Your Favorite Low-Carb Cookbook and Why?

[cooltouch]

First of all, I don't know if I should post this message here or over in the Health and Nutrition section, but I guess I'll try here first. My apologies in advance if this subject has been done to death. I tried searching this section on "low-carb cookbook," then "low-carb," and got 21 hits and apparently none of them contained any information about low-carb cooking. I really don't like VBulletin's search function.

Anyway, I've finally realized after years of trying to lose weight that the one diet that has worked for me is a low-carb diet. The biggest problem is staying on it because I tend to develop cravings for high-carb items after a while, like breads, pastries, potatoes and pastas. And pizza! Arggh!

I've just finished doing a search over at Amazon and have come up with a few titles. George Stella has written four low-carb cookbooks, and they get mostly positive reviews. Another that seems to be decent is The Best Low Carb Cookbook by Robert Rose. And another is Secrets of Good Carb/Low Carb by Sandra L. Woodruff.

I haven't had a chance to physically examine any of these books, obviously, and I'm having to make my buying choices based on reviews, which I guess isn't such a bad thing, really. However, I would like to find one or more books that have plenty of illustrations, and they don't indicate the number of illustrations in the publisher's info. I find illustrations helpful, although not strictly necessary.

I have a couple of Atkins cookbooks, and they're okay, I guess. The bulk of each book is spent on recipes that are default low-carb, like meat-based main courses, egg dishes, and green vegetables. Kind of a no-brainer that these'll be low-carb, you know? And both books spend precious few pages on any sort of carb substitutes. And some of the substitutes are proprietary Atkins mixes. I guess I'd like a bit more variety. And a book that didn't require so many specialized ingredients (like soy flour and whey protein?) would be helpful as well, if such a thing exists.

So, if there's a low-carb cookbook that you're particularly fond of, how about sharing the info?

Thanks.

[Rob Babcock]

I highly recommend George Stella's "Living Low Carb". It has tons of fantastic recipes that you'll actually want to eat. I especially love the mashed cauliflower recipe (you won't miss potatoes after trying it!), the pepperoni crisps and the cheese crisps. His second book is also good but not as "deep" as the first.

[moltogordo]

I have "The Low Carb Cookbook" by Fran McCullough (Hyperion), and find it excellent. The recipes all work and taste very good.

[alexh1]

I have been low carb forever and I finally realized that you can make lots of recipies from standard cookbooks but just omit the high carb part like potatoes or even pasta.

For example, I make some great meatballs but I eat them with sauce only. Lots of casserole recipies have little carb content and the ones that do are usually in form of potatoes which don't really change the dish much if you omit them.

Not saying a low carb cookbook isn't useful but you don't have to restrict yourself.

The one thing I would not do is bother with those carb substitutes like the ones for making pancakes or baking. They are generally not very good and may cause digestion issues also.

[PrincessFiona60]

Once I got the hang of low-carb dieting, I chucked the books, especially Atkins with the proprietary ingredients. I copied a bunch of the ingredients and substitutions, like the mashed cauliflower Rob Babcock mentions above. I now cook with my mind set on good carb vs bad carb. Once I did this, it was much easier to stay on the diet and lose weight.

Now, I mostly cook with the concepts from the DASH diet (The DASH Diet Eating Plan) which is excellent for Diabetics and/or High Blood Pressure. It's much simpler to use, for sure and the weight loss is an added benefit.

[cooltouch]

Hrm . . . after reading up on the DASH diet (I'd never heard of it until now), it appears that it is designed specifically for people suffering from hypertension or prehypertension. The amounts of carbs they show for their menu plans are way too high for somebody like me. 55% of calories from carbs? Afraid not. I would definitely gain weight on that diet.

[Zhizara]

The only diet that ever worked for me was Atkins. I dropped 35 pounds in a couple of months. It wasn't too hard just no carbs.

When you don't feed your body carbs, it will burn the fat instead. It worked and didn't make me feel weird. It's expensive, eating a pork chop for a snack, plus you do get to eat all the gravy you want.

The side effect, though, was that the skin sags. As you get on in years, the skin doesn't have much elasticity any more, so the skin just hangs off your body as you lose weight. YYYYYYYyyyyyew.

[PrincessFiona60]

Originally Posted by cooltouch

Hrm . . . after reading up on the DASH diet (I'd never heard of it until now), it appears that it is designed specifically for people suffering from hypertension or prehypertension. The amounts of carbs they show for their menu plans are way too high for somebody like me. 55% of calories from carbs? Afraid not. I would definitely gain weight on that diet.

I didn't go right to the DASH diet, I learned to control my Carbs FIRST and then I went to the DASH. Getting to it was a 2 step process.

The beauty of the DASH Diet is that once you understand your good and bad carbs, you can sub in your starch free vegetables and good carbs. You can do this because you've already gotten used to your Low-Carb choices.

I eat 6 meals a day, small meals and only get 20% of my calories from Carbs. I also learned how to manage the fats in my diet. I discovered I needed at least the 20% of Carbs. My blood sugars were running 50-65...after I ate. Not good numbers.