A few questions in one post

[vJosie]

1. Have any of you ever used the vegetable glycerin? It's what Atkins Nutritionals uses for their bars and always seemed easier on me than the others so I bought a bottle.
2. Do any of you have experience with coconut flour? Sounded interesting so i bought some. I think I'd like to try battering and frying with it but it recommended using it to replace wheat flour in baking...?
3. Have you noticed a real drop-off in the products available in stores? A lot fo the products that I used to get at Walmart and my local grocer are no longer there.

[scott123]

Re: A few questions in one post

Glycerin is good for adding moistness and some sweetness to baked goods, but you have to be careful with how much you add. At higher levels, glycerin has a very pronounced metallic taste. It has good freezing point depression abilities, so it works well in ice cream, again, in small amounts. It can be laxating, but, as I've been saying, I think if you don't use much, you'll be fine. As far as the carb impact goes, that's a little bit of gray area. Atkins Nutritionals doesn't count it, but you generally don't want to trust their numbers. This page listing glycerin as having neglible glycemic impact seems to ring true. Regardless of it's GI, you might want to pay attention to see how it's affecting your weight loss.

Coconut flour isn't ideal for frying. Because it's so thoroughly dried, it has a tendency to brown fairly quickly. The moistness of a batter might buy you a little time, but if you do fry with coconut flour, I'd definitely keep the pieces small. Shrimp or chicken strips would probably work well.

Coconut flour aside, if deep frying's your goal, I'd recommend carbalose. Carbalose works phenomenally for frying. If you want the taste of coconut, I'd combine shredded coconut and carbalose. Shredded coconut has more residual moisture and will brown slower. Carbalose still browns quicker than regular flour so you still have to keep the pieces small, but I'm certain it browns slower than coconut flour.

Yes, the products have definitely thinned out. LC's popularity has waned. It has nothing to do with the efficacy of the lifestyle, it's just a result of a backlash of public opinion. Innovative concepts/advanced thinking rarely take hold overnight. They ebb and they flow. Regardless of the fickle/cyclical nature of a reactionary public, there's still some quality products available. Compared to where low carb/low carb products were in pre-peak 2003, it's a smorgasbord.

And welcome back!

[Binsk]

Re: A few questions in one post

I have bought one package of Carbalose, but haven't opened it yet (not at the rung). I am so afraid that they will discontue some of my favourite LC products, that I have been stockpiling some of them.

I can't wait to us Carbalose for onion rings. What else do you use it for, and how do you make your batter?

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: A few questions in one post

Be careful of stockpiling stuff, most of it does have expirations dates on it. I wouldnt' worry about it anyway, there are usually natural substitutes that are better for you and a lot cheaper than all the low carb stuff they have/had on the market.

I use parmesean cheese and almond flour and sometimes pork rinds for all my breading needs. I've never purchased Carbalose, never had a need for it.

[Binsk]

Re: A few questions in one post

Thanks MoG, I do worry about expiry dates. Sometimes I'm just too tired to cook up a batch of ketchup or BBQ sauce and I would really miss the ready made ones if they went off the market, also I love Steels Hoisin sauce ( has saved me from eating Chinese takeout so many times ). I would like to use the Carbalose for making a roux for Jambalaya, most other things that I tried just didn't do the trick (file and VWG).

I do eat more whole foods on this plan than ever before, but sometimes these products help when you're having a meltdown moment and its better than going off plan. We can't get Dreamfields in our grocery stores any more in Canada, so I have bought a lot of boxes. I am looking forward to rotini and sausage when I reach the appropriate rung. I don't think that the Carbalose or the pasta will not go bad for quite a while, but I have Atkins muffin mix and Pancake mix that I am a little worried about.

[vJosie]

Re: A few questions in one post

I was disappointed to find all of the low-carb icecreams disappearing. Turkey Hill had an awesome one that is gone. Ben & Jerry's had a "half-baked" that was amazing and the little pint made it easier to watch the portion. Gone. The only one I've seen in any store around me now is Bryers and I never liked that one because they still put sugar in it. I guess I'll make my own - I can try my glycerin in that. My whole family has ice cream on Sundays. That's how we keep the kids from asking to have it all the time.

[scott123]

Re: A few questions in one post

Turkey Hill was PHENOMENAL! That could very well have been my favorite ice cream ever, sugar free or otherwise.

As far as Breyer's carbmart goes, it's definitely not as good as Turkey Hill, but it's not bad. From what I can tell the recipe has been through a few iterations since it was released, one of which included a hefty dose of high fructose corn syrup. The most recent ingredients of the vanilla version include:

Milk, cream, polydextrose, sorbitol, fructose, glycerine, natural flavors, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gel, cellulose gum, guar gum, xanthan gum, carob bean gum, polysorbate 80, sucralose, acesulfame potassium.

Now... I have gone to great lengths to make people aware of the dangers of fructose and rail against it being used as a sweetener in such products as Whey Low and agave nectar. Trace amounts such as this, though, are not the end of the world, imo. This product has 4 net carbs coming from sugar. I did a little reverse engineering, and, as far as I can tell, about 2.5 carbs are coming from lactose in the milk and cream. That means about 1.5 carbs are fructose. That's not a lot of fructose. Fructose does happen to be low glycemic (it's only good trait), so it won't give you a blood sugar spike/cravings, and, with this small amount I don't think it's health issues (raised triglycerides, increased insulin resistance) should be a concern.

Would I prefer a fructose free formula? Absolutely. But if 1.5 grams of fructose are the only things in the way of me having a serving of ice cream once in a while... I can certainly live with them. I wouldn't eat this on induction and maybe not the early stages of OWL, but after that, sure, why not. But that's me.

[scott123]

Re: A few questions in one post

I have bought one package of Carbalose, but haven't opened it yet (not at the rung). I am so afraid that they will discontue some of my favourite LC products, that I have been stockpiling some of them.

I can't wait to us Carbalose for onion rings. What else do you use it for, and how do you make your batter?

Binsk, regarding when to add carbquik, you might want to take a look at my post here:

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=32662

I, personally, don't feel like it's a cut and dry grain rung ingredient. Same thing for Dreamfields.

Carbalose and carbquik are supposed to last at least a year if stored in a cool dry place. I wouldn't be too concerned about the availability of these products in the future. Carbquik is definitely the best selling bake mix on the market. Believe me, they're not going anywhere.

Besides frying, I use carbalose mostly in gravies. I LOVE carbalose sausage gravy. It's great on anything. Although I adore it on carbquik biscuits, it's just as wonderful on diced chicken or fauxtatoes. I even enjoy it with dreamfields. Carbalose is ideal in a well flavored gravy or sauce. Beef gravy - excellent. Cheese sauce - great. Chicken - not ideal, although it's the best I've found. Besides gravies, I've used carbalose in pizza crusts. For crusts, I've combined it with resistant wheat starch and WPI 5000. The resistant wheat starch has no flavor so it's great for diluting the strong taste of the carbalose. My crust is a work in progress- close, but not perfect. Carbalose crust/bread is an exciting frontier. This fall should reveal some substantial breakthroughs in this arena.

That's about it for my uses of carbalose. When I want breadcrumbs for meatloaf or meatballs, I make up a batch of carbquik biscuits and toss them in the food processor. Works great.

I'm still putting the final tweaks on my batter recipe. I've been altering the thickness of the batter to get the right amount of batter to stick to each piece. Every time I change the thickness of the batter, I have to adjust the seasoning level. Here's the basic layout of the recipe. I season carbalose flour with paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, black pepper, salt and msg, mix it well and then split it into two portions. To one portion I add eggs- enough to make a thick batter. I dip the pieces in batter, then in seasoned flour. This gives me a pretty healthy dose of breading, which I like.

So you like jambalya, huh? Carbalose makes a totally kick butt roux for gumbo. OOOO WEEE!

[Binsk]

Re: A few questions in one post

Thank you so much for the advice and recipes Scott, they sound wonderful and I will let you know how mine turns out. I will make the Jambalya when the cold weather comes, I found the last time that I made it, it was great and tasty but missing that roux. I was also surprised to see how many carbs were in all the spices that I added, I really had to be strick with portion control.

As for the thread about when to add some of these products, I have an older version of DANDR that says after induction add carbs in 5 gram incriments each week and evaluate. I guess the rungs were added to test for weight gain and cravings which may be a result of the food's GI rating. I wonder what the glycymic index is for
Carbquick, Carbalose and Dreamfields?

Thanks again Scott - you're great.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: A few questions in one post

I know what you mean about some of the products. I miss the Lawry's low carb BBQ, it tasted better than regular to me. We still have lots of brands of low carb ice cream around here. But 1 gal of ice cream lasts me a couple of months so I can take it or leave it really, if I really gotta have some, I'll just make my own.

I have noticed that there seem to be more products labeled "Sugar Free" though, I think that some of the products are just changing their labeling from "low carb" to 'sugar free' and they're basically the same thing. Its a "trend" thing for marketing I guess.

[Binsk]

Re: A few questions in one post

In Canada, as of Dec. 05, it is illegal to use the phrase Low Carb or Low Carbohydrate or to list net carbs on packaging. This led to a decline of low carb products and also why we lost Dreamfields. We have an internet site that brings in products from the US and that's where I got my Dreamfields and Carbquick. The only reason they are allowed to keep their low carb name "The Low Carb Grocery" is because they were registered before the law, but I do think that they had some problems. If a similar law was passed in the US, so many of these products would stop being made.

[vJosie]

Re: A few questions in one post

Wow - I knew the government would get some sort of hand on monitoring the foods that label themselves low-carb, but didn't expect it to those lengths. I wonder how soon the US will implement the same thing.

On the glucose... I found a site that says this:

Vegetable glycerin is derived from palm (coconut) oil. It is colorless, odorless, calorie-free, does not make blood sugar rise, and is about half again sweeter than sugar.
It is a liquid used in many cosmetic preparations and in commercial food preparation, but is not yet widely sold as a sweetener. Your natural food store may carry it, or you can order it online.

And the same site listed these recipes:
Lemon Cheesecake
Lemon Curd
Chocolate sauce

I definately plan to try it for icecream - it sounds like a good solution. Thanks for all the input.

[vJosie]

Re: A few questions in one post

Oh my - so the glycerin came today. My husband quickly dabbed a bit to try. He said it tasted familiar. I took a dab and knew right away what it was - you can't deny the texture, and it actually warms as you rub it in your palm... it's what they use for those "edible ...(you know)... gels"!!! So now we're comparing prices to figure out if the Netrition bottle of my sweetener will be headed to the bedroom drawer or will the bottle from the bedroom be tossed in pancakes tomorrow...