Katherine B. Chauncey - Low-Carb Diet For Dummies

You’re tired of the stress that happens at mealtime in deciding what and/or where to eat.

You fear having to eat differently from your family while you prepare a “regular” meal for them.

You’re tired of being overweight and unable to join in fun activities.

You’re fearful of never being able to eat your favorite foods again.

Icons are those little pictures in the margins. Here’s a key to what they mean:

The Tip icon is handy, and I use it extensively. It marks things that I’ve identified as being helpful in your journey to lifelong good health.

This icon marks important points that are reinforced throughout a section of the book. You’ll do well to remember what I point out here.

Pay particular attention to the Warning icon to steer clear of situations that can be seriously dangerous or hazardous. Exercise some extra caution.

This icon marks interesting information that isn’t essential to understand. You can even skip over the text if it doesn’t appeal to you and still enjoy the book.

This icon points out recipes that use only Green Light foods, which are free foods you can eat anytime anywhere. They’re primarily vegetables, fruits, lean meats, and low-fat cheeses. Any other recipe not marked with a Green Light icon is counted as one of your carb choices. Check the yield part of the recipe to see how much carb to count.

This book is chock-full of tips and other pieces of helpful advice you can use as you eat a low-carb diet. If you want some additional tidbits of wisdom, check out the book’s Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com . Just search for “Low-Carb Diet For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”

One of the best things about this book, or any For Dummies book for that matter, is the fact that you can start just about anywhere and find something that’s interesting and relevant. Feel free to start wherever you want.

If you want a little more guidance, try this handy list on for size:

If you want to get shopping right away and need a grocery list to get you started, go right to Appendix B.

If you’re not sure if the plan is right for you, take a look at Chapter 4. It’s full of information on discovering your own personal health history, assessing your current health situation, and helping you see why this plan can work for you.

To go straight to the recipes, focus on Part 3. For a quick list of which recipes I include in the book, take a look at the Recipes at a Glance at the front of the book.

If you want a quick overview of the plan, and why it’s better than any other low-carb plan out there, take a look at Chapter 2.

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

Comprehend what the levels of carbohydrate are in low-carb diets.

Evaluate the changes in the western diet that have contributed to health problems, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Look at the differences in carbohydrate foods and what they contribute to carbohydrate quality.

Assess whether a low-carb diet is right for you.

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding low-carb dieting

Choosing the best carbs for your body

Maintaining a low-carb lifestyle

Although eating in the United States has been changing since the beginning of the 20th century, it has dramatically changed in the last 50 years. Americans eat out more frequently, eat larger portions of food, and eat more foods with little resemblance to their form in nature. Everywhere Americans turn, they’re inundated with refined and processed foods such as snack foods, chips, candies, cereals, cookies, and all other sorts of junk food. In addition, Americans are bombarded with best-selling diet books that just repackage fad diets to make them seem new and exciting. So, the old adage, “Eat less and exercise more” just seems dull and boring. As a result, more Americans than ever are overweight or obese and struggling to find a plan that helps them lose the extra pounds.

Americans unfortunately are exporting this dilemma around the world. Kuwait has more fast-food restaurants per capita than any other country in the world. And, yes, the incidence of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are on the rise in Kuwait. So, does this mean fast foods are the culprit? Not exactly. Most people are overwhelmed with the availability of cheap, tasty foods and junk foods whose advertising barrages them in every media at every twist and turn.

My goal is to help you discover a better way of eating that is easy, healthy, and reasonable. In this chapter, I map out a low-carb eating plan that is healthy and satisfying. I show you how to remove refined carbohydrates (carbohydrates with lots of sugar and very little fiber) from your diet, to make your diet healthier. By improving the quality of the carbohydrates you eat, and by controlling your daily intake of starchy carbs (like breads, pasta, and starchy vegetables), you’ll lose weight and experience many other healthy benefits including increased energy, improved mood, and better sleeping.

If you’ve looked into low-carb diets, you’ve probably found more than a few that require you to banish carbs from your diet entirely. And if you like carbs the way most people do, you’ve probably thrown down those books with a mixture of fear and frustration. Low-carb diets include a variety of carbohydrate levels, and not one specific level is accepted by all. The end result is confusion and a barrier in communicating the real risks and benefits of low-carb eating.

Americans are eating more food than ever, and carbs have replaced much of the fat. That increased food intake means an increased carbohydrate intake, which is largely sugars, sweeteners, and processed flour. That increase has had a direct impact on the health (and waistlines) of Americans. In working with patients at Texas Tech Medical Center, I found the low-carb eating plan approach referred to as the Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan as more effective than a low-fat diet approach. Patients watching their fat intake were eating a lot of fat-free food products that weren’t any healthier than the fat they had been eating.

This Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan doesn’t reduce carbohydrate so much that it induces ketosis (a process that happens when you don’t have enough carbs to burn for energy so you burn fat, which makes ketones to use for fuel). The Whole Foods Weight Loss Eating Plan not only reduces your intake of processed carbs, but it also shows you how to control your intake of those foods for a more permanent weight loss.