Lowcarbezine! 8 December 1999

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Hey, Gang!  Welcome to issue number 4 of Lowcarbezine!  Don't know about you, but I'm busy, busy, busy.
Have most of my shopping done, but the parties are starting to stack up!  Funny how "fun" and "stress" seem
to go hand in hand this time of year.  Maybe we should all make a New Year's Resolution to spread out our
parties through the year, huh?  I mean, who has a party in, say, early March?

Just so you should know that I'm in the same boat, when I'm done with this issue, I have to run to the
grocery store and buy chicken wings -- my Toastmasters Club is having its Christmas Party tomorrow night,
and I've promised them Heroin Wings!

Dana

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All contents Copyright 1999 by Hold the Toast Press.  All commercial reproduction and/or use is expressly
forbidden.  As always, feel free to forward Lowcarbezine! to friends or family who you feel would enjoy it,
so long as you forward it in its entirety.

If Lowcarbezine! has been forwarded to you, and you enjoy it, you can subscribe for FREE at our website:
http://www.holdthetoast.com .

Lowcarbezine! welcomes your low carb diet stories, questions, recipes, and product recommendations!  Email
us from the website!

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Thought For The Week

It's not where you are, it's what direction you're headed!  This, to me, is one of the great truths of
life.   $50,000 a year income will seem like a whole lot of money to someone who recently was making only
$30,000.  But it would seem like poverty to someone who until recently was making $150,000 a year, wouldn't
it?  Same money, completely different experience.  It's not where you are, it's what direction you're
headed.

My Aunt Ellen has, if I recall correctly, 13 or 14 cats.  Now, that may seem like a whole lot of cats to
have underfoot -- but Aunt Ellen used to have 27 cats!  No doubt her house seems nearly cat-free to her!
She probably feels like she's short a cat or two!

The same sort of thing is true of your low carb experience.  When I started low carbing, and I got on the
scale and saw that I weighed 175 pounds, I was *ecstatic*!  That exact same number had caused me sheer
agony when I first saw it on my way up!  For that matter, I have a friend who is now down to a size 16-18,
from a high of size 26.  Size 16 feels incredibly wonderful to her!  On the other hand, I remember when I
had to go out and buy size 16s because my size 14s simply wouldn't fasten any more.  It did *not* feel
incredibly wonderful.  Same size, completely different experience.

For that matter, some of you may be starting to exercise for the first time in years.  Maybe it's all you
can do to walk around the block once, slowly.  That's okay!  Do what you can do, and know that very soon,
you'll be able to walk around the block a little faster, and then you'll be able to walk around the block
*twice*.  Don't worry about where you are!  Just be sure you're headed in the right direction.

If you're carb intolerant, and you've started your low carb diet, you *know* you're headed in the right
direction!  Your energy level has gone up.  Your constant hunger has disappeared.  Your triglycerides have
come down.  Maybe your blood pressure is normal for the first time in years, or you no longer need so much
diabetes medication.  And you're losing weight!  You may not be losing as fast as you'd like -- after all,
we all want to be gorgeous NOW!  Or better yet, yesterday!  Maybe you've hit a plateau, or you bounce up a
few pounds, and then drop again.  We all plateau, and we all have weight fluctuations. You may need to make
some adjustments, or you may just need to be patient and stick with it.  *That's okay.*   Don't worry about
where you are.  Just be sure you're headed in the right direction!

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Frequently Asked Question

How long will it take me to lose X pounds?

How should I know?

No, really.  I'm not trying to be snide.  I'm just pointing out that there are over 6 billion different
bodies in the world today, and every single one is different.  Furthermore, there are various approaches to
low carb or carb controlled dieting -- Basic Low Carb diets, like Atkins and Protein Power, Mini-Binge
diets like The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, diets that give you a bit more carbs, but restrict you to low
impact carbs, like SugarBusters and The Careful Carb Diet,  diets that are both carb-controlled and low
calorie, like The Zone,  paleodiets like Neanderthin.  Different diets work differently, and will cause
weight loss at different rates.

Not only that, the same diet will cause weight loss at different rates in different people -- I know people
who have dropped 10 pounds in the first week on a Basic Low Carb Diet, and I know people who can't seem to
lose at all no matter what they do.  I've talked to folks who've lost 150 pounds on The Carbohydrate
Addict's Diet, while I plateaued almost immediately on it.  I know a fellow who just loves the Zone, and is
back at his high school weight, with no hunger at all, while many seriously obese people I know found the
Zone an agony of hunger.

 I know people who do best if they eat less than 10 grams of carb a day, and get lots of fat, and I know
people who do better if they eat a little less fat and a little more protein.  I  know people who started
losing when they carefully added 25-30 g a day of carb back to their diet, but stop losing if they add much
more.  I also know people who have lost a pound a day while eating 100 grams of carb a day, so long as they
were low impact carbs.

 I know people for whom it seems to make a difference where their protein is coming from -- for instance,
there are people who will break a plateau if they drop dairy.  Yet  there are people like me who have eaten
dairy all along and done just fine -- but then again, I gain if I eat peanuts with any regularity, while a
whole lot of low carbers can eat peanuts just fine!  (I'm going up a pound or two this week -- I'm working
on sugar-free chocolate peanut butter candy for y'all!)

That's why I give so many options in _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds_ -- because
bodies are different, and different things work for different people.  My best advice to you is to pick a
program, try it for 3-4 weeks solid, and see how you're doing.  If you feel great, and are losing weight,
stick with it!  If you think you could feel better -- for instance, I have now communicated with two people
who became very forgetful on a Basic Low Carb Diet, whereas many of us feel that the Basic Low Carb Diet
improved our mental clarity -- try a different approach.  And certainly if you're not losing weight, try a
different approach!  "Tweaking" your diet is a very important process, to find the Way of Eating that is
right for you.

The bottom line is this:  If you are carbohydrate intolerant, then you'll need to restrict your carbs
*forever* -- we talked about this in a previous issue.  Yes, you'll be able to have an occasional splurge,
but you're never going to be able to have a donut at break time and fries and a shake with lunch every day
and keep the weight off, much less stay energetic and healthy.  Remember the Thought of the Week:  So long
as you're headed in the right direction, don't sweat it.

People ask me a lot, "How long did it take you to lose your weight?" My experience is just that -- *my*
experience, and Your Milage May Vary, but here it is:

I started low carbing the day after Labor Day, 1995.   The first ten pounds came off in the first 2 1/2
weeks.  The second ten took about a month.  Then I went on The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, and plateaued
quickly, I only lost a few more pounds during the couple of months or so I was on it.  I went back to my
Basic Low Carb Diet (at first I went back to the Basic Low Carb Diet during the week, and did the The Carb
Addict's Diet on the weekends; gave it up when the carbs at a Reward Meal made me fall asleep in front of
company!) and it took awhile for my body to get back with the program.  Finally I started to lose again,
and by late March, early April I was down forty pounds.

I then plateaued at forty pounds down for -- three years!!  I felt great, I was incredibly healthy,  and I
was happy that the weight was staying off.   I never considered going back to my old Way of Eating.  Just
last April, I found some new exercises which I'll share in another issue, and I've dropped another ten
pounds, about a full size, since.  My body continues to improve, but very slowly now.  That's okay -- how
many people's bodies are *improving*, even slowly, at the age of 41?

 My goal now is to lose another 10 pounds in the next year.  Hey, beats gaining ten pounds, doesn't it?

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Tired of one-size-fits-all diet books?  Bored by long-winded medical jargon?  Get plenty of low carb
options in a clear, friendly, easy to understand, fun to read form!  _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and
Lost Forty Pounds!_  Read the first chapter FREE at http://www.holdthetoast.com .

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It's Time To BRAG!!

We here at Hold the Toast Press are incredibly proud to announce that we were recently asked by one of the
biggest book wholesalers in the USA to list our book with their service -- yep, *they* asked *us*!  As of
right now, any bookstore or library in the nation can order _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty
Pounds!_ from Baker and Taylor, Inc!  So if you'd like to read the book, and prefer not to order online, go
ask your bookstore to order the book for you!  For that matter, you could do your friendly publisher a big
favor, at no cost to you, by going to your local public library and filling out a book request form, asking
that the library order _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_  Don't you think your library
needs a copy?

Even *more* bragging -- along with Baker and Taylor asking us to list the book, Borders Inc. contacted us
after it came to the corporate office's attention that the book has been selling extremely well
regionally.  (We're in Indiana.)  They asked us to submit a copy for review by the national buyer, so they
can decide if they'd like to carry _How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds!_  in their stores
nationwide.  We expect to be in Borders stores across the country in early 2000!  Thanks, Borders!

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Product Review

Two weeks ago, I told you all about Splenda, the new artificial sweetener that was approved this spring by
the FDA.  However,  I get a fair number of posts from people who don't want to use artificial sweeteners at
all.  They want to know if there's a natural alternative.  There is!

Many of you have heard of stevia, the South American shrub whose leaves are 30 times sweeter than sugar.
And many of you have tried the white, powdered stevia extract.  No doubt, you've had the same experience I
have -- that stevia works pretty well in some things, and not at all well in some others.  For instance, I
like stevia just fine in protein shakes, but when I tried using it to make a chocolate cheesecake, the
results were nothing short of *vile*.  Nasty.  Bitter.  Icky beyond belief.

Along with bitterness, stevia shares another drawback with artificial sweeteners:  While it can replace the
sweetness of sugar, it cannot replace sugar for volume, and it lacks the dramatic textural effects that
sugar brings to many recipes -- moistness, browning, etc.  Even Splenda can't give you these effects.

What if I told you there was a sugar that was effectively no calorie, and no carb?  You'd either think I
was nuts (nice, low carb nuts!), or that you'd died and gone to heaven.  Well, there is!  But don't get too
excited yet -- even this has its problems.  Welcome to the real world.

The sugar I'm talking about is called fructooligosaccharide.  Don't even *try* to pronounce it, just call
it FOS.  FOS is a naturally occurring sugar that occurs in small quantities in many foods, ranging from
bananas to onions to tomatoes.  You can think of FOS as being sort of the fiber of the sugar world -- just
as fiber is starch that's too big for your body to digest and absorb, FOS is a sugar molecule that is too
large for your body to digest and absorb!  Result?  No blood sugar rise, no insulin release.   Pretty cool!

Better yet, FOS *can* be digested and absorbed by the good bacteria in your intestine.  This means that
eating FOS will actually *improve* your health by increasing the number of those good bacteria.  So what
could be bad?

Well, first of all, FOS is about half as sweet as sucrose (table sugar), so it doesn't make things as
sweet.  Well, you're thinking, just use twice as much!  Tiny little problem there.  You know what would
happen if you doubled your fiber intake?  Same thing happens if you eat too much FOS -- it acts as a
laxative.  Also, FOS is *very* expensive.  When it first hit the market, I paid $12 for *two ounces*.
Could make for some mighty expensive low carb treats!

So NOW for the product review!  (You've been wondering when I'd get around to that, haven't you?)

My beloved health food store, Bloomingfoods, is now carrying a product called SteviaPlus, which is a blend
of the white stevia extract powder and FOS.  It is made by a company called SweetLeaf.  SteviaPlus comes in
little packets, like artificial sweeteners do, and is also apparently available in a shaker jar.  The
benefit of this combination is obvious:  FOS mellows out the somewhat edgy taste of stevia, and has some of
the textural effects of sugar; stevia adds the sweetness that FOS lacks.

I've been using SteviaPlus recently in my attempts to come up with sugar free chocolate recipes that A)
taste good and B) have a good texture.  I've found that SteviaPlus helps to get me the texture I want, no
doubt because the FOS acts as sugar would to help combine the chocolate with liquids.  I tried using just
Splenda, and found getting a nice texture was difficult.  A combination of SteviaPlus and Splenda so far is
the front runner in the sugar-free chocolate recipe race.  I'm sure I'll come up with more uses for this
product as I develop more recipes for you!

SteviaPlus is all natural, won't mess up your blood sugar, is good for your health, and I think it tastes
better than plain stevia powder.  It isn't cheap -- I paid $5.59 for 50 packets, each of which has the
sweetening power of approximately 2 teaspoons of sugar.  But if you've been hoping for a really viable,
natural sweetening option, here it is.

If you look for SteviaPlus online, beware!  I found a brand that calls itself "Stevia Plus" (notice the
space between the words), which included fructose along with the stevia and FOS.  Fructose is a carb, so
that's not what you want.  I repeat that the stuff I got is made by a company called SweetLeaf.  I have
found an online source, at http://www.wisdomherbs.com/price.htm , and called them to make sure it was the
right stuff.  It's a bit more expensive through their website than it was at my health food store, but if
you don't live near a health food store, it would be a good resource for you!

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That's it for this week!!  See you again next week.

Dana W. Carpender

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