Food Info

[swestrup]

So, taxlady and I have been thinking about possibly going on the Atkins diet. One of the big problems with the diet books are that they are all written for American's and assume that you only eat at Hardee's. So, I was glad to discover that the USDA website has a huge database of nutritional info, and that it has pointers to similar databases for other countries, in case you tend to eat food that was invented there. Its still not easy to find out how many carbs are in a Phad Thai, unless you actually can read Thai, but its certainly better than no info at all. Oh, they also allow you to download their full database, and they document its format and how the fields are laid out. This is good, since their website based searches leave something to be desired.

Comments

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Contact me and Steve for assistance. Essentially, the rule is this: if our primitive ancestors wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it. This means, no refined flours (which you don't eat anyway), sugar, transfats, etc. So if you grill up a steak and eat it with a big leafy salad, that's a perfect meal. I don't know which of the books you have; "Atkins Diet Revolution" is certainly more oriented towards eating at home than out, so no Hardee's is involved.

The first phase, induction, is the most strict, but you can give it up after two weeks or when you feel you've dropped enough weight. I can tell you that this diet (or rather, nutritional lifestyle) worked for Steve and that his health problems are close to gone. I haven't gone as far into it as he, but I've also lost 16 pounds and my health has improved. I recommend it.

Re:

[sps.livejournal.com]

The trouble is, I'm rather afraid that my ancestors ate haggis! Oh, god, and turnips.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

LOL. I've had haggis once. I didn't like it, but it had been cooked in aluminium foil instead of a sheep's stomach. It smelled like something I couldn't really place. It made me think of Denmark when I was little.

I have a problem with that.

[swestrup]

Put succinctly, I dont much LIKE unprocessed meat. I avoid steaks and ribs whenever possible. I love bacon and I think pork chops are okay, but I don't much like ham. I also have a low tolerance for lamb as well. I do like fish, but mainly when its served in batter or is somehow breaded. Chicken is okay if its white meat, but again its more interesting if breaded. I actively avoid crabs, lobsters and crayfish, and I'm leery of most shellfish.

In other words, if I restrict myself to the diet of our primitive ancestors, I'll end up eating nothing but roots.

As a result, the vast majority of Atkins recipes I've seen (20 oz porterhouse steaks etc) have no interest to me. That doesn't mean that I don't think I can find anything I'm allowed to eat, but I'm going to have to do a bunch of recipe research first if there's to be any hope.

Re: I have a problem with that.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Of course, restricted diet reduces availability of food, thus reduces opportunities to consume food, thus reduces food consumed...

I lost a couple pounds last year by strictly limiting the frequency of meals to 3 per day, and waiting until after the pangs had subsided so that hunger wouldn't lead me to eat more than I required.

Do what works best! I've heard of a couple people getting good results on Atkins.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

We got two books: Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution and The Atkins Essentials. I'm not impressed with the carbs list. E.g., there is a list of cheeses, including several I've never heard of, but no brie or camembert. There are also things like muffins, biscuits, white flour, and Atkins Bake Mix. but no whole wheat flour, buckwheat flour, spelt flour, or whole wheat pitas.

Re:

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

The first book we got was "Atkins for Life". AFAIK, no cheeses are off-limits. I've gone off flour almost completely; the bread I favour is one made with sprouted grains only. Basically, you want the fibre content to cancel out the carb content, or as close to it as possible.

Steve loooooves his steak, so that's no sacrifice for him at all. He does miss deep-frying everything, but I'm relieved; I feel disgusting after eating fried stuff. So it's worked out fine for us.

Food for thought

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.nutritionandcancer.org/view/nutritionandcancer/s99p1074.htm
-stay away from high-carb veggies like bananas and roots (potatoes, carrots)
-Captain Jim
http://www.geocities.com/jameswi.geo

Re: Food for thought

[(Anonymous)]

I've added some more comments at http://www.geocities.com/jameswi.geo/Science/Health.htm#Nutrition
-Jim