What is Sugar Alcohol?

Antique Absinthe Glass and Spoon
Originally uploaded by ldandersen

Until I started Atkins, if you had mentioned sugar alcohol to me, I would have thought you were talking about something like absinthe. But as it turns out, sugar alcohol is a carbohydrate that doesn't count towards the daily limit of 20g. I noticed that most food labels don't mention sugar alcohol; instead, they have total carbohydrates, fiber and sugar. Apparently a food manufacturer is only required to list sugar alcohol if they claim their product is sugar free, but they can do so voluntarily like many Atkins supplements do.

Technically called polyol, sugar alcohol is neither sugar nor alcohol. Per gram, sugar alcohol has less calories than sugar and it does not require insulin to turn into energy. The most common types of sugar alcohol are sorbitol, maltitol, isomalt, and xylitol (used in sugar-free gum).

And ofcourse, there are side effects of eating too much sugar alcohol. Common problems are gastrointestinal in nature, including bloating and diarrhea. These problems are more pronounced in people who have had gastric-bypass surgery.

Salad with your Oil, Sir?

Fresh olive oil on counter
Originally uploaded by madmaxx

One of the things that has saved me so far on the Atkins diet is being able to put some sort of dressing on my salad. Normally, salad dressings are forbidden or limited to the meager two tablespoon serving. I'm one of those people who regularly is asked "Would you like some salad with your dressing?" Thankfully, vegetable oil mixed with vingegar is carb free. A number of oils have health benefits aside from being non-carb calories!

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil Full of antioxidants and helps promote heart health.
• Canola Oil Enriched with omega-3 fatty acid, this type of oil can help raise HDL, the good type of cholesterol.
• Grapeseed Oil A good source of vitamins A & E.
• Walnut Oil While a rich source of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, this oil was apparently a popular snake oil in the past!

Throughout the ages, walnut oil has been thought to be a cure for many ailments, including stomach & skin problems, tuberculosis, hairloss, diabetes and various sexual afflictions.

So enjoy your oil and vinegar dressing! My current favorite recipe is equal parts of red wine vinegar, extra light olive oil and yellow mustard. I prefer the extra light olive oil to the extra virgin variety for purely taste reasons. Despite its health benefits, I can't stomach the extra virgin flavor.

Atkins Nutritional Approach

at cracker barrel, a half-pound bacon cheeseburger qualifies as a low carb offering
Originally uploaded by andrew d miller

Inspired by my recent reading, I've decided to try a low-carb diet for the month of January and what better one to start with than the most famous of them all: Atkins. I know there is a lot of bad press surrounding the Atkins diet, but Jimmy Moore, one of the most vocal low-carb bloggers around, lost a lot of weight and kept it off.

As far as I can tell, there are actually four different Atkins diet plans available, only two of which were written by Dr. Atkins himself.

1. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution Originally published in 1972, this plan aims to achieve "biologically zero" carbs for the first week. My only exposure to this book when I was in college. One of my co-workers handed it to me and said "I thought you might like to read this." I consider offering someone unsolicited weightloss advice akin to saying "Hey, you're fat and don't know it!" so I promptly ignored the book.
   
2. Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution In his new plan, released in 1992, Dr. Atkins recommended limiting non-fiber carbs to 20g per day during the induction phase. Later phases would allow the user to gradually add carbs to their diet to find the proper level for losing and maintaining weight. This plan also puts emphasis on good carbs over bad carbs (i.e. Glycemic Index).
   
3. Atkins Nutritional Approach Available online at atkins.com, this plan seems to be very similar to the 1992 book, however instead of counting vegetables by the cup, it counts them by the carb. It recommends eating 12-15g of carbs per day from vegetables.
   
4. The All-New Atkins Advantage Recently released, this book is a twelve week program designed to ease the reader in to the low-carb lifestyle. It includes both diet and exercise instructions.

Out of those four plans, I'm going to be following number three. Since not all vegetables are created equally, I would rather count the carbs in what I eat then limit myself arbitrarily to cups per day. Plus, the eating plan is available online for free. It looks like their business model is selling low-carb supplements like shakes and bars, but the actual nutritional information doesn't push the supplements.