthouse, all beige concrete. Since it's also the criminal courthouse, you have to pass through a metal detector to enter. We both set off the metal detector, oh joy (he had a foil gum wrapper in his pocket, I had cloth-covered metal buttons on my dress). The ceremony room is nice enough, but its large picture window overlooks nothing but another wing of the building and some mechanical units. I should have shopped around for courthouses, oh well. Dinner started with mozzarella sticks at Dave & Buster's, where we killed zombies together as husband and wife. Very romantic. The real dinner was at Niwano Hana, a Japanese restaurant in Rockville MD. My new husband actually tried a tiny nibble of octopus salad and toro. That was the first and last time he's eaten anything vaguely adventurous on purpose. I once tricked him into trying grilled chicken heart, and he's never quite forgiven me. (it turns out they were overcooked, even I thought they were nasty) We've fully intended to go back to Niwano Hana on each anniversary, but have never been back since our wedding day, two and half years ago. It's a pretty decent restaurant, but it's right next door to our favorite Thai place. Thai always wins out. Our honeymoon started six weeks after the wedding. I chose Vancouver for the food. And it would have been a wonderful eating adventure, except I married an unadventurous diner... and he was very ill for 2/3 of the honeymoon. He lived off soup from room service. Luckily we stayed at the Wedgewood, and the soup in question was wild mushroom from Bacchus.
  7. ... but let me point out quickly that although those sugar-free desserts might work for diabetics, they would NOT be suitable for low-carb diets. We do not use sweeteners that the body recognizes as a sugar. Here's a list of sweeteners that are off-limits for us: Brown sugar Corn sweetener Corn syrup Corn syrup solids Dextrose Fructose Fruit juice concentrate Glucose High-fructose corn syrup Honey Invert sugar Lactose Maltose Malt Malt syrup Molasses Raw sugar Sucrose (table sugar)
  8. Hi, low-carb eater here. The Low Carb Luxury site has a small but excellent selection of cookie recipes. The Low Carb Friends site has a recipe room with more cookies and other dessert items. 500 Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender is widely considered to be the best of the LC cookbooks (it's available through Amazon, ISBN 1931412065). For sweetening, it's often recommended to mix artificial sweeteners (rather than using just one kind) to get a more natural taste. DaVinci and Torani sugar-free syrups (both of which use liquid Splenda) are very popular for flavoring, although they're generally used for things like cheesecakes. To me, the recipes using soy flour or commercial low-carb bake mix or whey protein taste a little off. I prefer recipes that stick with nut flours. Or heck, make mini cheesecakes using DaVinci syrup (Dulce de Leche is quite decadent) and cupcake liners. Basic low-carb dessert guidelines: No sugar Avoid wheat/rice/corn products Most nuts are acceptable (cashews and chestnuts are relatively high-carb; almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, hazelnuts, and pistachios are fine) Full-fat products are preferred; reduced-fat ones generally use added sugars Use only all-natural peanut butter containing nothing but peanuts and salt (no hydrogenated oils, no sugar) Butter is your friend; margarine is the enemy When calculating carbs, take note of any fiber carbs. Fiber is generally not counted against one's daily carb count. For example, one cup of pecan halves has 14.97 grams of carbs, but 10.37 of those grams are fiber so the net carb count is only 4.6g. I eat a lot of pecans.
  9. I've grown snow peas for years. They take little maintenance or horizontal room, and there are few summer delights to equal raw snow peas right off the vine (or sauteed briefly with a touch of garlic oil).
  10. I grew up loving Botan Rice Candy - my parents would include them in care packages when I was away at college. Later in life I discovered Pocky and milk candies. I miss the little toys that came with the rice candy; the stickers were surreal enough to be entertaining, but certainly no substitute for little plastic airplanes and cars. Sadly, they are all off-limits to me now... which wouldn't be so bad if there weren't a branch of Aji Ichiban (Japanese snack food shop) across the street from one of the Asian markets I shop at. It lurks there, taunting me.
  11. I would probably use the sugar-free DaVinci even if I weren't eating low-carb. I've been drinking diet beverages for years. I hate beverages sweetened with corn syrup - they taste sticky and nasty to me. The sugar-free DaVinci doesn't have that thick, sticky taste. They make great snowcones! Yeah, if I could, I'd keep making desserts the proper way, with sugar and high-quality flour and the best chocolate I could afford. However, to quote Calvin Trillin, I'm now looking after a well-deserved case of fatness. But hey, I can live with eating strawberries slathered in whipped cream instead of chocolate fudge cake for dessert. It's not that much of a sacrifice. Okay, here's a low-carb chocolate bar to try - on the LC support boards I read, there is constant praise for Pure De-Lite bars as the best candy-like treat available. They are available in Caramel, Caramel Crisp, Caramel Nougat, Caramel Peanut Butter Bar with Peanuts, Caramel Pecan, Chocolate Mint, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Orange, Milk Chocolate with Almonds, Milk Chocolate with Coconut, Milk Chocolate with Peanuts, and White Chocolate. I've tried the Carb Solutions Taste Sensation bar in Chocolate Peanut Butter and Chocolate Toffee Hazelnut. The latter was edible but not exactly delicious, the former was truly hideous. It took hours before the aftertaste faded.
  12. I'm on a low-carb diet, so I know all about the laxative effect... There are a number of sugar-free candies available, which is a boon to diabetics and to those of us who are trying to avoid becoming diabetic. Most of these are sweetened with sugar alcohols like maltitol, sorbitol, and lactitol. These sweeteners don't impact your blood glucose or insulin levels. Sounds good, right? The bad news is that your body doesn't absorb them and would like them to depart as soon as possible. In other words, they have a laxative effect, and sometimes a downright unpleasant one. Usually this is only an issue if you eat more than the "recommended serving size". Hershey's makes sugar-free versions of some of its chocolate products, including my beloved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. However, Hershey's uses lactitol, which tends to produce the worst laxative effects of all the sugar alcohols. I had one - ONE - of the mini Reese's, and was not fit for human or feline companionship for the next six hours or so. Splenda is not a sugar alcohol, and thus doesn't do a two-step on your digestive system. I get my chocolate fix by making mousse with heavy cream, unsweetened chocolate, and sugar-free DaVinci vanilla syrup (which is sweetened with Splenda). Bars like this are tempting, but I'd rather stick with "real" foods. For the cost of a couple of those bars, I can make a whole sugar-free cheesecake.
  13. The Gaithersburg one is in the same shopping plaza as Sushi Chalet, right? I envy those who live in western Montgomery - the Grand Marts, Lotte, and Kam Sam (and A&J, Joe's Noodle House, New Fortune, etc). I'm in the eastern part of the county, near the Wheaton branch of Han Ah Reum. I'm not impressed with it. The produce section is good, but the last couple bags of baby bok choy I bought there have been extra-gritty and loaded with an amazing number of insects (previous purchases were far superior). I went there looking for dried shrimp, dried cloud ears, lemongrass, and shirataki. No, no, no, and no. The store inventory is heavily weighted towards Korean, Vietmanese, and Hispanic items, and I have a hard time finding my Japanese foods. Good fish section, though, and a terrific variety of kimchee. The store is pretty cramped during weekdays - it's hellish on the weekends. So I drive a little further to Korean Korner (also mentioned in the article). One of these days, though, I'm going to borrow a big cooler and drive across the bridge to the Super H...
  14. Fictional: Anne Eliot (from Jane Austen's Persuasion) Non-living: Thomas Jefferson. He had failings as a man, but at least he was serious about food. Living: Calvin Trillin, in NYC's Chinatown
  15. Yet even those raised in dander-infested, non-spotless homes develop allergies to dander and other external things. Heredity and environment are playing rock-paper-scissors, it seems. We have a friend who claims multiple food allergies. I'm never quite sure how many are genuine allergies and how many are psychosomatic. Current list: wheat and all wheat components; corn and all corn components; eggs; chocolate, citrus fruit; MSG (I think he classifies this as a sensitivity rather than an allergy). He thinks he may be developing an allergy towards dairy products, and is concerned about eating too much rice lest he start developing a sensitivity towards it. And yet peanuts are fine... for now. I'm just stunned that a whole generation of children is growing up without peanut butter sandwiches. Perhaps it depends upon an individual's degree of intolerance? I'm lactose-intolerant (half-Asian), but only mildly so. I can drink milk without suffering ill effects about 80% of the time (the other occasions are, um, unpleasant), and never have a problem with yogurt or cheese (even cream cheese or mozzarella). Cream and ice cream always start a stampede if I forget the Lactaid, though. MSG? Pah. Zero effect. Mama-san put Aji-No-Moto on everything, so my body is probably still one-third MSG by composition
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