Dana Carpender

Dana Carpender, 46-year nutrition buff, 29-year low-carber, opinionated writer, congenital smarty pants, and low-carb recipe guru. Lives in Southern Indiana with Otis the Pug, Squeaky the Cat, and as always, That Nice Boy She Married.

Spring is Here by Dana Carpender

Wow! It's spring! It's really, really spring! At least it is here in Bloomington, Indiana. (Yes, I know for my readers in the southern hemisphere that it's autumn. But autumn's nice too...) The snowdrops are blooming, and green things are poking their little heads up all over my yard.

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Salt on a Low Carb Diet by Dana Carpender

Many of us agree. Salt is easily the most popular seasoning. There's a good reason for this: Salt is an essential nutrient; without it we'll die. But just as Americans "know" that fat is bad for them, they "know" that salt is bad for them. The standard wisdom, parroted over and over again, is that limiting fat and salt intake will lower blood pressure, prevent heart disease, and improve health in general.

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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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Niacin on the Low Carb Lifestyle by Dana Carpender Includes Her Seriously Simple Chicken Chili

Niacin is a water-soluble B vitamin with good sources including lean meat, especially organ meats, white meat poultry, fish, eggs, peanuts, avocados, and wheat germ.

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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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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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