Meatballs with Marinara Sauce

The meatball recipe was adapted from one a friend of mine gave me and the marinara sauce is adapted from a couple of different recipes I've come across over the years. This recipe is full of healthy protein, good for you fats from the flax and the meat, and vitamins from the tomatoes and meat.

Ingredients:

Meatball ingredients

• 3-4 lbs of ground beef anywhere from 75-85% lean is fine (don't fear the fat)
• 1/2 large yellow onion chopped
  
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons minced/chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon basil

Marinara ingredients

• 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (no sugar added)
• 2 - 6 oz cans of tomato paste (no sugar added)
• 8 oz can tomato sauce (no sugar added)
  
• 2 tablespoons minced/chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil (at least)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 packet sucralose (or 1/2 teaspoon of granular sucralose) (Splenda)
  
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicier)

Directions:

Meatballs

1. Combine the onions, garlic, egg from the meatball ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until the mixture is fairly smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine ground flax seed, meatball spices, onion/egg mixture, and ground beef. Mix by hand until the spices, flax, and spices are mixed throughout the beef.
3. I make about 50 meatballs out of this each a little more than an inch in diameter. I think they are about 1/8 cup per meatball, but I don't worry too much about it.
   
4. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes then turn the meatballs so that they cook evenly and cook another 25 minutes. While the meatballs bake, make your sauce.
   
5. Add the meatballs to the pot of sauce and cook on low for 30 minutes. Meatballs should reach an internal temperature of 165 F before you eat them.

Marinara

1. Heat olive oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat briefly.
2. With the saucepan over medium eat, add onion and garlic from the marinara ingredients.
3. Once the onion begins to soften, add the two cans of tomato paste and stir to combine with oil, onion, and garlic.
4. Add can of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir to combine.
5. Add marinara spices and sucralose. Stir to combine.
6. Reduce heat to low-medium heat and cover.
7. Once the meatballs are done baking, add them to the saucepan and cook for about 30 more minutes. (same instructions as the end of the meatball directions)
   

Notes:

1. Canned tomato products are easy to find without added sugar. Avoid cans that say that they have basil and other things added to them. I usually buy the store brand, it's cheapest and it usually doesn't have added sugar.
2. As long as you keep the sauce on low, you can simmer the meatballs as long as you'd like and the flavor of the sauce and the meatballs will just get better.
3. You can find ground flax seed in the natural foods section of your local grocer or health food store. If you can't find it just ask. I purchase Spectrum brand at Hannaford. Flax is a good source of Omega 3 fatty acid and fiber. In this recipe it takes the place of breadcrumbs for a little filler, but you won't even notice it.
4. Feel free to experiment and if you come up with some other ideas for how to improve this recipe, or you have some questions, feel free to post a comment or drop me an email lowcarbnewengland@gmail.com.
5. My family loves these rolled up in low-carb wraps with provolone cheese. The low-carb wraps I like are Mission whole wheat tortillas found in the refrigerated section of your grocer. I find them at Hannaford and Shaw's supermarkets. La Tortilla makes a decent low-carb tortilla and so does Joseph's. They're also great without the wraps and covered with melted cheese.
   

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat!

How to talk to your doc

Before you make any major lifestyle changes like changing your diet or starting an exercise routine it's important to talk to your doctor. I know you probably think that's probably the same load of baloney that you here all the time, but I'll tell you how I've talked to my docs about my lifestyle changes and what I saw for improvements in my health and I'll tell you why you ought to go to the doc before you start mixing things up.

Why you should go to the doctor before changing your lifestyle?

1. You may have pre-existing conditions that you ought to be aware of before you start changing things up.
   Healthy low-carb living is all about figuring out what makes you feel the best and what improves your health the most. From day one, you'll be listening to your body and it's needs to decide what you need to do and eat. Only if you're truly informed can you make the best decisions.
   
2. If you take medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. these conditions may begin to improve within days of starting your new lifestyle.
   It's important to let your doc know about your changes, so they can adjust your medication accordingly.
3. Everybody loves 'before and after' pictures.
   Going to the doctor before you start changing your lifestyle is a great way to get a 'before' picture of your health and your follow up visits will be a great picture of your health 'during' your lifestyle changes. It's also a great chance for your doc to see a good example of what a healthy low-carb lifestyle can do for you!
   
4. The low-carb lifestyle needs more advocates who know the truth about how low-carb can positively affect your health and an open dialogue with your doc is the best way to educate medical professionals and ensure your success.
   This may no be an easy conversation with your doctor because of their misconceptions about the low-carbohydrate lifestyle and their expectations about what will happen to your body when you adopt this lifestyle. To prepare for some of your doctor's misconceptions about your new lifestyle, check out my "Low Carb Myths" posts.

Now for my experience with my doctors:

After I reached a high of about 285 pounds and my wife reached a high of "too much for her" (I will respect her by not putting any numbers here), I decided to go talk to my doctor about what I could do. I had a general checkup done where they checked blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar. I don't know what my blood pressure was, but I know that I saw another doctor one time shortly before I adopted the low-carb lifestyle and within a couple minutes, he said he wanted to talk about blood pressure medication the next time I cam back. My cholesterol was generally low, but my HDL was really low, my triglycerides were through the roof, and when I went to see an endocrinologist, he told me my blood sugar was "a little high". The endocrinologist warned me that if my weight didn't come down, I was probably heading for type 2 diabetes. His suggestion was that I try to reduce my carbohydrate consumption a little because most people eat 300-400 grams of carbohydrate a day and I ought to reduce that to about 200 grams. I asked if a low-carbohydrate diet would be an effective choice and he said it would work, but he didn't think I could stick with it.
I took his initial advice and listened to a friend of mine who suggested a diet of reduced carbohydrates. I quickly started feeling better and dropped 10 pounds in a week or two, but that was it. After a few weeks, I decided to get on the low-carb bandwagon whole hog. The next time I went back to my doctor, she noted that my triglycerides had come down substantially from somewhere above 200 to around 80. She also noted that I lost some weight and complimented me on whatever I was doing.

So now, my triglycerides are about 30 (spectacular), my HDL is around 60 (up about 100% from before low-carb), and my LDL is the same. My blood pressure is consistently around 120-130/70-80, pretty good overall, although sometimes it's as low as 110/70. I lost over 60 pounds from before I started low-carb and I maintain that pretty effortlessly.

I've recently been talking to my doc about some other issues I'm having which have persisted since I was a teen and I talked to her about what I've been eating, and she didn't really care as all my tests come out great.

How to prepare before you go to talk to your doc:

• Do your low-carb research before you go to the doctor. Read one of the the great books on low-carb living such as Protein Power Lifeplan, Living the Low Carb Life,or Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution are great places to start. Also check out some of the other blogs I link to. If you want to be successful at improving your health while living a low-carbohydrate lifestyle, then reading at least one of these books is a must.
  
• Know why you think low-carb will work for you.
• What problems do you have that you hope will be remedied by living low-carb?
• Don't forget to check out low-carb myths so you know what your doc will be concerned about. Remember, many of them have had very little education on the subject of nutrition and they hear all the same propaganda as you do about the "evils" of fat.
• When your doc has objections, indicate your understanding of their concerns and ask what tests they could perform (within your budget) to confirm that you're living a healthy low-carb lifestyle. Your willingness to acknowledge their concerns will go a long way to ensuring your good health and your doctor's buy in to your lifestyle changes.

Have you been to the doctor? What was your experience like?
Know any New England doctors who are knowledgeable about the benefits of low-carb?
Any advice I missed here that you think is vital?

Your thoughts?

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat!

Don't fall off the wagon, jump off and hit the ground running!

Once in a while we all need to take a break from the routine, but don't let yourself get to the breaking point before you decide to mix things up a little.

Despite all my ranting about the evils of grains and sugar and how they should be avoided at all costs because they are completely and utterly unnecessary, I think that it's important to occasionally indulge in some of the food that the rest of the world eats, if you feel so inclined.

Every once in a while, I blow the doors off my healthy eating plan and enjoy something I've been looking forward to for a while. It might be one meal, it might be a whole day, but it's rarely longer than that. Most recently I hit up some fried seafood with french fries which I haven't had for a long time. I followed it up with an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen, chocolate dipped of course.

Did I cave to cravings? Did I give up on a healthy diet? Did I decide that I just couldn't take low-carb one more day? Nope, nope, and nope.

When you have one of these moments, it's important not to do this on impulse. Don't cave for the birthday cake at an office birthday party that you planned to be strong through. Throw away your diet for a day or a meal when it will be really worth it and when you planned on it.

Look, you don't have to be saint every day for the rest of your life. Giving in to temptation because it's there is not a good idea period. If you're a drinker and you're trying to drink less, is it better to plan to have an occasional drink with friends or cave when you feel like you really need a drink? I'd say that letting yourself cave to your perceived "need" to do something or give in is a much less healthy prospect than planning to break the rules every once in a while.

The most important part of any break or indulgence is to get right back to doing the healthy stuff as soon as it's over. If you decide that you're going to break the rules for one meal, then make it one and only one meal. If you decide it's for a day, then when that day ends, so does your indulgence.

Finally, here's what you can expect, depending on how you've reacted to your new healthy diet.

• If you've been really true to eating a healthy low-carb diet and you've lost some weight, feel healthier, and happier then you'll probably feel like complete garbage that day and/or the next day.
• If you've had life changing results from low-carb and feel like a million bucks most of the time, have seen things like diabetes, cholesterol, and other chronic ailments improve then you can expect that day and maybe the next (or more) to feel like everything you were used to before.
• If you've been only sort of committed to low-carb and have seen some modest improvements to your health then you may not feel so bad after your indulgence, but maybe a little less than your normal self.
• Expect to potentially see a few pounds come back on. This is probably only water weight and should come off within a few days.
• Expect cravings for all the stuff you're used to passing on, but do yourself a favor and go without. You'll feel better again in a couple of days.

I fall into the life changing group for this diet and find that an indulgence day ends up with me feeling bloated and uncomfortable after the indulgence and the next day. It hardly makes it an indulgence, but that's another conversation.

Your thoughts?

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. Don't fear the fat!

At the grocery store...

If you've already read my post about Foods to Avoid, then hopefully you caught the part about not focusing too much on what you can't eat and trying to focus on all that you can eat (an upcoming post). That being said, a good strategy at the grocery store can help you stay on track, avoid unnecessary temptation, and make the most out of your time spent shopping.

Rule number one:
Most of your time spent in the grocery store should be on the perimeter or the outside edge of the store. That's where all the really healthy stuff is: vegetables, fruits, nuts, cheeses, meat, and eggs. All those extra aisles in the store house all the empty calories you should avoid in the form of cereals, chips, crackers, sweets, pasta, etc. You don't need any of that.

Rule number two:
Some of the inside aisles do have some healthy stuff, but you have to know where to look. Canned vegetable aisles are good if you need some canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste or some other canned low-carb veggie (pass on the corn and peas). The condiment aisle is a good one to hit too. There you'll find mayonnaise, mustard, salad dressings, marinades, and sauces. I buy regular "real" mayonnaise, it has sugar, but very little. When buying mustards, dressings, etc. watch out for added sugars. Pass on mustard that has more than 1 gram of sugar per serving, dressings with more than 2 grams of sugar per serving, and sauces that have more than 5 grams of sugar per serving. These are rules of thumb, you'll develop your own judgment as time goes on, but for now, use mine.

Rule number three:
You're going to buy lots of fresh healthy foods. You can save a lot by shopping smart. Watch your local grocer's specials on meats. Every few weeks they'll have boneless skinless chicken breast on sale, then the next week they'll have some kind of steak on sale, then they'll have burger on sale. If you only buy when the stuff is on sale, then you'll save a bundle. I wait for these sales, buy a couple extra packs of whatever and pop them in the freezer for later. Fruits and veggies go on sale in the same way. You may not be able to freeze and thaw them in the same way, but you can certainly buy the stuff that's in season or on sale to save yourself some dough. I've found that going to a pick your own farm or a farmer's market is a great way to get the super freshest affordable fruits and veggies. Check out PickYourOwn.org for where to find your local PYO.

I'd love to give you a dozen more rules, but I can't. It's really that simple. Just stay on the outside edge of the store, pop into only the aisles you need for some dressings and sauces, and grab the stuff you buy the most of, meats and veggies, when it's on sale. Buy local whenever you can to save some green and be green.

If you have some ideas or tips to save some green or be more green, drop me a comment or send me an email at lowcarbnewengland@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat!

Low-Carb Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

This recipe is one that I adapted from a mediocre low-carb brownie recipe and a really good low-carb muffin recipe. These cupcakes are so good that they don't need any frosting, but for the occasional extra-special treat our family loves these with a scoop of chocolate low-carb ice cream, Carb Smart and Edy's No Sugar Added are decent choices, but don't overdo it.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 4 large eggs
• 4 ounces baking chocolate (unsweetened)
  
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sucralose (Splenda)
• 1/2 cups erythritol
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 1/4 baking powder
• 1 1/4 baking soda

Directions:

1. Put the butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute.
2. Remove and stir.
3. Continue to heat until chocolate is completely melted, stir every thirty seconds.
4. Add sucralose and erythritol to the chocolate and stir to combine.
5. Add cream, eggs, and pumpkin to the chocolate mixture and stir until blended.
6. In a separate bowl, combine almond flour, baking powder, baking soda. Stir until blended.
7. Combine the chocolate mixture and the almond flour mixture and stir until completely blended.
8. Spray a 12-cup muffin with cooking spray.
9. Coat muffin cups with almond flour.
10. Fill all the muffin cups evenly.
11. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Notes:

1. You can substitute some or all of the sucralose for erythritol, but I wouldn't subsitute any of the sucralose with erythritol.
2. Look for erythritol in th natural foods section of your grocery store or look for it at a natural foods store near you. For you locals, Shaw's in Dover, NH has it in the Natural Foods section and The Herbal Path Natural Pharmacy in Dover, has it as well.
3. Good almond flour is a bit harder to find. Bob's Red Mill makes some, but I find it too coarse. Making your own is easy, I'll post that recipe as well, or you can buy it at Trader Joe's. I find the brand they sell to be as good as the stuff I make a home with no waste. For you locals, there's I think the closest Trader Joe's is in Peabody, MA.
4. If you don't want to use almond flour to coat your pan, I recommend, in order, coconut flour, soy flour, whole grain pastry flour, white flour. If you use some kind of wheat flour, be aware that you'll add a few carbs and the recipe will no longer be gluten-free.
   

Cheers,
Alex


PS. Don't fear the fat!

UPDATE 10/29/2008: I have decided that the only way to go with this recipe is to increase the chocolate to 6 ounces of baking chocolate, increase the cream to 1/3 cup, and increase the sucralose to 2 cups. I experimented with this enhancement to the recipe and my wife liked it a lot. She liked them so much that the next time we had a batch, she said "oh...you didn't add the extra chocolate this time...?" I realized she was right and promised to make only the super chocolatey recipe from now on.

Foods to Avoid

When trying to make a major lifestyle change like this it's far better to focus on what you should eat instead of what you shouldn't eat. You can check out that list under the label "Foods to Eat".

Having said that you shouldn't focus on what you can't eat, it's important that you understand some of the foods that could be stumbling blocks for you and how to read ingredient labels so you know what to avoid.

First let's start by talking about the major foods and food groups you'll want to avoid to improve your health and lose weight. One important thing to understand is that in the beginning you need to be more strict with yourself until you can find your personal "happy place" with carbohydrate consumption. I'll give you my individual take on this after I explain the basic rules. Also, I won't go into the science here, just the basics on what foods to pass on.

1. Grains - white, brown, or otherwise you'll want to skip these. That means avoiding rice, wheat, oats, corn (a grain, not a vegetable). Basically anything made with flour, anything breaded, pasta, any cereal is off limits. There are a couple low-carb cereals out there, but if you're just starting out, I'd skip them unless you absolutely can't find anything else to eat.
2. Sugars - this on is trickier than grains. Sugar goes by many names, but a good rule of thumb here is that anything that ends in -ose is a sugar. The exception to this rule is sucralose, an artificial sweetener also known as Splenda. When you read an ingredient label look for: high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, glucose, lactose, galactose, fructose, cane juice, evaporated cane juice, and beet sugar. All of those should be avoided.
3. Starchy vegetables - potatoes and sweet potatoes. Both of these pack a big carb punch and you ought to avoid these completely. As you get close to your goals, you may be able to have the occasional sweet potato, but don't load it up with marshmallow, sugar, or syrup as some do. Sweet potato fries are a super special treat to indulge in as you get close to your goals.
4. "Sugar-free" or "No sugar added" or "low-glycemic" foods - I know these seem like they must be on the wrong list, but they're right where they ought to be. First off, beware foods made for diabetics. They are often made with fructose, fruit sugar. I don't believe that fructose is particularly problematic when consumed in the form of whole fruit, but refine it and use it to sweeten things and you've got some bad news. I promised not to go into the science here, but let me warn you that too much fructose will increase your blood fats like triglycerides. Don't trust me, look it up on one of the sites in the blogs list. Skip agave nectar and other fruit juices or concentrates. Some of these products may be okay, but it will all depend on the individual consumer and how the product is sweetened. If it is sweetened with anything ending in -ose (other than sucralose), that means it really is sugar, just not counted that way by the FDA/USDA. If the product has ingredients like glycerin, aspartame, acelsufame potassium, or ingredients ending in -ol (sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol) then it is probably safe for moderat consumption. I find it best to retrain your sweet tooth to get used to fruits or some dark chocolate as a sweet treat, but, to each his own.
   
5. Legumes - peas and beans. This are nowhere near as insidious as grains and sugars, but for those of you who have a lot of weight to lose or your health has a long way to go, you may want to lay off these until you learn a little more about how your body reacts to different levels of carbohydrates.

The best rule of thumb is that you don't eat anything not on the list of "Foods to Eat". Remember that this is a learning experience about yourself, so feel free to experiment with what works for you, but don't let yourself believe that eating some grains or sugar every once in a while will help keep you on the plan. For most people, this will derail you very quickly because you'll probably feel really crummy and your cravings will go through the roof.

Now for how I have applied these to my lifestyle. I pass on the diet drinks. I think they perpetuate sweet cravings and may, depending on who you ask, sabotage you long-term success. The only grains I eat are the occasional low-carb whole wheat wrap made by Mission, found in the refrigerated section of your supermarket. I enjoy fruit in moderation, the occasional "no sugar added" ice cream, and once in a great while dark chocolate.

My experience tells me it is best to avoid anything sweetened and all grains for the first month. Your cravings will be intense for the first few days if not longer, but if you push through it and commit yourself to try it for a couple weeks, I think you'll find that your cravings and hunger will diminish substantially.

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat!

Low carb mythology: The Beginning

If you decide to embark on a low-carbohydrate lifestyle, I can assure you that you will hear a whole host of reasons why you shouldn't do it. In fact, you may believe some of those myths as you read this. I once did, even after I had been eating this way for some time. Read on if you're interested in exploring some of the existing low-carb mythology.

Myth: The diet is all meat, cheese, and eggs.
Truth: Depending on your preferences and your personal tolerance for carbohydrate consumption you'll eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beef, poultry, pork, seafood, eggs, and cheeses. If you're interested in seeing one person's take on a low-carb diet, then check out my "What I Eat" blog.

Myth: All that saturated fat is bad for you.
Truth: There's really two myths rolled up in one here. First off is the assumption that the fat from beef, poultry, pork, eggs, and cheese is all saturated. The truth is, it's not. Much of the fat from beef, poultry, and pork is unsaturated fats both poly- and mono-. Don't believe me, check it out from a source that gives the breakdown of the different fats such as the "Protein Power Lifeplan Gram Counter". The second half of this myth is that saturated fat is bad for you. I guess it depends on who you ask. If you want scientific information on this, I suggest reading "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, or checking out any of the blogs that I link to and searching on "saturated fat". I think you'll find some useful information. What I will say about the subject is two things: 1)Humans have eaten saturated fats for millions of years and have thrived doing it. Saturated fats are naturally occurring in animals and some plants. The newcomers to our diet are grains and sugar. More importantly, watch out for excess unsaturated oils in your diet from plants like soy, canola, corn, and other vegetable oils. Those are as unnatural as you can get. 2)Saturated fats may raise your LDL or "bad" cholesterol (there's more to this story that I'll post later), but when you avoid grains and sugar other important things will happen to your blood fats. Your HDL "good" cholesterol will go up, your triglycerides, another "bad" blood fat will go down. Some studies show that HDL to Triglyceride ratio may be a better predictor of heart disease than LDL to total cholesterol. Don't trust me, check it out.

Myth: A high-protein diet is bad for your kidneys.
Truth: Another two myths wrapped up in one here. First off, you won't be eating a high-protein diet, you'll be eating a high-fat, adequate protein, low-carbohydrate diet. Fat is your fuel, it's the gas in your engine. Protein is a basic building block of all your cells. You'll eat enough protein to maintain your body and possibly build some more muscle. Second, you can find studies where kidney function improved from higher protein intake. If you're kidneys have problems, talk to your doc before changing your diet.

Myth: The weight you lose is just water weight.
Truth: Of course you lose water weight, but you are going to lose fat too. All diets produce water weight loss initially. Between my wife and I we've lost over 100 pounds, I find it hard to believe we were toting around an extra hundred pounds of water. I have personally lost and kept off over 60 pounds. Any sane person has to believe that I couldn't have lost 60 pounds of water and still be alive. Trust me, I've lost a lot of fat too.

Myth: Eating that way will increase your risk of heart disease and/or cancer.
Truth: No it won't. There are civilizations from around the planet who have thrived and continue to thrive on this diet. African tribes, Native Americans, the Inuit are some examples of people that have eaten high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets and had no incidence of heart disease and/or cancer before they were exposed to a "civilized" diet. If you're overweight, obese, diabetic, have high blood pressure, or suffer from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) you may benefit from eating a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.
If you want some more in depth information about the populations who have eaten these diets for a long time, check out "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.

Myth: If you stop eating this way, you'll gain back all the weight you lost.
Truth: Sorry to say, this one is not a myth. It's the same truth whether you're on Weight Watchers, a low-fat diet, a low-calorie diet, or the grapefruit diet. The other truth is that if you find a healthy way of eating that you stick with for the rest of your life, with some opportunities for indulgence, you'll continue to reap the health benefits for the rest of your life.

The bottom line is that you need to evaluate for yourself what a low-carbohydrate diet is about, decide if it could work for you, and if those around you are concerned for your health, then work with your doctor to check out the things they are concerned about.

If you hear some low-carb mythology I haven't talked about here, add a comment or send me an email at lowcarbnewengland@gmail.com.

If you have a hard time convincing your family, friends, or doctor that this is the right thing to do for you or they don't believe it is safe, talk to me or some of the other readers here. We can help you work through their concerns and help you show them how it can improve your health.

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat!