Filed under: Interviews — @ May 26, 2010
We live in an exciting day and age of information these days, don’t we? Thanks to the Internet, we have blogs, podcasts, and web sites galore providing information on anything and everything you can think of. The immense popularity of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube makes finding new information on virtually any subject practically instantaneous right at your fingertips. And there’s plenty of invaluable stuff out there about health and nutrition that is worth taking a closer look at, including a 90-minute YouTube video by a pediatrics professor in California (embedded below) that has gone completely viral with most of the over 400,000 views and counting happening in 2010 alone.
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Filed under: Health — @
Paleolithic eating has come on strong in the past year as evidenced by my recent blog survey showing one in five of my readers follow the Paleo/primal lifestyle change. Thanks to the leadership of people like Dr. Loren Cordain, Art DeVany, Richard Nikoley, Mark Sisson, Nora Gedgaudas, Dr. Kurt Harris and others, the Paleo/primal movement is alive and thriving in 2010. But more than anyone else in the nearly four-year history of my podcast show, none has been requested more than today’s podcast guest!
In Episode 363 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” at long last we are thrilled to welcome fitness and Paleolithic health expert Robb Wolf. Robb has quickly built a reputation as the go-to person for all things Paleo and fitness and shares his amazing wisdom each week on his highly-popular The Paleolithic Solution podcast. He’s in the middle of writing his much-anticipated The Paleolithic Solution set to release in the Fall 2010, but he was gracious enough to give me a full one-hour interview chock full of some incredible low-carb Paleo treats!
Listen to Robb Wolf tell us about his athletic background growing up, how he experienced a significant decline in his health in his mid-20s when he was eating a high-carb, low-fat, vegetarian diet, his mother’s Celiac disease diagnosis got him to thinking about Paleolithic eating, how Google led him to Dr. Cordain and Art DeVany, why he ultimately chose to become an evangelist for the Paleo diet, the sudden rise of Paleo in the low-carb community, his “metabolic derangement” terminology, why he has a problem with The Zone diet, why he believes low-carb is an essential part of a Paleolithic diet, why the creation of his podcast in 2009 was borne out of a desire to lessen his e-mail overload, his upcoming book and how it will be different from all the other Paleo/primal books out there, the influence of Gary Taubes on his work, why intermittent fasting may not be for everyone, his thoughts on saturated fat in a Paleo diet, the role of palmitic acid on leptin and insulin sensitivity, and his thoughts on dairy, nuts and seeds as part of a Paleo diet.
Click here to listen to the great Robb Wolf share his wisdom about Paleolithic nutrition and fitness in this special one-hour chat!
Filed under: Celebrity,Events,Health — @ May 24, 2010
As much of a sports fan as I am, I gotta admit professional hockey is not something I’m all that into. The National Hockey League (NHL) just hasn’t appealed to me since Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull retired from the game many moons ago (yes, I’m showing my age with those names). I’m sure if I gave these new guys a chance to show me their skills I’d enjoy it but I barely have enough time to watch the NFL, NBA, and Major League baseball along with the occasional PGA Tour Golf and even professional tennis during major tournaments like Wimbledon (told ya I loved sports!).
But I’d never even heard of Jonathan Toews, Antti Niemi, Duncan Keith, or Dustin Byfuglien from the Chicago Blackhawks team that just earned a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals after sweeping the San Jose Sharks out of the playoffs. I’m always impressed by underdog stories of teams that have been down rising from the ashes to gain worldwide attention for their improvement. It gives people watching at home that there is hope for them to do the same in their life (like losing weight or reaching some other tangible goal) and that’s what makes sports so much fun to watch. I’ll admit it’s been quite an impressive run for this unlikely Blackhawks team to reach the elite status in their league after several years of lackluster performances from its players and team.
So what has been the difference? Would you believe it could possibly be tied to Vitamin D? Yep! That same Vitamin D that Susan Siljander from GrassrootsHealth recently shared about on my podcast show in March 2010 and has been the subject of an entire YouTube video last year as well as a blog post chronicling my wife Christine’s paltry D3 level of a pitiful 9. She has since gotten her Vitamin D levels up to 52 and rising thanks to taking a high-dose 10,000 IU of Vitamin D3 gel caps we get from Sam’s Club. The result? Muscle and joint pain gone, better mood, and she’s come off of her prescription Paxil for the first time in over a decade! There is no coincidence between Vitamin D levels and vastly improved health and the team doctors with the Chicago Blackhawks realized this when they started observing the symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency amongst their players in early 2009.
Click here for more on this intriguing story about Vitamin D from the sports world!
Filed under: Health — @ May 21, 2010
If you haven’t signed up for Jenny McGruther’s 12-week e-course “How To Cook Real Food” yet, then you will want to do that soon since registration ends on May 31, 2010. Learn more about this exciting educational program focused on cooking real whole foods in this column and watch the following video for even more about this awesome online course beginning on June 1, 2010:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dauZS0waWXE
Listen to my 10-minute mini-interview with Jenny at the beginning of today’s podcast to learn more about “How To Cook Real Food”. DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY to learn how to cook healthy real food menus for you and your family!
Diabetes management and weight loss are so intricately connected that it would be impossible to talk about one without the other if you are a diabetic. If you have diabetes and struggle with your weight, then you know that getting your blood sugar/insulin levels under control will help shed the pounds and vice versa. Getting a handle on your diabetes is essential and there are lots of medical professionals out there trying to help patients manage this disease. Today’s podcast guest is quite enthusiastic about the subject of diabetes as you’ll find out when you hear him speak.
In Episode 362 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from cardiovascular surgeon, diabetes and weight loss specialist, radio show host, and author Dr. Frederic Vagnini, aka Dr. V.! He wrote a book called The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes that expresses his nutritional philosophy for shedding the pounds and getting diabetes managed. Listen to Dr. V. discuss his own personal struggle with weight and family history of diabetes, his previous collaboration with The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet authors Drs. Richard & Rachael Heller, why he opposes a high-fat Atkins-style low-carb diet, his aversion to saturated fat because of potential risks associated with cancer and insulin sensitivity, his personal history with the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins, the 5-step program for controlling diabetes through weight loss, why he believes eating fruit is like consuming a candy bar, the supplements and pharmaceutical remedies he uses as part of his program, the best natural way to beat diabetes, why doctors have trouble diagnosing diabetes, why pre-diabetes is really diabetes already, his support for Dr. Simeon’s HCG protocol, and a sneak peek at his new book on glycation called Longevity Solutions.
Click here to listen to what I’m certain is unlike any podcast interview you’ve ever heard before! I don’t think I’ve ever had another guest on my podcast quite like Dr. Frederic Vagnini!
Filed under: Events — @
I don’t know what your plans are for this summer, but I’m so excited to share with you about a special series of lectures on carbohydrate restriction and health coming up July 8-August 19, 2010 thanks to the organization of a company called Innovative Metabolic Solutions (IMS), a physician and patient-based resource for education about the benefits of low-carb living that was the brainchild of three of the biggest names in the low-carb community–Gary Taubes, Dr. Mary Vernon, and Dr. Eric Westman.
The 2010 Summer Module Series will be taking place on Thursday nights all summer long beginning after Independence Day and running until the kids go back to school in late August. The interactive web-based lectures will begin promptly at 8PM ET and you can listen through your telephone or call in through Skype. If you’ve ever wanted to experience the kind of professional lectures you would hear at the top obesity and nutrition conferences, then this is it! And the best part is they are all tailored with a low-carb-friendly undertone backed by the scientific evidence that has been pouring out of the research in recent years.
IMS really did a fantastic job of lining up the best and brightest minds on the low-carb science forefront to present to you the most dynamic information on this way of eating you’ll hear anywhere. They attempted to have a very diverse set of voices to present information on various areas of health and how low-carbohydrate nutrition can produce benefits to patients. CME credit is available for medical professionals who attend these classes at a cost of $175/class or $150 each if you sign up for all 7.
Of course, most of us are lay people and don’t need CME credit, so IMS is offering a very special consumer discounted price for this series of just $60/class or $50 each if you register for all 7 of them. Once you see who is speaking, you’re DEFINITELY gonna want to make this a weekly appointment to listen, absorb, and learn all that you can throughout the summer.
Click here to check out the very special guests who will be speaking along with what they’ll be talking about, including Gary Taubes, Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Jeff Volek, and many more!
Filed under: Health — @ May 19, 2010
I like to tell people that the low-carb lifestyle is a constant journey of self-discovery, realizing how the foods you eat and your environment uniquely impact YOUR body, and to act accordingly to what works best for you. It would be nice if there was such a thing as the “magic pill” answer to obesity and health concerns, but the reality is that it just doesn’t exist. Once you come to grips with this, the closer you are to finding the answers to your specific metabolic and physical challenges. That’s where I’m at in my low-carb life right now.
I recently blogged about the “light bulb moment” that has taken place in my personal nutrition in 2010 beginning with my “eggfest” on March 12, 2010 after being disappointed with how I looked and presented myself on The Low-Carb Cruise. Since then I’ve been able to come completely off of diet soda and artificial foods for nearly 60 days, live solely on the highest quality of grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, grass-fed butter, and raw cheese from local farmers I can find, keep my fat intake high, protein moderate, and carbohydrate consumption as low as possible, and in the process take off over 30 pounds and counting (follow my daily progress at my menus blog).
Yesterday I thought it would be fun to see what is happening with my blood sugar readings in light of all the changes I’ve been making in just the past two months alone. I have previously written quite extensively about my bewildering blood sugar levels doing all sorts of strange things after I eat a meal. It turns out I was dealing with something called reactive hypoglycemia as identified by Dr. Keith Berkowitz in my podcast interview with him in 2008. But that was when I was still consuming some low-carb products, including the diet sodas. Now that I’ve been off of all artificial and sweet stuff for 55 days, I wondered what impact it would have on my blood sugar.
I wish I could have measured insulin levels at home, too, but blood sugar gives a lot of information for people wondering what is happening inside their body both before and after meals–so I was excited to see an hourly update of my blood sugar levels from the time I woke up on Tuesday morning until I went to bed. Based on my previous experiences checking blood sugar levels like this one from July 2009, I thought I knew what I was in store for…but I actually got a BIG surprise this time around! A VERY GOOD ONE TOO!
Click here to see what my blood sugar results were along with what I ate on May 18, 2010. It’s good news for people who advocate a healthy real foods low-carb nutritional approach.
Filed under: Health — @
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Fat is arguably one of the most misunderstood macronutrients of the three (protein and carbohydrate being the other two). We’ve long been taught to fear it despite the fact there is no scientific evidence to back up this up. Lipophobia runs rampant in the United States and sadly it gets perpetrated by the so-called health experts posing as dietitians, physicians, personal trainers, diabetes care specialists, and the health media. That’s why we need people who can articulate why dietary fat and cholesterol is not only safe, but actually HEALTHY for you. Today’s podcast interview guest educated herself about fats and decided to write a book about what she found out in her investigation.
In Episode 361 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we are pleased to welcome technical writer Connie Leas who wrote a book called Fat: It’s Not What You Think. After becoming interested in helping people understand the difference between fats, Connie started doing serious research on this subject reading the work of Dr. Mary Enig, Gary Taubes, and The Weston A. Price Foundation and her eyes were opened to a whole new world of truth about what we’ve been told about saturated fat, cholesterol, and their impact on health. What she found in her research angered her that we’ve been told by people who should know better to lower our fat and increase our carbohydrate consumption while obesity and diabetes has continued to skyrocket.
Listen to Connie Leas share with us about her technical writing career, how she got interested in writing a book about the science of fat, how her research for her book fueled a passion in her to get the word out about what she learned even more, why all fats are mixtures of several kinds of fats and nothing is pure saturated fat, why obesity discrimination is unfortunate because some have genetic disadvantages to lose weight, her theory that the fear of fat has led to greater obesity because of the addition of carbohydrate to the diet, her experience on the Ornish and then the Atkins diet, the statin drug/cholesterol debacle, the definition of fat and how it functions in the body, a biological reason why people struggle to get weight off (homeostasis), and so much more! Connie is such a sweet lady and she’s done a fantastic job with this primer on the subject of fat. READ THE BOOK!
Click here to listen to this awesome podcast interview supporting fat consumption for healthy living.
Filed under: Events — @ May 18, 2010
Real food. Those of us who blog about diet and health talk about it a lot, but most people have no idea what you’re saying when you advocate for “real food.” They think all that stuff in their local supermarket is real food–we know better, though, don’t we. Real food promoter and author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) notes that 90% of the food supply has some derivative of corn in it and that’s a scary thought. From high-fructose corn syrup to modified corn starch, these additives to our “food” supply are making us fat, sick, and decidedly unhealthy. That’s why I was happy to hear about “The Nourished Kitchen” blogger Jenny McGruther’s upcoming 12-week online e-course beginning June 1, 2010 called “How To Cook Real Food.”
Inspired by the recent newfound interest in real food espoused by the ABC-TV show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” Jenny is hoping to keep the fire burning on this important movement regarding cooking from home delicious and nutritious meals from scratch. Gee, imagine that novel concept! One obstacle that people have about doing this is the perception they don’t have the time, energy, resources or knowledge about how to do it. But that’s where this e-course will come in.
I don’t know about you, but my experience cooking food growing up was browning some ground beef to mix with the seasoning packet in my Hamburger Helper or Rice-A-Roni box meal along with canned green beans and corn with raw biscuit dough. Yum-my! NOT! In this day and age of convenience and the need for quick foods to grab and go, the allure of candy bars, potato chips, and sugary soda is hard to get away from. But it is vital we change this culture of carbohydrates as I’ll call it and get back to focusing on the most important part of food–and that’s the food itself. REAL FOOD! Something your great grandmother would have recognized a century ago.
If you’re stumped about how to get started on your real food journey, then let Jenny McGruther help you get started the right way with her exclusive 12-week e-course. In no time, you’ll be whipping up some mouthwatering real food dishes made from food you purchased from local farmers who are committed to providing the best possible ingredients for your family’s menus. Yes, your family will notice the difference between your old diet and this fresh, real, whole foods eating plan that Jenny helps you create.
Jenny is not just a blogger at “The Nourished Kitchen” but she is also the manager of a local farmer’s market, so she’s got all the inside secrets about what to look for when you’re shopping and how to get the most bang for your buck. She’s also a highly-skilled natural foods cooking queen so you can learn from her easy-to-apply techniques for bringing the “wow” factor back to your kitchen.
Here’s what Jenny herself has to say about her exciting upcoming e-course:
“I’ve taken everything I know about cooking real food and condensed the information into 12 easy lessons – everything you need to get started. You’ll be able to find fresh local foods, maximize nutrition and minimize cost while developing simple, nourishing recipes that your family will love. Real food doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive if you have the right know-how. In this multi-media, online e-course, you’ll learn how to shop in season, maintain a budget and plan healthy meals for your family.
All of the classes are found online and you can download the teaching materials at your convenience. If you’re an early riser and want to start your learning at 5:00AM, then you’ll have that option. Or if you prefer to do your learning later at night, that’s an option too. YOU pick the time of day you want to view each lesson every week beginning on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 and Jenny will be right there waiting to share some incredibly practical tips for implementing real food into your life. There are also printable materials to help reinforce what you see and hear Jenny sharing on the videos. All of the courses will be available to you on demand for a full six weeks after the class ends so you can go back through the lessons again if you need a refresher.
Jenny is confident you are gonna LOVE this class so much that she is offering a very special 14-DAY NO-QUESTIONS-ASKED REFUND POLICY. She’s sure you’re gonna absolutely enjoy this experience of learning about real food so much that she’s willing to do that for you. There really is nothing to lose to try the course for yourself and see how you do with it. You know you’ve always wanted to start cooking better for your family but didn’t know how. Now with Jenny’s help, you can learn in a very short amount of time just how easy it can really be.
The classes are limited, so if you want to register you must do so no later than Monday, May 31, 2010. Enrollment will close on that day and classes will begin promptly on Tuesday, June 1, 2010. CLICK HERE to get in on this unique opportunity to begin your own real foods journey or to pick up some new cooking ideas for how to feed your family well.
Jenny offers up why YOU might want to take her e-course:
If you’ve ever wondered how to feed your family healthier, wholesome and nourishing meals, but been stumped trying to put it all together, you need this class.
If you want to support the local foods movement, but are stumped by seasonal cooking or how to even find quality foods from local farms, you need this class.
If you want to save money and time feeding your family healthy, organic, seasonal meals, you need this class.
If you want to learn to cook from scratch, if you want to give up sugar and learn to use natural, wholesome sweeteners, you need this class.
If you’re looking for a healthier alternative to soda and soft drinks, you need this class.
If you want to develop your own recipes based on locally available fruits and vegetables, you need this class.
You need to learn how to cook real food. It’s good for the environment, your local economy and, most of all, it’s good for your family’s health.
Need I say more? Here’s a syllabus of the 12 lessons found in this e-course:
Lesson #1: What is Real Food & Where to Find It
Lesson #2: Eat Whole Grain
Lesson #3: Homemade Sourdough Bread
Lesson #4: Homemade Salad Dressings
Lesson #5: Prepare Seasonal Vegetables
Lesson #6: Make Real Pickles
Lesson #7: Roasted & Slow-cooked Meats
Lesson #8: Stocks, Broths & Soups
Lesson #9: Easy Homemade Yogurt & Cheese
Lesson #10: Soda & Soft Drink Alternatives
Lesson #11: Naturally Sweet Desserts
Lesson #12: Menus & Meal Planning
The “How To Cook Real Food” e-course includes:
12 Comprehensive, Multi-media Online Classes
Video Tutorials Teaching You How to Cook Real Food
Digital Workbook to Take Notes & Develop Your Own Recipes
Charts Outlining Seasonally Available Foods
Fact Sheets and Handy Tips Analyzing the Value of Real Food
Online Discussion Forum for Members Only
Menu Planning Tips & Sample Meal Plans
Sample Shopping Lists and Equipment Recommendations
SPECIAL BONUS: Discounts & Coupons from Companies I Trust
Lest you’re concerned Jenny’s e-course may not apply to your healthy low-carb lifestyle, she assures me that “there’s some really good stuff in the class for low-carbers, we even cover natural, sweetener-free desserts and, of course, there’s a lot of focus on preparing tender grass-finished beef.” Sign up for the “How To Cook Real Food” e-course and let me know what you think! At least try it for a couple of classes and if it’s not for you then Jenny will refund your money. Let’s start our own “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” food revolution bringing real food back to the forefront of American culture. It’s an uphill battle, but it can start with YOUR family’s menus beginning in June 2010!
NOTICE OF DISCLOSURE: http://cmp.ly/5
Filed under: Health — @ May 14, 2010
Diabetes has quite literally become an international epidemic in 21st Century society. The rate of diabetes growth has continued to rise and rise as blood sugar disorders have become much more common than ever before. We need people to come up with solutions to this monster disease and today’s podcast interview guest has attempted to do just that.
In Episode 360 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from medical journalist and Type 1 diabetic Dan Hurley who has penned a fantastic, thought-provoking new book on the subject of diabetes called Diabetes Rising: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It. With a title like that, you’d think that the low-carbohydrate nutritional connection to diabetes would play some role in the solution. But there are exactly TWO references to low-carb (one noting the Atkins diet and another talking about what low-carb diets are). That’s it! I was concerned that this oversight would lead people to believe carbohydrate restriction plays virtually zero role in treating diabetes which is why I wanted him to appear on my podcast.
Listen to Dan Hurley discuss why diabetes is such a personal issue for him, why he did not include the great low-carb work of Dr. Richard Bernstein in his book, how the change in dietary recommendations in the 1970s negatively impacted diabetes rates, the ramifications of the discovery of insulin, why the low-carb diabetes treatment was rejected after insulin came, how to get through to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), why controlling diabetes is impossible without carbohydrate restriction, whether the work of Dr. Mary C. Vernon was included in the book, why Type 3 diabetes (Alzheimer’s disease) was omitted from the book, reasons why Type 1 diabetes is on the rise, how playing in the dirt can actually prevent diabetes, the negative impact of persistent organic pollutant chemicals and pesticides that enter our food stream, why there wasn’t a more explicit examination of carbohydrate-restriction as a solution in his book despite his belief it is the best diabetes diet, and his belief that people won’t follow a low-carb diet because we’re surrounded by cheap carbs.
Filed under: Publications — @ May 13, 2010
Last month during my 5-Year Blogiversary Contest Giveaway I conducted a reader survey that yielded some outstanding demographics of the people who read my blog and of low-carbers in general. When I did this in 2009, it really opened my eyes to exactly who is coming to the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog and why. Thanks to the record-breaking number of entries I received, I was able to do it all over again in 2010 to see what if any new trends have emerged. I sincerely appreciate everyone who submitted your responses because it shows the world that the low-carb community is indeed alive and well impacting the world of nutrition in a positive way!
These survey results are by no means scientific, but it does give you a snapshot of the current state of low-carb. Anyone who thinks low-carb diets are some fringe fad diet that just faded away when Dr. Atkins died in 2003 is sorely mistaken. Low-carb isn’t a phrase to run away from in 2010, but rather one to be embraced, shaped, and molded into the healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carbohydrate nutritional approach that is helping so many people not only shed the pounds but radically improve health markers like blood sugar, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL particle size, blood pressure, and so much more. This is a subject that is not to be taken lightly by the media and the so-called health “experts” any longer because the lives of real people are at stake in this discussion. Whether they like it or not, low-carb living is the catalyst for good changes that are happening to people and will continue to come about thanks to the efforts of those seeking to educate, encourage, and inspire others to become more pro-active in their own personal health.
This survey was so spectacularly received last year that I wanted to ask many of the same questions to see how the answers would change if at all as well as throw in a few others that I was curious about. I’m pleased to share the results of that survey with you in this column today because I think you’ll enjoy getting to know your fellow readers who frequent here as you do. I’ll include the data gathered from the survey as well as my personal analysis of what it all means.
Click here to see the demographics of the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog readers, what low-carb plan they follow, why they started, and for how long, how they found the blog, whether they or a family member has diabetes, if they have read Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, and so much more!
Filed under: Health — @ May 12, 2010
In Episode 359 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from Jeff Thiboutot And Matt Schoeneberger who co-authored the book S.P.E.E.D.: The Only Weight Loss Book Worth Reading. Listen to them talk about how they got interested in low-carb nutrition, the influence of The Weston A. Price Foundation on their thinking, what S.P.E.E.D. stands for, why sleep is so vitally important, the psychology factor in weight loss, why some people have better results on low-carb than others, why you need to alter your environment to be successful, what exercise is best for losing weight, why they disagree with Gary Taubes about regarding exercise and appetite, their opinions about “super-slow” weight training, why diet is so vital to good health and weight loss, why ketogenic low-carb diets are completely harmless, the bio-psycho-social model and what it is, and what the most outrageous weight loss myths they hear about and what are wrong with them.
Click here to listen to these two fitness experts discuss kicking your low-carb lifestyle up another notch!
Filed under: Health — @ May 11, 2010
The primary reason that so many of us start eating low-carb is to do something positive and good for our weight and health. We realized for ourselves after years of frustration attempting to eat the way we’ve always been told is “good” for us that it was simply an exercise in futility until low-carb living came into our lives and radically changed it forever for the better. It’s so amazing how much better you feel eating a high-fat, adequate protein, low-carb nutritional approach and nobody will ever convince you that eating any other way is what is right for you. But that doesn’t stop health insurance companies from attempting to guilt-trip you into thinking you are harming, not helping yourself by livin’ la vida low-carb.
One of my readers sent me an e-mail a couple of months ago sharing the results of an online health assessment survey that helps to determine the health insurance rates for his family. He and his wife have been eating a high-fat, very low-carb diet for the past year and have seen “great blood lipids” as a result–higher HDL “good” cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and higher large, fluffy LDL particles. But he says it’s been “frustrating” trying to convince his health insurance company that these results are beneficial to his overall health.
Click here to see why the health insurance company claims “an early warning bell is going off” for people eating low-carb.
Filed under: Health — @ May 6, 2010
I know I literally just got back from a trip to Seattle just a few weeks ago, but it’s time for me to go on another flight to New York City this time for the Nutrition & Metabolism Society planning and strategy meeting on Saturday. The leading voices in carbohydrate-restriction research will be discussing ways to further the science of low-carb so that it makes a greater impact on our culture. Dr. Richard Bernstein, Dr. Richard Feinman, Adele Hite, Dr. Eugene Fine, and others will all be making presentations. Christine and I will be there videotaping and covering the event to report back to you. I don’t think I’ll be able to do live tweets from my Twitter account like I did in Seattle since I’ll be shooting video this time. But we’ll see.
I’m glad we’ll be in the Big Apple for a few days this time so we can catch some of the key attractions there. The hotel we will be staying in is right next to where the World Trade Center Towers were, so we look forward to seeing that. Wall Street is close as well as The Statue of Liberty which I hear is quite romantic to check out at night. We may just have to do that. Christine and I have been apart from each other the past couple of weeks while she has visited her family in Virginia, so it’ll be great to be back together with her again for this special weekend. I’m driving to get her tomorrow, we’ll leave out on Friday morning, fly back to Virginia on Sunday night and drive back home to Spartanburg, South Carolina together on Monday. Hopefully this will be it for the trips for a while so we can get back into a normal routine again. Normal is good!
You know the drill by now. Whenever I leave the blog for a few days, I like to share some new low-carb, Paleo, and health blogs for you to peruse while I’m gone and I’m happy to give them this exposure. Yes, I just shared some with you a few weeks back, but I’ve found 19 more to keep you occupied while I’m gone that are truly remarkable. I’ve vetted out these blogs and web sites for myself and HIGHLY recommend them to you. Remember, if you like something you see on these blogs, then be sure to leave them a comment and let them know you found them through “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb.” If you my previous low-carb and health blog listings, then access them by clicking here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Click here to check out these 19 health blogs that warrant your attention in May 2010.
Filed under: Health — @ May 5, 2010
These past two months have been quite the experience for me as some major transitions have been taking place in my thinking about food, why I eat the way I do, and whether I am maximizing my low-carb nutritional plan to the fullest. If you’ve been following my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Menus” blog recently, then you’ve been reading all about these exciting mental and physical transformations happening to me and I sincerely hope it has inspired others in their own health journey to take a closer look at themselves.
I’ve been off of diet soda for the first time in six years for over 40 days and counting. This is immensely significant as I had transitioned from my 16-can-a-day Coca-Cola habit prior to my low-carb lifestyle to an 8-can-a-day diet soda addiction. I never bought into the idea previously that I was causing any harm to my body consuming a calorie-free beverage, but I only recently realized that my drinking was more of a habit than a desire to quench my thirst. Aided by my dedication to a very high-fat, moderate protein, very low-carb nutritional approach consisting of the best fresh, local foods I can purchase, I’ve been able to shed nearly 30 pounds. But more importantly, I’m no longer craving diet soda or anything artificially sweetened in my menus. POOF! The desire is completely gone for me.
Today I wrote a commentary in my menus blog that I wanted to make sure would be read by as many people as I could possibly reach because this is a message too important to be missed for any who desires weight loss, being healthy, and living the life they always dreamed of having. The following is a reprint of those words that hopefully will be my heart cry for many years to come:
I’m excited about the progress of my recent focus on consuming the highest quality of real, whole foods I can find. It’s still not a perfect diet, but it’s a whole heckuva lot better one that I was eating the past six years and certainly light years ahead of the Standard American Diet (SAD) I was consuming prior to 2004 as a 400-pound behemoth of a man. But I don’t regret the transition it took for me to go from that morbidly obese state into the smaller size I am now. Some people scoff at the notion that you do things like add artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, substitute favorite high-carb foods with low-carb alternatives, etc. because they say it feeds your addiction to carbohydrates. But I disagree.
My personal experience has shown me that those things are an outstanding way to NOT feel deprived while you are transitioning from eating crappy to eating healthier. When I was 410 pounds, I literally didn’t care about what I put in my mouth because it didn’t seem to matter inside my head. But when I turned to the Atkins diet to help me take the weight off (and subsequently get my health in line), all of a sudden my mind did a complete 180 and I suddenly became acutely aware of everything I was putting inside my body. It was as if a light switch was turned on and instantly I could see the fallacy of my old eating habits. It was an awakening of sorts that helped me become highly successful in my weight loss efforts and why you know who I am today.
In March 2010, the next phase of my journey took hold and a newfound awakening happened allowing the light to be turned on about the foods I added to my low-carb lifestyle over the past five years and I could see it was filled with a lot of junk. As much as I loved regularly consuming my beloved diet soda, sugar-free chocolate, low-carb pasta, low-carb ice cream, and all the other replacement foods that made low-carb enjoyable for me the past six years, those foods are not what we were intended to be consuming as the mainstay of our low-carb diet–EVER! I know, I know…I’ve been one of the leading low-carb junk food junkies for a long time and I’m here to say nobody should be eating these things ALL THE TIME. Perhaps once in a while it’s not a big deal but several times a week or every single day? Not appropriate if you are attempting to be as healthy as possible.
With the light shining brightly on this aspect of my low-carb life, I couldn’t help but change my habits. They had become somewhat sloppy again albeit with low-carb foods instead. So doing my eggfest a couple of months ago started a new transition for me away from relying on things like diet soda and all the other sugar-free, low-carb stuff that I had introduced into my life and towards fine-tuning my diet to prefer grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, grass-fed butter, quality cheeses, a few natural spices, some green leafy veggies, and water instead. Unless you’ve been through this journey yourself, you can’t imagine how incredible it feels to make this kind of switch. It’s monumental for me and I’m still in the midst of making it take hold in my life so that I can benefit both my weight and my health. The weight loss started fast and has slowed down, but that doesn’t matter to me as much as allowing the good habits to take hold and stay there for life. That’s my pursuit.
The argument could be made to just go all the way with your diet changes and more power to ya if you can pull that off. But I know for Jimmy Moore and others out there that this is a process that we all need to determine the perfect timing for us. Rushing into it too soon will only lead to discouragement and ultimate failure with discontentment about the process leading right back to poor dietary habits again. Although it is possible to make these changes later than need be, it’s a whole lot better to be late than never. Yes, I’m probably late transitioning to the next phase in my lifestyle change, but I think the time has taught me what is right and what is wrong. I’ll never claim that I have arrived and anyone who does has a rude awakening coming someday. But what I am is aware. Aware of my surroundings, aware of what’s best for me at this moment in my life, aware that I hold the power to change and am making that change happen. The time is now for me. How about you?
Follow my continuing real, whole foods progress each day at my low-carb menus blog to see if these newfound changes take permanent root in my life. I believe they will and I’ll be reaping the benefits of it for many years to come! Only YOU know when your “light bulb” moment will happen and I encourage you to be ready for it when it happens.
Filed under: Health,Low-carb Stores — @
Low-carb retailers are often criticized by people for carrying products that may or may not be appropriate for people following a controlled-carbohydrate lifestyle change. While I can appreciate this sentiment and certainly want any store claiming to cater to low-carb dieters to be on the up and up, a recent independent lab test of a perennially bestselling low-carb product found it to contain some major discrepancies in the net carb counts as much as TEN TIMES HIGHER than what the nutritional label said it had. Needless to say, this raised more than an eyebrow or two with the owners of two of the leading low-carb retailers in the world today.
Bernie Roddy from Netrition.com and Andrew DiMino from CarbSmart.com have collectively been in business for nearly a quarter century and both of them have long prided themselves in stocking their low-carb stores with quality low-carb products for people on a healthy sugar-free, low-carb lifestyle change. One of those line of products that has been consistently popular for many years is Flax-Z-Snax from Parkside Cafe providing delicious-tasting low-carb granola and hot cereal made from flax, seeds, bits of dried fruit and sugar alternatives. In fact, I’ve given glowing recommendations of these low-carb breakfast and snack items for many years and long held them up as one of the better low-carb products on the market today. Sadly, though, that may be changing based on the results of some recent independent lab tests conducted in late March 2010 on these products paid for by Netrition and CarbSmart.
As you can see from their independent lab results, the difference in the net carb counts was startling. On their latest product Blueberry Flax-Z-Snax Granola, Parkside claimed the product only had 1g net carb per serving. However, after a closer examination breaking down all the ingredients, the lab unveiled that the fiber content was less than half what was being claimed on the label and higher in sugar resulting in a difference of 9g net carbs. Similar results were found in the Cranberry Macadamia Nut Flax-Z-Snax Granola product with variations in the total calories, total carbohydrates and net carbs. Consumers who rely on the accuracy of these nutritional labels deserve to see the results of these lab tests which is why I’m sharing them with you and why I wanted Bernie and Andrew to come on at the beginning of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” today for a mini-interview update to talk about why they conducted this test and subsequently removed the Flax-Z-Snax brand from their inventory.
I attempted to interview the owner of Parkside Cafe and distributor of Flax-Z-Snax products Dave Martinez on Tuesday afternoon for his response to these lab results and he refused. However, when I questioned him about the results they found he responded angrily to this “ploy” by saying there is no proof these tests of his products are real since he has not been provided with any of the original lab results. Additionally, he says this is simply a “vendetta” against him by the owners of Netrition and CarbSmart since they are now selling a comparable product under the name Sensato Foods. Martinez cites growing unrest between the business relationship of his company with Netrition and CarbSmart that dates back to 2004. He maintains that his products are what he says they are and that people shouldn’t fall for this attempt to smear him and the Flax-Z-Snax name simply to market a new product line.
What is the truth in this whole nutrition labeling debacle? Who knows? But now you are armed with information to make better purchasing decisions for your healthy low-carb lifestyle. Alright, on to today’s podcast interview…
In Episode 358 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we are delighted to welcome Dr. Norris Chumley, a columnist at BeliefNet.com with one million subscribers to his “Satisfied Life” articles. Listen to Norris share about the desperation he felt to get the weight off and be happy, how he tried diet after diet losing and gaining well over 1,000 pounds for twenty years of his life, what changed him to begin eating in a healthy, ordinary way at long last, the unique role God played in helping him shed the pounds, the fortuitous meeting with a cab driver that led him to write his first book The Joy Of Weight Loss, the difference between joy and happiness, the infamous “Dancing Doctor Norris Chumley” YouTube video, how he learned carbohydrates in the form of sugar was a big problem with his weight, the disgusting ingredients food manufacturers are putting into what passes for food these days, why eating healthy isn’t as expensive as most people think, why happiness does not come from consuming old processed high-carb “food” products, his apparent aversion to saturated fat and regular consumption of animal-based products, what his daily diet looks like, and the “forbidden fruit” syndrome and why you shouldn’t ban any food from your diet forever.
Click here to access the exclusive interview with the owners of Netrition and CarbSmart discussing the Flax-Z-Snax labeling controversy and to hear Norris share his cheerful attitude when it comes to promoting weight loss and healthy living!
Filed under: Health,Publications — @ May 4, 2010
Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes have been on the rise for the past few decades with seemingly no end in sight. It should be obvious to anyone with a brain that whatever we are doing differently now than we did before this astronomical rise began in the 1970s should be corrected immediately. And maybe, just maybe the answer to this issue that baffles the so-called health “experts” and government health agencies could be what we have added into our diet when we pushed for the removal of fat from our diet. Today’s podcast interview guest knows abundantly well why these diseases of modern man exist and has come up with a simple, yet effective solution to correct them.
In Episode 357 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from cardiologist Dr. Rob Thompson, bestselling author of the books The Glycemic Load Diet and the accompanying The Glycemic Load Diet Cookbook with Dana Carpender. His latest release is The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes that was inspired by Dr. Thompson’s sudden personal diabetes diagnosis.
Listen to him share why dietary fat and cholesterol being a culprit in heart disease has become a joke among his cardiologist colleagues, why high cholesterol is entirely genetic and has nothing to do with your diet, why he supports the use of statin drugs, the difference between glycemic index and glycemic load, how the addition of grains to our food supply introduced more starch to our diets, how grains have added 100 times more glucose from starch than prehistoric man, why glycemic load is all but ignored, why carbohydrates are so heavily promoted (HINT: cha-ching!), why he believes most Americans can easily afford fresh, non-starchy foods, how the glycemic load works in practical application, why the glycemic load of beer is so difficult to measure, why red meat is not the problem with heart disease, obesity and diabetes, the statistics of how cholesterol and fat consumption have dropped while starch has dramatically increased, why dietary fat doesn’t go up when you begin eating low-carb, why portion control is unnecessary on low-carb, his concerns over the sustainability of the Atkins diet, how a lack of activity has contributed to obesity and diabetes, why he wrote a book on the subject of diabetes, his support for the use of Metformin for preventing and treating diabetes, the importance of LDL particle size as the preferred method for measuring cholesterol, how vinegar and walnuts can inhibit starch absorption, why not drinking any liquid with meals can slow the amount of starch your body absorbs, why walking two miles is just as effective as running two miles, how diabetes damages your body through the blood vessels, why blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes all act together to destroy your health, and his highly controversial position on the role of sugar in the diet.
Click here to listen to this fascinating and thought-provoking interview with one of the top health voices of our day!
Filed under: Business,New Product,Restaurants,Review — @ May 3, 2010
All the talk of the Internet for the past month has been centered around a brand new sandwich introduced at a popular fast food restaurant chain that features two pieces of chicken, bacon, cheese, and sauce. The media has predictably been scoffing at the fat content of the new “Double Down” sandwich from KFC, but low-carb forums like mine have had people asking whether this would be an acceptable food to eat when you are livin’ la vida low-carb. My low-carb blogging buddy Tom Naughton “Doubled Down And Lived To Tell” and I have literally received nearly 100 requests from my YouTube channel subscribers to do a review. So when Christine and I received coupons for a FREE “Double Down” in our e-mail box, we decided the time was right to head on down to our local KFC to see what all the fuss was about.
In Episode 88 of “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube”, we tasted the “Double Down” for ourselves on camera while sharing about the nutritional information on camera. Interestingly, despite all the negative press this sandwich without the bread has received, I was pleased to see some responsible journalists exposing the hypocrisy of the feigned outrage. This was my favorite line from Katharine Shilcutt’s Houston Press column: “So it’s a sandwich that doesn’t have any buns. Good for the Double Down! It simply replaced all that sugar and starch and overprocessed “flour” with a bunch of protein…It’s closer to actual “real” food than those buns were.” WOW! You gotta love it when you see quality writing like that coming out of the mainstream.
Click here to learn more and to watch our 10-minute YouTube video review of the new KFC “Double Down” sandwich!
Filed under: Health — @ April 30, 2010
We often hear the media and so-called health “experts” talk about the NEED to consume what they describe as “healthy whole grains.” They say that sugar and refined carbohydrates are certainly unhealthy for you, but you really need to add in whole grains to your diet. But what if the truth is that grains are just as harmful to your weight and health as sugary, carby foods? That’s exactly what today’s podcast interview guest is attempting to educate people about who deal with unexplained weight gain and decline in their health despite eating the “right” diet they’ve been told is good for them.
In Episode 356 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from nutritionist Melissa Diane Smith, author of the book Going Against the Grain: How Reducing and Avoiding Grains Can Revitalize Your Health, who explains why whole grains need to be avoided and not encouraged as is commonplace in modern society. Hear Melissa discuss how her work at a popular health spa where she ate the recommended diet made her get fat and sick, what’s wrong with consuming grains, how grains became such a major part of the American diet, why we DON’T need to be consuming grains as is often promoted by health professionals, the anti-nutrient properties of grain products, delayed food allergies brought on by grains, the addictive nature of grains on the body, the harmfulness of genetically-modified foods (especially corn) and why they’re hard to identify, the grain-related sensitivities, why a gluten sensitivity doesn’t necessarily mean you have Celiac disease, the “Against The Grain” dietary guidelines compared with what the USDA is recommending, the challenges of eliminating grains from your diet and what you can do about it, why it’s important to replace whole grains with low-carb vegetables, how to purchase non-grain foods at the grocery store, why eating out grain-free isn’t such a big deal nowadays, how a vegetarian can give up grains (most are “grain”-arians!), the supplements that augment a grain-free diet, and why even kids should give up grains.
Click here if you think you need to consume whole grains in your diet and let Melissa Diane Smith convince you otherwise!
Filed under: Events — @
TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY to enter my 5-Year Blogiversary Giveaway Contest. I am literally swimming in all of the wonderful entries from my enthusiastic blog readers and it’s gonna be a fun time this weekend sorting through them all compiling your answers for a survey and then selecting the winners of the prizes I’ve been sharing about over the past week, including the Grand Prize of a SousVide Supreme and SousVide Supreme Cookbook compliments of my friends Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades.
In case you’ve missed any of the previous prizes available in my blogiversary contest, be sure to check out Prize Package Post #1, Prize Package Post #2, and Prize Package Post #3. If you want to enter to win a prize in this contest, then you need to e-mail me your answers to the following BY TODAY in order to be eligible in my 5-Year Blogiversary Giveaway. Please put in the subject line “BLOGIVERSARY CONTEST”:
1. Your full name, mailing address (no P.O. boxes please), and telephone number.
2. Which eating plan do you follow? How long have you been eating low-carb?
3. How much weight have you lost following a low-carb nutritional approach?
4. What led you to begin a controlled-carb diet in the first place?
5. Have you read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes?
6. Are you a diabetic? Type 1 or Type 2? Any family members with diabetes? Who?
7. How and when did you find and start reading the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog?
8. What is your favorite part of the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog?
9. Would you be interested in joining us on The Low-Carb Cruise in the future? Why or why not?
10. Name someone you would like for me to interview on my podcast who has not yet appeared?
E-mail your answers to livinlowcarbman@charter.net no later than 11:59PM ET TONIGHT and the winners will be picked at random this weekend and announced to the world on my blog on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. One entry per household please so everyone can have a chance to win a prize. We’re only hours away from this giveaway contest coming to an end, so don’t be left out of the fun. ENTER ASAP!
Click here to see the final 5-Year Blogiversary Prize Package #4.
Filed under: Atkins Diet — @ April 29, 2010
Are the radical vegans attempting to sabotage the new Atkins book?
On March 2, 2010, the long-awaited release of The New Atkins For A New You book hit bookstore shelves with anxious anticipation from people looking for the latest science and information behind a healthy carbohydrate-restricted lifestyle change that was given prominent worldwide attention by the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins himself beginning in the early 1970s. Featuring three of the most prominent and highly-respected researchers of low-carb diets in the entire world as authors–Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University, Dr. Jeff Volek from The University of Connecticut, and Dr. Stephen Phinney from The University of California-Davis–this new book has been making shock waves in the publishing world! It debuted at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list for Paperback Advice and has remained a consistent seller ever since.
But not everyone is happy about the tremendous success this new Atkins book is receiving. It should not at all be surprising that the leading voices of dissent are those in the radical vegetarian/vegan community led by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. Heralded by those who eschew meat in their diet for his January 2005 bestselling book release The China Study, Campbell is a real hero to the vegans for what they think is his monumental contribution to their cause. So when The New Atkins For A New You was released, Campbell was looked to by vegetarians and vegans to give them guidance about how to respond. He gladly obliged.
Click here to read about the call to action Dr. Campbell put out to his followers to make it appear people are opposed to The New Atkins For A New You book and why his reasons for opposing it are superfluous.
