Dana Carpender

You know Dana Carpender from her popular cookbooks -- all 20+ of them, so far. A pioneer of the low-carb frontier, Dana has been fighting the low-fat lie since 1996 at HoldTheToast. She lives in Indiana with three dogs, a cat, a backyard full of chickens -- and, of course, That Nice Boy She Married, with whom she shares much bacon on a pleasant Sunday morning.

Why I’m Not a Low-Carb Purist by Dana Carpender

I have, over the past many years in general, and in the past few days in particular, taken some heat for not being pure enough or restrictive enough or something enough about the diet I eat and the ingredients I use in my recipes. I was accused of something very close to a major character flaw in a discussion about sucralose, by a woman who was infuriated that I would use such an evil, evil ingredient, and that I dared to suggest that perhaps stevia was not utterly safe beyond all question. I've been taken to task for using/eating polyols. I've been told that I should only use, and only recommend, organic, grass-fed meat, and that suggesting that it's okay to eat battery eggs - factory farmed eggs - is just plain wrong.

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Getting Enough Potassium on a Low Carb Diet by Dana Carpender

Bananas must have a killer press agent. Over and over folks ask, "But if I can't have bananas on my low carb diet, where will I get potassium?" It is true that bananas are a pretty good source of potassium; one medium banana has 422 milligrams, or about 12% of the RDA of 3.5 grams. However, that banana also has 27 grams of carbohydrate, with only 3 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 24 grams - about half of my daily maximum carb intake, and more than the 20 gram upper limit for those of you who are in the induction phase of the Atkins diet. Clearly we can't count on bananas for our potassium! But where will we get it?

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Alcohol on Your Low Carb Lifestyle Revisited Includes Low Carb Mockahlua Recipe

Dana Carpender shares her recipe for Low Carb Mockahlua, as well as ways to fit alcohol into your low carb holiday celebrations. 'Tis the season to make merry! Seems to me that there are more parties crammed into the month of December than all the rest of the year put together. For many of us, parties mean downing cocktail or two. So how does drinking alcohol fit into a low carb diet?

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Thanksgiving Day Leftovers by Dana Carpender Includes Her Turkey Tetrazinni Recipe

Thanksgiving was Thursday. Maybe you took an Indulgence Day, maybe - like a growing (or, more accurately, shrinking) group of low carbers, you kept on low carbing right through the feast. I heard from a lot of people who had fauxtatoes and sugar-free pumpkin pie. Regardless, you probably have some leftovers kicking around. You're not going to be eating turkey sandwiches, or at least I hope you're not. So what to do with your leftover bird?

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Can Low Carb Slow The Aging Process? by Dana Carpender

Can I be allowed a big, fat "I told you so?" On my blog, I told you eating low carb was slowing my aging process. Now we have University of California gerontologist Cynthia Kenyon, with an animal study showing exactly that. She's actually discovered what she calls the Grim Reaper gene, and another she calls the Sweet Sixteen gene. The switch that turns on the former and turns off the latter? Insulin. Which means that by cutting carbs and lowering insulin, you can reverse the process, switching off the Grim Reaper and turning on your Sweet Sixteen. Or at least she can in roundworms.

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Low Carb Stuffing Recipes by Dana Carpender

Call it stuffing, or call it dressing, it's just not a holiday turkey without it! For me, stuffing is an essential part of holiday dinners. Indeed, I used to have what I like to call an "indulgence" (a term I prefer to "cheat") on holidays largely so I could have stuffing! Since then, however, I've learned to cut back on the carb count of my turkey stuffing. Here are some ideas:

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