It has a light, nutty sort of flavor. I first came across it in a recipe for a vegan fake cheese because that nutty taste combined with spices can read as cheese-like. I’m not interested in fake cheese, but its impressive nutritional value (2T serving has 60 cals, 1 g net carb, 4 g fiber and huge amounts of B-complex vitamins, Molybdenum, Selenium, etc) made it worth my while to investigate other uses. So far I’ve only used it in coatings for nuts and dehydrated veggies and in a savory version of my fauxtmeal blend. Oh, I’ve also ground it up and added it to my turkey black soybean chili. It adds a lovely note of cheesiness and helps thicken it to boot.

I’ve got turkey soybean chili on the menu plan for tomorrow! I’m going to lightly toast guajillos, anchos, then soak them
in boiling water for 1/2 an hour, add in a few chipoltes in adobo, then send them thru the food processor with
some of the soaking liquid. Kind of makes a MESS, but I prefer the complexity of flavor to powders. Do you have
any secret ingredients that you use in addition to cumin and mexican oregano? Sometimes a add a small amount of
garam masala. I know it sounds odd, but as long as you don’t overdo it, it adds another element that isn’t
easily identfiable, but contributes a depth of flavor. I’ll have stained fingers by this time tomorrow! Wish I had
some nutritional yeast around. Do I need a health food store, or can it be found at Stop & Shop?

Thanks, Essie

I love the toasted chilis idea, and rehydrating them to make a puree is a brilliant idea. That ramps up the smokey flavors which I adore. I add smoked paprika, grind up a few smoked jalapenos/habaneros and once the cooking is done, I add a touch of Maldon smoked salt flakes to ramp it up just a little more. I also add Worcestershire sauce, my home dried garlic powder and lime zest. I can totally see garam masala working like a charm to add complexity and layered flavors that you can’t quite put your finger on. I’m going to try that for sure in my next batch.

My local Stop&Shop carries nutritional yeast in the organic food section. Avoid Braggs (higher in carbs than other brands) and Bob’s Red Mill (it’s fortified with additional vitamins and minerals for some incomprehensible reason). This is my preferred brand: https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Non-fortified-Nutritional-Protein-Beta-glucans/dp/B00PJ3IPMI/ref=sr_1_6_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1516553690&sr=8-6 . Whatever options they have in store, just check the panel as always to be sure it’s nutritional yeast flakes only and has something along the lines of a 5:4 ratio of carbs to fiber.

Thanks a lot, Essie. Once you share your sources, I never look any further! I see we’re after the same flavor
profile with our chili. I hadn’t thought of the lime zest, though. If I remember correctly, you loathe cilantro,
but I use it just before serving, and add a wedge of fresh lime to the plate. Get yourself some dried chilis!
I first started working with them when I made an authentic oaxacan mole some time back. It was a great
project for a snowed in winter weekend. I really like the time consuming real mexican food, but not the tex-mex
stuff. Rick Bayless has some cookbooks that are the real deal. I will have to get them out again, and see what
can be done to make them BSD friendly. In the cobwebbed portion of my mind, I remember a particular
baked chicken breast recipe using reconstituted chilies and a fresh mango that was very unusual… You and
LTC are definitely getting me back to thinking like a “foodie” again!

Allie, as Essie had suggested the nutritional yeast is toasty. Vegans use it to replace Parmesan cheese in recipes.

I love my Parmesan, so am sticking with that …..but the nutrition profile it has is certainly impressive.

Hi, LTC. It’s good to hear from you! I’m intrigued by this nutritional yeast, and you’re
all giving me a sense of what it is and how it can be used. I do love parmeggiano
reggiano though, and a great advantage is using the rind in soups. I wouldn’t
even bother to make vegetable soup without it. How are you doing with your
weight loss goals? I think I’ve finally settled down!

xoxo
Allie

Hi Allie and other chili lovers on this thread — your comment about adding a little garam masala to your chili recipe made me think of my mom’s very old Cincinnati chili (she grew up in Cincinnati which she always reminded us was the “Queen City of the West” — which we always laughed at as we are Californians) but I digress—
Her chili recipe includes the usual chili powder and cumin but also paprika (2 teas) cayenne (3/4 teas) allspice (1/2 teas) cinnamon (1/2 teas) turmeric (1/2 teas) ground coriander (1/2 teas) ground cardamom (1/4 teas) unsweetened cocoa powder (2 Tablespoons) molasses (2 Tablespoons) and cider vinegar (2 Tablespoons) — (that’s all for 1 pound meat and 1 large can crushed tomatoes).
So I can see why garam masala works!!

Ooh, I love that combination, Californiagirl! It’s like Mexican and Indian made a beautiful baby. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of adding cocoa powder, especially now that I’m obsessed with unsweetened raw chocolate products. Next week’s chili is going to have new and exciting flavors thanks you to you and Allie. 🙂

Thank you, Julia, you’ve just reminded me that I’ve put cocoa
powder in my chili in the past. I’ve actually just finished making
a batch. It smells heavenly in the house at the moment. I put
1 heaping tbs of unsweetened cocoa in this batch, Essie, and
it tastes great! Will be even better tomorrow with a wedge of
lime!
Thank you, Californiagirl, for reminding me “just in time” 🙂

Oh, I forgot to add that I also used 2 cans of Eden black soybeans,
courtesy of Whole Foods and you 🙂

That sounds amazing, Allie. I still have leftovers from last week’s chili to finish, but I’m so excited by the prospect of new delicious flavor combinations that might just have to make another batch before this one is finished. I hope the black soybeans do you right. In my experience, they just suck up the spices around them and add great texture and fiber. Keeping my fingers crossed you find the same. 🙂

Thought I’d share this, which I made as lunch today:

Diced half a small aubergine and two medium mushrooms, put these in an small ovenproof dish, added some lardons andmixed together with a little butter (olive oil would work fine too). Put in the oven and stirred occasionally until softened, then added some crumbed feta, made a well in the mixture and filled with an egg. Baked until the egg was cooked and served with a good dash of chilli sauce.

All sorts of tweaks could be made to this basic recipe – I’m thinking stilton instead of feta next time for instance. Of course, things like onion, garlic, herbs and spices could be used to ring the changes. By the way, I made the diced aubergine and mushroom quite small, so that it wouldn’t take too long to cook.

Not offering any cals or carbs, as I admit I didn’t calculate these today, but don’t think it would be disastrous.

Thanks, Sunny! One could get creative with this in a number of
ways. Do you think I would be successful by using a whole eggplant
and doubling the mushrooms, adding a few things, and baking
it in advance, then take it out of the frig. ahead of time, reheat in oven
then add the egg and cheese for individual portions each day?
I like the idea of a hot lunch for 1 on a cold winter’s day 🙂

Very short notice but tonight 8pm channel 5 ….Take A Look !

Thanks for that verano. Will watch tomorrow. Tonight is already allocated to first part of ‘silent witness’ ready for part 2 at 9. But sounds interesting!

Thanks to AnnieW for this link to a very interesting article ….

http://healthinsightuk.org/2018/01/22/low-fat-blinkers-keep-low-carbs-in-the-cold-time-for-a-coalition/

Hey Allie and all. Sorry to have gone silent but am dealing with double whammie right now. Still in the middle of an unbudgeable plateau, and then a flare of something akin to chronic fatigue has set in. For me it lasts about 5-7 days and then lifts. So laying low for now binge watching Netflix as no energy to do much else. I get 3-4 of these a year. My PCP has no idea what it is (had mono as a freshman and sometimes wonder if it is a flare of that)….but since it goes away so quickly there is not much incentive for expensive tests to identify. Simple blood tests have shown no issue. So Netflix it is and healthy eating with a slightly higher calorie count (1000- 1200).

So more or less just checking in at this point so as not to be totally out of the loop. Will be better about posting once over the hump. Then some serious rededication to BSD…perhaps a 4-5 day semi fast al a 5:2 350 – 500 calories and near zero carbs.

LTC, really sorry to hear about your double whammy. The plateau will right itself, they always do if we keep on keeping on, but must be horrible to be struck down with something unknown on a regular basis, and I hope you recover really quickly. In the meantime, can recommend The Crown on Netflix – if you fancy a bit of Britishness, that is.

Hugs and get well soon xx

Oh, LTC, I’m sorry that you’re feeling so crummy! Very happy to
hear from you, though. We would never want you to be out of
the loop 🙂 Chronic fatigue is miserable I know, I had it for a good
17 years, and most days I had to just about beat myself with a
stick to get out of bed, and some days I couldn’t even manage
that. Mine was the bi-product of chronic Lyme disease, however.
I’m sure you’ve probably already been tested for Lyme titers in
your blood. The only thing you can do is forget about 800 calories
right now, and get plenty of rest. I truly hope that this bout
follows the previous pattern and resolves itself in 7 days.
Have you got a good supply of prepacked meals in the freezer?
Settle in with Netflix, and return when you are feeling better.

XOXO

Allie

Hi Luvtocook,
Sorry to hear you’ve been laid up, I was just thinking yesterday I have missed seeing your posts! Hope you feel better soon xx

There is a new FL course starting 29th Jan called Living with Diabetes. I have booked onto it to see if they are up to date in their advice.

For Jason Fung fans (I’m one), I’ve just seen he is bringing out a new book at the beginning of April. It’s title is The Diabetes Code (one of his other books is The Obesity Code) – might be one to look out for.

Luvtcook – hope you feel better soon

Hello there,
This is a listen rather than a look. I’ve found From Medicine to Menace a very interesting listen, was on radio 4 this week and is now available on i-player. Maybe others will enjoy it too.
I’ve enjoyed your discussion and recommendations on here!

I heard that too Griannach, it’s part of the “Sweetness and Desire: A Short History of Sugar” series of 5 programmes, of which “From Medicine to Menace” was the last, which I’ve been listening to, and found fascinating. Gary Taubes is featured. If anyone is interested, here’s the link from which you can listen to them all……..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pyvlx/episodes/player

Very informative and ell worth listening to.

Thanks, Theo. I’ve bookmarked the link for attention later in the
weekend!

I came across this article quite by chance, on the correlation
between sugar and cognitive decline. For some reason, the last
2 numbers in the website are in much lighter ink, so I hope it will
be successful for you all, with or without the “55”.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-startling-
link-between-sugar-and-alzheimers/55

Wishing everyone a happy weekend..

Allie

Sorry Allie I couldn’t get your link to work but that might just be me being a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to ‘tech’!

Thank you Griannach and Theo for the link. I did manage that one ant the programmes look very interesting. Will listen later.

I’m sorry, V! No, it’s most definitely ME, not your computer skills.

It’s a great article, and I think you can access it by typing this
into google: the startling link between sugar and alzheimers the atlantic

(just tried it this way) Good luck!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday,

Allie

Thanks Allie, yes holiday was really relaxing. I have found the article and it is very interesting. Sugar seems to be the new ‘devil’ replacing fat. I find it most fascinating that the notion that ‘ not all carbs are equal’ appears to be being recognised more and more. So maybe simple refined carbs really are the ‘monster’ we should all fear irrespective of our diabetes status.

Hi Griannach – thanks for the link (and Theodora also). I often listen to Radio 4 on bbciplayer when I’m doing things round the house (yes, I live life on the edge) but missed these. Listened to them yesterday.

In that last episode, I was interested to hear Gary Taubes highlighting the 1970’s work of John Yudkin on the negative impact of sugar on our diet. I remember when I first moved into the health sector in the mid-80’s how much he was still being vilified for his research. It made me wonder if he lived long enough to see the turnaround in views. Quite sad really.

Hi Allie – meant to say thanks to you, too, for the link to the Atlantic.

I know on the diabetes forum I visit people talk about Alzheimer’s Disease as Type 3 Diabetes. Like a lot of people, I have personal experience of having close relatives with Alzheimers, but I haven’t really read much about the link with sugar, so I’ll read this with interest.
Enjoy your day

Just starting a new Living with Diabetes course with FutureLearn. Only 2 weeks so should manage it. Hope they are up to date in their thinking but somehow I doubt it….. Will let you know.

Have you seen this on the Beeb today? Interesting that livestock derived products feature only once – pork fat at number 8!
SSB

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180126-the-100-most-nutritious-foods

I read the article from the Atlantic on the sugar/Alzheimer’s link and I think the evidence is even more clear and convincing than they say.
There is (another) great book out there on this topic — “Grain Brain” by board certified neurologist, David Perlmutter — he focuses more on gluten but he delves extensively into sugar and simple carbohydrates as well so it’s very topical to the BSD.
I love his Grain Brain Cookbook — excellent low carb recipes and veggie recipes — it also has a good discussion in the Forward about the general principles.
I use this book, the MM BSD book and Gary Taubes (Why We Get Fat) every week.

There were a couple of articles in The Times on Saturday on a new book about to be published by the researcher into the benefits of fasting quoted by Dr MM. It sounds like the book may be interesting for those thinking about maintenance, as it appears to focus on research diets incorporating periods of fasting and what foods do not impact on fat burning.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/weekend/eat-less-live-longer-the-diet-that-holds-the-key-to-staying-young-2t662n633

Thanks, Julia. I didn’t know Perlmutter had a cookbook! I’ll have
see if I can take a look at the library. Sounds interesting 🙂

SaltySeaBird – Thanks for the link. An interesting and useful list, and I’ve just seen that ‘arugula’ which has been mentioned a few times on the forum, is ‘rocket’. Who knew?

Marie123, yes – it’s rucula in the Spanish supermarket- I go by what it looks like! Also interesting is that there are no starchy carbs – except sweet potato which scrapes in at 100!
SSB

Very interesting SSB. Where are the raspberries, blueberries, strawberries? One wonders if the Californian almond growers paid for this research!!

Hi Verano – I think it’s looking at whole nutrition rather than specific ‘goodness’. That doesn’t write-off the other delectable things you mentioned. But good about almonds – I eat far too many of them – and I now live in an almond-growing area of Spain and all the blossom is just coming out.
SSB

Nothing quite like almond blossom! Especially in Spain and it’s Islands!!!!

😊 🌸🌸🌸🌸

Did anyone watch How To Lose Weight Well last night? Just watched it on catch-up. One guy did the BSD for 8 weeks and lost 16lbs, so it was good publicity for our new way of life!

Yes I watched that and was pleased to see BSD highlighted. BBC 1 has a program running at 9.15 am all this week about ‘food’. I tried to ‘catch-up’ yesterday on Monday’s program but was disturbed so can’t really comment but it may be of interest.

I also watched it and he actually only lost 13lbs as did his friend on the other diet, so not a great result. BUT did you notice the lady on the DASH diet (I think it was that) lost 1st 5lbs in 2 weeks and her diet emphasised no carbs or sugars whereas the BSD man was eating brown rice etc. I still think this is the best diet in the world as I have never been able to lose weight before due to insulin injections and it is the only diet that has given me vast improvements with the diabetes. It is a pleasure now to go to the doctor and for him to say ‘you are perfect’ rather than ‘oh dear what are we going to do with you’. Who knew I was perfect!!!!

Hi all
I watched How to Lose Weight Well and I was disappointed that in 4 months the guy only lost a small amount – was it 13lbs? It is good the diet was highlighted but it didn’t show the real benefits of the diet – he couldn’t have stuck to it – if he had he would have lost more weight and his pre-diabetes would have improved. It’s a shame that didn’t come across.

I agree with Sunshine-girl – I’ve done lots of diets before and I do lose weight on them – as long as I’m sticking to them! But this is the only one that has got my blood glucose under control.

Food for thought .. almost literally

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mind-food-what-a-neuroscientist-eats-wd9mfz9st?shareToken=2a8eb9377be6754ba4997613eb18f883

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5323117/What-tempting-treats-REALLY-body.html This is a really interesting article. Who knew that chocolate turns to body fat in 30 minutes!!
Just about to read The Times article will let you know later…..

Fascinating article JackieM. We do eat so many of the foods mentioned in the article following this WOE. Think I need to reintroduce some things like almonds back into my diet. Can anybody tell me what Chia seeds taste like and their texture please.

They are tiny and very, very crunchy in their natural state, like poppy seeds. The taste is mild and slightly fruity, like the merest hint of melon. When you add them to liquid, they keep their crunchy core but express a gelatin that turns the liquid to pudding in minutes. It has a bead-like texture similar to tapioca. I like it but OH doesn’t so I grind the seeds first. As a powder, it still expresses that gelatin and thickens liquids to pudding, but it’s more evenly spread so the end-result is smooth without the tapioca effect.

My fave breakfast at moment Greek yoghurt with seeds and bits, including chia. I really like them. With yoghurt they go s bit gelatinous but retain their integrity.

The brain article has got me drinking more water again!