The Best Weight Loss Diet Is?

New information confirms what I have been telling people for years.  A low fat diet is bad for your health and a low glycemic diet is the best diet for weight loss.  The recent study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  For more information, watch the short video below.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

Here is another great recipe courtesy of pinterest.com. It is one of the places that I find a ton of inspiration for recipes, decorating, you name it. It can also suck up hours of time so I suggest looking at it only when you have time to kill!

As you may or may not know Dr. Court is from New Jersey just outside of Philly. What is one of the things Philadelphia’s famous for…? Cheesesteaks, of course! If you’re reading this blog, then you’ve probably figured out that we don’t eat a lot of grain. We may have some occasionally but for the most part we avoid it. So, that means no cheesesteaks for us. Until now….this recipe for Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers means we can get the flavor of a cheesesteak without the bread! Genius! This recipe is so go the way it was I didn’t do anything different to it. This is exactly as I found it on Peace, Love and Low Carb via pinterest.com.

 

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Organic Green Bell Peppers

1 Medium Sweet Onion

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms

2 Tbsp. Butter

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Garlic – Minced

Salt and Pepper – to taste

 

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

Slice onions and mushrooms.  Saute over medium heat with butter, olive oil, minced garlic and a little salt and pepper.  Saute until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized.  About 25-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400*

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook 5-10 minutes

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese.

Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.

Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown.

Serve and Enjoy!!

Makes 4 servings –  6 net carbs per serving

 

NOTE: We doubled the recipe to have leftovers.

Fresh Avocado Tomato Salad

I love backyard BBQ’s! The problem is that not everyone we know eats the way we do so when we’re invited to a cookout I try to bring a dish that everyone will love but that’s not loaded with carbohydrates. This salad is always a hit! It’s so fresh and so tasty that it can be eaten by itself like we do or used as a dip for all the chips that will be lying around the party. Another great thing about this dish is that it only takes a moment to whip up so you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen on a beautiful day.

 

Fresh Avocado Tomato Salad

For a large batch to take to a party you’ll need:

5 ripe avocados, pit/skin removed and chopped into large bite size pieces (You don’t want them too hard and you don’t want them mushy)

1-2 cups of organic cherry tomatoes sliced in half

½- ¼ of a red onion, finely diced

1 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

1 lime cut in half (if you roll the lime under your hand for 30 seconds or so before cutting it in half you’ll release more of the juice)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional 1 jalapeño, finely diced

 

Place avocado, tomatoes, onion, cilantro and jalapeño if using into a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix all ingredients. Squeeze both halves of the lime into the bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Mix together. It can be eaten right away but if you allow it to sit for a few hours before serving it enhances the flavor.

 

It’s easy and tastes like summer! I hope you enjoy it with your friends and family this weekend!

 

Portabella Hummus Melts

Oh, Pinterest, I do adore thee.

It can suck up my time faster than almost anything else on the planet, besides a good book, but occasionally I actually make something I’ve pinned to my board. That’s how this yummy side dish came to us. Even more exciting is that it’s a combination of 2 pins! Separately, I had pinned a link to “Best Hummus Recipe” and to these Hummus Melts. The Hummus Melts were originally on a toasted English muffin but when I saw the picture, I thought, “I bet those would be good on portabella caps!” And so here we are!

Last night I set out to make these. It was a tad ambitious considering we got home from the gym late. (I did however, dead lift 240lbs! Check out the picture on our Facebook page!) Despite the late start it all came together pretty quickly with a little help from Dr. Court AKA Grill Chef! The hummus is super easy to make and really does taste better than anything you buy in the store. These little melts are delicious. I do hope you give them a try and let me know what you think.

Portabella Hummus Melts

Make Hummus using this recipe and set aside. (I didn’t add the Tabasco sauce as Dr. Court’s stomach can’t handle it but it was wonderful without.)

After the hummus is made:

Clean out stem and gills of 4-6 large Portabella mushroom caps

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

Grill for 5-10 minutes or just until they are starting to get soft

In the mean time:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

And then:

Sauté 1/4 white onion, finely diced with 2 tsp garlic (about 2-3 cloves finely diced) and about 6 large handfuls of chopped organic spinach (1 large bag chopped or ½ of large Olivia’s Organics box) in butter or coconut oil and a dash of salt and pepper.

Once the mushrooms are soft, place them on a baking sheet. Dump out any juice that has accumulated in the cap. Spread ~1-2 Tbsp of hummus on them. Divide the spinach, onion and garlic mixture among the mushrooms and place on top of the hummus. Top with ~1 Tbsp of mozzarella cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is browned and bubbly.

Voila!

Enjoy with some organic, uncured bacon wrapped around grass-fed organic filet mignon or other healthy protein!

Cabbage and Beef Bake

I like casseroles. I’ll admit it. They are easy to make, usually have all our protein and veggies in one dish and we usually have leftovers. You can’t beat it!

About 2 years ago my friend, Stacy sent me this recipe which was one that her grandmother used to make. As she said, “it’s an oldie but a goodie!” I made it the original* way several times until we realized that Dr. Court’s digestive system can’t handle spicy food. At first, I was really disappointed because this is one of my favorites but then I started playing around with it. I have made it so many ways based on what we had in the freezer and pantry. I’ve made it with turkey burger, added shallots, used tomato sauce instead of tomato paste but the following version is what we have decided we like best. You’ll notice that this recipe contains rice. While we don’t normally eat much rice or grain we do have some once in a while.

Cabbage and Beef Bake

1 lb of ground beef (organic, grass-fed if possible**)

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced

4-5 cups of shredded cabbage

1 can tomato paste

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 – 1 can water

3 Tbsp of wild rice

1 pkg of frozen spinach or fresh spinach chopped

1 tsp of garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large skillet brown the burger with onions and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

While the meat is browning use a food processor or a knife to chop up 4-5 cups of cabbage (about 1/2 of a large head of cabbage). Place the cabbage in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and lightly salt and pepper the cabbage.

Once the burger is done add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, water, garlic powder, rice and spinach and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

Spoon the beef mixture over the cabbage. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour. Enjoy!

*Original Recipe:
Preheat oven to 325.  Brown 1 lb ground chuck, 1 chopped onion in 1 Tbsp. oil.  When browned, add in 1 can tomato soup, 1 soup can of water, 1 can drained rotel tomatoes, 4 Tbsp uncooked long grain rice, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a lightly greased casserole dish, place 4-5 cups of shredded cabbage and then spoon beef mixture over cabbage. Cover tightly with foil and bake x 1 hour.

** There are a number of CSA’s available locally which allow you to buy beef in bulk making it more affordable. For more information please contact the office. To find a farm near you check out: westonaprice.org.

Paleo Breakfast Bread

This recipe comes from Dr. Court’s Uncle Me. He sent it to us last week and I decided to make them Sunday morning. They are AMAZING! They remind me of coffee cake but a little lighter. The original recipe calls for stevia but you absolutely do not need it. The bread is plenty sweet without it. I also used a crunchy almond butter as that was all I had on hand and we thought they were fantastic. This bread is a great alternative to a wheat based breakfast bread but remember they are still pretty sweet and should probably be considered a once in a while treat.

Paleo Breakfast Bread

Serves 4

• ½ cup creamy roasted almond butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, with a hand blender, mix almond butter until creamy
2. Mix in eggs, honey and vanilla
3. Add salt, baking soda and cinnamon
4. Mix well with hand blender until all ingredients are combined
5. Transfer batter into a well-greased 8×8 inch Pyrex baking dish
6. Bake at 325° for 12 to 15 minutes

Enjoy topped with butter along with the Fresh Veggie and Herb Scramble…now I call that a breakfast of champions!

Zucchini Boats

I discovered this recipe while browsing on Pinterest. If you have never been to pinterest, I highly recommend you check it out, BUT only if you have time to kill. If you are looking for recipes, they’ve got them while not all of them are healthy, they still look good. In addition to recipes, they have DIY projects, room decor, style decor, travel, architecture, literature, prints, the list goes on and on. “What do you do with these things?” you say. You pin them to a board that you can go back and look at later. Very similar to an inspiration board but online.

Anyway, I came across this recipe while browsing one day and thought, “that sounds great but I’d leave out the bread crumbs.” Here is the original recipe and below you will find my changes. This is super easy and always tastes great! Enjoy!

Zucchini Boats

Zucchini

Grape tomatoes

Grated Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella or Fontina cheese

Fresh basil

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Garlic

Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and trim a little off the bottom so it sits still in a baking dish

Scoop out the center where the seeds are with a spoon

Brush the surface with a mixture of crushed garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper

Arrange halved grape tomatoes into the grooves, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes

Remove and place diced fontina or mozzarella between the tomatoes, place them back in, but now under the broiler until golden and bubbling

Remove and drizzle with olive oil and fresh chopped basil.

Smoked Cauliflower and Beef Casserole

Cauliflower (Photo credit: Island Vittles)

Hi All,

I have some making up to do. Due to a super busy week last week, I wasn’t able to post a recipe so this week I’ll do two.

My sister-in-law sent me this recipe which she copied from one of my mom’s low-carb cookbooks. My bacon-obsessed brother was quoted as saying, “I’m in love with this,” and “it makes me think I’m eating bacon”. That’s not a bad place to start. I made it as the recipe directed the first time. We really liked it but then I thought I could make it even better. Here’s the recipe…I suggest you double it because you’re going to wish you had more if you don’t.

Smoky Cauliflower & Beef Casserole

1 medium head cauliflower

½ large white onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, diced

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1lb ground beef (preferably grass-fed, organic)

4 oz smoked Gruyère, Swiss or any other smoked cheese, shredded

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut up cauliflower & steam until tender. Coarsely mash the cauliflower.

Brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic.

Add the cream cheese and cauliflower to the beef mixture and stir until creamy. Add garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.

Spread half the cauliflower mixture in a 2 qt casserole dish.  Top with half of the shredded cheese.  Add remaining cauliflower & top with remaining cheese.

Bake until bubbly (about 30 min).

I usually serve another vegetable as a side preferably a green veggie like asparagus or broccoli.

Let me know what you think. Give it a try and leave a review. If you have a variation, share it with all of us. I know I’m always looking for a new recipe.

Thai Inspired Tuna Salad

Hello from Dr. Carrie!

We are introducing a new category on the Vreeland Clinic’s Blog….Recipes. I love food and as the person in our household who does the grocery shopping and cooking I want to make meals that both taste good and are healthy. Now, if you are a regular reader you know that for us “healthy” means eating protein, lots of vegetables and low glycemic fruit, good fats, and keeping the processed food and grain based carbohydrates to a minimum. Often, I find a recipe that calls for a grain or sugar which I omit or substitute something else. You’ll find those recipes with my edits in this section.

Additionally, one of the biggest obstacles for someone who is starting a program with us and changing their diet is figuring out what to cook. For those accustomed to a Standard American Diet it can be a little overwhelming and my hope is that this section of the blog will be a great resource for them. I also hope that it is a resource for those who’ve been on the program for years. I know I always love trying new things!

Here’s our first recipe:

I had a brainstorm the other day standing in line at the deli counter of one of our local grocery stores. The store had prepared Thai Tuna Burgers. They looked delicious and most of the ingredients were in line with our eating plan but they of course contained bread crumbs or something to bind them together. I realized I could use those flavors in our tuna salad. We eat a lot of tuna salad as it’s a great protein source and has anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. Here is my creation. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I know we’ll be adding it to the tuna salad rotation.

 

Thai Tuna Salad

3 cans of tuna, drained

¼ of a red onion, diced

¼ c. cashews, chopped (I used roasted because it’s what I had on hand)

½ c. fresh cilantro, finely chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, diced

½ of a lime

~1 c. of mayo (use less if you like your tuna salad drier and more if you don’t)

Combine tuna, onion, cashews, cilantro and hard-boiled eggs in a bowel. Squeeze the lime over the mixture. Add mayo and mix. Enjoy with some raw veggies or over a bed of mixed greens!

Feel free to add some red pepper flakes to spice it up a little.

Do you have a favorite tuna salad recipe? If so, feel free to share it with us!

‘What’ you eat is more important than ‘How Much.’

Image via Wikipedia

Finally a large-scale study has concluded what I have been telling patients for years! What you eat is more important than how much of it you eat.  A calorie is not a calorie!

If you ask many classically trained dietitians about maintaining a healthy weight they will regurgitate the same old rhetoric they always have – “as long as you don’t eat more calories than you expend you won’t gain weight,” and “there are no bad foods, just bad amounts of food.”

The above statements have never made sense to me.  I remember taking ‘advanced biology’ in high school.  (There was nothing really ‘advanced’ about it. It was just the second of two courses, the first being ‘basic’ biology.)  In this class I remember learning about physiology and how the body responded differently to different types of food.  Some foods caused the release of insulin while others caused little or no release of this hormone.  The job of this hormone? It basically tells the body to store fat.  From that information I concluded that what you ate had to make a difference in your weight.

As I progressed through my eduction in college (as a biology major) and then on to chiropractic school where I truly received advanced training, my view did not change – the quality of food that I ate had to make a difference on maintaining my weight.  It could not possibly be as simple as calorie-in/calorie-out.

Yet when you read information online or from other mainstream media outlets you will hear just the opposite. “Eat whatever you want, just be sure it’s in moderation.” Or “It doesn’t matter what kind of food you eat as long as it’s low calorie.”

A new study of just over 120,000 people finally has come up with a conclusion that makes more sense.  Hopefully the American Dietetic Association will take notice.  Individually there are some very good dietitians out there, but the American Dietetic Association is making people sicker and sicker with their stance on many aspects of health in my opinion.

The researchers analyzed data on three separate studies over a 20-year period, tracking the long-term effects of different foods and lifestyle changes on more than 120,000 men and women. Adults in the study gained an average of 3.35 pounds every four years, for a total average weight gain of almost 17 pounds.

Regular consumption of potato chips, French fries and sugared beverages were most to blame for slow and steady weight gain. However, people who ate yogurt, fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains either lost weight or gained the least.

Now, I will be the first person to tell you that weight is not the be-all, end-all of health markers.  It’s a good one, but there are plenty of thin people in this world who are very unhealthy.  Also, I generally do not recommend grains be a big part of anyone’s diet.  In small amounts they are ok, but they contribute to inflammation which can be problematic for many reasons.

The other foods in this study – yogurt, fruits, vegetables and nuts – are free foods! Eat them as much as you want.  I routinely encourage people to eat these foods as much as possible.

Interestingly, nuts are a high calorie food yet they performed very well in helping people lose or maintain their weight.  If it truly was about calorie-in/calorie-out then nuts should have performed poorly.  It just goes to show you it isn’t about the calories that we’re putting in, it’s about the quality of those calories.

As much as I’d like to say it’s only about the quality of our food that matters, I cannot.  The amount matters to a certain extent.  If you are regularly consuming 7,000 calories per day you will gain weight.  That type of excess cannot be combated with ‘good’ foods.  However, to get that kind of extra calorie one would have to consume huge amounts of the ‘bad’ foods like fast food, doughnuts, etc.  Those clearly are not quality foods in the first place.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the author of the study that appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.  He says the calorie-in/calorie-out theory is incorrect “because different foods have a different effect on the body. ‘You can’t just say a calorie is a calorie. It doesn’t address your feelings of fullness, your blood glucose levels, your blood insulin levels and the other biological responses in your body.”

I could not agree more and this has been my point to other ‘experts’ on nutrition when we debate the calorie-in/calorie-out theory.

Let me pose this scenario to you –

Two people are going to embark on an experiment.  They are going to eat identical calorie diets for the next year.  One person is going to eat 2,000 calories per day in potato chips and the other is going to eat 2,000 calories per day in chicken and vegetables.  Who will be healthier and have the most optimal weight at the end of our experiment?  Intuitively we would say the person eating the chicken and vegetables would be and I believe this is correct.

There have been many short-term studies that have concluded healthy diets only need to focus on calorie content.  The quality of the food was not important for maintaining weight.  Finally a study has looked long-term and concluded that the quality of your food is important. Make sure your choices are good choices.  If you focus on the quality of your food you will maintain your weight more effectively than counting those calories.