Jimmy Akin

Down yonder, a reader writes:

If you’re concerned with keeping blood-sugar levels down or stable,
I read an article on new scientist that cinnamon works. Just half a
teaspoon per day will do it. Have you tried it or heard anything about
it, Jimmy?

ARTICLE AT NEW SCIENTIST.

Actually, I have.

I’ve read about cinnamon having a beneficial impact on carbohydrate metabolism and recently bought a bottle of the spice to use when eating some of my highER-carb (but still low-carb) items–the idea being to diminish my blood sugar upon eating these items.

What I haven’t seen up to now is a write-up (even a journalistic write-up) discussing the basis of this in scientific studies. I wanna thank you for sending along the link to the NewScientist article. I’d like to see more studies done on this (any study done in Pakistan–even under U.S. supervision–raises a skeptical reaction in me). I’d like to see more studies on the point.

It is also being reported that cinnamon has a beneficial effect on cholesterol, though not as much as statin drugs.

A few notes about using cinnamon:

1. If you want to use it, find a way to add it to your diet without adding extra sugar or refined carbohydrates. DO NOT eat cinnamon buns or cinnamon toast made with hi-carb bread or sugar. If you add sugar and refined carbs to your diet, you’ll be fighting the effect of the cinnamon.
2. If you want, stir cinnamon into something else that you drink or sprinkle it on food–even meat.
3. If you can’t think of anything else, stick half a teaspoon of it in your mouth. It doesn’t burn, and you’ll be surpised at how sweet its natural form is.
4. Don’t go hog wild with this stuff. Half a teaspoon a day is safe for humans, but apparently large doses can have adverse effects.

For further reading,

HERE’S THE SITE OF THE FOLKS WHO DID THE STUDY.

MORE INFO, SUGGESTIONS HERE.

Thus far most low-carb pasta has been based on the idea of taking the carbs out of the pasta and replacing it with something else . . . like fiber.

Fine enough, though adding fiber to the pasta changes the texture somewhat.

Last year a new technique was tried with a pasta called Dreamfields. It’s available here in SoCal in ordinary supermarkets, where you can buy Dreamfields spaghetti, linguini, elbows, and penne.

The idea behind Dreamfields isn’t taking the carbs out. It’s putting in certain proteins (and just a tad extra fiber) that bind the carbs in the pasta so that you can’t absorb most of them.

The result is a pasta that has normal pasta taste and texture but which you will only absorb 5 grams of carb from instead of the usual 32 grams you’d get from a serving of pasta.

Or that’s the theory.

Dreamfields claims that it has studies based on blood sugar analyses that prove this, but then lots of companies claim to have studies proving things that are totally bogus.

Fortunately, there’s a corp of people who are highly capable of testing this kind of claim and motivated to do so: insulin-dependent diabetics.

Insulin-dependent diabetics have to monitor both their blood sugar and their carb intake very closely, and when someone goes on the market announcing claims like Dreamfields’, he’s going to get his claims cross-examined by countless ID diabetics who will use their own blood sugar meters to check him out.

SUCH AS THIS GENTLEMAN.

I’ve seen similar results reported after poking around elsewhere on the net: In the main, it seems that Dreamfields’ pasta does what it claims . . . at least for most people. There are some folks who are so highly insulin-resistant that they will get a blood sugar spike from the pasta, but most won’t.

Not satisifed with merely reading others accounts, I decided to do the test myself. I’m not a diabetic (insulin-dependent or otherwise), but I did get a cheap glucose meter so I could test my insulin response to foods I had questions about (it’s that whole science/curiosity/skeptical-of-miraculous-diet-claims thingie). I’m not as good at interpreting the significance of results as the folks who check their blood sugar every day (several times a day), but in my case the Dreamfields did not raise my blood sugar as much as regular pasta did (I tested both).

I haven’t eaten Dreamfields that much, but the last couple of nights I’ve been trying it with a new insulin-reducing trick: following the Dreamfields very quickly with fiber to slow down its absorption.

Haven’t been testing myself afterwards, tho.

VISIT DREAMFIELDS’ SITE.

A reader writes:

About 7 years ago, I started a new job, going from working my fanny off for 8 – 10 hours straight to sitting at a desk all day.  Naturally I proceeded to put on about 50 lbs in a year or so. 

Ouch! I hope that’s an exaggeration! (Though in actuality, 50 lbs in a year is only an excess of 486 calories a day, which only goes to show that most people aren’t overeating by 486 calories a day or they’d be putting on 50 lbs. in a year. As I’ve written before, most of the time most people tend to eat what they need to maintain their current body weight–whatever it is–and don’t overeat in the sense of contantly putting on more weight.)

After several attempts at trying to lose it the old fashioned way (eat less, excersize, etc.) and failing, I have decided to go low carb. 

Good for you!

I’ve been doing some research on it, including some of your archives.  A while back (last August) you posted some commments about japanese shirataki noodles [HERE], but you also said that you didn’t know of an online source for them.  There seems to be some sources for them now.  One is here:

http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/browseproducts/Shirataki-Noodles.html

I’m wondering, how far does a 7oz package typically go?  One meal?  Two?

Oooo. That’s a tough question. It’s going to depend on how much you typically eat in a meal. What I can tell you that may be of some help is that Shirataki noodles always come packed in water. This means that they’re already soft when you get them. It’s not like buying 7 oz. of dry spaghetti and having it swell up when you boil it.

You should cook them, but they won’t swell up when you do so.

They may, however, swell up in you. Shirataki noodles are basically pure fiber–a particular kind of fiber called glucomannan, which is known for swelling up to dramatic size. Once your digestive enzymes start breaking down the noodles into their component fibers, they may swell up real good.

As a result, I recommend that you do not pig out when you first eat shirataki or you may find yourself wishing you weren’t feeling so bloated. I’d only eat a very small portion first (like an ounce) and see what effect it has. Eat more the next day after you’ve done this test.

My guess is that, longer term, 7 oz. or shirataki would probably be at least two meals (maybe more). The serving size listed on the package (if it isn’t in Japanese) may also be of help.

I used to get these little tied up bundles of shirataki noodles that were about the size of a large shrimp (not a huge Aussie prawn!), and they swelled up quite a bit in me, so I only ate one per day. Unfortunately, the local Japanese market no longer carries those, though they still have shirataki in lots of other forms (not all of which are noodles; they also have dumplings and cakes made out of it).

One thing I will note about shirataki: They don’t have the same texture as regular pasta. They’re more "springy."

If you’re looking for an easily available low-carb pasta that has a more regular texture, you might want to try Dreamfields (see forthcoming post).