Carb control [the smart way]: take the very best of the reduced-carb diets and lose the rest—including extra pounds

Shape, June, 2004 by Katherine Tallmadge

4. Avoid supplements and processed low-carb foods.

To their credit, most purveyors of low-carb diets acknowledge that the diet is deficient in dozens of important nutrients and phytochemicals (disease-fighting compounds found in plants) and so recommend taking myriad vitamin and mineral supplements to make up for what the diets lack.

But a supplement is not the equivalent of food. That's because the nutrients in whole (unprocessed) foods have a far more powerful effect when eaten together. This may explain why studies on supplements have failed to show the same health-enhancing and cancer-preventive effects as a diet high in vegetables and fruits.

When it comes to processed low-carb chips, breads, bars, pastas and other new foods on grocery-store shelves, buyer beware. Not only are these products typically much more expensive, but they may not even help you lose weight, since most contain the same calories as their full-carb counter-parts. For example, a package of low-carb chips and regular chips each has about 150 calories per 1-ounce serving. Similarly, a low-carb bar and a candy bar each contains about 250 calories. Also, low-carb beers have no fewer calories than other light beers (and not very many fewer carb grams!). Jose Ordovas, Ph.D., director of nutrition and genomics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston, has seen the phenomenon before, although in a slightly different form: "This is the same problem we had with the lowfat and fat-free products--people felt they could eat all they wanted without regard for the calories, and the result was more obesity." The bottom line: Be smart about your food choices. There simply is no magic bullet.

RECIPES

Reducing carbs needn't be about deprivation--you can have pasta and sandwiches as long as you choose a mix of complex and simple carbs, along with protein and some fat. Here are four delicious recipes to take you from breakfast to dinner, all the while keeping calories, fat and carbs (just 131 grams) in check so you lose weight the healthy way. Most important, this menu has 23 grams (nearly a day's worth) of what many nutrition experts call the most important nutrient for weight loss: fiber.

BREAKFAST

Eggs Sardou

Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Cooking spray
  4 cups chopped fresh spinach or 1 1/4 cups frozen cut spinach, thawed
1/2 cup chopped canned artichoke hearts, drained
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable- or herb-flavored light cream
    cheese
  2 tablespoons nonfat or lowfat milk
  4 whole-wheat or oat-bran English muffin halves, toasted
  4 poached eggs
Ground paprika

To make the spinach mixture, coat a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray, add the spinach and place over medium heat. Cook for several minutes, stirring frequently, until the spinach is wilted. If using frozen spinach, cook only enough to heat through. Then, add the artichoke hearts.

Add the cream cheese and milk to the spinach mixture. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture starts to boil and the cream cheese melts. Add a little more milk if the mixture seems too thick. Set aside and cover to keep warm.