Low Carb Freedom

Dad back in the hospital...

I know I posted this earlier, but it somehow got deleted.

My dad went back into the hospital early last week. He is still there. Posting will resume as soon as I am able.

Sale at Netrition, Including Dreamfields

I just finished my netrition order because tomorrow, Thursday, is the last day for the Dreamfield pasta sale of $2.19 a box. (More on Dreamfields here and here.) I ordered a lot of it to keep in the pantry. (For more on netrition, click here.)

I also ordered the following products:

• Keto Jams (the best tasting low sugar jam out there, and Keto is now out of business)

A whole lot of syrups and let me tell you why. My kids love Slush Puppies and Slurpies and Italian Ices in the summer. There is no way that I can keep letting them eat these sugar laden products, but I have to substitute something else. I was able to purchase a slush machine yesterday at Costco on clearance for $29.97 that looks like it will make great slushes (I hope!). With these syrups, the kids might be satisfied with the substitutes, and I can make fun summer drinks with them by just adding a bit of rum for the adults!

• DaVinci Watermelon Syrup and I already have a DaVinci pump so it will look just like the slush syrup. If the watermelon flavor is good, then I will try grape and raspberry in the future.
• Baja Bob's New Martini Mixes in Sour Apple and Blue Raspberry! Obviously, I won't put the liquor into the slushes for the kids, but if the syrups taste like Sour Apple and Blue Raspberry, the kids will love them, and they will be a cool treat for the summer. (Also, much cheaper than buying everyone slushes out!)

Of course, I'll let you know how they come out once they get here.

• CarbQuick. I haven't tried it yet, but I just received an advance copy of a book that I want to tell you more about that would make this product obsolete, but I have to do a bakeoff!
• Black Soy Beans. I've been looking for these everywhere. I want to try them in my chili. High fiber and low carb.
• Erythritol Granular Powder. I want to try this plain to see what happens.

For my complete shopping list, click here.

Are newer versions of low sugar candies better?

According to this article, the Chairman of Jelly Belly has type II diabetes. He wants to create more low/no sugar candies. I'm sending him a copy of this post: Sell Your Stock in Maltitol Companies.

What About Short Bursts of Exercise for Kids?

Ok, I've talked about two studies that show high intensity short bursts of exercise can be very good for you. (Click here for first study: six minutes of exercise can give the same health benefits as six hours, and click here for the second study: short bursts of exercise are far better for diabetics.)

Well, a new study about kids and exericise shows that:

"For most obese adolescents, even if they weigh more than 300 pounds, their hearts and lungs are still healthy enough to allow them to exercise vigorously," Yanovski said...

For obese children in this study, simply pedaling a bike at the lowest setting for 4 minutes brought them close to the "lactate threshold," a point where working muscles aren't receiving enough oxygen and exercise can quickly become unsustainable.

"For such children," Yanovski said, "very low intensities of exercise are needed so that movement can be sustained."  (empahsis mine)

But according to these two other studies, why not have all obese kids do the six minutes of exerise a week to keep up the cardiovascular health and improve muscles because these overweight kids can probably do this type of exercise.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, involved 23 moderately fit men and women aged between 25 and 35. They were each made to cycle 18.6 miles, as a baseline, before being split up and put on different training regimes three times a week.

The first group cycled for two hours a day at a moderate pace, the second were put through their paces at a higher intensity for just 10 minutes a day in 60 second bursts, while the third cycled at an intense sprint in 30 second bursts, with four minutes of rest in between.

At the end of two weeks, each group was again asked to cycle 18.6 miles, with the surprising result that each group was found to have improved to the same level.

Tests also showed that the rate at which the volunteers' muscles were able to absorb oxygen also improved to the same degree. The study also revealed that the two-minute workouts produced muscle enzymes essential for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in the same way that the longer workouts did.

I would be really interested to see if the results for kids matched the results for adults.

Another Vote for Short Bursts of High Intensity Exercise

Remember the study that showed that two minutes of exercise in short bursts of 30-second increments three times a week equaled the health benefits of 3 2-hour workouts? Well, it seems that this type of workout is also better for diabetics!

For active diabetics, moderate-intensity exercise, such as light continuous jogging or cycling, poses a greater risk of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) than intermittent high-intensity exercise representative of the activity patterns of team and field sports, such as soccer or hockey, research shows...

They found that both moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise led to a decline in blood sugar levels, but the decline was greater with moderate-intensity than with high-intensity exercise, despite a higher heart rate and greater total work load with high-intensity exercise.

I wonder if this regimen would work with the people who have been clinically proven not to benefit from exercise as well.

I have started walking this week, but maybe I should add two minutes of vigorous exercise three times a week to see what happens? It can't hurt.

Need Help From Low Carb Freedom Readers about Low Carb Pitas in Your Area

Folks, I need your help. One reader writes:

Dear Low Carb Freedom,

I am so glad i found your site, it is exactly what I have been searching for. I love the Atkins bakery brand pita breads, but so far I have only ever seen them at Publix supermarkets and on the website. I'm going to California soon and am really hoping to find a way to get them there (Publix is a Florida grocery store). Plus, i just saw on the Atkins website that they are listed as discontinued, I hope that doesn't mean they have stopped making them all together! Please help me out. Thank you so much,

Sam

Bakeries and dairies are some of the food manufacturer that are very much regionalized in the US. Why? Because bread and milk have a limited shelf life. The major brand of low carb pitas in my area are Joseph's brand, and they are spectacular. There is also a Sahara Atkins brand that has a substantially higher carb count. I have visited other areas in the US and seen other low carb pita brands, but I forget the names. If you buy low carb pitas, please leave a comment below and tell us the name, the store chain where you buy them, the total carb count and the fiber carb count, if you have it.

This will help all of us when we travel if we forget to pack our favorite pitas in our luggage, which I always do!

Drug reduces same diabetes risk factors as low carb diet

The headline to this post should be the headline to the article on Canada.com, but it isn't. The actual headline reads:  Diet drug cuts blood sugar, trims waistline in type 2 diabetics, study finds. The same could be said about another article with this headline about another drug: AstraZeneca diabetes drug controls sugar, fats.

It would be one thing if patients were given the risks/rewards of these drugs versus going on a low carb diet, but they won't be given that option until the low carb diet is irrefutably proven safe over the long term -- and by that very definition, that time is years off.

Sugar Shouldn't Be Taxed

One thing that the low carb "craze" did was point out the downside of sugar, but this proposal to tax sugar is way out of line. Why? Because the next thing they are going to tax is food that has fat as one of the first four ingredients.

What we need is better education, better food labeling (including on alcohol), better scientific studies, the willingness to go with true science -- not consensus science, and the broad realization that one diet doesn't work for everyone.

I'm back... Dad is out of the hospital

Folks, just wanted to say that I will be back posting. Dad is out of the hospital and home now....

Exercise: Having No Time May Not Be An Excuse -- Have 6 Minutes a Week?

I managed to lose my weight with no exercise, but I have been putting off the much-needed exercise regimen because of time constraints. If the latest study proves valid, that excuse for me and for millions more may be obsolete.

A new exercise study reports:

Key points
• Study find 3 x 2-minute bursts of exercise as healthy as 3 x 2-hour workouts
• Two-minute regimes based on intense cycling
• Tests showed rate of oxygen absorption same for those doing both regimes

Key quote
"We have shown that a person can get the same benefits in fitness and health in a short period if they are willing to endure the discomfort of high-intensity activity" - Professor Martin Gibala, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

And this is based on a non-impact exercise routine! I wish they had a video of this "discomfort of high-intensity activity." How bad can 30 seconds of exercise be?

If this proves to be valid, I can see the establishment having fits of pique, just like they did with the low carb diet. "It isn't healthy in the long run -- it puts a strain on your system -- we don't have any long-term studies." The good thing about the exercise regimen is that it is much easier to study than a diet. Although, of course, because everyone is different, some people truly don't respond to exercise, as this study contends. (I'd love to see the folks who don't respond to exercise try this short burst exercise regimen and see what happens.)