Support and ideas for those on low-carb diet

Perhaps even more interesting than the 'ins and outs' of low carbing- is the fact that a huge % of research is funded by the big food corps- which, when you analise who owns who- is about a dozen, which is quite scary. A friend posted a diagram on my FB some time ago, that illustrated that so well. And these few have a massive power over the Government and decision making- and again and again, manage to hide, distort or divert information. Remember when the findings of the 'red meat' report and then the sugar the Black report, in the 80s, from top of head) were just smothered? Had they been taken seriously then, we might not be facing the massive diabetes and cholesterol epidemics we do now. But then the big pharmas wouldn't be able to make so much money peddling medicines- hey ho.

Certainly there needs to be some clarification about the role of cholesterol. We have been really amazed about how cholesterol levels have dropped on low carb, moderate fat.
Zoe Harcombe had some interesting things to say about it recently.
www.zoeharcombe.com/2015/10/national-cholesterol-month/

DBH is now fully converted to eating fewer carbs, as he is not able to exercise as much while he is at home. He eats as much as he used to, just not bread, rice or pasta, and has been astonished to see that he can maintain his weight at where he needs it to be. We do eat carby veg more often now that it is getting colder, more beans and lentils etc.

Last night we had gammon steaks topped with a cheesy spinach nest, with a poached egg popped in it. Tonight we are having a Sicilian spicy lentil sauce but on courgetti rather than spaghetti.

We both feel much healthier, and were surprised by how faintly sick we felt when out for my birthday lunch last weekend. My sister and family were all tucking into HUGE plates of roast beef with giant Yorkshires and lots of roasted potatoes, parsnips and whole big carrots! We on the other hand, all chose mullet with prawn sauce and pureed veg, served with lightly steamed courgette, French beans and mangetouts. We have become lightweights. However, I thought afterwards, at least we ate it all so there was no waste. I doubt we could have managed the platefuls they were consuming.

Sorry - very interesting article. I did rather think that may be the case. I know sugar was pushed hugely by the big corporations.

And breakfast cereals.

And breakfast cereal indeed.

Just reviving the thread to welcome Wilma!

May I join you too?
It was browsing through this thread that got me started and so far I'm very happy with my change of eating habits - I will not use the word 'dieting'!!

Thank you Maybe. I will read through this thread and no doubt have questions later.

All welcome! I do think some of the recipes on the thread are a bit high-falutin' and I apologise for that, but you have to get a bit creative when you have a huge glut of butternut squash and courgettes in the garden.

Breakfast was scrambled egg and bacon. Lunch is Jerusalem artichoke soup, an apple and a pear. Tonight we are having chilli con carne (which will include a small quantity of red kidney beans so not very low-carb) served with mashed avocado, full-fat yoghurt, grated cheese and a glass of red wine.

Welcome everyone!

It's only high-falutin' if you have an empty storecupboard - once you have some spices, herbs, condiments, etc to jazz-up the most basic of foods you're off.

Breakfast: big portion of de-frosted and drained spinach sauteed in a spray of olive oil, two eggs dropped in, few chopped anchovies on top, lid on until eggs set - if out of anchovies a dash of Lea & Perrins. Coffee

Lunch: will be leftovers from the lamb dish that was slow-cooked on Sunday (see slow cooker thread)

Supper: Defrosted mackerel fillet, tarted-up with mustard and things and served with roasted butternut squash (frozen from Waitrose). Wine

All really easy and filling, nothing fancy.

Mamie I have just noticed the spell checker changed your name to Maybe - sorry about that - I hate getting names wrong - teach me not to preview my post.

I already have the dietdoctor books and a couple of others, so I will have plenty to refer to for help. I am vegetarian and the dietdoctor website had a vegetarian week in February, but I wasn't keen on most of the recipes. Hopefully this thread will give me some ideas.

Don't worry, I have been singing "Maybe Baby" ever since!
I think JaneRowena does a lot of veggie stuff, she may be able to help.

Wilma as you're vegetarian and don't like to cook, I understand how hard you must find it to lose weight!

My sister is a strict vegetarian so my meat/fish-heavy recipes are usually of no use to her.

Much British vegetarian food is pretty tasteless as it doesn't have the spices and herbs to pep it up, so a veggie who doesn't like to cook is likely to rely on pasta, bread, ready-meals etc.

Out of interest, what's a typical day for for, foodwise?

I feel like a spy from 'Allo, 'allo. Listen carefully, I weel say theece only warnce.

I am ex-janerowena, on the run from a spying relative.

Anyway - yes, we do eat an awful lot of veg and very little meat. However, I think you would have to tell me what you need to use and I would then come up with a recipe, because I rarely follow other recipes, I usually make up my own. Also, being coeliac, I tend to use less flour, purely because I have got out of the habit.

This week, mixed roasted veg, liberally doused in olive oil, spices and herbs will figure largely, because I have so many to use up before we get hit by frosts. We still have squashes, (butternut, pattypan and spaghetti) large and small tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, leeks, mangetouts, beans, rocket, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli, a type of perennial cauli a bit like PSB, spinach and rocket. Plus of course all the apples and raspberries, and thanks to my buying a really late variety, for DBH's birthday dessert we were able to have strawberries!

So tonight I think we shall have roasted veg, and then a spinach nest mixed with whatever cheese I think needs using up most, and a poached egg popped in it.

Of all the crops that puzzled me most this year, it was pumpkins. They disappeared, so I thought, until one of the spaghetti squashes got botrytis so I cleared it away. Underneath it was a long string of teeny baby dark orange pumpkins, that had been meant to be football-sized.

You can roast immature unripe squashes, they just don't have as much flavour and need more seasoning/sauce/whatever.

On calorie count v selecting food types for dieting. This webpage has estimated number of calories in the diet increasing historically from 1700 to 2010 (the second graph down) You can select the countries shown.
ourworldindata.org/data/food-agriculture/food-per-person/

There are other charts on the page, showing global figures.

Fascinating. I would have liked to see 'The Americas' split up, though. I find it surprising that we were able to feed ourselves better than the French back when, I would have thought they had slightly better weather in their favour.

I think the problem historically in France was that they were not allowed to kill game which was reserved for the aristocracy. This meant that the crops got eaten before they could be harvested. It is also why hunting is enshrined in the rights of man (and I do mean man) and our weekends are disturbed by constant gunfire while we cower inside because they are mostly rotten shots.
Graham Robb's book "The Discovery of France" is fascinating on this.
Back on topic, dinner was delicious and ended with personally imported stilton.

Honestly, I don't have a typical day when it comes to food, partly because of health issues. I could list the health problems I have, but the big ones are MS diagnosed in March after being diagnosed with a rare neurogical condition called Transverse Myelitis and long term Depression. The recent diagnosis has been the driver to make our lives healthier and after watching the documentary about how the food industry made us fat (heard about that on here), it spurred us on even more.

During the week our basics are bread, eggs, baking potatoes, salad vegetables. cheese and my favourite - baked beans. The rest of our diet is rubbish food that we know is unhealthy, but love eating. I am being honest here to give you an idea of how much I want to turn around our eating habits. After a lifetime of dieting, I want to start cooking balanced meals and understand the principles behind the lchf approach. Having read several pages at the beginning of this thread, I know you changed the title so lchf was removed, but I can still see how I can get support here.

I have got a well stocked store cupboard and have copied some of the recipes for ideas.

I have a question already about the recipe for Braised Fennel. The instructions say reduce to a syrupy golden glaze. Are the carrots and fennel still solid (but soft) and everything thing else makes the blaze, or do they go mushy and become part of the syrupy golden glaze?

Thanks for explaining Wilma that all sounds difficult for you.
Perhaps the most helpful thing we can do is to post the day's menus with ideas for veggie variations where possible?
So for us today...
Breakfast: Muesli (we make our own with more nuts than fruit) with full-fat plain yoghurt.
Lunch: Avocado with tuna mashed in mayo and hard-boiled egg (cream cheese instead of tuna?) Fruit.
Dinner: Moussaka. We bake the aubergine slices first in a a generous splosh of olive oil in the oven, then line the dish. We make a lamb ragu but you could make a rich tomato sauce with onion, celery and carrot. Add a teaspoon each of cumin, oregano and cinnamon. Add the ragu to the dish then cover with a thin layer of mozarella and feta. Bake at about 175°C for half an hour.
We are not as strictly low carb as when we were losing weight, hence the muesli. I think red berries would be the alternative.

Mamie that is so kind of you, thank you. All my life I've been sure I wouldn't like avocado, so I'm buying one just to taste it LOL!

You are welcome! Actually I quite enjoyed doing the menu plan before I got up.
With plain avocado I do lemon juice, salt and pepper. In a salad I do oil and balsamic vinegar. Love them!

Do you buy the spreadable version of butter?

No just ordinary local Normandy butter (the cows are grazing outside as I write). I leave a lump out in the butter dish though. I don't trust the spreadable stuff, it must have something added.

Just your mention of butter makes me realise how much I have changed my eating habits over the years, Wilma. I used to eat it half an inch thick on Weetabix when I was little, the same with home-made bread and honey. Now I rarely bother, except with jam. I love avocado and lemon juice sandwiches, but never bother with the butter. I use olive oil for dressings and frying, unless it's deep frying, which is very rare.

Vegetable fritters - which is what we are having tonight. Coarsely grate any old veg that grates well, chop finely those which don't. If it makes a lot of liquid you can get away with just adding a little flour until it makes a stiffish batter. If it is very dry you can add an egg. Or you can drain off wet veg and add an egg anyway. Add any seasonings you like, and fry. They only take a minute or two on either side, a heaped dsstsp at a time, flattened down.

Tonight our fritters will be courgette, butternut squash and a little onion. They will be served with chicken breasts and this sauce

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sweet_chilli_sauce_65562