FREE Chick-Fil-A Sandwich And A Diet Coke

Chick-Fil-A and Coke want to give YOU some free food!

Whenever I see a deal that will benefit people who are livin' la vida low-carb, then I like to pass it along. And when we're talking about Chick-Fil-A chicken (the BEST in the world, IMHO, and it's REAL chicken--not that "fake" stuff) and a cold, refreshing Diet Coke, you run as fast as you can to get in on this while it lasts.

Mmm mmm, this is about as easy a freebie you'll ever see and I encourage you to take advantage of it before 11:59pm on September 29, 2007. But don't wait until the last minute because only one million of these coupons will be distributed and then they are gone!

Here's what you need to do to get your chicken and Diet Coke coupon:

1. Go to FreeChickenAndCoke.com.
2. Click on the Click Here To Enter button.
3. Fill out the address you want your coupon shipped to.
4. Wait 6-8 weeks for your coupon to arrive.

Easy peasy and it's FREE FOOD! If you ask for the chicken to be chargrilled without the bun, then they'll give you plenty of greens to wrap it in. And the Diet Coke can be replaced with unsweetened tea if you'd like that better.

This is a rare freebie from a major restaurant chain that's actually low-carb friendly, so take advantage of it while you can. ENJOY!!!

Study Hopes To Prove Iron Deficiency Cured By Having A Coke And A Smile

Is it possible that drinking a Coke with pizza cures anemia?

The lines between good, meaningful nutritional research and propaganda financed by certain economic and business interests keeps getting muddied by so-called scientific studies like this one that hope to prove Coca-Cola can serve as a healthy dietary supplement for people who have iron deficiency. This is NOT a joke!

Lead researcher Sue Fairweather-Tait, professor in the School of Medicine, Health Policy & Practice at the Norwich, England-based University of East Anglia (UEA), is recruiting 16 female volunteers to consume a pizza and a Coca-Cola so they can analyze what impact that will have on their iron levels. Iron deficiency leads to anemia when the red blood cells are lacking this key mineral.

When the Coca-Cola company caught wind of this proposed study, predictably they quickly ponied up the money to fund it. Well I wonder what THEIR interest could be in this study? Can you say marketing? Drink Coke for your health, they'll say. Oh brother! More about this in a moment.

Fairweather-Tait wanted to see if drinking a Coke helps the body to absorb more of the iron from the foods consumed. Since pizza is a popular food item, especially among the young women involved in the study, the researchers will have them eat a cheese and tomato pizza (no meat since that is metabolized differently) and wash it down with either a regular Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, or mineral water to see which beverage will be most effective in helping the body take in the iron from the food.

The idea for this suspicious study didn't just come out of thin air, though. It turns out Fairweather-Tait met with a former Coke CEO who put a bug in he ear about it. Oh really?! Just talking small talk about the weather, politics, and oh, by the way, did you hear drinking Coke helps with iron deficiency...PUHLEEZ!!!

Preliminary tests found that iron absorption was "pretty high" when a meal is complemented with a regular Coca-Cola. The researchers are excited to see if the same results bear out in their study.

"The volunteers come in and eat the pizza and have one of the drinks, then do the same the next day and we measure the iron level in the blood to see what affect the drink has," Fairweather-Tait explained. "Then we send them away and they come back a couple of weeks later and do it again."

What is the goal of the study from The Coca-Cola Company's perspective? If the findings hold true, then they can promote the heck out of their product being an inexpensive way to treat anemia brought on by iron deficiency--potentially a "huge boost" for the company at a time when they are under fire for contributing to the obesity epidemic.

Interestingly, Fairweather-Tait and Coca-Cola claim the results of the study, which should be released sometime near March 2008, will be published regardless of the results. How noble of them since it's probably already a foregone conclusion what they will find! Ridiculous propagandist research for the sake of the Almighty Dollar!

While I appreciate what Coke is doing trying to get stevia approved by the FDA as a sweetener, it is pure madness for them to pretend that their regular high fructose corn syrup-infested soft drinks are healthy for people to consume, iron deficiency or not. They've tried to make similar kinds of health claims before and nobody bought into it before.

The Coca-Cola Company has been bending over backwards over this past year trying to position themselves as a maker of products that are a part of a healthy lifestyle. We've seen it with their Enviga energy drink and most recently with Diet Coke Plus. While those are noble attempts to offer consumers better options, this new study they are funding is grasping at straws in a fit of desperation to lift the cloud of scorn that has been hanging over them because of the extremely high sugar content of their regular sodas.

Regardless of what this study finds, the stigma is still gonna stick! Perhaps Coke should keep looking at ways to REDUCE or ELIMINATE the HFCS altogether from their product if they truly care about the health of their customers. Something to think about!

You can e-mail Sue Fairweather-Tait about her study at s.fairweather-tait@uea.ac.uk.

Diet Soda Gets The Low-Carb Thumbs Up

There are plenty of subjects that are considered controversial within the realm of livin' la vida low-carb. From the amount of carbs consumed to the use of artificial sweeteners, we as a community have a uniquely sadistic way of recklessly sabotaging what is by all intents and purposes the best nutritional approach known to mankind. I suppose there are some who just get bored with a plan that works.

That may explain why there are some who are so vehemently opposed to drinking diet soda while on a low-carb diet. I've never really understood this dynamic at all and simply kept smiling while the pounds melted off of me in 2004. As a former Coca-Cola addict which ballooned me up to 410 pounds, I knew I needed an alternative when I started the Atkins diet.

What I did was switch from regular Coke to diet sodas--primarily Diet Rite, Diet Coke with Splenda, Cheerwine, and Pepsi One. This was a monumental step for somebody like me who used to guzzle sugary sodas like they were nothing and NEVER drinking water.

But when I switched from regular to diet soda overnight, I also started drinking water, water, and more water. While I was losing weight, it wasn't uncommon for me to get down two gallons of H2O daily along with my diet sodas. Yes, I'm one thirsty man, but I am thoroughly convinced this was an instrumental part of my success.

Soon thereafter, I become a BIG FAN of diet sodas and have never experienced any adverse effects on my weight and health as a result of drinking them. There has been nothing but positive benefits to diet soda from the day I started drinking them on my low-carb lifestyle.

Since I have been maintaining these past few years, I got the idea that perhaps I should try to cut out my diet soda consumption now in 2007. No, it wasn't because I started believing the preposterous studies like this one showing you can gain weight drinking diet soda, as if sugary soda is better for you than diet soda. ABSURD!

But after about a month of going cold turkey on diet sodas, I couldn't take it anymore. Snacking more, gaining a few pounds, and missing this calorie-free part of my low-carb life, I decided to end my self-imposed diet soda embargo recently and couldn't be happier about my decision.

After blogging about my experience with diet soda, I was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of feedback I received from so many of my readers about this subject. It was heartening to learn so many of you find diet soda to be an integral part of your low-carb weight management plans as well. It certainly seems diet soda gets the low-carb thumbs up from many of you.

Here are just a few snippets from the e-mails I received:

"Diet sodas are a great treat. I miss the fizzy when I can't get it but I am trying to be a role model for the kids and only have it in the weekends."

"Well, you know that I'm FOR diet soda being that my blog is entitled, I Love Diet Soda. I read about that study that says diet soda makes you gain weight and that's complete rubbish. How can something with no calories make you gain weight? Impossible I say! I drink diet soda because I love its taste and the fact that I can sip on it all day without worrying about excess calories."

"I read your article and totally agree. I don't understand how drinking diet sodas could contribute to a weight gain problem as many articles seem to be saying. Unless people believe that drinking diet sodas allows them to eat more as a substitute for the sugar they are avoiding, I don't see how they can be a negative. If one drinks a certain amount of soda, daily anyway, diet soda can only reduce the overall calories if nothing else is added."

"My triglycerides were extremely high and the doctor put me on medication for this which I didn't like. Every time I stopped the medication, triglycerides would go back up. I decided to try drinking diet sodas only instead of the sugary ones I was drinking. To my surprise and my doctor's, my triglycerides dropped to the normal range without medication. I have stuck with diet sodas ever since."

"I read your article on diet soda and loved it! I have kept off a 70 lb weight-loss of over 5 years and have tried quiting diet soda cold turkey. I have to be honest,I was miserable! I hated not having something sweet to look forward to. Of course I get plenty of flack from some family members that comment about the amount of chemicals, etc. I am consuming, but like you said what is the alternative? I really just wanted to say thumbs up and I'm glad I'm not alone."

WOW, what a response that article received in both my e-mail as well as the whopping 24 comments to my blog post about diet soda. Anyone else have a thought about the subject of diet soda they would like to share? Especially if you are adamantly AGAINST them being a part of a healthy low-carb lifestyle, please share WHY with any evidence to back up what you are saying.

Until I am convinced otherwise, diet soda is here to STAY in my diet.

I'm Finally Ending My Diet Soda Embargo

On my 35th birthday on December 27, 2006, I made the fateful decision to stop drinking diet sodas for good. Why? Because I wanted to and felt at the time that it was a logical progression in my weight and health management routine.

I've always said losing weight was priority #1 and I have kept the weight off long enough now that I'm evaluating areas of my diet and fitness that can be examined to continue improving upon my lifestyle. It's a good lesson for anyone who is livin' la vida low-carb to take things incrementally rather than trying to change everything is one swell foop!

That is what led me to look at my diet soda intake seriously and make some appropriate changes in my consumption habits. Although I was not experiencing any apparent negative consequences to my weight or health from drinking these calorie-free bubbly drinks, I thought I would give it a go in 2007 to ditch them for good.

Or at least that was my goal.

I actually listed "stop drinking diet sodas" as one of my very few New Year's resolutions to start the year. Unfortunately, though, since I was not seeing or feeling any benefit from being off of diet sodas completely for over a month, I was extremely disappointed. In fact, my weight didn't get better, but worse--climbing back up to 229 pounds again! EEEK!

So, I decided last week with the blessing of my wife Christine to end my self-imposed diet soda embargo and started drinking diet sodas again. Christine commented that she thought it was probably a good idea since they seemed to help me more than hurt. As of today, I have been drinking my sugar-free, Splenda/ACE-K sweetened fizzy drinks (like my favorite Diet Rite brand!) again and couldn't be happier.

In fact, guess what else?! In the week since I started drinking diet sodas, I have already lost 5 1/2 pounds and feel so much better than I did when I wasn't drinking them. And whether anyone else wants to admit it or not, that's what matters. Nobody is going to tell me what's good for me but me. Say it with me now, "That's just the way it is!" :D

Yeah, yeah, I can hear a small minority of dieting purists telling me how "empty" and "unhealthy" drinking diet sodas will be for me, but I just don't care about that opinion because it doesn't hold true for me. The bottom line is they provide me with intangible benefits that keep my weight and health on the straight and narrow. Nobody can convince me otherwise, which is why I'll keep drinking them from now on.

If somebody doesn't like that, then nothing is standing in their way of cutting out diet sodas from their life. But don't criticize my decision to keep drinking them when it's obvious they have been an integral part of my low-carb weight loss success and continuing maintenance. There's no doubt about it!

The truth of the matter is that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with drinking diet soda as part of your healthy low-carb lifestyle as long as you stick with the ones sweetened with Splenda/ACE-K, including Diet Rite, Diet Coke with Splenda, Diet Cheerwine, and Pepsi One, among others. I'll still avoid aspartame-infested diet drinks like Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Coke Zero, etc. because I am not very fond of Nutrasweet for health reasons. I'll just leave it at that for now!

Think about it logically for a moment: Which is healthier for you--sugary soda or diet soda? DUH! This shouldn't even be a debatable subject because there's just no doubt about it despite what this idiotic psychiatrist says about how "healthy" drinking regular Coca-Cola is for you.

You may have heard about this study claiming diet soda makes you fat, but I've never heard anything more absurd! During my 180-pound weight loss in 2004, I drank LOTS of diet soda along with my regular water consumption and I have kept on drinking these diet sodas for most part over the past couple of years.

They didn't make me fat, but kept me sane while I transitioned off of regular soda to diet soda. Sure, I will admit I need to discipline myself to limit my number of diet sodas to a reasonable daily number--say 3-4 instead of the 8-10 I was drinking. But that's still better than the 16-20 sugary sodas I USED to drink before my low-carb lifestyle.

It's all about choices and I'm making better ones now. Rather than cut them out completely, I will gladly continue drinking my diet sodas if they are instrumental in keeping me a weight loss success for the rest of my life. That's where I am now and I couldn't be more pleased.

Do you have any comments or reaction to my decision? I'd love to hear what you have to say. Hit me with your best shot if you think I'm crazy for drinking diet sodas again. Or if you are like me and have found success using these calorie-free drinks as part of your healthy low-carb lifestyle, then share your story, too.

Click on the comment link and let us know what you think!

'Fried Coke' May Be Coming To A Fair Near You

Gonzales revels in his latest state fair concession invention--FRIED COKE!

They always say "everything is bigger in Texas." But bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, especially when you are talking about the waistlines of those who will be lining up at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas at the end of this month to try to latest and craziest concession stand gimmick I think I've ever seen.

We've all heard about Fried Twinkies as well as the equally infamous Fried Snickers Bar. But Abel Gonzales, Jr. thinks he may have the most unique deep-fried idea that anyone has ever come up with--he's making Fried Coca-Cola!

When I told you about the doughnut bacon cheeseburger being served at a minor league baseball concession stand back in July, I had no idea there would be an even worse item to come along. But here it is winning "most creative new fried treat" for Texas fairgoers to try this year.

You might be wondering how Gonzales fries the Coke, eh? Well, as you can see in that picture above, he pours Coca-Cola into a bowl of batter to make the nuggets, deep-fries them in hot oil, and finally tops them with even more Coca-Cola syrup and whipped cream. Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick...BLECH!

“People are going to want to try it just for the novelty,” Gonzales told the Dallas Morning News.

If sales of his best-tasting winning entry from last year--Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly and Banana Sandwich--are any indication, Fried Coke could be consumed by at least 25,000 people over the three-week state fair.

Why is our culture so obsessed with creating bigger and bigger hamburgers and deep frying everything but the kitchen sink (and that's probably next!) while obesity is still such a dead serious problem. Are we ever going to learn from the nutritional mistakes we have made overloading our bodies with excessive sugar and refined carbohydrates?

I don't even want to think about how many carbs are in that "Fried Coke" creation, but with the sugary Coke mixed with the high-carb batter and then topped with even more concentrated sugar-laden Coke syrup and whipped cream this thing has got to be packing about 150-200g carbs MINIMUM for ONE serving. Getting...dizzy...think I'm gonna pass out now...

(thump)

Whoa, what happened? I must have fell off my chair in disbelief at the carb count in this "Fried Coke." Okay, I'm back now from my shock-induced fainting spell, but I'm still appalled that we keep allowing foods like this to be served to the public and everyone seems to get a big kick out of it.

When are we ever going to learn that eating foods like this does absolutely no good whatsoever for our bodies and, more importantly, for our health? Is obesity and the subsequent illnesses caused by that condition really going to have to engulf the vast majority of Americans before we FINALLY get a clue and end the madness?

This is the kind of thing that frustrates me more than anything as an advocate for healthier living. We bemoan the fact that the number of overweight and obese people is getting higher and yet we don't speak up and tell people like Gonzales that we don't need to be serving people "Fried Coke" at the fair. What is the purpose? The thrill of encouraging poor eating? UGH!

If we truly care about the health and welfare of our fellow citizens, then we will declare making foods like this is just plain wrong and irresponsible. No more silly food experiments just for the sake of doing something different than before. Call me a party pooper, but wouldn't it be funny if the next time you go to the fair all they sold was low-carb foods?

"Um, yes, I'll have the grilled chicken breast topped with cheese, a side salad, and a diet soda please." Wouldn't that be AWESOME?! Talk about your new and unique ideas!

Sigh. But, of course, you know I'm only dreamin' here because it looks like "Fried Coke" is on its way to a fair near you if this sells well in Texas. Even "Fried Diet Coke" would be disastrous because you're still getting the carbs from the batter. EWWWW! I think I'll pass thank you very much!