Breadmakers feel pain from Atkins diet

Pennlive.com ^ | Nov 8 2003 | DAVID SHARP, AP

[avenir]

"The Art of Noise is Paranoid!"

Lol.

[Beck_isright]

The reality is that America is waking up to the dangers of too much processed sugar and grain in their diet. The Atkins diet is just part of this. I've now seen low carb milk in the stores and the Atkins company has had low carb breads for sale for years now. The shift has happened. Now businesses can adapt or die.

[not-an-ostrich]

Statistically there are not enough people on low carb diets to put a dent in the humongous bread business. This is special interest whine and media filler.

[TruthNtegrity]

I can't thank you enough for this recipe. Not only is flour a problem for me but so is yeast. I've been experimenting with soy flour and since I love poppy seeds and sesame seeds, I've been working on inventing biscuits with these as a coating. My efforts haven't been very successful and reading your recipe, I think it must be that I haven't been using eggs. I forgot that when you don't use yeast, you use eggs as a softener.

Carlo - I'm so eager on occasion to have something that looks like bread or cookies, and with this recipe, at least the "bread" part has been solved.

Please feel free to put me on your ping list. I know it will have other subjects, but I can just ignore those I'm not interested in.

[SamAdams76]

I was a big bread eater when I first went normal-carb in April. Didn't know how I would be able to give it up long-term because I liked it so much. Seven months later, my cravings for bread are completely gone. To the point where I can have fresh bread put in front of me at a restaurant and not even be tempted. I do have a slice of whole wheat or whole grain bread occasionally, as you do, but it just isn't something that I desire anymore.

I did try the low carb bread. Once. That was enough for me. Maybe they should make cigarettes with the same kind of recipe. That would make people quit smoking!

One thing I notice among fellow normal-carbers such as myself on these threads. Many of them are looking for "low-carb" substitutes of foods they just shouldn't be eating in the first place. Ice cream, pies, cakes, cookies, candies, etc. I find it easier just to give that stuff up once and for all.

[carlo3b]

Statistically there are not enough people on low carb diets to put a dent in the humongous bread business. This is special interest whine and media filler.

Whoa, thats quite an important bit of knowledge. Thanks so such for sharing your unique insight.. Hitting my forehead with my palm, how could I have ever believed otherwise.. :)

[BibChr]

Basic ditto, except bread still tempts me. There are few better aromas!

But hey, if it doesn't tempt you (like the song says) "I'm happy for you, I'm really happy for you." Myself, I just have to look on it as Step One back to gross fatness and misery. But I can't tell myself I don't wish I could eat it without those consequences.

Dan

[carlo3b]

Here is a neat low cholesterol cookie, I think you'll enjoy:)

  Zesty Italian Lemon Cookies

Tall taste with low cholesterol.

• 3 large egg whites
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups chopped nuts or dried fruit

Preheat oven to 375°F.
1) Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder and almond extract until smooth.
2) Add the flour and nuts or fruit, and stir just until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
3) Drop tablespoon-size lumps of dough on a greased baking sheet.
Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, 10-12 minutes.
Let them cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Per serving: calories 274, fat 8.6g, 27% calories from fat, cholesterol 0mg, protein 5.9g, carbohydrates 45.5g, fiber 2.2g, sugar 30.4g, sodium 29mg, diet points 6.3.

[not-an-ostrich]

Thanks, but just logic. I'm a low carb dieter and I appreciate the post because of the link to low carb taco shell site.

[Salvation]

We need fruits and vegetables more than we need grains in our diets.

When do you think the USDA will ever re-work the food pyramid? It drives me nuts when I am helping in a classroom and all those grains, starches, pastas, etc. form the bottom layer. Yuck!

I want to say to the teachers -- don't you realize that you are teaching the wrong nutritional facts here?

[meyer]

Perhaps they can consider returning to whole-grain products and ditch the white flour. That's half the problem with most bread today - the white flour might just as well be pure sugar.

[TruthNtegrity]

I doubt that Atkins will be passe in three years as you state. Afterall, it's been around since the mid-70's, when Atkins published his first book.

I wish that "eating all things in moderation" worked for me, but I cannot lose weight or maintain my weight by eating more than 20 grams of carbohydrate a day. Even with what used to be "excessive" exercise, I couldn't maintain my weight without watching carbs.

If it works - or whatever works for you, fine. But, please, don't sneer at us who have found that this is the only way we can stay healthy and normal weight.

[carlo3b]

what produces the gluten

Kneeding the dough begins the Gluten process, and pretty much controls the amount. Gluten begins to form as soon as flour is moistened and stirred. Gluten in bread baking needs to be developed to give the bread a strong structure that can withstand the strength of yeast activity, sometimes over an hour or two.

Gluten also acts like a net, catching and holding the air bubbles developed in the dough. These bubbles are later enlarged by the carbon dioxide, a by-product from the yeast, which causes the baked good to rise. I hope that helps!

[SamAdams76]

But I can't tell myself I don't wish I could eat it without those consequences.

But I feel the same way. Believe me, I would love to go back to eating bread, pies and pasta and even "junkier" foods like Twinkies, Oreos, tortilla chips and one of my favorite candies which was those caramels with the creme centers. If I knew I could eat those without gaining back the weight I worked so hard to lose, I would eat them. And with the holiday season coming up, I would love to imbibe in the egg nog and the home-baked cookies and the jelly-filled macaroons and all that other stuff. But I am going to get through this season without touching any of it - no problem. My recent memories of being fat are still too strong to slip back to old ways. Also, all my family and friends are waiting for me to put the weight back on. "The hardest part about losing weight is keeping it off" is on everybody's lips. So this is motivating me to keep it off once and for all to prove all the naysayers wrong.

So this holiday season, I will have to be content with extra nuts and cheeses and of course some fine wine and beers. Those my body can handle.

[CobaltBlue]

Plains Indians didn't eat much meat until they got horses, which were not native to the Americas, and were brought here by the Spaniards first.

Without horses they were mostly hunters and gatherers, eating wild food.

I was just thinking about how much more wild food I used to eat, growing up in South Louisiana as a kid. Fish, shrimp, crabs, crawfish, wild ducks, venison. And wild berries in the spring, and wild greens.

Nature's bounty. Very healthy.

[William Terrell]

Yes, I understand. I made all the bread I ate for some years. But in your low-carb bread recipe I didn't see anything I could identify that would make either gluten or any elastic substance to take it's place.

Does the recipe produce flat bread?

[jennyp]

Here is your chance to GET ON or GET OFF this and other Carlo3B, all important..(Bwhahhahahh).. PING LISTS.

I think I dropped off your low-carb ping list. Please slow down so I can jump back aboard.

[jennyp]

One thing I notice among fellow normal-carbers such as myself on these threads. Many of them are looking for "low-carb" substitutes of foods they just shouldn't be eating in the first place. Ice cream, pies, cakes, cookies, candies, etc. I find it easier just to give that stuff up once and for all.

You know, this is one of the Big Debates within the low-carb community.

For myself, I don't care too much about finding a low-carb ice cream, or low-carb pretzel or bread, etc. I don't miss carbs too much. But then again, once in a while I do, and over time those once in a while's add up to where I feel I should be able to indulge in the tastes I used to love and not worry about falling off the wagon. But everybody's different and YMMV.

For the country at large, I doubt that the major agribusinesses would be able to change en masse to exclusively extremely-low-carb products even if they wanted to. But if they could get it so that the average potato chip, Doritos, ice cream, Cheerios, spaghetti, and pizza dough had 1/2 to 2/3 the carbs they have today, then the country's obesity problem as a whole would simply fade away.

With all the refinements they're discovering to low-carb recipes & ingredients, and the inevitable genetically engineered lower carb plants, I think that kind of incremental change is doable, and probably a more reasonable goal to hope for in the long run.

p.s. CONGRATULATIONS on your minus 100 lbs! WOOHOO! We want new pix!

[KevinDavis]

I wonder when they are going to blame George W for this?

[jennyp]

carbohydrates 45.5g

Yikes! What's with all the sugar?

Carlo, I have a question: I don't do much baking, and what little I do is usually around the upcoming Holidays. I tried baking cookies with Splenda once, and it didn't turn out too bad. But could you give us a few pointers about baking with Splenda vs. sugar?

Thanks!