ADA recommends LC diet

[Mal Lady]

Hi Everyone!

I was sitting here still lamenting on the statement the the ADA made on recommending LC diets to control Diabetes. Do you think this announcement will move manufacturers and the general public to accept lc diets and there will be more product on the market specifically geared toward the lc market. One of my local grocery stores recently pulled all Hood milk and LC ice cream forcing me to go to WalMart to get these products and DaVinci Syrups. Will the trend get to the point where we'll have more options?

I just wanted your thoughts on these latest developments.

Sharon

[jrstark]

Hi Mal Lady,

I had not heard that the ADA is now recommending LC for diabetes. What on earth took them so long? My FIL has geriatric diabetes along with heart ailments and the last time he was hospitalized they put him in the cardiac unit where the only food they gave him was low fat and all starch. It sent his blood sugar into a tizzy. The sad thing is that no one on my husband's side of the family ever challenges their doctors. :(

Anyway, I am so glad to hear this. Maybe we needed time for the general public to forget about the so-called "fad" of LC (which, IMHO probably was caused by millions of uninformed people eating LC bars and shakes but not following the plan in any other way) and now we can concentrate on real studies and new information. Perhaps some of the good LC products will come back soon.

[Songwriter]

I'd like to see a link if the ADA says this.

[Gaelen]

Songwriter, that would be this link right here:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_59466.html

As for 'low carb geared products,' I have to say that this is one of the few places where the purist in me comes out...and those places are few and far between, believe me. I am typically a Hedonist all the way. But I had to test a lot of 'lc products' when I was writing for 'Carb Health' in the last rush of low carb popularity. Most of them, compared to real foods or to the foods they were trying to replace tasted like crap. I might like carbs, but I like good food better. I would rather have a portion appropritate homemade corn tortilla that tastes good than three plan-compliant psuedo tortillas...or skip them altogether and have pappadums, which are plan compliant without any manufacturing in full portions.

After all that taste testing, I don't do sugar alcohols. I don't do artificial sweeteners. I don't do glycerin, or alduterated products aiming to mimic something else. I use minute (trace) amounts of dark, full-bodied natural sweeteners like dark honey, blackstrap molasses, a bit of stevia now and then, and reduced fruit concentrates when I need sweetness added to something. I regularly cook for diabetic friends...some adult onset, some with Type I, and all of them can tolerate the minute amounts of sugar that exist in my portions.

I'm not looking for 'low carb ice cream.' When I want ice cream, I want ice cream that is special and tastes it. I'll just eat real honest to goddess ice cream, the most premium brand I can find so that I don't really need or feel driven to eat a lot of it. I eat it only occasionally, as a treat...it's not the every-night-after-supper thing that it was in my family growing up. I don't keep it in the house except in single size portions. And I can live with that.

I would be totally happy if manufacturers would just put less junk and more protein in prepackaged convenience stuff like grab'n'go meals and canned soups--and if they'd use vegetables to 'extend' the portion instead of rice or pasta, and if they recognized that a 20g minimum protein portion is the low end, not the upper limit. It would be really nice to be able to pick up frozen or canned lunches that could be prepared at work, were plan compliant and were four for $5--not as regular meals, but for those times when life intervenes. But until that happens, I'll buy Jimmy Dean cheese omelettes, TGIF frozen wings, foil packs of tuna and keep a dozen eggs in my work fridge for those emergency days when I can't get away for lunch. ;)

[bluejay111]

If you notice they are still pushing low fat and still want you to worry about protein and kidney problems. It will be interesting to see where this goes over time. At least it's a small step in the right direction.

[Gabriel Guzman]

A lukewarm statement. It's funny that they mention how important is to track lipid profiles and their improvement but failed to recognize an important point. While both, LCar and LCal (for Low-Carb and Low-Calorie) diets may achieve similar weight loss in their minds, a low-carb diet has shown many times in different studies that is more effective in normalizing lipid profiles, regardless of weight loss.

[Karole]

Also, Mal, on one of your queries about lc foods. I remember when the low carb "fad" was in full swing a few years back--there were all types of lo carb this and that--only thing, I would read the package and sure they were lower carb and probably fooled many uninformed folks , but in reality were nothing I could eat very much of and therefore I left them on the shelf.

How many folks failed when they tried low carbing just because of those types of food, and of course not being informed about the whole process. Kind of sad, and of course the low carb producers went quickly by the way side as people failed in their attempts to lose weight.

Hood milk even changed its name from carb countdown to calorie countdown after the big hurrah was over, but thankfully it is still around.

Now, I wonder if I even want that type of hooplah again. Too deceptive for most of the folks who don't bother to read up on any of the plans and go by them. They think if something says low carb "okay, I can eat the box full."

That said, I do wish our local groceries carried the Hood and a few other items. I have to go to Wal-Mart too--the one that is an 85 mile round trip for me. I try to stock up on things and go every couple of weeks or so, but it would sure be nice to have it at my finger tips.