Low Carb Recipe

The choice to convert to a low-carb lifestyle is usually made for weight reasons. But as more research on the subject is finding, this way of eating can also help or cure certain medical conditions. Whatever your individual reason, it is important to understand low-carb so that you will get the most benefit for your situation.

"Where can I find a list of allowed foods?" It isn't quite as simple as that. You need to understand the reason that a low-carb diet works to understand which foods you can or can't have.

The advice to most newbies, or anyone interested in going low-carb, is to pick up the Atkins New Diet Revolution book. Anyone can start a diet, but this book will teach you to live a lifestyle, and help you understand why this low-carb thing is not just a "fad." Though many people are just looking for a quick answer, reading and research is very important when embarking on ANY type of lifestyle change. Knowledge is not only power, it's also success.

I don't have a magic list of foods for you. I don't have a glowing number of carbs you can have. Because you're different than I am and what is good for me, may not be good for you. Take a look around the site. You'll find a lot of informative articles, forum postings, recipes, and more.

The biggest mistake people make is to think of a "diet" as something they will have to do only for a few months or a year not as a time to make a permanent change in eating habits. This is true no matter what diet you attempt - low fat, low carb, whatever. If you got fat eating sugar and starches once, then you got thin avoiding sugar and starches; you can bet the ranch that if you go back to eating sugar and starches you WILL regain the weight. I know. I've been there.

Low carbs to the left of us. Low carbs to the right of us. Low carbs from front to back in "1,001 Low-Carb Recipes for Life," a new cookbook by Sue Spitler with Linda R. Yoakam.

After an eight-page introduction to the science behind low-carbohydrate dining, the authors pack in recipe after recipe, each with its nutrition profile, right up to the cross-referenced index. To include all those recipes while keeping the book affordable, something had to give. There are no photographs, slick paper or spiral binding to hold the thick book open flat for use.

A former colleague would call this a recipe book, not a cookbook, because the authors offer no comments about recipes.

Things like Atkins bars may sound like a good idea, but it is best to stay away from them and other pre-packaged "convenience" foods at least through induction or (even better) until maintenance. Some of these products have erroneous carb counts. Atkins bars have glycerin, which, while not a carbohydrate, has been know to stall some people. Beware of low-carb sweets made with Malitol, which is a sugar alcohol that can be a stopper for some. Read the labels. Experiment if you like. But be careful.

She found the recipes easy to follow and lauded their use of fairly common ingredients.

She was especially pleased because there were many ethnic recipes, two of which she prepared.

She said the Chicken Piccata was "really easy." She did not have the whole-wheat flour the recipe calls for. She substituted all-purpose flour, knowing that it would increase the carbohydrate tally.