Eating Low Carbs - A Healthy Choice

South Beach Diet Recipe

There are many benefits to eating low carbohydrate diet, the most obvious is weight loss, but did you know that eating low carbs also helps with high blood pressure, heart conditions, depression, and diabetes.

South Beach Diet Recipe

A Low carb diet use to be the last resort when looking at dieting options due to the lack of variety in choices. The options tended to be boring and very limited, especially if we are trying to sustain a low carb diet for life.  The great news is there are many recipes and food products today that offer wonderful dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

South Beach Diet Recipe

Acceptable Carbohydrate Amounts

South Beach Diet Recipe

There is no way you can eat 100% carb free and stay healthy at the same time, so what is the acceptable amount to be considered a carb free diet. Dr Atkins who is a leader in the carb free movement and instrumental in promoting a carb free lifestyle suggests eating 15 to 20 grams when starting out for 3 weeks, then gradually introducing carbs while working up to a level of 25 to 90 grams and trying to maintain that level going forward. A more moderate intake would be 90 to 100 grams, and for the most liberal diet the maximum should not exceed 250 grams.

Going Overboard

Like with anything else, moderation is key. You need carbs to stay healthy, you cannot exclude carbs entirely, so please stay away from diets that promote zero carbs. Americans eat carbs in excess amounts; almost every processed food will contain an excess amount of carbs, Items like pizza, bagels, hamburgers, fries, pasta, and cereals, as well as most every snack food. But remember, you body needs good carbs like the ones found fruit and vegetables, but these also need to be consumed in moderation, the suggested servings are between 5 and 10 daily.

Tips for a successful carb free diet

Find foods low saturated fat but high in protein Use healthy oils such as olive, canola, and fish oils Snack on nuts, but in minimum amounts Cut out the white starches such as breads, pasta, and potatoes Choose nonfat dairy products Use whole grains Pay attention to labels to minimize carb intake Try to stay with suggested serving sizes especially when calculating carbs from labels

 Please check with your Dr. first before going on any diet

Eating Low Carbs - A Healthy Choice

South Beach Diet Recipe

What is the Importance of Eating Artichokes?

South Beach Diet Recipe

Consider your body a machine for a moment. Just a moment though, you can see the importance of eating healthy. All the fuel this machine gets is from the food you eat. Just as a machine wouldn't run optimally with low grade fuel, neither does your body. For that reason, it is thus clear why we need some sort of fuel to make us healthy. For healthy individuals, these can be anything that has high nutrition content. At the top of our list are vegetables like artichokes.

South Beach Diet Recipe

What are artichokes? Artichoke originated in the Mediterranean countries and was a popular delicacy at Roman feasts. It is now grown in many hot areas and is an important crop in parts of California. A good artichoke will have a nice color, well closed centre leaves and be without bruises or blemishes.

South Beach Diet Recipe

The base should be without any tendency to woodiness. Artichoke is often eaten raw as well as cooked, but cooking artichokes in an aluminum pot causes discoloration and blackening. Like other plants in the thistle family, to which it belong, the artichoke contains some therapeutically valuable oils which have a strong stabilizing effect on the human metabolism. There are lots of different recipes out there that will have you cooking artichokes in many different ways, but if you want a simply way cook them you only need a large pot of boiling water. In this case, simply salt the water, dump the vegetables inside of it, and cook them until they are slightly tender. Otherwise, you may find other methods that are more appealing.

South Beach Diet Recipe

Essentially, preparing these vegetables is a lot like preparing any other type of veggie. All you really need to remember is not to overcook them. This means that you can steam, broil, and even grill them as long as you respect their cooking time. In fact, while most people have no trouble cooking them, almost everyone is confused when it comes to eating them. If you have ever seen this vegetable on a menu, but you are not sure how to eat it, here is one simple technique: take each petal off, place your teeth on the "meat," and allow your teeth to slide off of the meat grasping the insides.

While it may seem time consuming, cooking artichokes (and eating them) is well worth it if they are in season. Also, you may come across a lot of recipes that use the actual "choke" part of this vegetable. If you are going to make one of those recipes, be sure to take off all the small, fuzzy, parts that could literally cause you to choke. Other than that one caution, these veggies are worth all the trouble in the world for just a few moments of delicious pleasure.

You can serve these vegetables with a bit of melted butter, or you can eat them with lemon and olive oil. Either way, give them a shot - you will soon discover a great new vegetable that is heavenly to dine upon. Look for ones that are free of brown spots and are covered with lots of green leafy vegetables.

What is the Importance of Eating Artichokes?

South Beach Diet Recipe