Is diet's relation to cancer really a myth?

I'm struggling with thoughts that all of the years of careful eating really meant nothing so far as cancer is concerned. In fact, my oncologist said that a low carb diet helping to prevent cancer is just a myth that sells books. And when he said it, I agreed with him given that I had just been diagnosed with the dread disease. I have been in ketosis for eight years (VERY low carb) - and still I got cancer.

The outcome was pretty good though, since I am part of the 20% who survive the particular malignancy I had (a GIST, if you want to read up on it) without going onto a prophylactic dose of chemo for the rest of my life. So maybe my diet had something to do with that. I don't know. Life is a crapshoot.

I'm cleaning cupboards this morning - a long overdue job, but one that is indicative of just how good I am feeling now that I'm through the surgery and not on chemo. So what does that have to do with diets and cancer? Well, in addition to finding out I don't need to shop for three months, and coming up with great recipe ideas as I find things hidden away that I forgot I had, I found a cupboard where I had a cache of baking supplies.

And so I have A tale of two coconuts - I had two bags of unsweetened shredded coconut in my cupboard, one organic and one not. The non-organic bag was intact. There was a hole chewed in the side of the organic bag. Unbiased mice prefer organic over non-organic!

Think I'll keep eating my old way. I'm throwing out the non-organic, too. The mice know what's good for them and what's not, and so do I. Now back to cleaning cupboards!

Bon appetit!

I am feeling soooooooooooo good!

At last, my stomach doesn't hurt when Fred decides to crawl onto it. My energy level is almost up to pre-cancer treatment levels. Three weeks from Wednesday, I get to go back to Crossfit. Yesterday afternoon, I mowed the whole lawn (first time since foot and ankle surgery).

I am on a ketogenic diet for health reasons. It has gotten me off a nasty scrip, and has enabled me to lower my dosage for blood pressure meds. Lately I have been taking Celebrex every other day, sometimes I can quit altogether, depending on activity level AND how well I have been eating.

How well have I been eating? Not very. Did you know a Klondike bar has 28 grams of carbs? Cut in half, that's only 14, and I can have 22 a day. That's okay if I haven't had a tiny (or not so tiny) bite of bread, haven't eaten some of my favorite keto recipes that still have 10 grams per serving (so why not have TWO servings?). It had to stop.

Now that I am back in the groove with the keto diet, I am hoping to ditch the Celebrex altogether. Besides, a healthy dropperful of CBD oil works almost as well as Celebrex, especially if I have been in ketosis. I'm happy with 5, but this morning my reading was 15, and I can feel the difference. It's almost like taking speed.

It has been a long road since I had surgery for torn ligament in ankle and torn tendon in foot the day after Christmas. That one was worse than I imagined it would be. I had barely gotten back on my feet when I noticed severe stomach cramps and black, tarry stools. That eventually led to a diagnosis of a malignant sarcoma, known as a GIST (Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumor), planted in my stomach near my esophagus, a particularly bad spot. I was back at Crossfit for only six weeks when I had to go on chemo, which sapped my strength to the point where I didn't go anymore.

In the midst of all of this, I lost my beloved Tashi, 14 years old, pretty ill for the last five years of her life, but we hung in there together. Still miss her so much.

Maybe when so much goes wrong in such a short time, one finally becomes immune to shock. However, I experienced shock when the oncologist told me that I would not need anymore chemo after my surgery. In the hospital after its removal, the surgeon told me three years of chemo! Seems like it was just more bad news to deal with, another challenge I really didn't want to face.

And then three weeks later, after all of the path reports were in, the oncologist gave me the lovely news - NOT an aggressive tumor, although definitely malignant. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW growing tumor, in spite of a spurt of growth when I was taken off Gleevec due to liver and heart problems. But it's gone!

So yes, I am shocked! GOOD shock!! I was considering how to deal with having to go back on chemo, which was like poison to my body. I seriously considered just saying no, and letting the chips fall where they may. Better a few years of feeling good than 20 years of the hell of dealing with Gleevec and all of its side effects. I was on a support board, and many of the people on the board have been on Gleevec for 18 years!! Bothering your liver? Then just get on steroids - with all of their side effects - in order to tolerate the chemo. I was the only one on the board with heart issues, so I had no one from whom to get info on that.

CT scan in six months, every six months for two years, then every TEN YEARS! I choose to look at the situation as a cure. If I get bad news in six months, I will deal with it then. In the meantime, living with the firm belief that I am cured has helped me to get back on the wagon and "just say no" to Klondike bars, a small (well, maybe this time a medium) order of well done French fries, and one too many tastes from my samples of the French baguettes I take to market on Saturdays. I am back on the keto train and feeling wonderful!

NEW RECIPE - Steak and blue cheese

Need to kick-start your ketogenic diet? I know I need to, after one too many cheats during the holidays.

Someone gave me a gift certificate to DC meats, and I bought a beautiful New York strip steak. Any good steak will do, or even good quality hamburger. The topping is where it's at. And by the way, it's ZERO carbs.

Take a 4 oz. container of crumbled blue cheese. There is an Amish brand that is very reasonable. Turn it out into a bowl. Add 3 tbsp. soft butter and a rounded tbsp. of fresh grated horseradish. A couple of vendors at the South Bend farmers market have good horseradish. Mix them together with a spoon - should still be a bit lumpy. Then sprinkle a tsp. of good Italian seasoning mix over it. (Ceres & Co. at the farmers market has a really good one, reasonably priced,  and it's organic.)

Liberally salt and pepper your meat. I like to use smoked salt and smoked pepper, especially in the wintertime. Fry your steak or hamburger in a screaming hot cast iron grill pan or skillet - or if the weather is good, on your grill. I like it 5 minutes per side. Meat should still feel springy when you press your finger into the meat. Then put on heated plate to rest for five minutes. While it is resting, spread a fourth to a third of a cup of the blue cheese / horseradish / butter topping evenly over the meat.

Now this is a "get back on track" meal, so tuck in! Only side should be a shot of good bourbon or whiskey. You will definitely be full, and you will be back on track!

Happy New Year! And bon apetit.

Blue cheese topped steak

NEW RECIPE - spicy deviled eggs

These are low carb deviled eggs. But then, they all are, unless you add sugar to them, or maple syrup.

I was cleaning the fridge and thought these "extras" from my fridge would enhance deviled eggs, which can get a bit boring when you are on a ketogenic diet. These are definitely NOT boring.

Spicy Deviled Eggs

6 hard boiled eggs
Put eggs in a pan large enough to hold them in one layer. Cover completely with cold water and throw in a half teaspoon of salt to help them peel easier. Set over high heat, no lid on pan. Bring to full rolling boil (should take six to ten minutes, depending on your stove).

When the water boils, turn off heat and put lid on. Set a timer for 10 minutes. If eggs are extra large, then set the timer for 12 minutes. When the timer goes off, immediately pour off the water and pack ice cubes around eggs, then put cold water over all until the eggs are covered. They are ready to peel and use within about 10 minutes, or can be stored in the fridge for several days.

If you are using right away, chop three pieces of bacon into fine dice and cook over low heat while you are doing the eggs. Drain the bacon well.

Peel the eggs, cut in half and turn yolks (which should be beautiful with no green around the edges) into a bowl. Mash with a fork. Add 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 C. mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip, which has sugar in it), 1 tsp. white wine vinegar (one with zero carbs), and a piece of chipotle in adobo sauce (about 1" x 1") which has been finely chopped. Split a scallion long ways into quarters, remove all but an inch or two of green top, and chop finely. Add to the bowl along with the drained bacon bits. Stir to combine and stuff the egg halves.

Garnish each deviled egg with a cilantro leaf.

Enjoy!

Deviled eggs  with a kick

Low Carb Black Bean Salad

You will see me referring to "net carbs" and "dietary fiber" in this and other blogs. How do you get net carbs? Start with the total carb count, and then look for an entry that reads "Dietary Fiber." If there is no entry for dietary fiber, then you have to count all of the carbs listed.  If there are dietary fiber grams listed, subtract them from the carb count. Voila! You have the net carbs count. That means if you want to eat something that has a lot of carbs, what might have looked like it was out of bounds can be okay once you have backed out the total dietary fiber grams.

Black soybeans are a good example. I discovered that black soybeans can be used just like turtle beans. This means that my chili is no longer without beans. And best of all, I can make my favorite black bean salad, which I thought was gone from my diet forever.

Now some might argue that we shouldn't eat ANY kind of soybeans. Pardon if I digress, but there are some legitimate arguments against soybeans. They contain phyto-estrogens, so some doctors encourage their patients who are dealing with breast, unterine and ovarian cancers to cut out soybean products, including soy milk and tofu, since estrogen can aggravate cancer of reproductive organs. And what about baby formula? If a baby gets virtually 100% of its diet from soy formula, it is getting the equivalent of five birth control pills every day. That just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Soybeans are also high in phytic acid. Why should you care? Because phytic acid binds to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc and iron. What that means is that it acts like a little vacuum cleaner and sweeps them out of your system. We really ought to hang onto them, don't you think? However, if you don't eat black soybeans every day, if you save them for a now-and-then treat, if you add just a few to a pot of chili so that you discover a bean or two in every spoonful, then I think they are okay. And so far as I am concerned, they are certainly better for us than a piece of pie.

Many people think that dry beans must be low carb. Au contraire. They are loaded! One cup of black turtle beans will set you back 116 carbs. (If you read my blog very often, by now you probably know the magic number for low carbers is 50 grams of carbs - or less! - per day.) You do get to deduct the 29 grams of dietary fiber to get to net carbs, but that is still 87 net carbs, or one full day's carbs plus three fourths of the next. And that's without adding some onions and cilantro to the dish. On the other hand, there are 16 grams of carbs in a cup of black soybeans, and 14 grams of dietary fiber, for a net carb count of only 2 grams. That leaves some room for a few veggies in the salad. And a couple of deviled eggs.

Here is my recipe for Black Bean Salad. If you are in the "hate" column for cilantro (there are only lovers and haters of cilantro, in my experience, no in-between), use parsley. You can use another cheese, so long as you choose one that holds its shape pretty well when the dressing is poured over.

BLACK BEAN SALAD

2 cans (15 oz. each) Edens Organic Black Soybeans (do not substitute other types of black beans - see intro to this recipe)
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled or cut into 1/4" dice
1/2 C. finely chopped celery
1/4 C. finely diced red onions
1/2 C. roughly chopped cilantro (I'm in the "love" column - see intro)
Juice from one juicy large lime, or two not so great limes (3 to 4 tbsp.)
2 tbsp. good, fruity olive oil
8 to 10 sliced green pimento olives
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

Rinse the beans well and drain thoroughly. Throw them and all of the other ingredients in a big bowl, stir to combine, and let sit on the counter for about an hour to blend flavors. Give it another stir every now and then if you are so inclined. Then refrigerate until ready to eat.

Makes 10 half cup servings as a side dish, or 5 one cup servings as a main course. (Double the macronutrient values if using as a main course.)

	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Calories
TOTALS	2.27	9.27	9.41	141.09
% of total	10.8%	44.3%	44.9%

Ingredients at the ready

Yikes! What's a fat bomb?

I am a serious low carber and have been in ketosis for six and a half years now, with an occasional lapse. But I feel so bad, both physically and mentally, when I do lapse that it is happening rarely now, since I stick with this way of eating.

A mistake many people make when they try low carb is that they cut out carbohydrates and replace them with protein. Nope, not good! You replace your carbs with fat. Yes, you heard me right - with fat! And hopefully you will stay away from trans fats, and limit your polyunsaturated fats. Go for saturated fat, coconut oil being the number one choice, but butter and lard are not far behind. Try to get organic, or at least grass fed, butter and lard. Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil are good, but one really shouldn't do more than a light saute in olive oil. Best leave it for dressings and that big jar of pesto, a staple for us low carbers.

So what on earth is a fat bomb? It should be something that is about 85% (or higher) fat, and 10% (or lower) carbs, the remainder being protein. They are satisfying, especially when you get the post-dinner munchies. They are so filling that one bomb should make most people happy, and you will quit thinking about food.

If you do a search on "fat bombs," you will come up with hundreds of recipes. I'm going to pass on two of them to you in this blog. The first is amazingly simple and amazingly satisfying. You can even indulge in two or three of them. But if you space them apart by a few minutes, you will not want a fourth.

#1 simple fat bomb:

Take two nice fat pecan halves, top one with a slice of cold butter, sprinkle the butter with a few grains of sea salt, top with the other pecan half, and chomp that baby down in one bite!

#2 more involved, but DELICIOUS fat bomb:

I like to make my recipes detailed enough that you are happy with the end products, and not confused while making them. So I will give credit for most of the ingredients for this within the recipe, but the methodology is all mine. It looks a little involved, but it's not. Start at the top with the "mise en place," which just means get everything ready before you start, then start measuring and mixing, and the whole process (once the fats have softened slightly from sitting at room temperature) from start to sliding the tray of bombs into the freezer should not take more than 15 minutes. And with practice, maybe only ten.

Please note the information about Xylitol at the end of the recipe, especially if you have dogs. It can be toxic to dogs, so keep away from them, just like you keep the chocolate away from them, and the potato peels away from your chickens.

All that being said, here is the complete recipe, from mise on place to finished product. Oh, one last note on this one. It really doesn't meet the requirement for ratios of carbs, fat and protein, but it's close. Remember, there is always that pecan bomb. It definitely meets them.

Finished product

STRAWBERRY FAT BOMBS

Mise en place:

• Put 10 mini cupcake liners into a mini cupcake pan and set aside.
• I like to use weights rather than measuring cups, as it is more accurate and faster, so if you have a scale, get it out, and set to grams.
• You will need a small bowl for the hulled strawberries (weigh after hulling) and a second bowl for the cream cheese and butter.
• I use a 2-tbsp. ice cream “trigger” scoop for easy measuring. (See picture below.)
• Get out your vanilla and a one-tablespoon measuring spoon. I love Mexican vanilla. Madagascar is okay, too. For the best taste, don't use artificial vanilla, but if that's all you've got, go for it.

Pan is ready. Trigger scoop for portioning out the bombs is on the right.

Now start measuring!

Ingredients

1/2 cup (2.5 oz or 70 g) strawberries, fresh is best, but thoroughly thawed frozen will do

3/4 cup (5.3 oz or 150 g) cream cheese, softened

2 oz (60 g) butter, softened (If using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt.)

1-1/2 tbsp. Xylitol, put in food processor to make consistency of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Put butter and cream cheese on counter for about 30 minutes to soften slightly. Put the softened fats in the bowl of your processor, right on top of the powdered Xylitol. Blend, but don't over-beat. You do not want it to get too soft. Add vanilla and strawberries. Blend briefly. If you chop the berries a bit before throwing in the processor, they will incorporate faster and the batter will be stiffer – easier to measure out into the muffin cups. (You can always set the bowl into the fridge for a bit if the batter gets too runny to scoop out.)

Ready for the final step.

This makes 10 nice sized bombs. When frozen solid, unmold the fat bombs and place into a freezer bag. Keep in the freezer and enjoy any time. I think they taste best if you can let them sit out at room temperature for a few minutes.

Nutritional information per serving:

Carbs, 1.83 grams (14.6% of total)

Fat, 9.56 grams (76.4% of total)

Protein, 1.12 grams (9.0% of total)

Calories 106

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. I started with a recipe from a blog called

LOW CARB, SO SIMPLE.  That blogger got it from a guest blogger, Martina from KetoDietApp. My only adaptation of ingredients were 1) I used Xylitol for my sweetener, as it is one of the healthiest and I like the taste the best of any of them, and 2) I listed my choice of ingredients when given a choice. Go to the original recipe if you want to see other options, because I didn't include them.

However, for the method, I did change it considerably. Mine is a lot easier, and the end product is very nice. You will need a food processor. If you don't have one, then go back to that original recipe, which is linked in this post.

More info on Xylitol – Glycemic Index = 13. Calories per gram = 3. It works a little differently in our bodies and does not affect blood sugar significantly, the way other low carb sweeteners can. It is much sweeter than sugar, so when I substitute, I am quite satisfied using only half the amount of sugar called for in a recipe. If the recipe calls for another low carb sweetener, I reduce the amount by about a third.

It's for an occasional treat – like these fat bombs. Over-consumption can lead to diarrhea, so take it easy on these. One a day will make you happy.

WARNING: Keep out of reach of your pets, as Xylitol can be toxic to dogs!

Susan Siemers, adapted from recipe on Low Carb, So Simple blog

for Devonshire House Dishes

July 25, 2016

Ready to pop in freezer

Ready to eat, with low carb chocolate cookie.

Are you ready for a new recipe?

I had two large chicken breasts in my freezer. I bought them for the skin! Did you know that NOBODY sells chicken skin? And I wanted to make this great recipe for crisp chicken skin with goat cheese and pomegranite seeds. So I bought four whole chicken breasts just to get the skin. LOL I'll give you that recipe later, with my adaptations. But for today, let's use up those chicken breasts! Low carb and delicious. There are a lot of details in this recipe. Those details are the difference between a nice chicken salad and a truly spectacular one. Serves 6.

So if you want, you can grab a roast chicken by the checkout at Meijers, shred it, mix some curry powder into some Miracle Whip and throw it onto the chicken. It's adequate, but if you want to wow yourself and your guests, try this.

First I thawed two chicken breasts, about 2-1/2 lbs. total weight, then put them in a foil lined pan with sides, just large enough for them to fit. (If the pan is too big, they are more apt to dry out. Just another detail to make this recipe so good.) I drizzled some organic vegetable oil over them, about a tablespoon on each, then salted well. This is the only chance to get the salt into the meat, so don't be shy! I used about a fourth tsp. on each breast.

A very necessary kitchen tool for me is an instant read thermometer. You can get them at Meijer or Target for around $8. Here's why you need that thermometer. I baked the breasts at 400º for 30 minutes, then checked the temp. One was done ("done" is 160º), the other, larger one, wasn't even close. I removed the breast that was done and put it on plate, continued cooking the other breast until it too reached 160º, which took nearly 10 more minutes. Be sure to check the temperature in the thickest part of the breast, and make sure the tip of the thermometer is not hitting bone. This is so important. Overcook and the meat is dry. Undercook and you are risking salmonella! Neither option is acceptable.

The chicken breasts need to cool until you can handle them. Pour any pan juices over them so they can be reabsorbed while the breasts are cooling. This makes for juicier chicken. Even if you are mixing it with mayo, veggies and spices, you still want each individual bite of chicken to be tender and juicy. I know, I'm going on and on, but these little differences are the things that will make a memorable dish.

By the time you are done making the dressing, the chicken will be cool enough to handle. And if it is still a little warm, I think it absorbs the dressing better. If you want to refrigerate the cooled chicken until later, though, you can delay making the final salad for up to two days.

Here are the ingredients for the dressing:

• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 2 very thin slices of red onion from a medium onion, finely chopped (Onions have carbs, but finely chopping them will give you a nice burst of flavor from a minimal amount of onion.)
• 3 tbsp. roughly chopped cilantro
• 1 C. real mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip)
• 1 to 1-1/2 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. raisins (They are full of carbs, even more than the onions have, but if you chop them, you can get a surprising amount of flavor out of just one tablespoon.)
• 2-1/2 tsp. good curry powder
• 1 tsp. honey (leaving out the honey will save you 1 g. carbs per serving, but . . .)
• 3 tbsp. roughly chopped walnuts

Throw all of the dressing ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine. Then shred or chop the chicken and add to the dressing. If there are accumulated juices on the plate from the chicken, by all means add them to the bowl as well. That is pure flavor!

Chill for at least an hour, and serve on a chilled plate with a few cilantro leaves and a wedge of lime for squeezing. The second picture shows the salad with half of a low carb roll. Recipe later for the rolls.

Update: Here are the nutritional values for this recipe, first line for serving 6, second line for heartier servings, serving 4. For only two more carbs, you can stuff the "serves 6" amount into a low carb roll, for a total of only 6.5 carbs. It's a meal. You will be full if you eat this on the roll. The recipe for the rolls is coming. I'm still working on it. I am not getting the texture shown in the pictures, so there is something in the recipe that they are not telling us. When I figure it out, I will post the original recipe with my updates so that you are happy with the end result.

                         Carbs/ Fat/ Protein/ Calories
Six servings:     4.5    36.0     22.5     438.5
Four servings:   6.7    53.9     33.8     657.8

Bon appetit.

Recipe by Susan Siemers, from Devonshire House Dishes.

Curried Chicken Salad

Curried Chicken Salad with half a low carb roll

What is ketosis?

In a previous blog, SUGAR AND YOU (click on link to read blog), I maligned sugar and spoke about ketosis. I provided few details about ketosis in that blog, so here is a little more to chew on, including why a ketogenic diet might be just what you need to improve your waistline as well as your mental attitude.

Those following a ketogenic diet are doing so for a variety of reasons. For most people, it is to lose a few pounds, especially belly fat. For others it is a medical necessity. Children with epilepsy who are non-responsive to drugs to prevent seizures can be helped by a ketogenic diet - in fact it is successful in lowering the number of seizures in more than a third of such cases. In addition, some of them are cured - yes, I said cured - of ever having another seizure by staying in ketosis for two years or so. Of course, these children are under medical supervision.

When I had my farm, we had a raw milk association. In Indiana, you may not sell raw milk for human consumption, but if a person owns a share of a cow, then they can legally consume their own raw milk. One of our shareholders, when she learned of my ketogenic diet, told me that both of her sons had been plagued with epileptic seizures. They were both hospitalized to get into ketosis, and from that time forward, neither had another seizure. After two years, they were able to eat anything they wanted. It was as if their brains had been retrained during the two years of ketosis. Like I said, some are cured.

She showed me little cards she still carried in her wallet to warn well-meaning mothers that her boys couldn't have so much as a bite of cake or a spoonful of ice cream at the birthday party. She always brought their own "legal" treats, so they could participate without fear of a seizure.

Think of that, a diet to cure epilepsy! Some children are subjected to brain surgery. Wouldn't you want to try a diet first? So what is a ketogenic diet? Here goes, my explanation of keto diets.

We burn carbohydrates for quick energy. Our body pretty much doesn't have to do anything with the sugar - it goes right to our brain and sets to work. (If you are interested in the details, there is a good book called Life Without Bread. Chapter 3 explains how the body utilizes carbohydrates, and it is quite different from how it works with protein and fat. You will enjoy it if you are a wonk like me who likes to look at the mechanics of things.)

I hear many people say, "You have to have carbohydrates for energy!" And yet I have a friend, George, who is on a keto diet, has been for years, and he runs marathons. He went through an adjustment period, but now he has no lack of energy when running on bacon and eggs. No pasta for him!

So how is it that George can run marathons without carb loading prior to running? Our body is a wondrous thing! If we don't eat carbs, our body manufactures a replacement, something called ketones, derived from the bacon and eggs (fat and protein). Our body is more than happy to use these ketones for energy. Yes, you can cross the finish line on ketones.

Those of us on a ketogenic diet usually check our urine daily. If we are utilizing ketones for energy, there will be evidence of it because we throw excess ketones into our urine. The Ketostix (the brand I use) will turn color, and it will tell me that I ate right yesterday. And depending on the color, it will tell me just how right I ate.

I am on a ketogenic diet for mood control, and I usually know before I get out of bed what color the stick will be. If I'm in ketosis, I am not so restless, definitely NOT depressed, and feel focused. The stick rarely tells me something I hadn't already figured out. While some will argue that they are not very useful, I kept careful records of my keto readings for six months, which included a diary of my thoughts and feelings each day. I stand by the Ketostix.

Now on to ketoacidosis. When I tell people I have been in ketosis for over six years, I often hear, from people with some knowledge of ketones and/or diabetes, that I can ruin my kidneys by going too far and going into ketoacidosis. They are right, of course, but it is hard enough for me to stay at a reading of 5, 15 or 40, so I cannot imagine eating a diet that would get me all the way to ketoacidosis. What would I have to eat? Maybe a pound of Crisco? With a pound of hamburger? Not going to happen!

Stay tuned to this blog for more about low carb eating and how it impacts our health.

Bon appetit.

Sugar and you

Energy from our food comes from three sources - protein, fat and carbohydrates. Most foods are a combination of at least two of them. Our bodies and our brains handle them differently. While fats and proteins follow one path, carbohydrates take a different one, a path that will influence your ability to think and how much weight you carry around your waist, to name a couple.

Why should you care? Remember that the carbohydrates in the food you eat has to be metabolized differently, you know, the "different path." What many people miss is that many supposedly innocent foods are loaded with carbohydrates - a.k.a.sugar! As a low carber, of course I avoid the obvious things like sugar, bread and pasta. But did you know that fruit is full of carbohydrates? Even fresh fruit, even organic fruit. I just don't eat it. Did you know that all root vegetables have a lot of carbs? We all might think about potatoes, but what about turnips and carrots? Full of carbs. If it grows beneath ground level, I just avoid it. And how about a glass of wine or beer with dinner? Nope. Both are full of carbs!

If your breakfast is a bowl of cereal, even without any added sugar, and maybe a piece of toast, washed down with a glass of orange juice, you are setting up your brain to tell you to eat more in just a couple of hours. You are whetting your appetite for carbohydrate laden food for the rest of the day. If you don't believe me, try this breakfast and tell me how long it takes for you to be hungry again.

• Scramble three eggs in a tablespoon of butter.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Top with a little more soft butter
• Eat and enjoy.
• Have a glass of water and some coffee, black
• STOP

I can almost guarantee you that you will not even think about food for four or five hours. Try it! Just for one day. Please!! And if you do, let me know how it works for you. (I hear how low carb diets are so expensive, but eggs are very cheap. Deviled eggs - yum! Egg salad, also yum. Mayo is pretty inexpensive as well.) While I'm not a fan of soy, black organic soy beans do make a great salad. (Don't use black turtle beans - they are FULL OF CARBS.) Drain and rinse, then add homemade vinegar and oil dressing (or check the label on the stuff from store to find some without carbs), crumbled feta cheese, cilantro or mint and a tablespoon of very finely chopped red onion for a little seasoning. Not too many onions though. They fall into the "root vegetable" category. Then salt and pepper to taste. It's an occasional treat for me.

Your will see references to "ketosis" and "ketogenic diet" in this blog. There will be more about that in my next blog. For now, it's enough to know that a ketogenic diet is one very low in carbohydrates and very high in fats. Details later.

Here are some good reasons to start cutting sugar and carbohydrates out of your diet - obviously not all of them, but virtually everyone should be able to happily live on 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. (You can record your consumption at Atkins.com - no cost to join for an eye-opening view of just how many carbs you are eating.) 

1. Your brain will thank you. You will think more clearly. I know people who have been able to cut out antidepressants when eating a low carb diet. About 35% of epileptics will experience reduced seizures, and in many cases a complete cure, with a very low carb diet (under 50 grams per day). Although the study was very small, two women with bi-polar disorder were able to cease taking any medication with a very low carb diet. Children with autism are known to function better with a very high fat, very low carbohydrate diet. Don't take my word for it - start googling!
2. Your waistline will thank you. Nothing will get rid of belly fat better than the good old-fashioned Atkins diet. You really don't have to pack the pounds around your waistline. Really! Go to the Atkins site for a lot of support and good recipes. It's free.
3. Your heart will thank you. Your triglyceride level is a more effective measurement of heart health (or lack thereof) than your cholesterol reading. Speaking for myself only, when I went into ketosis with a very low carb diet, my reading fell from 105 to 53. Not too shabby! Yup, my total cholesterol reading went up, but my ratio of HDL to LDL is very good. 
4. Your blood sugar will thank you. Google "the use of a ketogenic diet in controlling type 2 diabetes" and read all about it. Sadly, the average age of the onset of Type 2 diabetes is getting lower and lower. Soda isn't the only culprit. The hamburger bun isn't good, either, and French fries, and cereal, and pancakes with syrup, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Eating too many carbs increases insulin resistance, which of course leads to Type 2 diabetes, but also is a part of metabolic syndrome associated with heart disease. Can you imagine how much less this country would spend on medical care if we cut back on the carbs in our diet? It's going to be hard to do with the push for vegetarianism, the malignment of meat, and nutritionist encouraging the consumption of whole grains. There really are no "good" carbs, just foods with carbs that have offsetting advantages, such as kale, cauliflower and nuts, to name a few.

So with increasing publicity for paleo and low carb diets, why do people still eat all of the carbs? Because sugar a.k.a. carbohydrates make us feel good - at least temporarily. Short term pleasure vs. long term health? I know what most people choose. A friend of mine was on statins, knew how bad they were, but she loved her sweets, and she said she could eat more sweets if she took statins. Really? 

So if you want to try a low carb diet, here are some tips.

1. Go to Atkins (or another is fitday.com) and record your food for a couple of days just to see where you are with your current diet. If you are doing this for weight loss, record your weight.
2. Strive for a menu that is 10% to 15% carbohydrates, 65% fat and 20% to 25% protein. Don't make the mistake of replacing carbohydrates with protein. Replace them with fat, really.  And stay away from polyunsaturated and trans fats. Best are saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. If you want to fry something, using lard or clarified butter is better than olive oil because they can be heated to a higher temperature without damaging them. But by all means use olive oil for salad dressing or a light sauté of vegetables.
3. Try eating this way for just one day. Don't decide about what you are going to do tomorrow until you get up tomorrow. One day at a time - it works. Really.
4. Have some good foods on hand. Get eggs! You can buy a pack of 24 eggs at Meijers for less than $2.00. Cauliflower can be used for everything you would do with potatoes, including really good mashed "potatoes" and "potato" salad.
5. Read the labels when you shop. Take your smart phone with you and look up carb count of fresh vegetables that don't carry nutritional labels. Don't bother to look up the fruit. Just stay away from it for the time being. When checking for carb count, you can deduct the fiber from it - so if something has 10 carbs per serving but 2 grams of fiber, your net carb count would be 8.
6. I don't have to tell you not to eat between meals because you won't want to. But should you get the urge, have a BIG glass of water. If you still want something, eat a few nuts, walnuts being the best choice, or maybe a couple of Brazil nuts. You will be fine. Really.
7. My biggest challenge is the desire to nosh in the evening. If you ate a "proper" dinner, e.g. a hamburger with no bun, mustard and/or mayo instead of ketchup, and a side of mashed cauliflower with plenty of butter, at least your stomach and your brain will not be telling you to eat. But the evening munchies is kind of a bad habit. Not sure what to tell you. Just bite the bullet, and eventually it will be time for bed. And BTW, you will sleep better on this regimen.
8. Focus on what you CAN eat, not on what you can't eat. Steak on the grill topped with blue cheese and a side of greens swimming in olive oil? No problem! Here is another site with great recipes, one I use a lot. Linda's Low Carb Recipes

I would like very much to get a group together to hold each other up and give encouragement to stay on a low carb way of eating. If you are interested, be sure to send me a comment on this blog. And now, here is a picture of your brain on cocaine, and your brain on sugar. Really!

There are nice red spots in the middle of those green blobs in a healthy brain! I don't see any here. Do you?

Lamb burger hot from the grill!

Here is my recipe for Lamb Burgers. I sold lamb for a local farmer for a while, so wanted to develop some recipes, and IMHO this was my best. In the pic, it is served with black soybean salad and some organic cucumber slices. If served with no bun, this recipe is very low carb.

Lamb Burgers with Moroccan spices

Makes two large lamb burgers

12 oz. ground lamb

One fourth medium onion, sliced thin and finely diced

One small egg

2 tbsp. panko bread crumbs

1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 ½ tsp. Ras el Hanout – purchase at Ceres & Co. Booth 50

¼ tsp. toasted and ground cumin seeds

¾ tsp. ground black pepper

¾ tsp. sea salt

Sauce:

2 tbsp. sour cream

2 tbsp. real mayonnaise

1 medium garlic clove, grated

¼ tsp. dried dill weed

Pinch coriander

Pinch toasted and ground cumin

Chopped cilantro for garnish

Mix together with hands all of the burger ingredients and form into two large patties.  Pat them out so that the centers are a little thinner than the edges so that they cook evenly.  They will flatten out as they cook.

Heat a heavy iron skillet and put a thin film of oil in it.  I use bacon fat, or you can use olive oil.  Heat the pan to medium hot and add the burgers.  Fry five minutes on each side, then remove to a large plate and let sit for about five minutes while you make the topping.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.  Put one burger on each plate and top with half of the sauce.  Sprinkle with cilantro, if you like. 

These are very low carb if you eat them with no bun.

Bon appetit.

Recipe by Susan Siemers 

Hot off the grill!

Blog in three parts

Chapter 1:

I get so inspired watching Bobby Flay cook. Just finished pouring vinegar and spices over some thinly sliced shallot. Low carb bread just came out of the oven. I have some deli meat and cheese in the fridge. Off to church in a bit, then lunch on the deck. Nicely filled low carb bun, Swiss cheese and corned beef topped with pickled shallots, a goodly spread of real mayo on the bun. I may stop at the grocery store for cabbage and poblano peppers so I can have some slaw on the side.

Low carb buns - only 2 g carbs each, and taste pretty good!

Chapter 2:

The actions -- stopped at Martin's for cabbage and poblanos on my way home from church. No poblanos! How dare they? So another stop. Meijers on the by-pass has really good produce, and it was only a few blocks out of my way. Found them. Now I'm making my slaw. I may not eat on the deck - it's been raining on and off, and it's pretty steamy out there. We will see when it is time to eat.

Pickled shallots

Chapter 3:

Now to sit down and eat. I'm really hungry! By the time I was done with church, shopping in two different stores and then coming home and making everything, it was 2:00 pm before I sat down to eat. But it was worth the wait!

The finished product

A low carb gourmet meal for two featuring spring delights

Today I want to write about food again, but this time it will include some recipes.  It's fairly simple, low carb and luxurious. It's for two people, and can be scaled up but will take some help in the kitchen while you are finishing the main course. For only two people, you can handle it alone. Detailed instructions follow. Read through before beginning. It's all there, from start to finish. Reading through it and doing your mise en place  (click the link for more on that) will make your task easier.

What you need to buy:
2 pieces wild Pacific salmon, 6 to 7 ounces each (not steaks, but from a fillet)
6 to 8 stalks asparagus, depending on their diameter.  (Here's something to keep in mind.  Each asparagus stalk is the same diameter when it is one inch high or one foot high.  Fat ones aren't "old and tough" and skinny ones aren't "young and tender." The skinny ones are from younger plants but no more tender than fat ones. Just be sure to snap off any woody ends before cooking, no matter what the diameter.)
Scallions and radishes if using
A couple or three shallots
Spring greens (buy up to two days before your dinner)
White wine vinegar
French cheeses preferably soft such as Camembert, brie and chevre - or whatever you prefer
Nuts of your choice. See a good list here to minimize carbohydrates.  Lowest carb nuts

What you may already have in your pantry - add to grocery list if you don't:
Herbes de Provence or Italian seasonings (they are a lot alike, just a matter of taste)
Light olive oil
Peanut oil and/or canola oil
Unsalted butter
Fresh garlic
Garlic powder
Sea salt
One lemon

Pan fried wild Pacific salmon with asparagus

Spring greens salad
French cheese and organic nuts
Coffee or tea

Serves two people generously

Pan broiled sockeye salmon with buerre blanc

Organizing your time -- Set out the cheese (I recommend soft French cheeses such as French Bucheron, Camembert and chevre), which should be at room temperature for serving. Give them at least two hours, so plan your time accordingly. Put a bowl of nuts and the cheese on a cheese board in center of table. Set the table. Put salad plates in fridge to chill. Keep serving plates by stove. If serving coffee, get it measured out and ready to brew. Put small dessert plates on table beside the cheese board. Now you are ready to start preparing the meal.

First thing is to check the fillets for any pin bones and to make sure that all of the scales have been removed.  You can use a tweezers for the pin bones, and the side of a spoon for the scales.  It's not a big job for two pieces of fish.

Prepare the salad dressing. Do it first and refrigerate until ready to use. Wash, sort and spin dry the spring greens; put in fridge in a plastic bag until ready to serve. (You can do this up to two days before your dinner.)  Keep extra vegetables to a minimum. Thinly sliced scallions and radishes are my additions of choice, since this is a spring meal. If using, slice them thin and keep in ice water. Drain and put on paper towel to dry when ready to assemble salads.

Salad dressing:

2 small or one large clove(s) garlic, roughly chopped
1 shallot, roughly chopped
1/4th cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C. light olive oil or canola oil (first press olive oil overpowers light spring greens, IMHO)

Whir the first four ingredients well in a food processor or blender.  Then slowly dribble in the oil - really, as in drops to begin with. As it begins to emulsify, you can increase the speed at which the olive oil is incorporated to a slow steady small stream.  Put into a glass jar until ready to use.

Finely mince the shallots for the buerre blanc.  Put in a heavy saucepan along with the white wine vinegar. Let sit on the stove with no heat - yet!

Snap the base of the asparagus spears by bending the end. Bending will find the beginning of the tender part of the spear. Put spears on a half sheet or jelly roll pan lined with foil or parchment paper. Drizzle with 1 or 2 tbsp. olive oil, then sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Herbes de Provence or Italian seasonings. Shake the pan to distribute the oil and herbs. Preheat oven to 450º F.

While the oven heats, prepare the salad by tossing the greens with a shy two tablespoons of dressing.  Add radishes and scallions if using.  Now sit down and enjoy your salad with your dinner companion. Take your time. Enjoy! The main course is going to take less than 10 minutes. Your guest can spent a few minutes digesting while you get busy with the main course. Don't be shy about asking your dinner guest to stay out of your way for the next few minutes! This is crunch time.

By now, your oven should be hot.  Put in the asparagus and set the timer for five minutes, just to remind you to check the pan and give it a shake if necessary.

Buerre blanc:
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. finely diced shallots
1-1/2 to 2 sticks cold unsalted butter diced (cut each quarter in fourths lengthwise and then cut in 3/4" chunks) and kept in fridge until ready to use
Pinch salt (taste - the vinegar creates illusion of salt, so you don't need much)
Pinch white pepper

Turn the burner on under a 12" iron skillet and the vinegar/shallot mixture for the buerre blanc. Bring the cold butter chunks from refrigerator and sit beside stove. The vinegar and shallots should reduce to about a tablespoon, kind of "syrupy." Now turn burner to low and begin to beat in the butter. Take pan from heat. Separate the chunks of butter and throw in about four or five at a time. Beat hard with wire whisk. When the first chunks of butter are just about melted, throw in more chunks of cold butter and beat, beat, beat! Hold the pan off the heat, but put back over low heat if it gets too cold. You will see it begin to emulsify.

Pan fried salmon:

2 pieces salmon cut from filet, 6 or 7 ounces each
   (Clean well - check for pin bones and scales when you get the filets home so they are ready to go.)
1 Tbsp. peanut oil (it's best oil to use at high heats)
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

This is the trickiest part because you are going to have to jump between the fish and the buerre blanc. By the time half of the butter is beaten into the reduced vinegar and shallot mixture, your skillet for the salmon should be screaming hot. Put in the oil, then the butter. Immediately add the filets, skin side down. Set timer for three minutes and turn heat down to medium, then go back to your buerre blanc. Check the asparagus and shake the pan. If it is starting to brown a bit, turn off the oven and leave it until you are ready to plate.

Once you have all but the last half stick of butter in the buerre blanc, add salt and pepper to taste. You probably won't not need the last half stick of butter.  Set the buerre blanc on a warm part of stove, no heat under the pan now.  It's ready to go!  If it starts to separate before you are ready to serve it, beat in two or three more chunks of butter.

Your three minutes for the salmon should be about up.  Carefully use a chef's slotted fish turner or a wide metal pancake turner to flip your fish. If it sticks, give it another minute, then flip it no matter what. Set timer for two or three more minutes (should be a total of six minutes for both sides). When the six minutes is up, press the fish. It should still have some give in it. Immediately remove from heat. Don't overcook! Once the fish feels completely firm, it is too, too done. Better a little undercooked than overcooked. Remember that it will continue to cook while you are grabbing your serving plates and putting the asparagus from the oven onto the plate.

On each serving plate, first put half the asparagus spears, then one salmon filet.  Put buerre blanc over the salmon filet, and put a small custard size dish of buerre blanc on the plate for dipping asparagus spears.  Dress the plate with some lemon wedges if you wish.

Now it is time for your low carb dessert. When you take your empty plates back to the kitchen, hit the switch on your coffee maker. When the coffee is done, bring to the table and choose cheese and nuts from the cheese board. Heavy whipping cream in your coffee adds to the dessert experience.

Here's the scoop on the carbs in this meal.

1 g. carb in every 2 tablespoons of buerre blanc

Zero carbs in salmon
2.4 g carbs in each serving of asparagus
2 g carbs in each cup of spring greens
0.5 g carbs in each tablespoon of salad dressing
1 g carbs in each ounce of soft cheese
Nuts - best are Brazil nuts, pecans and macadamia nuts; stay away from cashews. Click here for Lowest carb nuts

A note to low carbers - if you want to stay in ketosis, keep your total grams of carbs at or below 50 per day. Subtract fiber from carbs for net carbs. A low carb ketogenic diet can contribute to better health, physically by keeping the alimentary tract working more effectively and by reducing inflammation. Physical disorders that are aggravated by inflammation require a whole separate blog so I won't go into them here.  Later.  In the meantime, Google "ketogenic diets and inflammation" if you want to see for yourself.  Neurologically, a ketogenic diet can help to control (or even eliminate as in epileptic seizures in children) such anomalies as depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, autism and Parkinson's disease.

À votre santé et bon appétit!

An update on the experiment

If you read my recent blog An experiment, in which I laid out my plan to plot the speed with which I could do a French lesson against my daily keto reading, you might be interested in this update.

At first I thought I could see some correlation, but soon the data were all over the map.  Let's face it, the complexity of the material from lesson to lesson made this a rather senseless task.

And if you read another blog, posted a week ago, The magic of family, you know that I had a houseful of kids, grandchildren and one great grandchild at my house for dinner a week ago.  Our family loves to eat, and I just decided to throw all caution to the wind.  I ate whatever I wanted all day.  By evening, after everyone left, I helped myself to a piece of apple pie and ice cream.  By then there was no salvation for Grandma Susie!

Carbohydrate heaven!

Look closely at that picture - mashed potatoes, gravy, scalloped oysters, sweet potato casserole, scalloped corn, bread dressing, Potatoes Dauphine.   If you look closely in the upper right hand corner, you will see the platter of heritage turkey.  Any doubt about what I was focused on?  

So what happened to my keto readings?  I was out of ketosis Monday . . . and Tuesday . . . and Wednesday . . .  in fact, every day until Saturday when I registered a paltry 5.  This morning I was finally in decent territory, registering 15 and logging all of my food today in an effort to hit 40 tomorrow.

And what happened with my French lessons?  They were terrible, horrible!  I skipped one day altogether, didn't finish one lesson all the way to the end all week, managed to cobble together two full lessons (in bits and pieces) instead of the seven I should have accomplished during the ensuing week.

This is not my imagination.  I had a totally negative view of the lessons.  I was telling myself it was ridiculous to think a 74 year old woman could learn to converse in French.  That's the frustration and depression side of what happens to me when I am not in ketosis.  The other thing was losing my ability to focus.  It is a separate thing from the depression and frustration.  This is more closely aligned with anxiety - black clouds looming on the horizon make it hard to finish.  That is what I couldn't do - I couldn't finish a lesson, I couldn't even finish a sentence.

Sometimes we need to fall off the wagon to remember just how important the wagon is to us.  In my case, there is a very definite medical reason for me to get on that wagon and stay there.  As for the experiment, what I learned is that this one was hard to quantify the way I thought I could, but there is a definite correlation between where that keto reading is and how well my brain functions!