LOW CARB ALTERNATIVE TO RICE AND NOODLES, WEIGHT WATCHERS SKINNY PASTA

WEIGHT WATCHERS SKINNY PASTA

by Mark King

Throw away any brand bias and get ready for some delicious food, rich in fiber and low in net carbs, it's Weight Watchers Skinny Pasta, (aka Konjac root).

There are several brands of Konjac on the market but Weight Watchers had consistent great reviews. It does not smell funny, it's super easy and fast to prepare, blends well with other foods and tastes.....like nothing. Just my personal opinion but I think this product has virtually zero flavor of its own which lets it pair with and support other delicious foods and toppings; like real melted cheese on top. I also love mixing it with steamed broccoli or tuna for a dish that is sure to fill me up with delicious yumminess. 

NOODLES, SPAGHETTI OR RICE

Several varieties of finished shapes are available, they're all the same thing but come in different forms to complement what you're cooking up. My favorite is the rice size and shape, it's great where you might have used a bed of rice for a main course like a fish fillet. 

ZERO NET CARBS

Konjac root is zero net carbs to your diet because the fiber content is so high vs the carbs contained in it.

WATCH OUT FOR IMITATIONS

We were at Publix market and they had an alternative brand of Konjac root which we bought without reading the label. When we got it home we found ingredients that were not to our liking, we did not eat it. The Weight Watchers brand does not have harmful additives, just the food you're looking for. 

You can order Weight Watchers Skinny Pasta from Amazon (that's where we're ordering ours from).

Good luck and happy eating!

PROSTATE PROTECTION SUPPLEMENT EXAMINED

SERVING SIZE: Two tablets (500mg each)

INGREDIENT EXAMINATION

Iron: 1mg

Hemidesmus Indicus Root (Indian Sarsaparilla):
Treats: Oligospermia, gastritis, anorexia, menorrhagia, etc

Guggul (exudate):
Treats: has a fragrance similar to that of myrrh and is commonly used in incense and perfumes. Several studies have been published that indicate no overall reduction in total cholesterol occurs using various dosages of guggulsterone and levels of low-density lipoprotein ("bad cholesterol") increased in many people.

Sandalwood (heartwood):
Treats:  In Ayurvedic medicine, sandalwood is used to combat urinary tract infections, prostate dysfunction, diarrhea, earache, and lung infections.

Tribulus (fruit):
Treats: In Ayurvedic pharmacology, tribulus terrestris is used as a powder form of the aerial parts, particularly the fruits, and it is known in Sanskrit as gokshura, meaning the "cow's hoof", possibly because the small thorns tend to get stuck on grazing animals. Nevertheless, an unrelated plant, pedalium is also known as gokshura, more specifically as bada gokshura ("big cow's hoof"), whereas the gokshura proper is referred to as chhota gokshura ("small cow's hoof"). The two herbs are often found mixed in powder blends.

Orchid Tree (bark):
Treats:

Indian tinospora (stem):
Treats:

Three-leaf caper (bark):
Treats:

Boerhavia (root):
Treats:

Heart-leaf sida (whole plant):
Treats:

Mineral pitch:
Treats:

Red Saunders (heartwood):
Treats:

Tumeric (rhizome):
Treats:

Licorice (root):
Treats:

Fossil Encrinite:
Treats:

Barley (whole plant):
Treats:

Clove (flower bud):
Treats:

Zinc Oxide:
Treats:

Ginger (rhizome):
Treats

Long pepper (fruit):
Treats:

Pepper (fruit):
Treats:

NEW MICHELOB GOLDEN ULTRA MADE WITH ORGANIC GRAIN

There's a new Michelob Ultra brew from Anheuser Busch, it's the new Michelob Golden Ultra, made using organic grains. Here is how it stacks up to regular Mich Ultra:

        Michelob                                 New Michelob Golden
            Ultra                           Ultra (made with organic grains)
Calories       Carbs                            Calories       Carbs
    95                2.6                                    85              2.5

It looks like low-carb dieters have a new beer friend to try. The new Golden Ultra is also slightly lower in alcohol. Organic grains means no GMO. 

Here's a link to the new beer on the Michelob website
https://www.michelobultra.com/our-beers/ultra-pure-gold.html

Happy drinking responsibly!

WHAT IS ORGANIC?

The USDA determines what the word "organic" means as it's applied to the marketing of foods.

This is from their website: The use of genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is prohibited in organic products. This means an organic farmer can’t plant GMO seeds, an organic cow can’t eat GMO alfalfa or corn, and an organic soup producer can’t use any GMO ingredients. To meet the USDA organic regulations, farmers and processors must show they aren’t using GMOs and that they are protecting their products from contact with prohibited substances, such as GMOs, from farm to table.

Here is a link to the USDA web site where more can be learned about "organic".

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2013/05/17/organic-101-can-gmos-be-used-organic-products

WHAT IS STEVIA? ISN'T IT ANOTHER MAN MADE SWEETENER?

Stevia is not an artificial sweetener! It is an all natural product.

Stevia is a relatively new word in modern culture. Stevia is a sweetener extracted from the leaves of the plant Stevia Rebaudiana. It is zero calories when used in food.

Stevia is more expensive to produce than other sugar substitutes so naturally big food manufacturers are not jumping to embrace this product and subsequently raise food prices to account for the difference in cost. People want cheap food.

If you put quality ahead of quantity then look for foods that have no sugar, no high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and no other artificial chemical sweeteners.

Stevia is typically packaged in small green envelopes for single serving sizes.

Here is a link to the Wiki page about Stevia sweetener:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

Happy eating!

BAD CENTRUM FOR SENIORS, YOU'VE GOT SOY, BLAHHHHHHHHH

I'M MAD!

I'm trying to eliminate lectins from my diet but they keep creeping in from the weirdest places. Today, to my horror and disgust I discovered my multivitamin has soy in it. It's now in the trash.

So long Centrum for 50 and older, I hate you now!

I'm now taking a hypoallergenic multiple vitamin that is made without milk, soy, egg, yeast wheat, rose hips, fillers, binders, starch, colorings, flavorings or preservatives.

I'm supplementing my multivitamin with specific additional supplements that get me close to my daily nutrient goals.

Happy lectin-free eating!

DR GUNDRY ON ET

ET's Keltie Knight sat down with the book's author, Dr. Steven Gundry, who revealed everything you need to know about the Plant Paradox diet plan. 

"I used to be 70 pounds bigger than I am now despite running 30 miles a week and going to the gym one hour a day," Dr. Gundry reveals. "And so I eliminated foods that turned on our immune system, which are called lectins." 

1. You're probably eating a lectin-high diet

Lectins, as Dr. Gundry shared, are carbohydrate-binding proteins, found in the skin and seeds of vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as plant-based foods like grains, oatmeal, brown rice and pasta. 

"Over the last 50 years, we have increased our lectin consumption unknowingly and coinciding with that, our autoimmune system has skyrocketed," he explains. 

2.  Swap out foods containing lectins

"The first thing you do is make some swaps, just like Kelly Clarkson did," Dr. Gundry says. 

"So, you get rid of oatmeal. It's a grain, a really nasty grain, you get rid of brown rice, you get rid of whole wheat. There's some great substitutions that don't have lectins. For instance, this is millet. Some people call it bird seed. Sorghum is fantastic," he continues. "When you remove lectins, weight loss is the natural consequence."

3. Choose your cooking method wisely

Dr. Gundry is a big fan of beans -- after a round in the pressure cooker. 

"Beans are great for you with one problem... they are some of the highest lectin-containing foods there is. If you pressure cook them or even buy them pressure cooked, then they're perfectly safe and really good for you, but beans by themselves are no good for you," he explains, warning people to stay away from slow cookers.

Other ways to remove lectins in foods include boiling, fermentation, sprouting, peeling and deseeding. 

4. Skip breakfast 

"What I'd actually like people to do is not eat breakfast. It's actually the least important meal of the day," Dr. Gundry claims. "Do you think our ancestors crawled out of our cave and said, 'What's for breakfast?' There wasn't any breakfast. There wasn't any storage system. We had to find breakfast and maybe that was lunch when we broke fast. That's what breakfast means."

5. Go nuts

"Eat nuts!" Dr. Gundry suggests. "Get a handful of walnuts, eat them everyday." 

WWW.CRONOMETER.COM

TRACK YOUR WEIGHT AND DIET USING THIS FREE WEB APP

I've looked at over half a dozen applications in the past, they were all too hard and did not yield enough useful data for all the hassle. This led me to develop a printed form for tracking my calories, carbs and protein intake. Sadly the printed form took a lot of manual work.

The Cronometer (at www.cronometer.com) takes tracking to a whole new level. Is it perfect and exact? NO! But after working with it I've become a fan and enter my data on a daily basis.

THE DIARY WINDOW
This is where you're going to spend most of your time. You'll access the calendar to pick dates, press the "ADD" buttons to add foods, exercise, biometrics (like if you lift weights) and notes.

THE CALENDAR

The calendar is where you pick the date you're going to enter data for, the date in solid green with white letters is the active date. The diary will reflect the foods, exercise and biometrics you record for this date.

THE ADD BUTTONS

In the Cronometer you click on these buttons to add data to your daily diary. Add Food will be the most commonly pressed button, it opens a data-base where you type the name of what you ate and it adds the nutrient information to your diary.

COPY PASTE MENU
The little gear icon opens a drop down menu, this is used for copy and paste functions. If you hold down the shift key you can select multiple non contiguous items out of one days diary entries and paste that into a different day. This can be a big time savings if you're eating the same thing regularly.

I set up a date in the past where I've collected all my favorite foods and diary items, that way when I need something I eat regularly I go to that date instead of hunting in the data-base.

FIND WHAT YOUR DIET LACKS
The Cronometer features this excellent panel of nutrient information. If nothing is "selected" in the diary then the totals for the day will be showing. If you select a single item in the diary then its specific details will be shown. To select a diary item just click on it and it will highlight, click it again to deselect it and return to overview.

In my first week of tracking with the Cronometer it helped me identify two important things wrong with my diet, I was not eating enough calcium and I was not eating enough fibre. Three weeks later my data showed I was barely eating 50% of my potassium RDA so now I'm eating a supplement with each meal.

To get results like this means you must spend a few minutes each day feeding the Cron with what you fed yourself.

Almost every food known to man is already inside the Cronometer so you don't need to do a lot of typing, just search and you'll find what you ate.

You can create your own custom recipes so it's fast to look up something you make in your kitchen, like salad dressing, I make mine with rice vinegar because it has zero carbs and zero lectins. I created a custom recipe for my dressing which is a 1:1:1 MCT oil ; Olive oil : rice vinegar.

PROFILE FOR WEIGHT LOSS
The most popular use for Cronometer is weight loss. In your Profile you can set what your goal is,  maybe it's just to eat right. If you want to lose weight you can set it to half a pound a week, or a pound a week or more. With this in your profile all the calorie data on the diary page will be set to help you meet your goal, just follow the message in the Diary.

Your most important calorie information is right here. Notice how it tells me I have 622 left today, I think I'll have some cheese for a snack.

CRONOMETER IS FREE

All this power is available for free, the site has some advertising, it's not overly intrusive on the experience at all. You'll barely know it's there but you might see something that you want :-)

Check it out: www.cronometer.com

Happy eating to all!