WHY YOU SHOULD MAKE YOUR OWN BROTH AND BOUILLON CUBES

It continues to amaze me that many low-carb gurus, including some of my personal heroes, recommend using purchased bouillon cubes or powders. Dr. Westman, Dr. Phinney, Dr. Volek, Dr. Attia, and others promote their use as a source of extra salt to ease the transition to a low-carb diet and prevent symptoms of what is called the “Atkins flu,” caused by the ion imbalance that occurs when your body loses minerals along with excess water during the induction phase. (Stored sugar causes water retention.) Not…

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MEA CULPA FROM TIME MAGAZINE?

1984 2014 The March 26, 1984 cover of Time Magazine showed a frowny face made out of bacon and eggs. The headline of the feature article said, “Cholesterol, and Now the Bad News.” Inside, an article titled, “Hold the Eggs and Butter,” started with this line: “Cholesterol is proved deadly, and our diet may never be the same.” Amazingly, that original article from the 1984 issue (you can read it here) actually stated that the study on which this conclusion was based was not a diet study…

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WHITE HOUSE PETITION: REPLACE THE DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR AMERICANS

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I’ve been working with Dr. Richard Feinman on a petition to change the process for creating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans so they reflect modern advances in scientific research. The original guidelines were based on weak, population studies from the 1950s and subsequent versions have just recycled the same basic message every five years. The right to petition the government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. We now have a special tool for doing this, called We the People, and a website where any citizen can file a White House Petition to ask the Administration to take…

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EPITAPH FOR AN EGG

How do you like your eggs? The best way to prepare eggs, except for raw, which brings a different set of issues to the table, is poached. Lightly cooked whites and lovely, liquid yolks retain all their nutrients, including their precious, undamaged cholesterol. British chef, Heston Blumenthal, demonstrates his method for Perfect Poached Eggs in the YouTube video below. His secret is to use very fresh eggs. My daughter’s family has backyard chickens and they write the date on each egg to show when it was collected, so I decided to see for myself if the chef’s passion…

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CHOLESTEROL MYTH BUSTERS AROUND THE WORLD

It looks like Sweden is going to be the first Western nation to officially endorse low-carb/high-fat nutrition and reject the low-fat, low-calorie dogma that has been in place for the last 30-plus years. The change followed the publication of a two-year study conducted by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment. The council reviewed 16,000 studies published through May 31, 2013. Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt (DietDoctor.com) published some of the highlights of this study on his blog here: low-carb-diet effective for weight-loss. He says he expects future dietary guidelines for the…

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THE PUDDING OF HAPPINESS

Pudding Cups Judy Barnes Baker

My husband counts the pills I put out for him in the morning to be sure I didn’t sneak in anything new. If he doesn’t recognize one, I have to show him the bottle. Once, when my children were small, I overheard my vegetable-phobic son whisper to his sister, “Don’t eat the spaghetti~she put PARSLEY in it!” The only foolproof way I’ve discovered to convince the people I care about to eat things that are good for them is to turn them into foods they can’t resist! I call this the “pudding of…

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SUGAR IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Sugar Love was the subject of the August, 2013 issue of National Geographic. It is indeed sweet to finally see a major publication echoing the message some of us have been preaching for years! When I wrote Carb Wars; Sugar is the New Fat, in 2007, I was called a extremist (among other things). You can read the cover story online here, but I’d like to get a copy to frame and put on my wall! And several more to pass out to the people I care about,…

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SCORE! GARY TAUBES IN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAGAZINE

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Don’t miss the article by Gary Taubes in the new “Special Food Issue” of Scientific American Magazine, titled, “Which One Will Make You Fat? Rigorously controlled studies may soon give us a definitive answer about what causes obesity—excessive calories or the wrong carbohydrates” (September 2013). It features a picture of a skillet containing a burger with cheese and bacon and a plate with a bun on the opposite page. Gary says, “After a decade of studying the science and its history, I am convinced that meaningful progress against obesity will come only if…

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CAN CARBS MAKE YOU KILL? KABC LOS ANGELES TALK RADIO

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I had a quick spot on the McIntyre In the Morning Show on KABC Los Angeles this morning to talk about this recent news story that links carbs to violent behavior: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/03/15/experts-say-food-may-contribute-to-anger-violent-behavior. You might have heard me if you live in Southern California. If not, they sent me a link to the segment so I could post it here. It’s great fun to talk to Doug, even though I don’t always get to finish a thought ~ the story is always just a set-up for the…

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WHEAT BELLY COOKBOOK REVIEW: IS FLAX THE NEW WHEAT?

Dr. Davis has succeeded in drawing attention to the dangers of wheat and the benefits of a low-carb diet beyond what I thought possible. He builds a convincing case against this new plant that he says shouldn’t even be called “wheat,” and he documents most of his arguments with supportive research. I was already avoiding most grains and decided to eliminate wheat after reading Wheat Belly. I have been following a low-carb lifestyle and writing about it for over 13 years, so it wasn’t a radical change…

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A TRAGIC EPIDEMIC AND CANDY FOR CHRISTMAS

Another day, another mass murder, this latest one in Longmont, Colorado. There were only four killed, and they were adults, so it didn’t get the media coverage devoted to the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook in Connecticut, but it is now more apparent than ever that we are dealing with another epidemic. Everyone is asking “why did this happen?,” and, “what can we do?” Investigators are looking into the lives of the shooters to try to find the commonality between them. Gun control is being…

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