Saturday, November 7, 2009

A pudding and weigh in

Yesterday I began to really feel the affects of dropping the carbs and sugars. My brain was transformed into a slug creature, and after school I let my son entertain me with watching Literal Videos on YouTube. What are they ? Imagine if the lyrics to a music video were changed to reflect the actions in the video. Thins like "stare at floating cloth, sing in front of candles " and so forth. I was also sh0wn what a Rick Roll is ( get someone to look at a video clip of Rick Astleys song Never gonna give you up). It just cracked me up and helped me to stay awake if nothing else. I do know from past experience that this is normal with switching to a low carb diet, and it passes in a couple of days. Meanwhile, much of my joint pain has dissapeared in the process. Carbs, even whole grain ones, can really aggravate arthritis and other joint conditions.

In the evening I was looking for something a little different for my snack. Nuts and eggs are okay, but I wanted something a little more dessert-ish, so I tried some flaxmeal breakfast pudding

This one is very easy to make ! Take 1/4 cup flaxmeal, 1/4 cup water, 1 egg(or equivilant egg beaters) , sweeter to taste and mix ins. Stir well, microwave for 45 seconds, stir, microwave another 45 seconds and eat. For mix ins I chose cocoa powder, splenda and coconut. For this you get 1 gram carbs, 9 grams fiber, 12 grams protein, and 243 calories.Why splenda over stevia ? I learned that in people who have insulin resistance, stevia aggravates the condition. Same is true with agave nectar, and it is problematic for people who are going GFCF.

We weighed in this morning, and here are the results
Me- DOWN 1.4
Son - DOWN 1.8
Hubby -UP1.0 ( due to a business meeting where they were fed monster burritos from Chipoltle that had about 2 cups of rice in each) The nature of his job makes it very difficult for him to avoid these things

So begins another week. Tonight we are going to try flax meal pizza crust. It should work out well, as the flax meal bread works for holding sandwich fillings . Pictures to follow.

6 comments:

erin said...

Where did you hear that about stevia? I don't think that is accurate. Stevia is used to treat people with diabetes in South America because it can lower blood sugar levels to put them in proper balance. I don't think it has really any effect on insulin levels,and it nourishes the pancreas--it has a glycemic index of 0.

I use SweetLeaf Sweetener stevia--0 chemicals, 0 calories, 0 carbs, and of course a 0 glycemic index!

AUTISMOMMA said...

Hi - Can you tell me what you have read about agave nectar or stevia (I'm not sure which you were referring to) being problematic for people who are GFCF? We have been GFCF for nearly a year and I have many recipes that call for agave nectar. We have not yet seen any problems...but I'm wondering if you know something I don't - like maybe something that is a problem but not obvious on the outside.

Thank you!

erin said...

I was referring to stevia. I don't know all that much about agave nectar. Although, I do know that there was a study of diabtics and agave nectar, and the study needed to be stopped because their (the diabetics') blood sugars dropped WAY too low, (like they passed out, or something, I'm not sure) I know more about stevia. I'll be painfully honest, I don't know what you mean when you say, GFCF. What does that stand for?

Whatever GFCF is, stevia is very safe. It has been used in South America for 1500 years and in Asia for decades without any negative effects ever noted in literature. That's the greatest attestation to its safety. You might hear of studies, probably on rats that concern people, but I don't take them seriously because it has been used for such a long time among probably hundreds of millions of humans without any official reports of problems. Stevia has incredible health benefits to boot. Aside from what I've already mentioned, it can also lower blood pressure and strengthen teeth and gums because it hs natural flouride in it. It can also help heal an open cut on the body, as well as provide the very minerals your body needs to curb cravings for sweets.

Just remember that not all stevia brands are created equal. Most use chemicals, solvents, and alcohols during extraction, which can result in that weird aftertaste. However, SweetLeaf Sweetener is the only stevia brand that uses only pure water during the entire extraction process, so the taste of the leaf remains. Today, some are adding masking agents to make their poorly extracted stevia product taste better, so it is even less natural. I guess I can't say for sure what happens to the natural health benefits when these other ingredients are added, but it is my opinion, depending on the additions, that the wonderful health benefits either must be nullified or reduced. What you want is the 100% truly natural stevia brand that most exemplifies the plant itself, and that brand, in my book is SweetLeaf! I love using it and, I don't detect an aftertaste! SweetLeaf has never needed to add anything to it! Fyi, I baked with it for the first time yesterday in chocolate chip cookies, and it turned out great!

AUTISMOMMA said...

Actually, Erin, I was asking the writer of this blog my question. She stated, "Same is true with agave nectar, and it is problematic for people who are going GFCF."

Erin - GFCF stands for gluten-free, casein-free and we have been on a GFCF diet for nearly a year. In that time, I have never heard of any doctors or studies stating agave nectar is bad for a GFCF diet and actually, many of the recipes (from books specifically for this way of eating) we use contain agave nectar.

erin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
erin said...

Oh! woops! Sorry, but thanks for explaining it to me!