Nurse Says Weight Watchers 'Publicly Shamed Me,' But Low-Carb 'Saved My Life'

I received a rather enlightening comment in response to Episode 58 yesterday to my latest podcast at "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore."

Nothing thrills me more than to see someone who has finally been able to overcome the low-fat/low-calorie dogma that dominates our culture while sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other such garbage carbs keep getting a free pass by our health establishment. Such is the case with a nurse from North Carolina named Peg Hatley.

As you will see from her comment below, Peg thought there was something wrong with her because she couldn't lose weight and improve her health on the highly-touted, government-indoctrinated high-carb, low-fat diet.

Peg kept banging her head against a brick wall trying to figure out what the deal was until she was finally convinced by a doctor who was "low-carb friendly" to start livin' la vida low-carb in March. The results thus far have been stunning to say the least.

Here's what Peg Hatley wrote at my podcast web site:

Jimmy,

I listened to the interview today with Dr. Temmerman and I knew I needed to write a comment. I am a home health nurse and your podcast keeps me away from fast food drive-thru and blowing all the wonderful things that are happening to me on my low carb diet. You and your podcast help me stay on track.

I have only been low carbing for 3 months; it took me a long time to get over the “indoctrination” from my nurse’s training. I have been overweight, with diabetes and high blood pressure for years, all the while, driving from patient’s home to patient’s home, teaching them how to eat the diet that was killing me!

Yet, no matter how hard I clung to the low fat/low calorie diet, it didn’t help me--and it wasn’t helping my patients. I thought there was something wrong with me! In fact, when I repeatedly failed at Weight Watchers and the staff of WW publicly shamed me in several meetings by saying I was either lying about what I was eating, or not “trying hard enough.” I thought it was my fault and so I tried harder.

When my doctors told me I must not be writing down “everything” I was eating and I needed to stick closer to their prescribed low fat diet, again I thought it was my fault and tried even harder.

All the while, my blood sugar, weight and blood pressure climbed higher and higher. And I got more and more passionate with my patients about the low calorie/low fat diets that they were trying to do. It was INSANE!!

Then I changed doctors and this one I have now who is very low carb friendly. She immediately steered me to low carb and I protested at first. She persisted and the rest is the best part of the story.

After only 3 months my blood pressure is normal. My blood sugar is normal. I have energy and am not grumpy all the time. I’ve lost 9 pounds and plan to stay on this low carb lifestyle for the rest of my life! But best of all, I am no longer shamed and ashamed. It wasn’t my fault at all! I was just on the wrong road.

Thank God for doctors like the ones you have been interviewing. My doctor saved my life! And thank God for you! Keep doing what you’re doing! You are helping a lot of people.

Incredible story, Peg! I'm so proud of you for being willing to try something different from what you had been taught to better yourself and the proof is in the results. What an awesome turnaround you have been able to enjoy, something you can share with your patients, too!

Even people who are considered successful on programs like Weight Watchers still struggle with their weight. But when they hear about livin' la vida low-carb for the first time from someone who has done well on it like one of my readers shared at a Weight Watchers meeting last year, it's like a light bulb finally gets turned on for them. Peg knows what I'm talking about!

What makes it hard is you have magazines like Consumer Reports naming Weight Watchers among their top-tiered diets (while scorning the Atkins low-carb diet as the unhealthiest way to eat!) when clearly it does not work for everyone. Sure, some people do well on it, but I wonder about their long-term results. Can they stick with it being hungry all the time on that high-carb, low-fat, low-calorie diet?

It's always been about finding the diet that's right for you and then sticking to it. That doesn't mean you won't need to tweak it every now and then to adjust to the changes in your body. But if you start with low-carb and it works, then stay with low-carb. However, if low-fat keeps you slim and healthy, then do that. It's an individualized thing that each person needs to decide for themselves what is best for them.

That is what Peg did at long last to improve her weight and health thanks to the low-carb lifestyle. She is another in a long list of people who have FINALLY seen the light at last. Welcome to the wonderful world of livin' la vida low-carb, Peg!

If you have recently "found" low-carb and would like to share your story of success on it, then please feel free to e-mail me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net.

'Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show' Episode 46: Low-Carb Witnessing To Weight Watchers

Although I'm in favor of people finding what works for them as it relates to weight loss and improved health, it's interesting how many former Weight Watchers dieters have now started livin' la vida low-carb as their long-term solution to weight and health issues. In Episode 46 of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore," we hear stories about how Weight Watchers followers have been convinced of the low-carb solution. Listen in now:

 "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" Episode 46 [12:17m]: Play in Popup | Download

Let me be very frank about something up front: I support the concept of Weight Watchers that encourages people who desire weight loss to come together for the common purpose of providing each other with a strong support system where it may be lacking. But there's only one problem--Weight Watchers does not condone the low-carb lifestyle as the nutritional approach for getting there.

In Episode 46, we learn from a former Weight Watchers devotee who struggled with the portion contol depite losing over 100 pounds that she rebelled and started gaining her weight back before finding Atkins. Now she's found a way to not only lose weight, but enjoy the process much more so than counting "points."

Check out "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" by:

1. Listening at the official web site
2. Going to iTunes
3. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez
4. Subscribing to the RSS feed

Have you been on Weight Watchers in the past or even now? What did you like the best about the program? Was the support system what attracted you to that plan? If you are now livin' la vida low-carb, then what caused you to switch from Weight Watchers to the low-carb lifestyle? Leave your comments and share what has happened to you.

I'd like to say a special THANKS to Dreamfields pasta for sponsoring "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" during the month of April. If you haven't tried this amazing low-carb product yet, then you are missing out on one of the absolute BEST low-carb products on the market today. Visit the LLVLC Show Dreamfields link to access a $1 off coupon, recipes, and more about this delicious pasta alternative. You WON'T be disappointed.

More Machine Gun Low-Carb Blogging

This has been quite the month for me to try to squeeze in everything I want to blog about, but there's just so much going on I have been having some leftover topics that I REALLY want to blog about still waiting to be blogged. As a result, I have been resorting to something I recently dubbed machine gun blogging to try to catch up. Get ready, get set, because the topics are gonna come at you fast and furious along with my regular commentary. So, without further delay, let's get started!

Starting us off is this Rocky Mountain News column which had some very thought-provoking points about diet and health that you should check out for a few reasons.

First, it features one of my favorite people in the whole widey widey world--Nicki Anderson from Reality Fitness in Naperville, Illinois. If you have not heard of Nicki yet, then you need to get to know her better because she is putting out a positive message of hope for people dealing with living a healthy life (and she's FRIENDLY towards people who are livin' la vida low-carb! WOO HOO!). Visit her web site at RealityFitness.com and sign up for her "Happy Monday" newsletter in the lower left-hand corner of the page. An inspiring message arrives pronto in your e-mail inbox bright and early on Monday mornings and you WON'T be disappointed.

Second, the story features the real founding father of the modern low-carb movement--William Banting. Most people erroneously believe that the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins invented the low-carb diet, but actually it's been around for thousands of years. It was the ORIGINAL diet that most of our ancestors feasted on throughout the ages. Nevertheless, in the mid-1800s, Banting stumbled upon low-carb when his ENT doctor prescribed it for his hearing problems. He went on to lose 50 pounds by livin' la vida low-carb and wrote down the basic tenets of what many describe as the first diet book ever written entitled Letter on Corpulence. Today, Banting's principles still live on in the millions of people who are losing weight and improving their health with the low-carb lifestyle.

Third, we learn that three of the top ten diets being used in America today according to an NPD Group/Dieting Monitor survey are low-carb. They are Atkins at #6, South Beach at #8, and Sugar-Free at #9. Of course, there may even be some low-carbers in the #1 diet on the list called "my own." But the fact that most people think they know how to lose weight without the use of any specified program may explain why the latest dieting craze is weight gain!

One of my diabetic readers passed on this Diabetes In Control article about fooling your body into losing weight. Some of us have an overactive chemical imbalance in our brains that won't shut off even when we are not hungry. That's why you may get the sudden urge to nibble even after finishing your dinner. Of course, their ONLY answer to this "problem" is to prescribe a drug to control this from happening. I'm still not buying into that line of thinking because there is almost always a more natural way to lose and maintain your weight without such drastic interventions, IMHO! I'll give them some credit at the end of the column, though, when they try to provide practical tips for preventing this from happening similar to the ones Cornell University psychology professor Dr. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, outlined in his book. But still no mention of livin' la vida low-carb as a possible solution. :(

Last night, I had the privilege of attending an auction for two young men from my church who will be going on a mission trip overseas for a couple of weeks in February. Members of the church choir (which both Christine and I are a part of) brought items to be sold during the auction to help raise the funds for them to go. You know me, I couldn't resist making up a "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" basket full of all kinds of goodies, including an autographed copy of my Livin' La Vida Low-Carb book, Connie Bennett's fantastic new SUGAR SHOCK! book, all three of Jonny Bowden's motivational audiobook CD collection, and about 50 more items for this total package valued at around $500.

I was hoping it would garner at least $100, but they started the bidding for it at $50 and NOBODY would bid on it. It seems livin' la vida low-carb was not all that interesting to the people there. For a minute there, I thought I may have to bid $50 just to keep them from lowering the price. But finally one of my fellow choir members who is a diabetic and has been asking me LOTS of questions about low-carb lately perked up and bid $50 on it. Of course, nobody outbid him, so he won the basket. I went up to him afterwards and thanked him for getting it because I know he'll LOVE it! He said he wanted to share some of the low-carb books with his daughter who is struggling with her weight. A seed is planted and I'm happy to help water it to blossom! :)

Geting back to some articles in the media from this past week, I couldn't overlook this St. Paul, MN-based Pioneer Press story about a woman my age who was so fed up with her weight that she decided to go on Weight Watchers and their low-fat, low-calorie diet. GOOD FOR HER and I'm proud of her commitment to her new lifestyle change. But she said something about livin' la vida low-carb that I will not let slide without comment.

Here's her quote:

"I had been on the Atkins diet and lost weight. But that lifestyle just isn't maintainable. I had gained some weight back and was holding on."

Actually, livin' la vida low-carb IS maintainable if you make it a PERMANENT lifestyle change rather than just a diet. This is something that people who follow programs like Weight Watchers always fail to acknowledge. Sure, they have their little meetings, but when do you stop, hmmmm? The answer is NEVER and the same goes with the Atkins diet. It's the lifestyle change many have been looking for their entire lives. While some may not stick with the plan and start gaining the weight back (DUH!), most people who didn't fail on low-carb saw amazing long-term sustainable and maintainable weight loss success by staying on the plan. As long as you remember there is no "after" with low-carb, then there's no reason you shouldn't lose weight and keep it off forever!

Have you heard about the latest miracle weight loss food according to this United Press article? You're not going to believe this, but it's white rice. Yep, the same white rice that is absolutely a no-no when you are livin' la vida low-carb. The brilliant wonder-twins of The Serotonin Power Diet are Judith Wurtman and Nina Frusztajer Marquis. They foolishly assert that people need to eat lots and lots of carbohydrates to keep their serotonin levels high enough to control their appetite. Say what? If I nix the carbs and eat plenty of fat and protein, then something tells me I'm not gonna have to worry about hunger. This diet reminds me of another screwy high-carb diet I blogged about before called The Bread For Life Diet.

When I read this BruneiDirect.com story about giving hope to people who are obese that weight loss and improved health can indeed happen for them, I was encouraged. But that quickly diminished when I came to this part of the article:

Nora is also advising the public against resorting to the Atkins diet or the low carbohydrate eating plan to reduce weight. She said that the Atkins diet had been questioned due to its unconventional low carbohydrate but high protein diet. She noted that Dr. Robert Atkins, the pioneer of the diet, died from a heart attack.

Are these people TRYING to keep people fat? Whether they know it or not, by discouraging people from even attempting to lose weight using programs like the Atkins diet, that EXACTLY what they are doing. They turn their nose up at livin' la vida low-carb as if it's worse than obesity itself! Come on, people, get serious about this! Low-carb not only works but it keeps on working for those of us who LIVE IT day in and day out. Stop the scare tactics and give people the truth. And don't get me started on this vicious and hateful lie about Dr. Atkins dying of a heart attack again. We're just not going to entertain such ridiculous and unfounded theories over and over again after they have been clearly debunked. Next subject!

Here's another article from the Ozarks Newsstand that looked like a pretty good one on improving your body through diet and exercise...well, it was good until I got to this part:

The Atkins Diet is built around no carbohydrates. The South Beach Diet stresses cutting sugar-rich carbs such as bread, potatoes and even fruit. But which one is the right one? According to Herman, none of them. Eating healthy boils down to one thing-moderation.

"A lot are full blown on Atkins," he said of the low-carb diet made popular by Dr. Robert C. Atkins. "It does have good ideas and good points. You shouldn't overdo it on carbs. But don't restrict yourself. If you hold back, you'll go overboard. Reward yourself, but do it within reason."

Okay, I'm gonna say this LOUD AND CLEAR so nobody will misunderstand it. There is NO phase in the Atkins diet that requires you to eat NO carbohydrates. Not a single one. Even in the most restrictive phase of Induction during the first fourteen days of your low-carb plan, you still get to enjoy around 20g carbs daily. It only goes up from there eating lots of those low-glycemic foods mentioned with the South Beach diet. This idea of ZERO carbs may work for some people, the fact is most of us who are livin' la vida low-carb are STILL eating the right kind of carbs and gladly so. I like the fact that this expert admits there are good aspects to Atkins, but furthering the misinformation about this remarkable weight loss program is not cool at all. Don't they know Jimmy Moore will call their bluff by now? :D

Finally, have you heard about the controversy happening in Tennessee over the popular weight loss method known as gastric bypass surgery? This Fox News story reveals that healthcare provider BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is now requiring (GET THIS!) an IQ TEST before overweight or obese people will be allowed to try this risky way to shed the pounds. Not surprisingly, people are up in arms about this claiming it's discrimination against fat people. But I disagree.

Before we make it so easy for people to have a surgery like this one, why don't we have them tested not just for their intelligence (which is irrelevant if you ask me), but also do a complete psychological evaluation to get at the root cause of the weight problem to begin with. A lot of people who choose to have the gastric bypass surgery have not exhausted all the natural ways to lose weight first and feel it is simply a quick fix to their weight problem. Getting to the bottom of the REAL problem may prevent many people from having regrets about their decision to be cut open and radically altering their life forever. Besides, they're gonna be eating low-carb when the surgery is done anyway, so why not start livin' la vida low-carb to begin with?

Okay, that's plenty of low-carb morsels for you to munch on for today (but there's plenty more to come!). Feel free to comment on any or all of these topics that may tickle your fancy or get your blood pressure cooking. Don't hold it in, share it with Dr. Jimmy and leave all your burdens behind you. Let's talk it over, shall we?

Weight Watchers Group Captivated By Low-Carb Weight Loss Success

It is so gratifying to me whenever I hear about one of my readers taking the information they received from this blog and spreading it to those who are in desperate need of answers to their weight and health problems. This whole idea of "pay it forward" that people like Oprah Winfrey are advocating right now is indeed a powerful one that can produce immeasurable results well into the future.

When I lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004, I had no idea at the time that I would be writing about low-carb living, weight loss, and health in a blog and talking about it in a weekly podcast show two years later. All I know is that my life was forever changed and the ripple effects soon began in earnest. It commenced immediately in my own spheres of influence, then spread into my community with exposure in the local media, and finally got out there nationally and internationally when I started blogging and published my book about my weight loss.

Now I'm privileged to see some of the people I have been able to come into contact with telling others about livin' la vida low-carb with unbelievable results. One such example of this came to me in my e-mail inbox from a regular reader on Wednesday.

This person is a Type 2 diabetic who has lost 90 pounds on the low-carb lifestyle and wanted to show his support for a co-worker who joined Weight Watchers. Although he does not support the nutritional approach of the Weight Watchers program, he wanted to be a part of the group for "mutual support."

Not surprisingly, the members of the group wanted to know more about his amazing weight loss success and how he has been able to control his diabetes through his diet.

"I was pretty nervous about how it would be received. I especially didn't want to come across as bashing Weight Watchers."

So, he took the plunge and simply shared from his heart about how he battled with weight problems his entire life going on diet after diet, including Weight Watchers, and that none of them worked for him. He made it very clear that he is not against Weight Watchers for those people who can do it and succeed.

"It wasn't the best approach for me," he told the Weight Watchers group.

As he continued talking about his neverending battle with obesity because he was always hungry and craving food, my reader told them that he threw his hands up in the air and just gave up trying to lose weight in the Summer 2005. But then it happened--January 2006 he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes!

When he was educated about how to best control his diabetes, he was told he would need to follow the USDA-recommended Food Pyramid which he had tried and failed with a million times before.

"But I soon came to my senses that they were telling me to continue doing what I was doing before. I started looking for alternatives."

The alternative he found was the low-carb lifestyle and he explained how low-carbers eat a very healthy diet with lots of delicious and nutritious vegetables. As he was sharing the truth about low-carb to the Weight Watchers group, he could see they were being enlightened with information they had never heard before from the media and the so-called health "experts."

When he was summarizing his story, my reader started sounding like me.

"There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Whatever you do, make it a lifestyle. Sugar and refined carbohydrates are bad for weight loss. Eat nutrient-dense foods. And finally, low carb is a viable option and the best approach for some people."

He mentioned that there are many stories of low-carb weight loss success on the Internet in blogs and forums and he even showed them the front cover of my book as an example of someone who has overcome his lifelong battle with morbid obesity. Whoa, cool!

My reader was so excited when he was finished because that group of Weight Watchers devotees gave him a thunderous round of applause in gratitude for sharing his success with them. I am confident eyes were opened that day with the honest truth presented in a non-threatening manner was shared with them.

"It turned out well and will help everyone understand where I am coming from. I think I gave them a different perspective on low carb."

Indeed it did, my friend, indeed it did! That's kinda what this former Weight Watchers follower discovered when she started on low-carb with great success. Stories like these are so exciting to hear and I invite you to share any similar experiences you may have had talking about livin' la vida low-carb with a friend, family member or in front of a group.

If we are going to change our culture, then it will take each and every one of us sharing the knowledge and hope that we have found with those who need to hear it. E-mail me your story at livinlowcarbman@charter.net.

Applebee's Covertly Provides Low-Carb Choice

Have you tried the new "Crispy Brick Chicken" meal from Applebee's yet?

In Episode 3 of my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show" podcast last week, I highlighted this survey that concluded restaurants do not need to ignore the low-carb consumer because they are a growing group of customers who are beginning to frequent those restaurants who actively cater to their dietary needs when dining out. And it's true, too! Some former favorites have been crossed off our list of restaurants we frequent because they refuse to provide flexibility with their menu to make it low-carb.

Unfortunately, not every popular restaurant chain has gotten the message that low-carb living is alive and well despite the claims it no longer exists. You will recall Ruby Tuesday removed their low-carb menu before the summer not long after scrubbing their phenomenal low-carb cheesecake from their menu at the beginning of the year. It's too bad for companies like Ruby Tuesday who once led by example about how to meet the needs of the growing low-carb market. But not anymore and so low-carbers have stopped going there. That's too bad!


Applebee's banking on the star power of Chef Tyler Florence

However, I was encouraged recently when I saw a television commercial for Applebee's touting their new "Huge Flavor" menu featuring celebrity Chef Tyler Florence from The Food Network who is helping the popular mid-scale restaurant chain spruce up their menu a bit with some exciting new meals.

There was one featured item from Chef Florence's new menu in the TV ad that REALLY caught my attention--it was a plateful of chicken grilled up under open flames with a side of some leafy greens. My immediate thought was "Hey, that looks pretty low-carb!" It's important to note that there was no mention of "low-carb" in describing this meal or any of the new menu items during the commercial. Hmmmm.

Because my wife Christine absolutely adores Applebee's and Saturday was her birthday, I decided to surprise her by going there to celebrate. Not surprisingly, I just had to order the meal from the television commercial which I found out was called the "Crispy Brick Chicken." It looked so good on the television commercial and also in the picture on the menu. Would it live up to my lofty expectations?

Here's how Chef Florence describes this meal on the menu:

"I split a tender petite chicken and press it flat directly against a red-hot grill. The light marinade of rosemary, lemon and olive oil gets seared directly into the skin-it's so crisp it crackles with flavor! I complement this dish with a fresh salad tossed with grated hard boiled eggs, caramelized onions, shaved Parmesan cheese and my own warm bacon dressing."

Did you see all of those ingredients? Except for the "caramelized onions," EVERYTHING in it is VERY low-carb. As in, there's almost NO carbs in it at all! WOWsers! Could it be we have a covert attempt by Applebee's to add a low-carb menu choice without explicitly labeling it as such? It certainly seems that way!

Interestingly, this meal was originally supposed to come with spinach leaves and not just salad greens. I saw a sign at the front of the restaurant when you walk in the door that explains Applebee's no longer serves spinach on their menu because of the FDA's warning about E. coli in September. I have been concerned about the long-term fallout of that incident and it seems my worries about it are coming true despite the fact that spinach is back on supermarket shelves again. In fact, I just bought my first two bags of it again in about two months this weekend.

Nevertheless, even without the spinach leaves this meal was delicious! I dug right into the chicken itself which was juicy and moist beneath the slightly hardened chicken skin that had flavors grilled right into it. Mmmm, I was in low-carb heaven eating this! Then I tried the salad and immediately noticed it was VERY sweet. It was obvious the "caramelized onions" were cooked in sugar water. That's okay because it probably didn't have more than 5-6g sugar in it overall. But I thought I'd warn those of you who are watching your sugar intake like a hawk.

If you are diabetic or in the early stages of livin' la vida low-carb, then simply ask for these caramelized onions to be placed on the side or left off the salad completely. They are good, but you really don't need them to enjoy amazing low-carb meal. With the onions, I'd say this meal is about 8g carbs. Without them, maybe as low as 2g carbs. EXCELLENT!

My wife made an interesting observation about the meals we were served--they included NO bread! Most restaurants nowadays offer dinner bread, dinner rolls, or breadsticks. But not Applebee's. Neither one of the meals we were served came with ANY kind of bread. Is the message finally getting through that traditional bread made from white flour is not good for you? This was just another positive move in the right direction regarding our decision to go to Applebee's.

Yet, in my research for this post today, I went to the official Applebee's web site to find the nutritional information about this "Crispy Brick Chicken" meal to give you accurate numbers about the carbs especially. Unfortunately, Applebee's must be one of the few restaurant chains that DO NOT provide this to their customers. I was quite surprised that they didn't considering the move by many restaurants to make this readily available.

Here was their official response about providing nutritional info:

"We provide nutritional information on all of our Weight Watchers® items, including fat, fiber and calorie counts and Weight Watchers Points® values. We do not provide nutritional information on other Applebee's® items - with approximately 1,900 locations in the U.S. alone there are many different vendors, which makes it extremely difficult to obtain nutritional information for our items."

If you ask me, that's a total copout on being a responsible company. How can you blame multiple vendors for NOT providing nutritional information about your menu items, hmmm? Every single restaurant in America gets their food from more than one vendor, so what makes Applebee's any different? If you ask me, it's just laziness from their corporate marketing team. If they cared enough to provide this valuable information to their customers, then they would. So how about it Applebee's? Stop making excuses and start providing your customers with the information they need to live a healthy lifestyle.

Ah, yes, let's not forget about the Weight Watchers menu either. You definitely couldn't miss that at Applebee's! They had ten menu items in a section all to their own for all those people counting their "points" as they stuff their faces with low-fat, low-calorie, high-carb meals that rather conspicuously provided ZERO information about their carbohydrate content. Gee, I wonder why. That's because THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!

In fact, when we were finished with our meal, the waitress asked if we had saved room for dessert. Although I already knew the answer to this question, I asked her if they had a sugar-free or low-carb dessert offering. She immediately chimed in with, "Well, we do have our Weight Watchers dessert!" Of course, she was referring to their "Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake" dessert approved by Weight Watchers for their dieters to eat when dining at Applebee's.


This dessert only has 4 points, but is extremely high in sugar

I respectfully replied, "I don't think that dessert is sugar-free, but thank you for offering." At closer examination of this "diet" dessert on the menu, I noticed it had 230 calories, only 3g fat, and 3g fiber. Okay, that's all well and good, but what about the carbs? Where was this information located? It was conveniently missing and for good reason.

Look at the description of this supposedly "healthy" dessert:

"This chocolate tour de scrumptious is covered in a light cream cheese glaze, dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with raspberry sauce."

A white flour-based chocolate cake sweetened with sugar, no doubt, with higher carb LIGHT cream cheese also sweetened with MORE sugar, then topped with ANOTHER layer of powdered sugar, and finally finished with a sugar-based raspberry sauce. Yikeseroo! I don't know how many carbs this Weight Watchers dessert had, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was close to 50g! UGH!

Why would ANYONE trying to lose weight on WHATEVER diet program put a dessert like this in their mouth?! Oh, that's right, sugar is FAT-FREE, so it's given a pass to be placed in foods that purport to be healthy. If sugar had fat in it, though, LOOK OUT! It would be treated like the plague and universally condemned. It should be anyway, but sadly the low-fatties like to have their sugar and eat it too!

Although the dessert menu was lacking for people on the low-carb lifestyle, I was highly encouraged by the addition of the "Crispy Brick Chicken" meal to the menu at Applebee's. It's an option for low-carbers that I feel very good about recommending to you if your family wants to go out to eat there. It just goes to show you that something doesn't have to be labeled "low-carb" for it to actually be low-carb. Become your own nutritional investigator and learn to recognize a low-carb friendly menu item when you see it.

Be sure to thank Applebee's for including this new "Crispy Brick Chicken" meal on their menu and encourage them to offer more menu items that are low in carbohydrates, including a sugar-free/low-carb dessert offering, as well as the complete nutritional information about their meals by clicking here. Make your voice heard because they might just listen if enough of us contact them.

11-14-06 UPDATE: After expressing my concerns directly in an e-mail to Applebee's the other day, they were nice enough to respond to me about the carb count in their new menu item as well as other options for low-carbers:

Dear Jimmy,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about low carb menu selections. We currently have nutrition information only on our Weight Watchers items which is based on calories, fat and fiber.

Although we're not able to provide complete nutritional information on every product due to variations in menus, producers and suppliers, we try our best to give our valued guests like you plenty of options when dining with us.

Each of our Applebee's servers has a "Dietary Alternative" card which lists several options for guests looking for carb-conscious menu items. These options include the Applebee's House Sirloin, Fajitas con Sizzle, Grilled Italian
Chicken Caesar Salad, Bacon Cheeseburger and our famous Honey BBQ Chicken Sandwich.

We hope this information helps you make an informed decision the next time you visit us at your neighborhood Applebee's restaurant. I will also share your feedback with our Menu Research and Development team.

Sincerely,

Applebee's Guest Relations

No, that didn't answer my question. I wanted to know how many carbs are in the new "Crispy Brick Chicken" meal. Was that too difficult a question to get a simple number for an answer? As for those "carb-conscious menu items," I doubt the "famous Honey BBQ Chicken Sandwich" could be considered low-carb on any planet! Oi, these people kill me with the ignorance--knowingly or otherwise. I still think it's a crying shame that they can't post their nutritional info for their customers like every other restaurant chain does. GET WITH THE PROGRAM, APPLEBEE'S!

Consumer Reports Skews Atkins Benefits

This Associated Press story is all over the place today heralding a new rating of the top diets in America according to the June issue of Consumer Reports magazine out today.

Do I even need to tell you what they think of livin' la vida low-carb?

The top two diets according to Consumer Reports is the meetings-based low-fat program Weight Watchers and the high-sugar shakes and bars plan Slim Fast.

The rating were determined by the amount of weight participants lost, nutritional content of the foods that were eaten, the diet's ease of use and the length of time partipants stuck with the diet.

Weight Watchers got the highest overall marks, but Slim-Fast was found to be the best weight loss program for losing weight, according to Consumer Reports.

I used to be on Slim-Fast way back when. It was an okay diet, but you quickly get tired of sucking down those nasty-tasting bars after a while. Talk about boring, this was the epitome of boring, regardless of the new flavors they would come out with. It was certainly easy and you can lose weight on it, but it's not something that can realistically be done over the long haul like low-carb.

Speaking of the low-carb lifestyle, Consumer Reports applauds it as a great "short-term weight loss" program, but lambastes it for failing to help participants retain their weight loss and for providing poor nutrition. Additionally, the Atkins lifestyle is criticized for having too much fat and saturated fat, too few fruits, too little fiber and that it "might have a negative effect on some dieters' health."

Here we go again! While I not only used Atkins to lose my 180 pounds in 2004, I have been using it as a weight maintenance program for the past 5 months and have held steady ever since. I have eaten many of the same great-tasting foods I ate during my weight loss with a few additional carbs than I used to eat.

I get excellent nutritional content from the fruits and vegetables I consume and have never felt more energetic in my entire life. As for fiber, I'm eating so much fiber now I can't stay out of the bathroom! Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but fiber is a crucial element for people doing a low-carb lifestyle.

As for fat, I wrote about a new study earlier today that proves restricting your fat intake is not only unhealthy for you, but it will make you fatter! The focus on fat in the United States as a main contributor to the obesity problem has been exposed, and it appears the real story is the myth that says you can lose weight by restricting fat grams. That idea's gone bye-bye now!

This whole idea that low-carb is only for the short-term and lacks nutrition is unfounded. There is no evidence that backs up this repeated lie. There are millions upon millions of people like you and me who can attest to the improvements in our weight and health as a result of livin' la vida low-carb!

An Atkins spokesperson said this Consumer Reports study only examined the first stage or two of their weight loss program and ignored the nutritional approach advocated and promoted in the third and fourth phase where maintenance is encouraged and there is greater flexibility in the plan.

I thought it was interesting that the magazine based its conclusions on "clinical research on each diet," "a nutrient and calorie analysis" of the foods eaten and "how closely they follow federal dietary guidelines."

Well, of course the Atkins approach did terrible with this as the criteria for rating it! With all the negativity about the low-carb lifestyle out there, do you think the "clinical research" is going to look highly on this way of eating. And as for the "nutrient and calorie analysis," these aren't as important when you are doing low-carb as they are when you are on a low-carb/low-calorie diet. Finally, the low-carb lifestyle certainly does not adhere to the "federal dietary guidelines" recommended by the government. Is it any wonder why low-carb was at the bottom of this list of diets?!

The conclusion made by Consumer Reports Senior Editor Nancy Metcalf is that any weight loss and maintenance program needs to be something that people can stick with over the long-term.

And that's why we've chosen to be livin' la vida low-carb, Ms. Metcalf! It is indeed something we can do to lose weight and to keep it off for good.