CINNAMON WARNING: UPDATE

cinnamon (CarbWarsCookbooks.com)

< Cassia cinnamon, True cinnamon > (c) 2012, Judy Barnes Baker Dr. Richard Anderson, of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, and his colleagues were looking into the effects of chromium on insulin action. While testing various foods, they found something that had a much greater influence on blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides: it was apple pie. It turned out to be the cinnamon in the pie that produced what Anderson called the “most significant nutritional discovery he’s seen in 25 years.” He…

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SPLENDA™ WITH LESS SUGAR

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Dr. Richard Bernstein, author of Diabetes Solution and The Diabetes Diet prescribes a very low-carb diet to get his diabetic patients off medications or to reduce their dosage to the lowest possible level. He calls it “the law of small numbers” because the smaller the dose you need, the smaller the mistake you can make and the less severe the consequences. One reviewer dubbed him the “Taliban of low-carb gurus” because his regimen is so strict: no fruit, no tomato sauce, no beans, no xylitol,…

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TOO DELICIOUS FOR WORDS: BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE CUSTARD

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The word “custard” doesn’t prepare you for the beautiful, brown, cheesy crust. I could have called this Macaroni and Cheese Soufflé (it tastes like one, but that makes it sound much harder to make than it is), or Crustless Macaroni and Cheese Quiche (no improvement over the first title), or Cheese Puff (sounds too much like Cheetos®). Whatever you call it, I know you are going to love this versatile macaroni and cheese dish: it can be served for breakfast; as the main course for…

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N’AWLINS FOOD, PRALINES AND RED BEANS, AND GOOD NEWS ABOUT SUGAR SUBSTITUTES

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So much to blog about, so little time! I got back from New Orleans late Monday, full of enthusiasm and eager to get started on all the projects that the trip inspired. On Tuesday I was off looking for fresh, raw, head-on shrimp to try to duplicate the fabulous New Orleans BBQ shrimp that I had at Jacques-imos. Much to my delight, I found the shrimp at my local Central Market and the dish turned out messy, buttery, spicy, and absolutely glorious on the first…

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POTENTIAL DANGERS OF AGAVE

“Agave provokes bitter debate as a sweetener,” reads the headline in the March 23rd Chicago Tribune: www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0323deardorffmar23,1,7478086.story. The story raises questions about the safely of the trendy, expensive, liquid sugar made from the Mexican agave cactus. Agave nectar is being marketed as a healthful, all-natural substitute for sucrose because it has a very low glycemic index and doesn’t raise insulin levels. However, the dangers of fructose are well known, and agave nectar is almost 100% fructose. As I wrote in this previous post, http://carbwars.blogspot.com/search?q=agave, fructose…

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Too Good to be True? Chocolate is Good for You!

Can a gift of silky, sensuous, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate possibly get any better? How about if it were good for you, AND IT HELPED YOU LOSE WEIGHT? It’s not science fiction; it’s not fantasy—it is a dream-come-true called Chocoperfection. These unbelievably tasty chocolate candy bars were the brainchild of Mary Jo Kringas. Mary Jo started working in her father’s candy store when she was five years old, so it’s easy to understand why she struggled with her weight. Since chocolate was the one food that she…

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Splenda with fewer carbs

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Dr. Richard Bernstein, author of Diabetes Solution; prescribes a very low-carb diet to get his diabetic patients off medications or to reduce their dosage to the lowest possible level. He calls it “the law of small numbers” because the smaller the dose you need, the smaller the mistake you can make and the less severe the consequences. One reviewer dubbed him the “Taliban of low-carb gurus” because his regimen is so strict: no fruit, no tomato sauce, no beans, no xylitol, no sorbitol, no Splenda.…

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Sweeteners

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I received a question about the characteristics of Splenda®, how it works in cooking, and why I use it in some of my recipes. In Carb Wars, I devoted several pages to the different kinds of sugar substitutes and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Since the subject may be of general interest, I will attempt to address it here. Splenda has been used for 20 plus years in some countries and doesn’t seem to have any harmful effects, at least not yet. It adds…

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