Low Carb Gingerbread House

Photos of my gingerbread house made of slim jims, jack links, and beef jerky are up on my Examiner site here.

Making your own "meat masterpiece"? Send me a photo and I will be happy to post it.

Merry Christmas :D

Gingerbread houses are for wussies!

As part of a Christmas party I am attending on Saturday, there is going to be a gingerbread house contest. Not touching sugar and flour for over 18 months has been very good to me, so I really see no need to start now. While I do admit that sugar and flour are better used as a building material than a food source, there just has to be a better way.

Instead of walls made out of gingerbread, candy trim and peppermint wheel windows, I did think about baking sheets of low carb almond cookies and using sugar-free candies. It would have the appearance of a traditional gingerbread house, but lack the traditional toxic ingredients. The more I thought about it, the more lame it seemed. Why pay tribute to sugar and wheat addiction by making a pathetic imitation? Instead, I decided to pay the ultimate tribute to my low carb lifestyle and make my gingerbread house out of MEAT!

You got it! Sausage logs walls, beef jerky "shingles", circles of summer sausage and any other dried meat that will hold its form. For mortar, instead of frosting I will use cream cheese onion dip fortified with a little palm oil. Decorations and trim will be almond slivers, pecan, macadamia nuts and sunflower seeds. There wont be a single gumdrop, licorice whip, or peppermint anywhere near my masterpiece. I think this will be a fitting tribute to low carb living.

So far all I have is $30 worth of dried meat and several packs of cream cheese and a head full of ideas. Stay tuned to see if I can actually pull this off.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is having a tasty and fun Thanksgiving. Here is my dinner before it mysteriously disappeared. There is cooked-ahead turkey in Cream of Chicken Mushroom gravy, sausage and squash stuffing, "Jacked-up" cauliflower, a spinach salad and some sharp cheddar cheese. Who needs rolls!?!

I have recipes for most of these over on my Examiner site as well as instructions on what to do with that turkey carcass (you didn't throw it away, did you???). Stop by and check it out as soon as you recover from your food coma :D

Denver's Low Carb Examiner

Sugar-free Halloween

I was able to find packages of Sugar-Free Double Bubble at my local Walmart, so it looks like I am set for my non-poisonous trick-or-treat offering. Not sure how the kids will take it. I guess I will find out at the end of the night. Either my pumpkins will be fine, which means they didn't notice I slipped sugar-free gum in their bags. Or, I will find smashed pumpkins, a burning pile of copies of "Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution", and "Death to Low-Carb!" spray painted on my VW Golf. Well, it could also be angry militant vegetarians who caught wind of my propensity to eat meat, but I guess in that case, the pumpkins would have been chewed on instead of smashed. I guess I will have play "Pumpkin CSI" to know for sure.

Along with purchasing non-toxic treats, I have also been going through my music collection trying to find a good mix of music to play Halloween night. I usually hook up some outside speakers and play some of the kid-friendly selections for the munchkins that come to my door. I have been working on building this collection for quite a few years, so it is pretty extensive. I was Facebooking with a friend of my hubby's the other night and mentioned I was jamming to some Halloween tunes. He asked what songs I was playing and I ended up typing up the entire list. Through the magic of cut and paste, I am posting it here in case anyone else is looking for some good music to play for treat-or-treaters or at their Halloween bash. Most music genres are represented, and some are a tad corny, but they sure are fun. Just be sure let me know if I left any good ones out. 

Wifezilla's Ultimate Halloween Party Music List

"This is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson (as well as the original from the movie soundtrack)

"Black Magic Woman" by Carlos Santana

"I put a spell on you" by Natacha Atlas (as well as the CCR and Bett Midler versions)

"Every Day is Halloween" by Ministry

"Voo Doo" by Godsmack

"When You're Evil" by Voltaire (comedy song)

"Oogie Boogie Man" from Nightmare Before Christmas

"Psycho theme song"

"De Ja Voo Doo" by Kenny Wayne Sheperd

"Devil with a blue dress" by Mitch Ryder

Theme from Beetlejuice

Theme from Halloween ala Mike Myers

"Monster Mash"

Theme from the Addams Family

"Magic Man" by Heart

"Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen

"Blue Moon" the Platters

"Once bitten twice shy" White Snake

"Nemesis" by Shriekback

"Halloween" by Steven Lynch (comedy song)

"Thriller" Michael Jackson

Amityville Horror Theme

Ghostbusters Theme

Exorcist Theme

Tales From the Crypt Theme

Friday the 13th - Jason's Theme

"Devil in Disguise" by Elvis Presley

"Highway to Hell" by AC/DC

"Psycho Killer" Talking Heads

"Voodoo Lady" Ween

"Weird Science" Oingo Boingo

"Devil Inside" INXS

"Werewolves of London" Warren Zevon

"Blinded me with science" Thomas Dolby

"Zombie" Cranberries

"I'm Your Boogie Man" KC & the Sunshine Band

"Don't Fear the Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult

"Time Warp" Rocky Horror Picture Show

"Dead Man's Party" Oingo Boingo

"Hell's Bells" AC/DC

"Love Song For A Vampire" Annie Lennox

"The Beast"  Concrete Blonde

"Deliver us from Evil" by Bullet for my Valentine
"Evil Ways" by Carlos Santana
"Dirty Deeds" AC/DC
"Abracadabra" Steve Miller Band
and "Evil Woman" by ELO

"Witchy Woman"--Eagles!

"Somebody's Watching Me" Rockwell

"Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult

"Clap for the Wolfman" The Guess Who

"Feed my Frankenstein" Alice Cooper

"Invisible Man" by Theory of a Dead Man

"Blasphemous Rumors" Depeche Mode

"Creatures" 311

"Live & Let Die" Guns & Roses

"Possum Kingdom" the Toadies

"Bad Moon Rising" CCR

"King of Pain" the Police

"Girls are F*cking Evil" by the Ataris

"They're coming to take me away" Napoleon

"If you want blood" AC/DC

"Dragula" Rob Zombie

"Little Devil" Neil Sedaka

"The Killing Moon" Echo and the Bunnymen

"Race with the Devil" by the Stray Cats

"Counting Bodies Like Sheep" Perfect Circle

"Sell your soul" Hollywood Undead

"Bark at the moon" Ozzy Osbourne

"World is a Vampire" Smashing Pumpkins

"Prince of Darkness" Megadeath

"Bloodletting" Concrete Blonde

"Can't fight the Moonlight" by Leann Rimes

"Vampires in Love" Deadlines

"Neon Moon" Brooks and Dunn

"If I was your Vampire" Marilyn Manson

"Poison" Alice Cooper

"My Boo" by Girlicious

"Hungry like the wolf" Duran Duran

"Animal I have Become" 3 Days Grace

"Cold Hearted Snake" Paula Abdul

"Living Dead Girl" Rob Zombie

"Move your body like a snake" R. Kelly

"I can sleep when I'm dead" Jason Michael Carroll

"Devil went down to Georgia" Charlie Daniels

More Halloween Issues

Apparently I am not the only one who has been agonizing about whether or not to poison the neighborhood children with sugar this Halloween. Columnist Brian Cormier also has it on his mind...

"It's a little-known fact that this is also National Dentists Buy Expensive Cars Week across North America. Wherever children go door to door, dentists will be cackling with glee and their receptionists getting to work extra early tomorrow in order to deal with all those calls from moms and dads (probably mostly dads)."  

Please stop by and check out the rest of his blog post. It's a great laugh :D

Why I never have any food in the house....

My 18 year-old settling in for a good old fashioned refrigerator raid.

TB: Yet another reason to ditch carbs

Not only is there a tie between type 2 diabetes and heart disease, there is also a link between diabetes and tuberculosis. The University of Texas Public Health team reports;

"-- Type 2 diabetes, especially Type 2 diabetes involving chronic high blood sugar, is associated with altered immune response to TB, and this was particularly marked in patients with chronically high blood sugar.
-- Patients with diabetes and TB take longer to respond to anti-TB treatment.
-- Patients with active tuberculosis and Type 2 diabetes are more likely to have multi-drug resistant TB.

The World Health Organization estimates that 180 million people in the world have diabetes, and that number is expected to double by 2030. Also, according to the WHO, each person with active, untreated TB infects on average 10 to 15 people per year. "You do the math and it adds up to a major public health threat," McCormick said. "If you have Type 2 diabetes in an area with high rates of TB, your chances of getting TB goes up. In countries where a third of the population is infected with TB, this becomes a real issue."

In a recently published study in linical Infectious Diseases, researchers reported that the immune systems of patients with Type 2 diabetes and tuberculosis respond differently compared with patients with TB alone. "This immune impairment may be what makes patients with diabetes so susceptible to TB," said Fisher-Hoch, whose career as a scientist was recently honored with a Hall of Fame Award from Women In Technology International. " (full article)

Controlling blood sugar is about more than just treating diabetes. Unstable blood sugar seriously effects the immune system and can set you up for many different chronic disease (check my Examiner post on Diabetes and Heart disease for one example). One of the best ways to get your blood sugar under control is to follow a low carbohydrate diet. Check out the websites for Dr. Bernstein, Dr. Briffa and Dr. Mary Vernon to learn how you can avoid additional illness risk if you are already diabetic....or even if you aren't!

Sugar High Brings Heart to New Low

From my latest Examiner post...

"Diabetics have always been at a much greater risk of heart disease than non-diabetics. According to the American Heart Association, approximately three-quarters of people with diabetes die of some form of heart or blood vessel disease. The exact mechanism by which diabetics succumb to heart disease was not totally understood. A new study by US and Australian researchers sheds light on the process that can lead a diabetic to a coronary incident.

"...short-lived sugar highs can trigger changes in gene expression that lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques - the build-up of white blood cells on artery walls that causes the narrowing or 'furring' of arteries and reduces blood flow to the heart."

Full Story

I also posted my Mozzarella Salad recipe, so if you missed it the first time, be sure to check it out...

Recipe

Another post from last week is a quick story about a research student who figured out that high carb + disease makes you even sicker...

Full Story

On a personal note, I got hit on last weekend. I don't get hit on often so it kind of took me by surprise since I am:

1) way taller than most people

2) have been overweight since my early 20's

3) I'm 45 and have been married forever

4) Still need to lose 18 pounds

It was kind of a good news/bad news thing. It is nice to know that someone finds you attractive...but the person hitting on me was a lesbian. Now, this isn't the first time I have gotten hit on by lesbians. It happened quite a few times in college. I must say though, I seem to be attracting an entirely different type than I did in the past. In my younger, fatter days, it was the mullet-wearing, flannel-sporting, Wrangler-wearers with huge belt buckles that thought I was interesting. Last week, it was a tall, cute blonde. I am moving up in the world apparently. Low carb seems to have helped me in a very unexpected way. Even though I am quite happy with my husband and will always have a preference for boys, it's nice to know I have options.

The Halloween Dilemma

Halloween is coming up and I have been off sugar and refined carbs for almost a year and a half now. The candy displays at the grocery store are almost impossible to avoid and I am so torn about what to do when the neighborhood kids come to my door Halloween night. Do I stick to my low carb convictions and give the kids Slim Jims instead of candy? Do I give them dark chocolate, reducing the amount of sugar I am giving them yet still give them candy? Do I give them little toys or coupons? I could get all evangelical and stand on the porch with my copy of "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and read passages from the chapter on sugar, but I don't want my pumpkins smashed or a quick trip to the local mental health care facility courtesy of their parents.

I firmly believe that sugar is destroying the health of adults and children around the world, but I also believe that kids should be kids and Halloween comes but once a year. Too bad I just know these little rug rats are going to be eating sugar in the form of cereal, sugar in the form of pasta, sugar in the form of rice, and sugar in the form of drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup for the rest of their lives. Then their parents and school officials will try to make these poor kids lose weight by making them run, take exercise classes and give them low fat foods. More than the thought of ghost, vampires, zombies and politicians bent on "helping" me, this is my biggest nightmare.

Oh well. I can only do so much, and I am having enough trouble with my oldest son. I've been trying to convince my slightly chubby 20 year old that low carb is what he needs to drop the 5 lbs the Army wants him to lose before he enlists. If I can't convince my own stupid kid to drop the sugars, how can I expect to save the entire neighborhood?

I guess I will go with the dark chocolate option. At least if nobody shows up, it is something I can eat myself.

Sugar isn't the only problem with breakfast cereals

Here is a new article I wrote for the Examiner about breakfast cereals...

"Consumer Reports released an article today stating that many breakfast cereals are more than 50% sugar.

"The bad news is that 23 of the top 27 cereals marketed to children rated only Good or Fair for nutrition. There is at least as much sugar in a serving of Kellogg's Honey Smacks and 10 other rated cereals as there is in a glazed doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts. "
Examiner Article: Sugar isn't the only problem with breakfast cereal

While it's very easy to get upset about added sugar in cereal, nobody seems to notice all the damn CARBS in that crap!!!

Who needs noodles when you have low carb 'cabboodles'?

Here is my latest examiner post with a handy noodle replacement... shredded cabbage noodles, or, as I like to call them, "CABBOODLES"!

Low Carb Noodles

I also reposted an old recipe of mine for Almond Ricotta Pancakes. Check it out if you missed it the first time...
Low Carb Pancake Recipe

Dr. Sears' New Theory

Dr. Barry Sears, author of The Zone Diet has a book coming out in which he proposes a new theory on obesity.

"Rather than looking at obesity as a condition of sloth and gluttony, Dr. Sears shows it is much more productive to think of obesity as a form of cancer that is driven by silent inflammation. Furthermore, the epidemics of weight gain and diabetes in America are primarily caused because the genes in susceptible individuals are being activated by recent changes in the American diet. Once those genes are turned on, obesity and diabetes are the inevitable outcome. The cause of those genes being turned on is the rapid increase of arachidonic acid (i.e., toxic fat) in our bodies." (Full Story)

The theory may sound a bit far-fetched, but after recently learning that Alzheimer's Disease may actually be a form of diabetes of the brain, it doesn't seem so wacky after all. With many random diseases (heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer) turning out to be generating from the same cause (excess carbohydrate consumption), Dr. Sears may actually be on to something.

Once I get a copy of his book, I'll read in to it further and let you know what I think.

Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet

I have a few new Examiner posts you might find interesting. One that I think came out rather well was "Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet". I wrote that as part of the Examiner's BEST OF project and it was published yesterday. Links are below. I've marked the articles I published earlier on this blog as RERUNS so you can skip over those if you caught them the first time. All other posts are new.

Best Reasons to Start a Low Carb Diet
Are Diabetics Suffering for No Reason? (rerun)
Don't Have a Heart Attack. Dark Chocolate is Good For You!
Carbohydrates Clog Your Brain (rerun)
A Day At The Farmer's Market
Vitamin K(ale)

Fellow low carber and columnists Jamie Van Eaton has a new "best of" post too...
Five Best Low Carb Breakfast Ideas
Happy Reading :D

Meet "Space Doc"

I stumbled on a very interesting website today. Created by Duane Graveline, MD, MPH, Former USAF Flight Surgeon, Former NASA Astronaut, and Retired Family Doctor, it documents his disastrous experience with statins along with his take on low carbohydrate diets.

"No more than 40-50% of our daily caloric intake should be from carbohydrates and it should be from the complex variety and for fats we must return to the natural fats that were the foundation of the American diet five decades ago.

We also should remember that our strongest antagonists in what I chose to call "back to basics" diet will be the food industry for there is relatively little profit in basic foods. I fondly remember the words of Doctor Paul Dudley White, cardiologist to the presidents back in the mid-fifties. When pressed to support the politically motivated "prudent" diet of fat and cholesterol restriction replied, "See here, I began my practice as a cardiologist in 1921 and never saw a myocardial infarction patient until 1928. Back in the MI-free days before 1920, the fats were butter, whole milk and lard, and I think we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had when no one had ever heard of corn oil."

Today most people have forgotten all about Dr. Dudley White and his prophetic words of advice. If Dudley White had been in control of our dietary destiny then, cardiovascular disease would probably not be the immense problem it is today."
http://www.spacedoc.net/heart_disease_carbohydrate.htm

When you get a chance stop by this interesting and informative website.

A Better Use for Sugar: Gasoline!

While not ready for prime time, new technology is in the works that can convert sugar to gasoline at an efficiency rate of 65%. It works by passing the sugars over nano-sized metal catalysts and requires very little energy input to run unlike current fermentation processes. Better yet, this method results in gasoline, NOT ethanol, which can be damaging to metals and rubbers used in car parts.

"An alloy of the precious metals platinum and rhenium triggers the first step of the conversion. Dumesic and his colleagues deposited 2-nanometer-wide specks of this alloy onto surfaces made of pure carbon. When a liquid mixture of water and plant sugar flows over the platinum-rhenium particles at the right temperature and pressure, the metal atoms act as catalysts to cleave chemical bonds in the sugar, releasing oxygen and leaving behind a mixture of molecules containing carbon and hydrogen — the principal elements in gasoline and diesel."
Full story

There is still a lot of work to do on this process and catalyst costs may be an issue, but hopefully this line of study will result in getting sugars out of American's diets and in to something much more useful that wont cause obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Cancer Support Event Fail

The Denver Zoo was host to the recent "Paint the Zoo Pink" event to support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. According to a 9 News article, "The Denver Zoo's hippos, Bert and Mahali, eagerly supported the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation Sunday afternoon. Their jobs during the event were very important: they had to open their mouths wide and eat two pink sponge cakes which were dropped in whole." (Full Story)

While fund raisers like this are very helpful in raising money and awareness about the cancer battle, there is a slight problem with this particular event detail. Sponge cake is made from refined flours and sugars, which are the two of the leading suspects in the rise in cancer rates over the last 20-30 years. Refined carbohydrates are behind all the diseases of civilization...heart disease, diabetes, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and yes, even cancer. Gary Taubes in "Good Calories Bad Calories" carefully outlines the available information on tribes of people in various corners of the world who were observed during a switch from their native diets to Western foods. Things went from cancer being so rare that in the few instances it did occur, it was seen as very remarkable and was closely studied by health care workers to having obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease being common, and even rampant in populations who didn't even previously have words for these diseases.

As long as the medical community seems to be steeped in denial about the cause of diseases of civilization (including cancer) I fail to see how throwing cake at innocent herbivores is supposed to help. The 9 News story provided this quote...
"Breast cancer survivor Hollen Ferrendelli said she hopes the hippos' afternoon dessert will push our legislators to make health care a top priority during the coming legislative session."

So who exactly do I have to throw pink-tinted baked goods at to get people to realize that the very food they may be eating is increasing their risk of getting cancer? I don't have any hippos handy, and I wouldn't want to harm my cats by having them eat garbage after all the time and effort I took getting them on their own version of the Atkin's diet. I guess I could throw Zingers at the squirrels, or better yet, some anti-low-carb doctors and a politician or two.

New Food Pyramid

BlueSojrn from the Active Low Carb forum has come up with a great new food pyramid for low carbers. View it on my Examiner post here.

It's perfect for Barry Groves "Natural Health and Weight Loss" fans since it lists FAT at the base. Unlike the USDA grain-based food pyramid, following this one wont make you SHAPED like a pyramid :D

Best of the Forums: Why There is Resistance to Low Carb

Those of us who have had success on a low carb diet are often confused when we see so much resistance to this way of life. It is hard not to be confused when so many of us lose weight, control our blood sugar, reverse heart disease and more. Forum poster Advantagec recently put his feelings about the situation on the Active Low Carb Forum.

"LC provides an effective way for most people to lose weight and maintain the loss with relatively little effort or discomfort. There is plenty of evidence that it works. There is plenty of evidence showing that flour, sugar and starches are detrimental to health.

So why is LC not the gold standard of weight loss? Why does the recommended "balanced diet" still include loads of carbohydrates?

Money.

Who profits financially when someone buys an Atkins or Protein Power book for 25 cents or a few bucks, signs up on a free message board and then embarks on a new way of eating? Nobody makes any significant amount of money from it.

On the other hand, look at the money involved in WW, Nutrisystem, weight loss clinics, and weight loss surgery. How about the lobbies for sugar and HFCS? All of that is big money. For those with financial interests aligned with these companies or industries, ineffective weight loss efforts are the gift that keep on giving. When WW helps a 25 year old lose those 30 pounds they have gained a customer for life.

The financial interests of a relatively small number of people stand in the way of the health interests of a huge number of people. It's a shame."

My comment to his post?

"The breakfast cereal industry alone is worth billions. I think they will do anything to keep people hooked on their tasty poison."

Quickies

After the scale not budging for months, I got on the scale this morning to discover I unexpectedly dropped 3 pounds. Woo hoo!
***
I had temporarily lost "custody" of my youngest cat Xena. Technically she is my oldest son's cat, and while he was going to college, moving, deciding not to go to college, etc... she stayed at our house. A few months back, he finally decided he was in a nice apartment and wanted his baby. That lasted a little while before he went out of town with friends and needed us to kitty sit. Now he has decided to join the army. Not only do we get to keep Xena, he just asked us if we can keep his OTHER cat, Zeus. Cookie will not be happy, though Xena will enjoy having seeing her buddy again.

Xena is now 13 pounds. Up a little since living with Calvin. While I told him she needed to be low carb to keep off the weight, I have no doubt she was eating pizza and french fries right along side him. Grrrr.
***
Speaking of Cookie, she turned 19 a couple of days ago. She is pretty darn spry for the cat equivalent of 88. Here is a cool age chart I used to come up with that number. CHART
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We put our youngest son on low carb over the summer. He has adapted well to the "legal" food choices and lost 20 pounds. He will still eat chips, pizza, and drink sugary sodas if given the chance, but I just don't keep those items in the house. Fortunately, Sam's sells big tubs of pork rinds and hot salsa by the gallon...Max's new favorite treat.
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My skinny vegetarian friend went to her doctor lately complaining about weight gain. Sure, she still looks plenty skinny to me, but I guess if you are normally very skinny, blimping up to just skinny would be annoying. Anyway, he doctor told her that at 40, weight creep was common (especially around the middle) and if she wanted to combat it, she needed to CUT HER CARBS. I guess I shouldn't have laughed, but she thought I was insane when I went on a low carb diet. Now her much respected doctor is telling her what I have been for the last year. I am just glad to know the good news is getting out the the GP's.
***
I have a couple of more posts up on the Examiner site. One is a recipe I posted on this blog last year for Chicken and Squash Stir Fry. The other is about common salad mistakes. Stop by and check them out. As always, your feedback is much appreciated.

I will be posting some old recipes as well as new content in the upcoming months both here and on the Examiner site. I will post links so they are easier to find.

Gary Taubes Strikes Again

Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories has made quite a splash in the dietary world since unleashing his research volume on diet and exercise. He vindicates Dr. Atkins by showing the science behind low carbohydrate diets and even points out that exercise doesn't make you skinny - just makes you hungry. His latest article appearing in Mother Earth News reiterates some of the dietary wisdom from his book. It turns out this is information our grandmothers knew all along...

"If you’ve been trying and failing time and time again to lose weight by dutifully eating less and exercising more, perhaps its time to try your grandmother’s diet instead. Stay away from the fattening carbohydrates, stop worrying about how much fat you eat and see what happens. Let your weight and your waist circumference tell you whether the diet you’re now eating is a healthy one."
Full Article

This is a great article and those who don't have the time to dive in to Good Calories Bad Calories might want to check it out.