Oopsie Challenge - Zedgirl's Pancakes and Cleo's Sub Buns

Zedgirl (the sassy rooster on the left), a creative ALC member, makes gorgeous pancakes using the Oopsie recipe and the Almond Pecan Waffle recipe from Low Carb Cookworx (scroll down to Episode 15 for the original recipe):

For as long as I’ve been low-carbing I’ve been trying to make a bendy wrap that doesn’t require any wheat or soy ingredients. I’ve never had any luck and had given up until now. Oopsies were my inspiration, but I wanted something that was a bit more of a workhorse, so I used the ‘Almond Pecan Waffles’ recipe from the Low Carb Cookworx site (episode 15) as my base recipe but left out the pecans, added some different gums (similar to Thicken/Thin), tweaked it a little in the preparation and used a sandwich toaster/press as the method of cooking.

It’s basically a cream cheese and egg pancake (an Oopsie) with some cream, almond meal, gum and protein powder added. I’m thrilled with the result and this was only my first attempt...

This is how I made them. I won’t post the recipe because I’ve converted everything to grams etc., just use the (Cookworx) link above. Sift dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, soften cream cheese for a few seconds in the microwave on a very low setting. Using a whisk, gradually mix the whipping cream into the softened cream cheese. Next add the lightly beaten egg a little at a time, beating after each addition. Mixture should be smooth. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Pour some of the batter onto sandwich toaster; gently close lid and cook for about 1 minute. If making pikelets, leave the lid up and turn after 2 minutes.

Here's the result - looks amazing, either as a pancake or as a wrap/crepe.


Cleo, the queen of the Oopsie, baked Oopsie batter in mini loaf pans and got herself sub buns!


Sounds so simple, but I'd never have thought of it. I'm so used to doing without subs that they don't even register. Now...it's a different story! Meatball subs were always my favorite, and I'll be digging into her recipe sometime this week - if I get to the Farmer's Market for some ground beef, that is.

Both of these recipes would be great for kids, both to eat and to help make. I know several people who struggle with making one low carb or gluten-free meal for themselves, and a "normal" meal for their family. Oopsies make it a whole lot easier to create a new "normal".

Keep 'em coming!

A Hug for Jane Brody

I am sending NY Times writer Jane Brody a virtual hug. Why? Because I am practicing compassion, and Buddha says that we should extend compassion towards people even when they're total blockhead fluffernutters who are so entrenched in their own nincompoopy dogma that they can't see their hand in front of their cockamamie face. I'm paraphrasing. (I'm also practicing not swearing as much).

No clue who I'm talking about? Let me sum up. Jane Brody is a health writer for the NY Times and on Tuesday she published a doodyful piece about her "uphill battle" with - horrors! - cholesterol. She got a total reading of 222 (readings of over 200 are flagged). Now, everything was within range except her LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, which was slightly high. For an explanation of why none of this really matters, I'll refer you to those smarter than I: Dr. Mike Eades, THINCS and Anthony Colpo. Please read them. For now though, we'll stick with Sweet Jane's train of thought.

Okay, so she gets a slightly elevated reading. Her doc is like, whatever. No biggie. Sweet Jane, however, knows better. She writes for the frickerfrackin NY Times, after all. So she launches her very own war against cholesterol, which naturally involves her lowering dietary fat intake by removing cheese from her diet (she cuts the cheese...tee hee), even though "I eat a healthful diet and I exercise every day for 60 to 90 minutes and run up and down scores of steps." She also started taking plant stenols, which are supposed to help lower cholesterol.

Three months later she goes for another checkup and guess what? Her cholesterol has RISEN. So naturally she lowers fat further, since it worked so well the last time. Her words: "Now it was time to further limit red meat (though I never ate it often and always lean), stick to low-fat ice cream, eat even more fish, increase my fiber intake and add fish oils to my growing list of supplements." Pretty dagnabbin' smart, no? (Am I starting to sound like Annie Wilkes from Misery? Where's my sledgehammer...)

Another checkup, and her levels are EVEN HIGHER. So she decides to start taking statins.

Let's take a moment here, shall we, and recap. Chicky-poo has followed a fat-conscious diet for most of her 65 years. Her cholesterol starts going up. She cuts fat. Cholesterol goes up. She cuts more fat. Cholesterol goes up. She goes on meds.

Sweet Jane - wake the fudge up.

First, statins. Read this, and then do your own research. And then email it to Jane Brody, because she obviously doesn't read anything but her own copy. According to many sources, but here quoting from Dr. Mike Eades, "the preponderance of properly done studies have shown that statins confer no health benefits to women of any age and that women over the age of 65 (she is 65) who have high cholesterol live longer than those who have normal to low cholesterol. And she missed the studies that show that both men and women over the age of 65 who take statins have an increased incidence of cancer."

Second, cholesterol. Read the links I posted earlier for in depth info. Basically, cholesterol has NEVER BEEN PROVEN to have a causative effect on heart disease. The link just ain't there, kids. It's a bunch of cockadoodie.

Third, and my biggie: diet. Low carb diets have been proven to lower triglycerides, and saturated fat makes HDL (the "good" cholesterol) go UP. Sweet Jane has quite helpfully demonstrated for us all how lowering dietary fat does not improve lab values - it, in fact, worsens them. She makes recommendations that even Buddha would bop her one for: eat leaner meats, trim the fat, eat more beans and soy, more whole grains, and "Start by switching to low-fat and nonfat dairy products, like skim milk and, if you can stand it, fat-free cheese. Substitute sorbet, sherbet or fruit ices for ice cream, or choose ice milk or ice cream with half the fat." In other words, stand at your kitchen counter and shovel spoonfuls of sugar down your throat. Helps the statins go down.

She also lets us know what to avoid: organ meats, egg yolks, fat. Okay, pastries and such too, gotta give her something.

Basically, her advice (and the methods she herself is following) is based on outdated research that has never been proven. The reason the low-fat craptasticisms stem from the lipid hypothesis is because IT'S A HYPOTHESIS. And it hasn't been proven. In fact, it has been disproven several times over. Buddha is wagging his finger and making clucking sounds with his tongue.

This is what worries me about dogma of any kind. Adherents to a particular dogma often refuse to listen to, examine or acknowledge conflicting viewpoints and/or evidence. It is staring Sweet Jane in the face, for land's sakes, and it doesn't even make a ripple because it isn't within her comfy dietary dogma. And thing is...it could really hurt her. She could get very sick. And she doesn't have to. I know I'm ragging on her here, but I'm lippy by nature. Really, it saddens me to see someone headed down a dangerous road especially when all the information they need to choose a healthier path is readily available to them. She is a health writer. She has access.

I rag on vegans too, but quite honestly I have the same concerns. So many vegans eat the way they do because of deeply held beliefs, beliefs rooted in emotion, and as a result are unlikely to connect any health problems with their diet. Not everyone will develop problems, but many do - I believe the average time span is 12 years of veganism before health problems become apparent. Because their WOE (way of eating) is something they hold quite dear to them, it becomes difficult to abandon. Maybe it's arrogant of me, but I feel...well, compassion. I was a staunch vegetarian. I made a huge deal of it. It wasn't easy for me to realize that, in my case at least, my dietary beliefs had done me more harm than good. So I get it - but jeezum crow, people, I made the paradigm shift and am healthier and happier for it. Your principles don't matter a whit on your death bed.

So, Sweet Jane, I am sending you and your heart a great big ol' (((hug))) in hopes that you'll come to your senses and realize that being right means nothing compared to being healthy and alive to annoy us with your column for another 20-30 years.

And fuck these unswears. Ahhhh, that's better!!

Insulin Resistance Explained, and Why Cardio Sucks

Mark Sisson over at Mark's Daily Apple has a great entry today explaining the whole deal with insulin resistance, and how low carb diets prevent it from happening (and correct it if it already has). It's easy to read, and simple to understand. Read "The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar & Type 2 Diabetes". Here's a snippet:

Insulin was one of the first hormones to evolve in living things. Virtually all animals secrete insulin as a means of storing excess nutrients. It makes perfect sense that in a world where food was often scarce or non-existent for long periods of time, our bodies would become so incredibly efficient. How ironic, though, that it’s not fat that gets stored as fat – it’s sugar. And that’s where insulin insensitivity and this whole type 2 diabetes issue get confusing for most people, including your very own government.

If we go back 10,000 or more years, we find that our ancestors had very little access to sugar – or any carbohydrates for that matter. There was some fruit here and there, a few berries, roots and shoots, but most of their carbohydrate fuel was locked inside a very fibrous matrix. In fact, some paleo-anthropologists suggest that our ancestors consumed, on average, only about 80 grams of carbohydrate a day. Compare that to the 350-600 grams a day in the typical American diet today. The rest of their diet consisted of varying degrees of fat and protein. And as fibrous (and therefore complex) as those limited carbohydrate foods were, their effect on raising insulin was minimal. In fact,there was so little carbohydrate/glucose in our ancestor’s diet that we evolved four ways of making extra glucose ourselves and only one way of getting rid of the excess we consume!

If nothing else, copy this quote: It's not fat that gets stored as fat - it's sugar. Paste it into Word. Set the font size to 72. Print. Stick it up around the office. Make it into a huge paper airplane and throw it at the guy who always brings in Krispy Kremes. Stick it up at home. Send it to your mother. Hell, I may use it as this year's Xmas card.

I've just recently found his blog and, though he goes way lighter on the meat than I think is necessary (if I based my meals on vegetables with only "a few ounces" of protein, I'd be really frickin' hungry), it's got some good info for lowcarbers and those of us interested in paleo-style eating, or what he terms "primal health". I would argue that given the evidence, early wo/man ate far more meat than he seems to think we did, but whatever.

I was OVERJOYED to read "A Case Against Cardio" . I used to hit the treadmill an hour a day, 5 days a week in an attempt to burn my fat away. That's what you're supposed to do, right? Throw in a few strength training sessions, and presto! You're fit and fly, mama. Thing is, nothing happened for me, other than I got to listen to some really good audiobooks during my 4-6 mile runs. I was still a chubster. The treadmill changed from an ally to my nemesis. I was sure it was plotting against me. Probably had the elliptical in on it too.

Course, I was also eating massive amounts of gluten and casein, two proteins I'm intolerant to. That, and the high level of carbs hitting my system throughout the day, absolutely played a part. But still: I was tracking calories and workouts, and burning at least 400 calories in one cardio session. I was eating between 1300-1600 calories each day. I was not losing any weight, other than a pound or two here and there. I started switching up my workouts, doing different activities. Still nothing. I assumed that I wasn't doing enough; that my carefully calculated resting metabolic rate was just too super low for me to eat less than; that my metabolism was just slow and sluggish; that I was a big pig who had to learn not to stuff her face. Seemed the entire cardio suite was in on the conspiracy to keep me pudgy (or, as my mother would say, "solid".)

Enter low carbing - the rest is history. Weight (fat) melted off, slowly, steadily at first and slower still now that I'm just 8lbs from my goal (though intermittent fasting is helping things along - but that's a whole other post). And here's the thing: the fat came off without exercise. When I finally did return to the gym, strength training plan in hand, one of the trainers looked at me and said "Wow. You've lost weight!"

"Yep...haven't been exercising though," I replied, feeling somewhat sheepish.

He shrugged. "Losing weight is 85% diet anyway. The gym's for getting fit and building muscle."

Amen to that, brutha.

Here's what Mark Sisson, a former endurance athlete, has to say about it:

We all know that we need to exercise to be healthy.

Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, immune-compromised exerholics. Hate to say it, but we weren’t meant to aerobicize at the chronic and sustained high intensities that so many people choose to do these days. The results are almost always unimpressive. Ever wonder why years of “Spin” classes,endless treadmill sessions and interminable hours on the “elliptical” have done nothing much to shed those extra pounds and really tone the butt?

Don’t worry. There’s a reason why the current methods fail, and when you understand why, you’ll see that there’s an easier, more effective – and fun - way to burn fat, build or preserve lean muscle and maintain optimal health. The information is all there in the primal DNA blueprint, but in order to get the most from your exercise experience, first you need to understand the way we evolved and then build your exercise program around that blueprint.

Sound interesting? Go give his blog a read. Since I've been back at the gym, I've gone 2-3 times a week, weights only. For the first time, I'm seeing real muscle definition. My poor man is getting worried that soon, because of my delicious womanly muscles, I'll be able to kick his ass. Whatever...like I can't already. Lately I've moved from free weights to body weight exercises - old school stuff like push ups, dips and squats - and one day, when I decide I can face my old nemesis again, I'll add in some sprint training as well. But it'll be short. Super short. I still growl under my breath when I pass the cardio suite. I'm wise to those plotting bastards.

Everybody's Different

A great post worth reading by weight-loss wonder and online pal PJ:

The Divine Low Carb! by PJThe Divine Low Carb: Everybody's Different

Since I've found low-carbing, and gluten/casein-free paleo-style eating, I've been tempted to think that it would work for everyone. All the world's problems could be solved if we all just ate like...well, like me! And of course, it isn't true. While I think our overall health picture would VASTLY improve if we stopped eating crap and focused more on whole foods, prepared in traditional ways, I have to admit that some people wouldn't fare well with my eating style. Lots of meat and fat and no grains could, for someone else, be what lots of grains and no/very little meat or fat was to me - a total frickin' disaster.

It's very tempting to assume that there's one true path, especially when you've experienced an epiphany of your own. Suddenly you're a dietary dictator, preaching your way to all who'll listen and (as South Park would say) loving the smell of your own farts. This scenario is pretty much what we've had for the past 20 or so years, with media and "experts" telling us to cut the fat, up the fibre, and hit the treadmill. For some people, this works. For a whole lotta others, it's an exercise in futility. It didn't matter how many hours I logged at the gym; when I was eating grains, legumes and other high carb fare, I was overweight no matter how little I ate. I could drop a few pounds here and there, but they always came back.

I know what works for me: adequate-high protein, pretty high fat (60-80% of my diet), low carbs. And those carbs are best, for me, when they come from veggies and some fruits. Weight-wise I am not as sensitive as others to sugar and junk, or to starchy veggies, but health-wise I feel a huge difference. A meal here and there, no problem; a day of lots of carbs and the Seven High-Carb Dwarfs appear: Sleepy, Spotty, Bloaty, Fuzzy, Heavy, Cranky and Fart. And this is not just from junk food. Several weeks ago I had a carb day that consisted of 2 bananas, some baked beans, and a Meaty Magic GFCF pizza with rice cheese and a rice flour crust. The next day I was exhausted, draggy, zitty, gassy, irritable and retaining 2 pounds of water. It was like having PMS. And I battled serious sweet cravings and hunger for days after.

But I have friends who can eat like this and not gain an ounce. My BF, for example, goddamn him all to hell. Mind you...pretty much everyone I know who eats this way has GI problems. Hmmm...maybe we're all a little more alike than we think?