A study in The FASEB Journal (which, as you probably know, well-read person that you are, is the Official Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) finds that consuming a low-carb, high-fat diet is "associated with reductions in cravings for all food categories." The researchers define a craving as "an intense desire to consume a particular food that is difficult to resist." … [Read more...]
Green beans: low-carb and familiar
Green beans (a.k.a. snap beans or string beans) are a familiar vegetable, and reasonably low-carb and nutritious. I find it hard to get excited about them, though. Like most people in the American mid-lands, I've been eating green beans my whole life. As a kid, I ate a lot of canned veggies -- including corn, spinach, peas, lima beans, and, yes, green beans. Today, the only canned vegetable I eat at home is spinach. However, I often encounter canned green beans at restaurants. I go ahead and … [Read more...]
Is broccoli low-carb? Compared to what?
Is broccoli low-carb? It depends . . . I haven't written many posts about vegetables over the years. Nuts, yes. Seeds, yes. Even fruits (avocado, blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes). Once in a while, I've put up a photo of a plate with, say, a few green beans and a big juicy steak. But the focus has not been on the beans. The lack of focus on veggies may give readers the false impression that I don't eat many. In fact, I do veggies. Not just lettuce, either, but real, honest-to-gosh, … [Read more...]
My Ketonix has arrived (updated)
Unboxing of my Ketonix 2015 I opened the mailbox today to find that my Ketonix 2015 Blue had arrived from Sweden. The arrival of a new gadget is always a cause for celebration. In this case, I was also relieved. I ordered the Ketonix via the company's website on April 23, selecting the regular "letter" type shipping, so I figured it would take a while to get here. But as the days, and then the weeks, went by, I started to wonder. It's a long way from Sweden to Michigan (as my great great … [Read more...]
Great foods for a low-carb diet (part 5): eggs
Eggs aren't merely a great food for a low-carb diet. They're nearly the perfect food. You've got a whole potential chicken in that little spheroid, so an egg is jam-packed with the building blocks of life. Like most people, I've always eaten eggs, either as a main dish or inside of recipes, but for 30-plus years I limited my consumption to two or three eggs a week. Maybe four in a really wild week. Why did I do such a thing? Why did I foolishly limit this nearly perfect food? You know why. I … [Read more...]
A real person eating (mostly) real food
One day, in a fit of flexibility, I changed the tag-line of my blog from whatever it used to be to "a real person eating (mostly) real food." I feel I ought to explain -- to define my terms, or at least try to. First, what do I mean by a "real person"? I mean me, of course, good ol' Jim Anderson -- as ordinary a guy as you will ever meet, with an ordinary name, the son of a factory-working man and a home-making woman. A guy born in a city whose name denotes a hard, sharp, slivered rock -- the … [Read more...]
My low-carb week in review: April 5 – April 11, 2015
In dieting, as in most areas of life, averages can be deceptive. Take my daily averages of calories and net carbs consumed for last week -- 1, 831 and 39 grams respectively. And 72% of calories from fat. Not bad, not bad at all. Those averages imply a low-cal, low-carb consistency over the seven days, a steely resolve to eat the right way every day. Like I said, averages can be deceptive. On Thursday, I ate a single meal at Applebee's that ballooned my day's calories to almost 2, 600. My net … [Read more...]
Chowing down low-carb style at Red Robin
I try to be a food-snob, I really do, but it seldom works for long. Despite years of education, and my wife's best attempts to refine me, I remain a regular guy with regular guy tastes -- such as, for instance, the Bacon Cheeseburger at our local Red Robin. (For the record, I get nothing from that restaurant chain except the food I pay for.) Red Robin calls this a "Gourmet" burger. I'm not sure what criteria a gourmet burger has to meet, or even if I care. It's a good sandwich -- a hefty … [Read more...]
My low-carb week in review: March 15-21, 2015
It was a good week. I kept my daily averages to 34 net carbs and just under 2,000 calories, with 73% of my calories coming from fat, all identical to the week before. (If nothing else, I'm consistent!) As a result, I lost almost two pounds. My weight dropped from 229 to 227.2 pounds. For my low-carb reboot, now entering its third week, I'm down 4.8 pounds. There were a couple challenges. On Thursday, we ate out at our favorite Chinese restaurant in the area, which had been closed a year … [Read more...]
Sardines: low-carb, high-fat lunch in a tin
A tin of sardines makes a quick, easy, nutritious and portable low-carb lunch or snack. It's another food item that I seldom, or never, ate before going low-carb, a hard-to-explain list that includes salmon, almonds, macadamia nuts, and fresh avocado. Lately, I've been buying Season Brand Sardines in five-tin packs at Costco. (For the record, I receive no consideration from either of those companies, but may from Amazon.com, which sells several brands of sardines, including the Season Skinless … [Read more...]