Posted on 08/23/2002 5:07:58 PM PDT by Pokey78
In August and September, as the blueberry crop advances northward across Long Island on its way to Canada, I like to bake a blueberry pie, to which I add an entire lemon, including the peel, coarsely chopped. By the time the pie is baked, the peel and its pith caramelize and give the berries a surprising tang. A tablespoon or two of arrowroot doesn't quite absorb all the lemon juice, but I prefer my blueberry pie a little runny, not glutinous and stiff with cornstarch like pies from the bakery. I enjoy the way a scoop of vanilla ice cream melts into the warm juice.
During blueberry season, I usually make a dozen or so of these pies, their top crusts lightly browned with egg wash and accented with little rivers of purple syrup. But this year I'm not making any. And when they ripen, I'm not cutting up plump Golden Delicious or crunchy Mutsu apples from the Milk Pail in Water Mill on Long Island and laying the thick slices out neatly in circles in caramelized sugar and butter on the tarte Tatin pan that I bought from Fred Bridge in the 1960's. Nor will I be topping the apples with a thin sheet of buttery pie dough and sliding the tarte in the oven for 50 minutes at 360 degrees, to keep the apples from sticking to the pan the way they would at a higher temperature. And I won't be adding a tablespoon of flour to thicken the syrupy apple juice, because a tarte Tatin, unlike a blueberry pie, should not be runny at all.
Never again will I make the buttery muffins that I used to bake on Sunday mornings. I am also giving up ketchup, which is mainly corn syrup flavored with tomato and vinegar. Moreover, I'm going to think twice before I buy another Walla Walla onion, laden with sugary carbohydrates, or the wonderful rolls from Amy's Bread. That probably means no more hamburgers either and, for that matter, no more onion marmalade, the perfect accompaniment to magret de canard (the breasts of moulard ducks, the kind raised for foie gras), sautéed until warm and pink inside, then sliced and fanned out on the plate accompanied by the marmalade, a silky reduction of a half-dozen large, sweet onions -- a critical mass of carbohydrate waiting to turn itself into body fat.
According to Dr. Robert Atkins, 60 percent of the American population is perilously plump, an endangered group from whose condition I have been withdrawing for the past month at the rate of a pound every other day. I am especially wary of pecan pie, of which a single triangular slice contains three times the daily amount of carbohydrate permitted during the two-week initiation phase -- Atkins calls it the Induction Phase -- of his diet. This is the phase I have recently completed, having lost 10 pounds. I am now well into the Ongoing Weight Loss (O.W.L.) phase, with the permission of my wise friend and physician Stanley Mirsky, who for years has been urging me to avoid carbohydrates. But it was to the evangelical pitchman Dr. Atkins, not the stately Dr. Mirsky, that I finally succumbed, goaded by my son, Jacob, who, though not at all plump, lost 27 pounds and reduced his cholesterol in two months on Atkins.
The physiological case against excessive carbohydrates, reported in this magazine seven weeks ago, is fairly straightforward and by now well known. The low-carbohydrate diet, touted originally by Atkins and adopted successfully by millions of his followers, contradicts the widely accepted theory, introduced in the 1980's and later promoted by the Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid, that carbohydrates should be the basis of the American diet. Most researchers now agree that carbohydrates, especially refined ones like sugar and other vegetable-based sweeteners, white flour and rice, are quickly absorbed as energy by the body, while carbohydrates in excess of the body's immediate needs are stored as fat for future use. A secondary effect of this quick absorption is renewed hunger soon after a high-carbohydrate meal, for example after a Chinatown dinner of noodles, rice, wonton wrappers, egg-roll skins, syrupy ribs and cornstarch thickeners.
A low-carbohydrate diet, on the other hand, not only forces the body to seek energy by consuming its own stored fat but also suppresses appetite, since dietary fat and protein take longer to digest and enter the bloodstream than carbohydrates. Moreover, the body expends more energy burning fat than burning carbohydrates, yielding what Atkins calls ''a metabolic advantage.'' These phenomena explain the quick weight loss, especially during the Induction Phase, which allows only 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, about half the amount in a single bagel.
Even in its rigorous two-week Induction Phase, however, Atkins provides a rich larder of bacon and eggs, steak, lamb, pork and poultry, fish, including most shellfish, cheese, butter, cream (but not whole milk) and green vegetables except leeks, onions, peas and artichokes. Gin, vodka, whiskey and other spirits, according to Atkins, become ''acceptable,'' as does wine. Excluded forever are pasta, pizza, pastries and so on. No more sushi, congee, cookies, cereals, bagels, croissants, pancakes or waffles; no potatoes or corn, though one or two chips with guacamole is allowed. Above all, no more pretzels, which deliver five times as many carbs as potato chips. Orange juice, alas, is also out. But pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts are in.
Despite these restrictions, you can make a splendid breakfast of eggs scrambled through a strainer and cooked gently in a Teflon pan over simmering water, accompanied by warm prosciutto or its Austrian cousin, speck, with a few spears of asparagus, or a lunch of lobster, shrimp or chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise. (My favorite, Hellmann's, contains sugar.) For dinner you can have a pan-roasted rib-eye steak or striped bass with braised fennel or grilled trevisano radicchio. Most cheeses are acceptable, including blue, cheddar, cottage, cream and mozzarella. Tomatoes are iffy, but Atkins includes a recipe for fried green tomatoes using a noncarbohydrate bake mix. He may be an evangelist, but in his recipes he is not inflexible.
For the moment, at least, I seem to have successfully reversed my compulsions. Not only am I no longer addicted to croissants, hash-brown potatoes, blueberry pies and lobster salad stuffed into hot-dog rolls, but I am also slightly repelled by them. For moderately resourceful cooks, a low-carbohydrate diet offers abundant opportunity, and many of the recipes in ''Dr. Atkins's New Diet Revolution'' are worth considering. Nevertheless, I include my recipe for blueberry pie. Perhaps one day, when I am beyond Atkins's O.W.L. phase and into Maintenance, I'll make it again.
Blueberry Pie
For the pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
3/4 cup water
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water
For the filling:
2 quarts plus a little more firm,
fresh blueberries
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 lemon, seeded and coarsely chopped in the food processor
Vanilla ice cream for serving.
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil beneath the rack where the pie will bake.
2. To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until the butter has been cut in coarsely. Add half the water and pulse, watching to see if the dough forms a ball. If not, add a little more water until it does. Too much water will make a heavy, gummy pastry. Too little will make a crumbly one. If the dough feels too wet, add a little more flour and pulse. If too dry, add a little more water. Pulse sparingly. On a floured board, cut the dough into two parts, one slightly larger. Roll out the smaller portion and place it neatly in a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Refrigerate the larger portion while you prepare the berries.
3. To make the filling, pick over the berries, discarding green or bad ones, and remove any stems. Rinse the berries and drain. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and arrowroot. Add the berries and lemon and mix well. Mound the filling in the pastry shell.
4. Roll out the remaining pastry into a large round. Brush the rim of the bottom shell with some of the egg mixture and carefully lay the large pastry round over the berries. Trim the edges, leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Press the top and bottom pastry halves together to seal well. Fold excess top pastry under and crimp the edges. Cut 4 triangular holes near the top. (Do not cut along the sides or all the juices will leak out.) Brush with more of the egg mixture.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake 40 to 50 minutes longer, or until the top has browned and the juice has begun to spill out. Cool for about 1 hour so juices can settle. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Yield: 8 servings.
Guacamole
4 tomatillos
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped, or more to taste
1/2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
5 ripe Haas avocados
Sea salt to taste.
1. Place all the ingredients except the avocados and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly.
2. Split the avocados lengthwise and remove the pits. Save one pit. Scoop out the avocado flesh and add it to the processor. Pulse twice, or until the avocado is roughly cut in. Add sea salt to taste. The salt is crucial and should be added with care. To keep guacamole from turning brown if not serving immediately, add the reserved pit to it and cover with plastic wrap. Remove the pit before serving.
Yield: 10 appetizer servings. Each tortilla chip contains 1 gram of carbohydrate, so take it easy.
Monday Salad
(Adapted from the Palm)
1 head iceberg or other firm, crunchy lettuce, chopped medium fine
1 European cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 sweet onion, peeled and chopped medium fine
2 stalks celery, chopped medium fine
1 red pepper, chopped medium fine
1 tablespoon chopped anchovies
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon nicoise olives, pitted and chopped medium fine
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red-wine vinegar
Salt, sparingly, to taste.
In a bowl, mix the first 8 ingredients. Mix in the oil, then the vinegar, then salt to taste, although the anchovies may be salty enough.
Yield: 4 servings. Except for the onion, this delicious salad has practically no carbs.
For me about 70lbs three years ago in about six months.
Breakfast usually centered around eggs and bacon or sausage, vary the eggs between hard boiled, deviled, scrambled, and fried. Also pre-cooked sausage that you microwave was a big help in busy mornings.
Lunch is easy with any kind of Chef salad, or grilled chicken, or tuna salad or McDonald's or BK Whopper (just don't eat the bun, order two to make up for no fries). Buffets are wonderful. Eat a salad and then practically any meat on the buffet along with green beans as your veggie.
Dinner is usually easy as well as you can have any meat with salad, green beans, etc. Buy a carb guide book, it's surprising how many items are low carb.
Snacks are peanuts, walnuts, pork rinds, etc. Again map out your carb intake throughout the day and you can find a fairly good variety of foods besides the meat.
And yes, occasionally you cheat with a donut or piece of pizza.
I've done a low-carb diet twice. When I'm off it, a bottle of Maalox is my constant companion. On it, I never need an antacid. Two reasons for this I think: 1) The carbs cause acid reflux and 2) I lose so many inches due to weight loss that my pants fit loosely.
Currently, I've lost 11 pounds (170 to 159) since July 18. All I've really done is cut out sugar, starches, and white flour.
Also, I have been exercising more. But the key there is I feel like exercising. No more ups and downs. No nodding away at my desk.
The reason I ended up getting off it before is I lost the weight I wanted to and I started back on the carbs. It's a slippery slope, to be sure.
Do you eat any fruit? I've been operating on the assumption that for the last couple of million years man has eaten a paleolithic diet--meat, fish, vegetables, fruit--and that's what we should eat today (and forget grass seed--wheat). But when I eat a peach or piece of canteloupe my blood sugar goes bananas. If fruit was one of the things that humans evolved on, I wonder why I can't eat it now. Do you eat apples, oranges, peaches, melons, grapes, plums?
Not while you are on Atkins, initially.
You need to look upon his diet as a corrective measure, like wearing a cast until your broken arm heals.
Once you have lost the weight that you need to lose, you must change your poor habits that brought you to Atkins in the first place.
Eating in moderation and avoiding empty calorie foods as much as you can, exercise as you can, etc. You can then usually expand your diet to include more fruits and vegetables or become a calorie counter. Either way, Atkins is a good start for us to drop the weight quickly and feel more confidence in our ability to change our bad habits. But as always, the weight will come back if you fall back into bad habits.
Brilliant Apple lovers will continue in the truth and thrive as their computers actually work without fail. PC lovers will continue their incessant, masochistic complaints about crashes, freezes, viruses and burns of their eternally malfunctioning PCs. According to the Euroweenies, PCs do make good road fill when ground down to granules.
Really? Any evidence to back that up? Thought not...
LOL...is that what you're left with? Why are you on this website, if this is you're level of intellectual analysis most of the topics here will be way over your head.
And where are you getting this nonsense? From the same doctors who don't know jack-sh*t about nutrition, who insist that cutting calories is the only way to lose weight.
There's a great deal of evidence that heart disease is largely genetic.
Anyway, those of us who have lost weight on Atkins, who have more energy on Atkins, who feel better than they ever have have made up our minds.
If you want to eat pig food (corn, grains, potatoes), go right ahead. Atkins flies in the face of conventional wisdom (fat makes you fat), and old habits die hard.
Now, the dam is breaking on the phony food pyramid. It takes a big man to admit when he's WRONG; all I see around here are dwarves.
Eggs have gotten a bad rap, which recent studies are fortunately reversing. Yes, they are quite high in saturated fat, but for some reason, they don't seem to have the impact on cholesterol that was once thought (provided you don't fry them in a stick of butter and slather them with melted cheddar). And they are one of the best food-sources of bio-available protein you can find.
My only caveat is that different people metabolize fats and cholesterol differently, and one should always monitor the health effects of any major shift in eating habits. There is no one-size-fits-all solution (for instance, lean people who exercise a lot do need good carbs in addition to protein, especially after exercise, so that their body has energy reserves it can use to replenish itself without heavily catabolizing its protein reserves, a situation that hinders performance and increases recovery time. But this formula certainly doesn't apply to an overweight sedentary person, where the carbs would end up unused. In fact, there's even a difference between what a bodybuiler trying to build mass needs as opposed to, say, what a long-distance cyclist needs. Moral: there is no diet that is exactly right for everyone and every lifestyle, except that if your diet consists solely of cheesecake and vodka, you will probably die prematurely).
I'm really gonna take advice from folks who believe in "carb addiction". Just as "sex addiction" is really promiscuity, "carb addiction" is simply lack of will power and laziness.
It's no coincidence that the healthiest in our society don't follows that Atkins silliness.
You wanna lose weight, forget about ketosis and its side effects - just get off your fat caboose and exercise.
Sure, Atkins helps one lose weight fast, but so does heroin.
Senator, you've been told over and over and over that athletes who exercise intensely need carbohydrates for energy. "Carbo-loading" is common for marathon runners a couple of days before the race.
For the 90% of Americans who do not sweat til they drop, carbs turn into sugar, which turns into fat. This is incontrovertible.
The evidence is building against you. More and more, even in the medical community, are advising against over-indulging in starchy carbs. Atkins' followers simply amplify that advice, cut them out completely for some period of time until they're down to their desired weight.
This is simply the old "Diabetic diet" on steroids.
There is such a thing as "carb addiction," because there is a sugar addiction. You can dismiss that, but the science is irrefuteable.
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