Remember the old nursery rhyme about how Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean?

While the historical roots of that rhyme are misty, it does suggest that people are metabolically different, something that apparently has been recognized for a long time.

So let's talk about it.

The dumbest weight loss advice I have ever heard was just find a thin person and eat what they're eating.

When I was a kid, maybe eight or nine, there was a girl in my grade named Gail. Gail was skinny. Not just slim skinny. She got as much razzing for being so skinny as I did for being chubby. Lots of jokes about how if you could just melt us down and stir us together, we'd both come out the right size. Can you hear me rolling my eyes?

Gail just couldn't gain weight. It wasn't in her physiology so far as I could see. Just like any other kid, she wasn't turning down cookies or avoiding the ice cream truck. Her body just burned it off at a great rate.

In the 1980s, I had a boyfriend named Tom. Tom was six seven and weighed 150 pounds. For those of you in the civilized world, that's 200.7 centimeters and 68 kilos. Tom was very tall. Very thin. Yes, skinny. We were once out shopping for jeans for him when a strange woman took advantage of his being in the dressing room to come over and whisper. How can you be with someone like that? I'd hate him for being able to eat all the time.

Charming, but Tom could eat all the time. Indeed. He needed to eat all the time. I used to think he'd gotten a shrew gene patched in somehow, and had to eat his own body weight every 12 hours or starve.

This is not a character flaw

It is a fundamental difference in the way our bodies work. That doesn't mean we can't fight it, and we should, but it does mean that the societal judgment of us as weak-willed. It's oversimplified to the point of being just plain bigotry. Who knows how many more physiological differences we will discover?

But for now, the takeaway message is that this is not a character issue. We really are biochemically different than naturally slim people. 

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Links and Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-31-people-who-gain-weight-easily.html

Website CarbSmart.com

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Episode 31 Featured Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast31recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-31-people-who-gain-weight-easily.html

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Welcome to the CarbSmart Podcast, where your decision to embrace low-carb nutrition becomes a fun and delicious lifestyle! I’m your host, Dana Carpender, here to guide you through the ins and outs of everything low carb – or talk to the people who do!

My sister Kim is asthmatic. Between not getting enough oxygen and having taken prednisone way too often, she has had an even harder time with her weight than I. It’s not for lack of exercise; she’s a middle school teacher on a spread-out one-story campus that has her walking fifteen to twenty thousand steps every work day; on her days off she walks around the lake at a local park. She’s worked with a trainer. She eats zero junk. It’s just hellishly hard.

(When she signed up with the trainer, Kim was told, “You know, you’ll have to stop drinking soda and eating fast food and chips and stuff, right?.” When Kim told the trainer she didn’t consume any of that junk, the trainer was distinctly at a loss. After all, we all “know” that obesity is due to bad diet, right? Right?)

Then last year Kim heard about a new program called LORE in San Diego, where she lives. Dr. James LaBelle, Medical Director of Lore Health, was offering free treatment to teachers needing to lose weight, including a free continuous glucose monitor, dietary advice, support groups, and free Wegovy, a GLP-1 drug. Kim was in.

(Interestingly, Kim discovered that her breakfast of plain yogurt with vanilla extract and Splenda was spiking her blood sugar. Who knew?) So far, Kim has lost 22 pounds.

Do you or anyone you know have a medical condition that makes weight loss near impossible? Sometimes these are obvious, like Kim’s asthma, but others are hidden – and it seems there are many left to be discovered and diagnosed. Do you keep close track of your blood sugar with a monitor? What do you think of using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss? Let us know in the comments below.

It was clear I needed to talk to Dr. LaBelle! So here he is.

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Links and Show Notes

Website CarbSmart.com

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Episode 30 Featured Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast30recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/three-question-interview-with-dr-james-labelle-carbsmart-podcast-episode-30.html

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This show, we have something a little different. This show. Features something I did not write myself that has not happened before.

But let's start with this. How old is a low-carb diet?

If you look at the traditional diets of various peoples, including the seal, fish, and Blubber diet of the Inuit, several North American native peoples who flourished on pemmican. And the African Messiah herding people who thrived on milk, meat, and cows blood.

Very old indeed. But how about low-carb diet books?

So far as I know, the oldest in the English language at least, is Banting's Letter on Corpulence. Having lost weight and dramatically improved his health on a low-carbohydrate diet. Banting wrote and self-published the book back in the mid-Victorian era, and he distributed it for free.

By the third printing, he had distributed 63,000 copies and banting have become synonymous with dieting. So here it is, Banting's Letter on Corpulence.

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Links and Show Notes

Website CarbSmart.com

https://CarbSmart.com

Episode 29 Featured Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast29recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

Coming Soon.

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You may be confused regarding net carbs versus total carbs. So let’s demystify it. Shall we. Keep listening.

I see it online all the time. Total carbs or net carbs. I also see are you strict keto, lazy keto, dirty keto? What’s your daily carb limit? What are your macros? But particularly Total carbs or net carbs.

I am all for anything that works for the individual, but I fear that this kind of focus on micromanagement may scare some people off.

Total Carbs or Net Carbs

The first commercially successful low-carb diet book was Banting’s Letter on Corpulence first published in 1863 at William Banting’s own expense. It was such a success that Banting became a synonym for dieting and Professor Tim Noakes has revived the term in South Africa.

Banting stated, “My kind and valued medical advisor is not a doctor for obesity, but stands on the pinnacle of fame in the treatment of another malady, which as he well knows is frequently induced by Corpulence.”

Banting’s diet was four meals per day consisting of meat, greens, fruits and dry wine. The emphasis was on avoiding sugar, starch, beer, milk, butter, and saccharin matter. Here, saccharin matter refers to anything that turns to sugar in the bloodstream. The artificial sweetener we call saccharin had yet to be invented.

Notice something, no mention of counting carbs, much less total versus net carbs. Just eat meat, green vegetables, fruits and dry wine. The diet worked for Banting and for many others.

I have on my shelf a book I found when I was cleaning out my late great-Aunt Betty’s house called Eat and Grow Thin; the Mahdah Menus published in 1914. It too outlined a low carbohydrate diet. It too calls for no counting. When I was growing up, everyone knew that if you wanted to lose weight, you gave up potatoes, spaghetti, bread, and sweets, and focused on animal protein and green vegetables. Every diner and coffee shop offered a diet plate consisting of a bunless hamburger patty, a scoop of cottage cheese and either sliced tomatoes or a half a canned peach.

Enter the Stillman Diet

In 1967, Dr. Irwin Stillman’s diet was both very low carb and low fat calling for almost nothing but very lean meat, plus at least eight glasses of water per day. Having tried it as a kid, I can attest to it being effective, but too limited for continued use.

Enter Dr. Atkins and Counting Carbs

I trust we can take it as read that the Atkins diet works by liberalizing fat and including some vegetables and those in increasing quantities. As the diet progressed, the Atkins diet was and remains far more livable than Stillman’s.

Links and Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-28-understanding-net-carbs-vs-total-carbs.html

Website CarbSmart.com

https://CarbSmart.com

Episode 28 Featured Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast28recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-28-understanding-net-carbs-vs-total-carbs.html

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Eat It Again! How Repetition Rewires Your Taste

If you’ve just recently gone low-carb, say as a New Year’s resolution, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer difference from your old diet.

Faux-tatoes instead of mashed potatoes. Lunches that don’t include sandwiches, heavy cream and flavored stevia in your coffee instead of creamer. I am here to cheer you on and give you good reason to stick it out. A reason that doesn’t have to do with the scale or your health.

Many years ago, when my sister was a private school teacher, her pay was painfully low. She had to scramble each spring to find a summer job. For a few years, she worked for a company that brought over French foreign exchange students. She had to find them host families, and then during the week, she drove them around the San Diego area in a van, showing them the sites and giving them a taste of American culture.

Speaking of taste, every single French teenager she worked with simply adored liver pate, but found peanut butter revolting. From this, it becomes clear every taste is an acquired taste. If you’re just starting your low-carb journey, you may find that some things taste…funny. Not bad, just different from what you’re used to, different from what you grew up on. Please remember that all tastes are acquired tastes.

Do you know how old I am?

“How old are you?” I hear you cry. I’m so old. I walked home for lunch every day. Through elementary school, mom largely relied on simple stuff for our lunches, canned soup, frozen pot pies, or macaroni and cheese, or frozen pizza and wagon wheel shaped noodles with jarred spaghetti sauce and Parmesan.

The jarred sauce she used back in the 1960s was Ragu Old World Style. I don’t know if the recipe has changed over the past 50 odd years, but it currently contains tomato puree, which is water and tomato paste, salt, olive oil, sugar, dehydrated onions, dehydrated garlic spices, garlic powder, onion powder.

That was the jarred spaghetti sauce of my childhood, and I often had it at lunch. My mother did make awesome homemade spaghetti sauce for family dinners. I wish I had that recipe.

Then at 19, I quit sugar and white flour. I started eating whole wheat noodles and I switched over to a jarred sauce that had no sugar.

It tasted… funny. Not bad, mind you, I was willing to eat it. It just tasted different. It wasn’t what I’d grown up on, but I wasn’t going back to eating sauce with sugar and it, so I stuck with it. Pretty soon, that sauce was what my taste buds expected, and it tasted great.

Links and Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-27-eat-it-again-how-repetition-rewires-your-taste.html

Website CarbSmart.com

https://CarbSmart.com

Episode 27 Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Cocoa-Peanut Porkies

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast27recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-27-eat-it-again-how-repetition-rewires-your-taste.html

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If your nutritional program is so good, why do you still take drugs?

There’s no question that good nutrition improves our health. Heck, many type 2 diabetics do away with all need for medication by eating low-carb. But can proper nutrition prevent all illness and do away with all need for drugs? Let’s talk about it.

I got this question years ago, back when I was blogging. The fellow who posed it clearly thought that if one’s nutrition was all it should be, there should never be a need for medication. In particular, the Wellbutrin I take for ADHD and seasonal affective disorder, and the sleep medication I take for a diagnosed sleep disorder.

Does ideal nutrition do away with the need for medicine?

I can only suppose that those who feel this way are ignorant of history. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 1900, fully 30 percent of deaths in the US were of children five and under. Some of them would have been trauma victims, and of course, trauma medicine has improved dramatically.

But many of them were killed by infectious diseases, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis, pneumonia and flu. Between vaccination and antibiotics, the rate of death from these diseases has plummeted. This is the main reason that average lifespan has increased so dramatically. But was the American diet ideal in 1900?

Not by our standards. The American rate of sugar consumption was 90 pounds per capita per year, about half of what it is today, but still higher than it had historically been. Certainly, people ate bread, potatoes, and other concentrated carbs. However, soda intake was 12 bottles per year, and the bottles were far smaller than the 20 ouncers common today.

How old am I? I’m so old I can remember 6 ounce bottles of Coca Cola in Coke machines. Processed food was far less common. Home cooking was the standard. Frozen food and fast food didn’t exist. Highly processed seed oils were not a thing. Home gardening was more common, especially during the Great War, when victory gardens were urged.

Yet, people were dying young. So, let’s go back further. Let’s go back to the Middle Ages. In 14th century Europe, sugar consumption was limited to the wealthy. Interestingly, grain consumption among the peasants, so the vast majority of people, was rarely wheat, but rather barley, oats, and rye. All of which are easier on blood sugar than wheat flour.

Links and Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-26-why-do-you-still-take-drugs.html

Website CarbSmart.com

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Episode 26 Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan-Bacon Cream Sauce

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast26recipe

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-26-why-do-you-still-take-drugs.html

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Isn't it important to eat a balanced diet?

How many times have you been told it's important to eat a balanced diet? Doctors, mom, health class, magazine articles, everywhere.

Remember to eat a balanced diet. It's been repeated so often that it's accepted without a thought. Except, of course, by me, you, and our low-carb ilk. Let's talk about it. 

Like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell because you don't want to miss a single episode. 

Isn't it important to eat a balanced diet?

Well, maybe. The big question is, what the heck is a balanced diet? The phrase doesn't seem to have any concrete meaning. Certainly, it varies from species to species. A balanced diet for a tiger would be very different from a balanced diet for a rabbit. Similarly, historically, human diets would have varied dramatically from region to region and from season to season.

Is the government, my plate, successor to the food pyramid, a balanced diet? 

It suggests more of some kinds of foods, particularly grains, than others. Is it balanced to eat six to ten one-ounce servings of grains a day, but only five or six one-ounce portions of protein foods? Is it balanced to omit fats entirely as a food group and recommend low-fat or fat-free dairy, restricting saturated fat to 10 percent of calories?

Remember that there are essential fats, but the essential level of grain intake, and of carbs in general, is zero. 

Remember hardcore low-fat diets, some as low as 10 percent of calories from fat, Ornish, Pritikin, those guys? I never heard “not balanced” thrown at them. Many of the same people are now pushing a plant-based diet, i.e. vegetarian or vegan diet, nearly devoid of saturated fat and cholesterol.

I find it incredible that we could increase our intake of any highly concentrated substance by over 2,000 percent in 200 years time, the increase in American sugar consumption between 1800 and 2000, and not have it be a health threat. Heck, if we drank that much more water, it might be a danger. 

Two better questions would be:

What diet comes closest to that on which the human race evolved?

And, What diet makes my own personal body work best? 

Links and Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-25-isnt-it-important-to-eat-a-balanced-diet.html

Website CarbSmart.com

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-25-isnt-it-important-to-eat-a-balanced-diet.html

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Welcome to the Wonderful World of Low-Carb – CarbSmart Podcast Episode 24

Carb restriction is, of course, a great way to achieve weight loss & health. So, let's talk about it.

Links and Show Notes

Welcome to the CarbSmart Podcast, where your decision to embrace low-carb nutrition becomes a fun and delicious lifestyle. I’m your host, Dana Carpender, here to guide you through the ins and outs of everything low-carb. With the new year comes diet season with people resolving to improve their nutrition, whether for weight loss, health, or both.

Carb restriction is, of course, a great way to achieve both. So, let’s talk about it. Like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell because you don't want to miss a single episode. 

I’ve been eating this way since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Okay, since 1995. Clearly, I have never regretted it. I have fielded questions about low-carb nutrition all these years.

The question I most commonly get is: “How many grams of carbohydrate should I eat in a day?”

My reply is always, “How the hell should I know?”

More recently, I also get “What are your macros?

The answer is, “I have no clue.”

This journey started with a nutrition book from the 1950s. I bought it a used book sale. It asserted that obesity was not a matter of eating too much, but rather a carbohydrate intolerance disorder.

CarbSmart Podcast on YouTube

https://youtu.be/BgPCaAZ-x_E

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/welcome-to-the-wonderful-world-of-low-carb-podcast-episode-24.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Read the Full Transcript

https://www.carbsmart.com/welcome-to-the-wonderful-world-of-low-carb-podcast-episode-24.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Refusing Holiday Food and Staying Low-Carb

CarbSmart Podcast Episode 23

Dealing with the holiday food pushers

Welcome to the Encore Edition of Refusing Holiday Food and Staying Low-Carb!

We’re revisiting some of our earliest and most popular episodes to celebrate our journey and your incredible support. These fan favorites are packed with timeless insights, expert advice, and practical tips to help you thrive on your low-carb lifestyle. Whether you’re tuning in for the first time or reliving the classics, these encore episodes are here to inspire, educate, and entertain all over again. Enjoy!

The holidays are straight ahead, with piles and piles of carby junk and, worse, people nagging you to eat the stuff. Why do so many people think that saying things like, “But you have to eat it; it’s a tradition,” and “I worked all afternoon making it just for you” constitutes an expression of holiday goodwill? I have no idea.

But sadly, this behavior is all too common. You need to think ahead about how to respond to this sort of thing. You have absolutely no obligation to eat anything you do not want to eat.

You have absolutely no obligation to eat anything you do not want to eat.

If you had a terrible allergy, the sort that would throw you into anaphylaxis at the merest taste, you would not hesitate to refuse that food, nor would you apologize for doing so.

Similarly, If you were a recovering alcoholic, you would feel free to say no thanks to a drink and would consider rude anyone who pressed you. Carbohydrate addiction and hyperinsulinemia don’t kill as quickly as allergic reactions, but they kill vastly more people. And a case can be made that dying quickly of anaphylaxis is preferable to the long, drawn-out years of deteriorating health and increasing debility that carb addiction can wreak on your body.

So, no feeling apologetic when offered food or drink one does not care to consume. No thank you is always the polite thing to say. Conversely, nagging people to eat foods they have politely refused is rude-rude-rude. You are in the right here, no matter how people try to browbeat you into thinking that you’re the unmannerly one.

Links and Show Notes

Visit our website with over 3,000 Free Articles and Low-Carb Recipes

https://CarbSmart.com

Our Featured Recipe

Dana’s Best & Easiest Sugar-Free Ketchup Recipe – New for 2024!

Check out our CarbSmart Low-Carb Cookbooks

https://www.carbsmart.com/store

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-23-encore-refusing-holiday-food-and-staying-low-carb.html

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Staying Well While You're Getting Well Low-Carb Tips for Cold & Flu Relief

Links and Show Notes

Ah, yes. Autumn. The cool, crisp air. The brilliant leaves. The cozy sweaters. And the advent of cold and flu season. Achoo! What does this have to do with our low-carb diets? More than you might think at first glance. Between cough syrup and cough drops, multi-symptom cold relievers like NyQuil. And the oft-recommended tea with honey and chicken noodle soup, there are pitfalls here.

So, let's talk about them. Like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell because you don't want to miss a single episode. 

Cough syrup and cough drops are easy. Virtually any pharmacy will have sugar-free cough syrup, probably labeled diabetic formula, and sugar-free cough drops. Keep in mind that the cough drops are probably made with sugar alcohols.

If sugar alcohols give you gut problems, you'll want to go easy. Hall's Sugar-Free cough drops, for example, are made with isomalt, which has very little effect on blood sugar. But can cause gut trouble in large doses. What about multi symptom cold relievers? I was finding mixed information online, so I went to the source.

CarbSmart Podcast on YouTube

https://youtu.be/gK6XaqCKix8

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-22-low-carb-tips-for-cold-and-flu-relief.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Read the Full Transcript

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-22-low-carb-tips-for-cold-and-flu-relief.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

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How to Have a Fun & Healthy Low-Carb Halloween

Links and Show Notes

Let’s talk about the scariest thing about Halloween. All that sugar.

Several years back on a website I frequented, there was a discussion of Halloween plans. It was there that I first encountered the concept of trunk or treat, a Halloween event that is apparently gaining popularity across the country.

Other than trunk or treat, my vote would be a return to the Halloween party with spooky games and music and at least some non-candy food. Read ghost stories by firelight, hang apples from strings and see who can eat theirs without using their hands, carve jack o lanterns, have a scary laugh contest and a costume judging with lots of prizes, scariest, prettiest, funniest, most creative, etc.

The more kids get prizes, the better. If you have space, how about creating a haunted path in your backyard? I have a big backyard with a path through the woods that would be perfect for this. Alas, I have no children. The drawback to this is that private parties are invitation only events, and some kids could get left out.

This is a great reason for organizations, from scout troops to neighborhood associations, to create their own Everybody Welcome Halloween events. If you’re still in a trick or treating part of the country, may I make a few gentle suggestions? Focus as much attention as you can on the many fun and creative Halloween activities that don’t involve sugar.

CarbSmart Podcast on YouTube

https://youtu.be/JEzC9y865vI

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-21-have-a-healthy-low-carb-halloween-html.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Read the Full Transcript

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-21-have-a-healthy-low-carb-halloween-html.html

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3 Question Interview with Fred Hahn

Links and Show Notes

Welcome to another 3 question interview from CarbSmart. I’m your host, Dana Carpender, your trusted guide to everything low-carb. Today, I’m interviewing Fred Hahn, owner of Slow Burn Fitness, author of The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution, and Strong Kids, Healthy Kids, not to mention my friend and strength training guru.

He’s also a long-time low-carber. Let’s hear what Fred has to say about low-carb nutrition and fitness.

DC: I have long felt you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Yes. So what degree is weight loss about diet and to what degree is it about exercise? And I will say regarding the kids that there was just a lot more background exercise in my childhood. There really was. I walked to and from school twice a day because back then you walked home for lunch.

CarbSmart Podcast on YouTube

https://youtu.be/SObc61Q1RQY

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-20-3-question-interview-with-fred-hahn.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

Read the Full Transcript

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-20-3-question-interview-with-fred-hahn.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check out more CarbSmart Podcast Episodes.

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Why I’m Not a Low-Carb Purist

Links and Show Notes

Are you a food purist? Do you insist that everything be natural and organic? I’m not, and I don’t.

So let me explain why. I have been accused of not being a low-carb purist.

I have, over the past many years in general, taken some heat for not being a low-carb purist. Not pure enough, or restrictive enough, or something enough about the diet I eat and the ingredients I use in my recipes.

Years ago, I was accused of something very close to a major character flaw in a discussion about Sucralose by a woman who was infuriated that I would use such an evil, evil ingredient and that I dared to suggest that perhaps Stevia was not in it.

Utterly safe beyond all question. I’ve been taken to task for using and eating polyols I’ve been told that I should only use and only recommend Organic grass-fed meat and that suggesting it’s okay to eat battery eggs That is factory farmed eggs is just not safe. Sorry to disappoint, folks, but I’m not a purist.

I will readily admit that grass-fed meat is better both for one’s health and for the environment than meat from confined animal feedlot operations. For years, we kept chickens in our backyard and therefore regularly ate eggs that were superior to grocery store eggs, especially in the summer when the chickens would free-range and eat lots of bugs and clover.

I have no problem with people using stevia if they prefer it to sucralose. That’s fine. I use stevia more than sucralose myself. That said, I have grocery store meat in my freezer and thawing in my kitchen. Before we had chickens, and since the last got eaten by a predator, I mostly bought and buy pastured eggs, but I’m not above buying grocery store eggs when they’re super cheap.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-19-why-im-not-a-low-carb-purist.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-19-why-im-not-a-low-carb-purist.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Are You NOT Getting Enough Sodium on Your Low-Carb Diet?

Links and Show Notes

Sodium Deficiency – hyponatremia

I got to the piece in the beginning of The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living about the symptoms of sodium deficiency, also known as hyponatremia. And guess what? It sounded very familiar. I looked up hyponatremia online and found this: Symptoms of hyponatremia include nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, lethargy, fatigue, appetite loss, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms, or cramps, seizures, and decreased consciousness or coma. Sounded all too familiar. (Except for the coma part, thank heaven.)

I got to thinking about it, and it seemed possible I’d been eating less salt than I used to. I’ve been eating less in general since I went on the blood sugar medication Victoza. Too, I haven’t been eating a lot of dishes that have much salt mixed in, soups and stews and the like, because of the hot weather. There’s a limit to how much salt you can shake on your eggs or steak, you know? More than once I’ve substituted Greek yogurt with strawberries and nuts – very little sodium there – for supper. And of course, like everyone else, I sweat more in hot weather, losing sodium that way. Been eating a lot of veggies, so my potassium intake has been up, and potassium and sodium need to balance. All told, it seemed very possible that I had become hyponatremic.

Salt is an essential nutrient – our body needs sodium

The take-home message here is that despite the demonizing of sodium, it is an essential nutrient; without it we die. Low carbohydrate diets both normalize the body’s ability to excrete excess sodium and dramatically reduce our intake of processed foods, baked goods, chips, and other “snack foods,” the biggest sources of sodium in the modern American diet. So pay attention.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-18-are-you-not-getting-enough-sodium-on-low-carb.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-18-are-you-not-getting-enough-sodium-on-low-carb.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Can Low-Carb Slow The Aging Process?

Links and Show Notes

We all know that carb restriction causes weight loss, controls blood sugar, and can help treat all of the ugly effects of metabolic syndrome.

But what if carb restriction could make you younger?

It should be noted that this is, to some degree, a reworking of an article I wrote in November of 2010. But the information is still fascinating and very useful. So, here we go.

In 2010, University of California gerontologist Cynthia Kenyon hit the news with an animal study showing exactly that she’d actually discovered what she calls the Grim Reaper gene and another she calls the Sweet 16 gene, Insulin. the switch that turns on the former and turns off the latter.

Insulin and insulin-like growth factor or IGF-1, which means that by cutting carbs and lowering insulin you can reverse the process, switching off the Grim Reaper gene and turning on your Sweet 16 gene.

Or, at least she can in roundworms. Dr. Kenyon started with roundworms. presumably because A) they’re inexpensive and plentiful, and B) they have short lifespans. I mean, you try this stuff on a Galapagos tortoise and you’ll be passing the experiment on to your great-grandchildren. But roundworms generally hit old age in 18 days and croak by 20 days.

Dr. Kenyon managed to extend some of their lifespans to 144 days. That’s like you or me making it to 450 years. Woo hoo! Many people tell me that they don’t want to live to be old. I have long aspired to make it to at least 120. When I tell people this, they look at me as if I just said I was planning to paint my house fuchsia or wanted to take a vacation to Chornobyl.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Toasted Almond and Coconut “Cereal” Recipe

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-17-can-low-carb-slow-the-aging-process.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Serenity Prayer for a Dedicated Low Carber

Links and Show Notes

Years ago, a reader told me that they admired me because I had stuck with my low-carb diet even though it had not given me the body of my dreams. Surely you’re familiar with the Alcoholics Anonymous Serenity Prayer – “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” I don’t care if you’re a praying person or not, nor to whom you pray if you are. But there is something important here.

Growing Up Overweight

When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to look like my Skipper doll. (Is Skipper still around? She was Barbie’s little sister.) I wanted to look like the girls in the magazines. I wanted clothes to fit me the way they fit Skipper, the way they fit the models in Young Miss and Tiger Beat (yes, I am that old).

They never did, and I never did. I could grow my hair to look more like Skipper’s, and I could even lose weight – I was on Weight Watchers starting at age eleven. But the hip clothes just didn’t look so hip on my body. I went straight from having the body of a child to having the body of a matron; I never had a gamine phase.

The things we can change and the things we cannot.

I could and did change my diet, my mental and physical health, my size. I learned to dress to flatter the body I have. But my skeleton? That sucker is literally graven in stone. There’s no changing it.

So there it is: my low-carb diet cannot give me the body of my dreams. Nor can exercise. Hell, radical surgery couldn’t do it, and pain, risk, and expense aside, at sixty-three it seems beside the point.

Read the full article https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-16-serenity-prayer-for-a-dedicated-low-carber.html

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Blue Trout Recipe (La Truite Au Bleu)

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-16-serenity-prayer-for-a-dedicated-low-carber.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Calories In/Calories Out vs Carbohydrate Restriction - What Works Best??

Links and Show Notes

There is a long-established truism that weight loss is all about “calories in, calories out,” and along with it the apparently unshakeable assumption that all calories are created equal.

It’s all bunk. Sheer bunk. But it’s bunk with so much weight of belief behind it that it’s very hard to shake people’s faith in it, even people who should know better.

So, we’re still bombarded with propaganda from the calorie police. One of their favorites is to tell us that low-carb diets only work because they “trick” you or “fool” you into eating fewer calories, by making you feel less hungry. I have actually read exactly that: “Oh, that diet just works by making you less hungry.” As if that were a bad thing.

If that were true, I’d be okay with it. I mean, I’d rather be tricked or fooled into eating fewer calories by reducing my appetite than try to muster up the willpower to tolerate being ravenous half the time. (Oh, Lord, the memories. . . When I was in my mid-twenties, I worked at a health food store. Every day I’d buy my lunch from our cooler – a sandwich on whole grain bread, a bottle of juice, a piece of fruit or a whole grain, honey-sweetened cookie. Such a healthy lunch. By two o’clock I’d be starving.

But it’s simply untrue.

Unlike your car, which will happily run at sixty miles per hour until it sputters and dies for lack of fuel, your body is a complex living organism, with powerful homoeostatic mechanisms designed to keep you from starving to death. If you follow the common advice to just cut a hundred or two hundred calories per day, your body will simply burn a hundred or two hundred calories less per day – and you will have that much less energy.

Can you hear Dr. Atkins saying “I told you so” from the Great Beyond?

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Low-Carb Green Eggs & Ham Easter Recipe by Dana Carpender – Includes Video

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-15-calories-in-calories-out-vs-carb-restriction.html

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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What About Cheat Days on Your Low-Carb Lifestyle?

Links and Show Notes

“How often should I have a cheat day?” There seems to be an assumption that cheat days are a good idea, something that should be built into a low-carb diet to keep people from feeling deprived.

I beg to differ.

Indeed, I’m not sure where the idea of a cheat day even comes from.

Obviously, it’s meant to appeal to people who cannot imagine just giving up carbs, not eating their favorite carby foods again. But people seem to think it’s a good idea, and that I cannot see.

I have written of the occasional indulgence – a term I prefer to cheat. “Cheat” implies that you’ll get away with something, and you never, ever do. Your body will notice. And I admit to a few handfuls of potato chips at a party now and then. I recall a cousin’s wedding where I ate a mini-chocolate cheesecake about an inch-and-a-half in diameter – maybe fifteen years ago.

When I first started, I would have an Indulgence for a holiday meal like Thanksgiving dinner – but I would eat a high protein breakfast that morning, eat one modest serving only of the carbs that really mattered to me – and be done. No leftover potatoes or stuffing or pie that night or over Thanksgiving weekend. Nuh-uh.

But never a whole day! And never a weekly, or bi-weekly, or even monthly thing. That way lies madness, not to mention failure.

Why? I’ll respond with a question of my own: If someone you loved was fighting alcoholism and had finally gotten sober, would you suggest that they have a cheat day once a week – start the day with mimosas, down some beers with lunch, go through a bottle or two of wine at dinner – and then expect them to be right back on the wagon the next day? No?

How about a two-pack-a-day smoker? If they finally managed to quit, would you suggest that they have a smoking day every couple of weeks so they wouldn’t feel deprived?

This is no way to kick an addiction.

Includes Dana’s Backwards Pizza Recipe

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Dana Carpender’s Backwards Pizza Recipe in the Show Notes.

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-14-what-about-cheat-days-on-your-low-carb-lifestyle.html

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Let’s Go to the Fair! How to Stay Low-Carb at Your County Fair

Links and Show Notes

Summer is here! And for many of us, especially those of us who live in rural-ish areas, that means a trip to the county fair.

Ah, yes, the county fair, home of deep-fried Snickers bars, corn dogs, elephant ears, and so, so much more. Too many folks simply assume that “It wouldn’t be the fair without !” and give themselves permission to gobble every carb in sight, many of them deep-fried in questionable oils, for the duration.

Should You Pause Your Low-Carb Diet for Special Occasions?

I will, therefore, start by denying that “special occasions” give you a pass nutritionally. Your body neither knows nor cares that you’re at the fair; your blood sugar and inflammation levels will rise as high as the fireworks. Yes, I think that an occasional indulgence can work for some people.

But once you give yourself a pass for one special occasion, it’s amazing how many special occasions appear. “I can have one slice of cake on my birthday” becomes “I have to have cake because it’s my kid’s birthday,” then “It was Sheila’s birthday at the office, and everyone was eating cake, so. . .” In the same way, “It wouldn’t be the fair without cotton candy!” starts to bleed over into, “We’re at the shore for the weekend, I have to have frozen custard!” and “The Robertsons brought such a pretty red-white-and-blue cake to the Fourth of July barbecue, it would be rude not to have some.” Next thing you know, you’re indulging for International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Also, some people can, indeed, have a modest indulgence and be right back on track with the next meal. I do this maybe three times a year with potato chips at a party, potato chips being my personal kryptonite. But many of us are addicted, whether to sugar, to wheat (William Davis, MD opened my eyes to the opioid-like addiction wheat can cause), or to carbs in general. I cannot count the times people have told me that they’d been doing great, lost a ton of weight, made huge strides in their health and energy, and were not even having cravings, until they decided, “I’m on vacation!” or “It’s Christmas!” or whatever other occasion they thought merited a “treat”, only to be sucked right back under. I hear from them ten months and forty pounds later. You must be ruthlessly honest with yourself.

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Seared Rib Eye with Gorgonzola Basil Butter Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/seared-rib-eye-with-gorgonzola-basil-butter-recipe.html

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-13-stay-low-carb-at-your-county-fair.html

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Dana Carpender’s 3 Question Interview with Christine Moore, Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner

Links and Show Notes

Welcome to another three-question interview from CarbSmart. I’m Dana Carpenter, your trusted guide to everything low-carb. In these interviews, I ask a professional whose job, in some way, involves carbohydrate restriction, three-questions, and of course, listen to their answers.

In Episode 12 of the CarbSmart Podcast, I am interviewing Christine Moore, a functional nutritional therapy practitioner. Having talked to registered dietitians who embrace carbohydrate restriction about the fact that food corporations are a major source of funding, or college dietetics programs and the effect that has on what they are taught and what they are permitted to say to their clients.

What is a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP)?

A Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP) is a professional who uses a holistic, foundational approach to nutrition to help individuals achieve optimal health. FNTPs focus on bio-individuality, recognizing that each person has unique nutritional needs. They emphasize nutrient-dense, whole foods and support overall wellness through dietary and lifestyle changes.

What do FNTPs do?

FNTPs assess clients’ health through detailed consultations, dietary evaluations, and functional assessments. They develop personalized nutrition plans tailored to the individual’s specific needs. These plans often include dietary modifications, lifestyle changes, and targeted supplementation. FNTPs educate clients on the importance of nutrient-dense foods and how to implement these changes in their daily lives.

How can FNTPs help someone with diabetes or who is overweight?

For individuals with diabetes or those struggling with weight management, FNTPs can offer significant support:

1 Diabetes Management

2. Weight Loss

3. Holistic Support

Website

https://CarbSmart.com

Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender

https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana

Featured Recipe

Keto Low-Carb Cajun Chicken Packets Recipe

https://www.carbsmart.com/keto-low-carb-cajun-chicken-packets-recipe.html

Show Notes

https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-12-3-question-interview-with-christine-moore.html

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