Low-Carb Lemon Ginger Cheesecake Truffles

Watching your sugar intake can be a bummer sometimes. I mean, let’s face it; there are plenty of reasons most of us like sweet treats, and number one topping that list is that THEY ARE YUMMY. So what’s a low carb or Primal eater to do when that late night or not-so-late night sweet snack attack hits? You could dive head-first into the Oreos, but since none of you have Oreos in your house (right?), you could try today’s recipe instead. I have nothing against Paleo and Primal desserts that employ things like almond and coconut flour jazzed up with dates, bananas, maple syrup, honey, and the like (well, I do, but not much, and it’s a topic for a different day anyway), but there are low carbers among us who really need to be more careful about the amount of sugar we consume, whether it comes from regular ol’ white table sugar or organic, unsulfured blackstrap molasses delivered on the wings of unicorns. But just because we can’t down “Paleo brownies” or “Paleo banana bread” any more often than we used to inhale the conventional stuff doesn’t mean we’re left out in the cold when it comes to desserts.

Label Madness Monday (Sort of)

Sorry no label post today. Once in a while time gets away from me. But I didn’t want to leave you completely high and dry on the last Monday of the month, so here’s a quick laugh for ya.

I was at Whole Foods the other day, and as I was walking past the bakery section, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Call it a Freudian slip, or, rather, a Freudian vision, or chalk it up to where my imagination was at the time, considering the immediate environment, but I am not kidding when I tell you I honestly, truly, thought this said “Blood Sugar Bomb.” I literally had to do a double take and that’s when I saw what the label really says:

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition.

Digestion for (not-so) Dummies: Large Intestine, Pt.2

The large intestine. We meet again. As I mentioned last time, even though the large intestine is much shorter than the small intestine, apparently it’s still big enough to warrant more than one post. So here we are, tackling a few more issues before we’re officially done with digestion. Actually, we were pretty close to being done with digestion before we even got to the large intestine. Like I explained in the previous post, almost no further breakdown and absorption of nutrients occurs in the large intestine. Those are really the jobs of the stomach and small intestine. But there is some food breakdown here in the colon. We’ll get to that in a bit. Before we do, we’ve got some unfinished business on constipation from last week. (Get it? Unfinished business! Indeed, I’ll try to pepper part 2 of large intestine function with a little humor the way I did part 1. ‘Cuz let’s face it: poop jokes never get old. And with that in mind, let’s get started with “number two on number two!”)

Label Madness Monday: Funky Hash (No, not *that* hash!)

In the words of The Bangles, “It’s just another manic Monday.” So here we are, another week, and another label. Considering that one of my recent posts (about the large intestine) was longer than a blog post has any right to be, I’ll keep this one kind of short. What are we serving up today? That breakfast staple, that complete meal-in-one, that mix of protein, fat, and carbohydrate that any short order cook worth his salt could cook in his sleep: roast beef hash!

Label Madness Monday - Health Halos Strike Again

Here we are, everyone, another glorious Monday, and another not-so-glorious food label to dissect, disembowel, and otherwise lay waste to. (Speaking of disemboweling--and waste!--have you checked out the latest post in my digestion series? It’s on the large intestine, so when you’re done here, hop on over there and get edumucated about your colon.)

Today’s label falls into the category I love to hate: junk food masquerading as health food. As I’ve said many times (but most forcefully in my rant from a while back), I’m okay with treats. Treats that act like treats, and whose manufacturers aren’t trying to hoodwink us into thinking are anything but treats. What I’m not okay with is pure junk that’s marketed as pristine, healthful, nutritious fare.

If you learn just one thing from all these label posts, let it be this: organic, gluten-free, artisanal junk is STILL JUNK. Organic sugar is still sugar, and organic soybean oil is still oil they manage to squeeze out of soybeans. (And for the gluten-intolerant among you, organic, non-GMO wheat flour still contains gluten.)

Okay. Now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way, let’s jump in.

Digestion for (not-so) Dummies: Large Intestine Pt.1

We’ve come to the end today! Literally and figuratively! Ha! You can tell right from the start here this post is going to be full of colon-related double entendre. (You're welcome.)

Yes, here we are, finally, at the last stop on our long train journey north to south through digestion and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. If you’re just tuning in, you might want to check out the previous entries in this series. We’ve covered the major organs and glands involved in breaking down the foods we eat into the amino acids, fatty acids, and simple sugars our bodies can absorb and do something with, and some of the snags that can happen along the way when those organs and glands aren’t performing at their best.

I ended the most recent post by saying that the colon, or large intestine, is large and in charge. And I said I would explain. So here goes. (Note: I will use the terms colon and large intestine interchangeably.)

Label Madness Monday: Is Nothing Sacred?

Today’s label post takes a look at chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Not the world’s most common ingredient, I grant you, but there’s a method to my madness. I’ll be writing a few blog posts here and there with tips on creating homemade versions of your favorite sauces, dressings, and condiments. Some will be Paleo, some will lean more toward Primal, some will be low-carb, but one umbrella they’ll all fall safely under is REAL FOOD.

So I went looking for these smoked jalapeños in an attempt to make my own chipotle aioli. (Okay, it wasn’t really an aioli because I can’t be bothered to make my own mayonnaise, so I was going to finagle something with sour cream and yogurt. Also: does anyone reading this watch Throwdown with Bobby Flay? Am I wrong in thinking that any time one of the dishes involves an aioli—especially one with jalapeños or poblanos, the judges should pretty much be able to guess it’s Bobby’s?  [Also: anything with blue corn.])

Aaaanyway, on to the label.