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I got Dana Carpenter's e-zine and thought, given the season, lots of us would appreciate some ideas on how to pamper a cold without blowing it too badly. Here's her article:
Low Carb For Life Reprint - Low Carb Cold Care
As you can see from the first paragraph, this column originally
appeared
in the autumn of 2004. It may be late winter now, but I still know
plenty of people with colds! I've altered this column a bit to bring it
up to date with the state of the low carb market.
Summer's gone, autumn's here, the leaves are changing. You know what
that means. Right, the cold and flu season is upon us. Indeed, as I
write this I have a scratchy throat, a snorky nose, and a tight chest.
Ugh.
So I thought it would be timely to fill you in on low carb cold care.
Low carb cold care? Yep. There actually are a few potential pitfalls,
let me help you skirt them.
Please don't decide, "I'm sick. I deserve pampering. I may as well go
off my diet." Nutritionists from Dr. Atkins to Ann Louise Gittleman,
MS,
CNS have long insisted that eating sugar will weaken your immune
system,
and indeed a little research turned up a 1995 study showing that the
activity of immune system cells called leukocytes decreases
significantly when blood sugar levels rise. If there's any chance that
eating a lot of carbs will keep you sick longer, you don't want to do
it!
Just as important, if you've been low carb for even a few weeks, you've
probably noticed a dramatic increase in energy. Do you really want to
give yourself one of those energy-sapping blood sugar crashes that come
after the blood sugar rush? Talk about feeling wretched.
Here are some ideas for low carb cold care:
* Juice is not your friend - it's a great way to take in tons of sugar,
without any of the fiber that would buffer its absorption if you were
to
eat the fruit.
* Sadly, Hood's Carb Countdown Juices are no more. But Minute Maid has
a
line of reduced-sugar juice drinks with 1-2 grams of usable carb per
serving, and added vitamin C. If you really crave juice, they're an
option. Still, they're a highly processed food, and some of them do
include the extremely evil high fructose corn syrup, if only in small
quantities. (Some also contain something called "GLYCEROL ESTER OF WOOD
ROSIN," which sounds bizarrely like shellac, to me...)
* You could always take vitamin C in pills, you know.
* Hot beverages are soothing to a scratchy throat, and loosen chest
congestion. Tea is the obvious choice (she said with a big pot of tea
sitting close to hand.) If you're used to honey in your tea while sick,
be aware that just one teaspoon has 5.7 grams of carbohydrate, all
sugar. There are a couple of brands of sugar free imitation honey on
the
market - Steele's and HoneyTree. These are remarkably good, and
available through online retailers and low carb specialty stores.
* We've been drinking Sipper Sweets brand sugar free raspberry lemonade
mix, made hot. This is very good, very easy to make (nuke a cup of
water, stir in a little mix,) and has just 1 gram of carb per serving.
The lemonade and apple cider mixes by Sipper Sweets would be good hot,
too. (NOTE: Since I wrote this, the market has changed. I'm still
finding these products advertised on line, but some stores are saying
they're on clearance, which makes me wonder if they've been
discontinued. )
* Beware of cold medicines! Cough syrups and liquids like NyQuil have a
lot of sugar. Buy NyQuil, DayQuil, and the like in soft gels, instead.
Pharmacies carry sugar free cough syrups, often labeled "diabetic
formula."
Again, your best bet for these is a pharmacy, not the grocery store or
a
discount store.
* Chicken soup is standard for colds, but most packaged chicken soups
have noodles or rice in them. If nothing else will do, it's good to
know
that Campbell's Chicken Noodle has 8 grams of carb per serving - not
great, but not terrible. Chicken Rice has 7 grams of carb.
* If there's a local Chinese restaurant that delivers, consider sending
out for egg drop or hot-and-sour soup. Though recipes vary, both tend
to
be lower carb and higher protein than canned chicken noodle.
Hot-and-sour soup - my cold-care favorite - has the added advantage of
hot peppers to help clear out your nose.
Low Carb For Life Reprint - Low Carb Cold Care
As you can see from the first paragraph, this column originally
appeared
in the autumn of 2004. It may be late winter now, but I still know
plenty of people with colds! I've altered this column a bit to bring it
up to date with the state of the low carb market.
Summer's gone, autumn's here, the leaves are changing. You know what
that means. Right, the cold and flu season is upon us. Indeed, as I
write this I have a scratchy throat, a snorky nose, and a tight chest.
Ugh.
So I thought it would be timely to fill you in on low carb cold care.
Low carb cold care? Yep. There actually are a few potential pitfalls,
let me help you skirt them.
Please don't decide, "I'm sick. I deserve pampering. I may as well go
off my diet." Nutritionists from Dr. Atkins to Ann Louise Gittleman,
MS,
CNS have long insisted that eating sugar will weaken your immune
system,
and indeed a little research turned up a 1995 study showing that the
activity of immune system cells called leukocytes decreases
significantly when blood sugar levels rise. If there's any chance that
eating a lot of carbs will keep you sick longer, you don't want to do
it!
Just as important, if you've been low carb for even a few weeks, you've
probably noticed a dramatic increase in energy. Do you really want to
give yourself one of those energy-sapping blood sugar crashes that come
after the blood sugar rush? Talk about feeling wretched.
Here are some ideas for low carb cold care:
* Juice is not your friend - it's a great way to take in tons of sugar,
without any of the fiber that would buffer its absorption if you were
to
eat the fruit.
* Sadly, Hood's Carb Countdown Juices are no more. But Minute Maid has
a
line of reduced-sugar juice drinks with 1-2 grams of usable carb per
serving, and added vitamin C. If you really crave juice, they're an
option. Still, they're a highly processed food, and some of them do
include the extremely evil high fructose corn syrup, if only in small
quantities. (Some also contain something called "GLYCEROL ESTER OF WOOD
ROSIN," which sounds bizarrely like shellac, to me...)
* You could always take vitamin C in pills, you know.
* Hot beverages are soothing to a scratchy throat, and loosen chest
congestion. Tea is the obvious choice (she said with a big pot of tea
sitting close to hand.) If you're used to honey in your tea while sick,
be aware that just one teaspoon has 5.7 grams of carbohydrate, all
sugar. There are a couple of brands of sugar free imitation honey on
the
market - Steele's and HoneyTree. These are remarkably good, and
available through online retailers and low carb specialty stores.
* We've been drinking Sipper Sweets brand sugar free raspberry lemonade
mix, made hot. This is very good, very easy to make (nuke a cup of
water, stir in a little mix,) and has just 1 gram of carb per serving.
The lemonade and apple cider mixes by Sipper Sweets would be good hot,
too. (NOTE: Since I wrote this, the market has changed. I'm still
finding these products advertised on line, but some stores are saying
they're on clearance, which makes me wonder if they've been
discontinued. )
* Beware of cold medicines! Cough syrups and liquids like NyQuil have a
lot of sugar. Buy NyQuil, DayQuil, and the like in soft gels, instead.
Pharmacies carry sugar free cough syrups, often labeled "diabetic
formula."
Again, your best bet for these is a pharmacy, not the grocery store or
a
discount store.
* Chicken soup is standard for colds, but most packaged chicken soups
have noodles or rice in them. If nothing else will do, it's good to
know
that Campbell's Chicken Noodle has 8 grams of carb per serving - not
great, but not terrible. Chicken Rice has 7 grams of carb.
* If there's a local Chinese restaurant that delivers, consider sending
out for egg drop or hot-and-sour soup. Though recipes vary, both tend
to
be lower carb and higher protein than canned chicken noodle.
Hot-and-sour soup - my cold-care favorite - has the added advantage of
hot peppers to help clear out your nose.
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