I'm cold turkey until I get some hot turkey!

Recently, Jimmy Moore of Livin La Vida Low Carb decided he would go sweet free until Thanksgiving.

He's been having a hard time losing some weight he's put on in the past year and he thinks that eating low-carb sweets, artificial sweeteners, and even fruit may be a part of his problem.

Well, I'm writing to tell you that I'm on board too and I hope you'll join Jimmy and I.

Why on earth would a low-carb nut like me rail against artificial sweeteners? They're great for avoiding the poison more commonly known as sugar, but does that mean that they're any better for you?

The main premise behind eating low-carb is that your body was designed to eat whole, unrefined, natural foods. This means that foods that require processing and refining to be edible are best avoided. I read a book called the Paleo Diet, in which the author, Loren Cordain, said that a good rule of thumb was to only eat foods which could be eaten raw. When I say this to people, they think I'm crazy because they believe you can't eat eggs or meat raw. Of course you can! I'm not saying you should, but obviously our ancestors did and people still do.

By that premise, obviously, our bodies were not meant to consume great amounts of sugar as it was generally unavailable to our ancestors except in the form of some occasional honey or seasonal fruit. Our ancestors may have also gnawed on sugar cane, but they did not consume refined sugar.

If I haven't lost you yet, then allow me to close this argument by saying that our body was not designed to consume artificial sweeteners. I won't say that they're going to give you cancer or that you'll get sick and die from eating them. I have found that they can cause problems with my reactive hypoglycemia and I think they have some of the same addictive properties of refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour. I also think that they may tend to encourage low-carbers to loosen their resolve because you may fall back into craving more sweets.

So, if you've improved your health and well-being by consuming foods that your body was made to thrive on, consider kicking the parts of your diet that don't fit that bill. To make a long story short, I'm giving up sweets until at least Thanksgiving. I'll probably indulge that day, but will I go back to sweeteners after that. Only time will tell.

While we're on the subject of what your body was designed to thrive on and the foods for which it was not designed, can you think of any others you should consider getting rid of......?

How do you feel about artificial sweeteners? How much do you normally consume? Do you think that sugar and other refined carbs are addictive? Do you find that artificial sweeteners have the same effect?

Cheers,
Alex

PS. Don't fear the fat! Especially if it's from all natural animal sources. No processing required.

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.