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Originally Posted by Wifezilla
1. Full fat milk is OK...cream is better. Stay away from skim milk...it is loaded with carbs.
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This myth will never die, will it? The 'carb advantage' of heavy cream has far more to do with portion size than actual nutritional makeup. And while the 'serving size' on the label may say 0 carbs, if you check that serving size, it's probably for far less than you're actually using, and was listed as 0g carbs because anything under .5g is allowed to round down to zero.
Compare equal portions of all the dairy products mentioned and the carb advantage of heavy cream over any fat level of milk or half and half disappears, or is not that significant unless you're drinking a pint a day of one or the other. Most people who need cream in their coffee can get away with just an oz. of heavy cream (the real deal, not thinned with water), but they may use far more than an oz. of regular milks, or even of half and half. Those little single serve half and half containers are a half-ounce. How many do you use? If it's more than two per cup of coffee, you might want to switch to heavy cream so that you can use LESS dairy in your coffee for the same taste--using a more intense flavor so that you can use less of it. If it's two of those containers per cup or less, stick with the half and half--easier to find at a coffee bar, same carb cost and it's cheaper in both $$ cost and amount of fat consumed in a day. And yeah, amount of fat consumed in a day CAN make a difference if you're small or very close to your goal.
But don't believe me...see for yourself. Go to
www.fitday.com, or to the USDA website, or to
www.nutritiondata.com (I prefer Fitday because you can punch in several items and compare them simultaneously.)
Compare the values for
1 fluid ounce of whole milk, 2% milk, skim milk, heavy cream, light cream and half and half. You will see that the protein and carb gram count for 1 fl. oz. of all of these milk products is exactly the same--1g--but that the fat grams for each of them at this serving size varies wildly from 0g (skim) to 1g (whole and 2% milk) to 3g for half and half, 6g for light cream and 11g for heavy cream.
If you're still in Fitday, change the serving size for the milks and creams you just selected to 2 fl. oz.--about the amount you'd add to two cups of coffee. You'll see that all of the milk choices are 3g carbs for 2 fl. oz., half and half is 3g carbs, and if you go to light cream or heavy cream, they're 2g carbs. You're only 'saving' 1g of carbs. Protein grams are the same for all the milks and light cream and half and half--2g. Heavy cream is only 1g protein for 2 fl. oz. But take a look at the fat grams for this serving size--you go from a low of 0 for skim milk to 1 for 2%, 2 for whole milk, and then up to 7, 12 and 22g fat for half and half, light cream and heavy cream respectively.
Can I eat 1 fl. oz. of heavy cream during the day? Um, yeah...in a heartbeat--1 oz. of heavy cream whips up into less than a tablespoon of whipped cream, and I can knock that down without even trying, not to mention how much I'd consume with two or three cups of coffee per day.
It's very very easy too 'overeat' heavy cream if you drink a lot of coffee. So if you are going to eat a LOT of heavy cream because you've replaced all of your dairy with it, and you're NOT going to reduce the amount of dairy you use, then eating that amount of heavy cream may cost you.
I am not saying that eating full fat or choosing heavy cream is bad--I do it all the time. Whipped cream and cinnamon on a coffee turns it into a special occasion.
But why choose heavy cream and thin it with water? That's like reconstituting evaporated milk...unless refrigeration and shelf life are issues, go with a more appropriate milk product--don't bother 'thinning' heavy cream. Depending on how much you use, you're not really 'saving' that much, and it costs a lot more. Use the dairy product that you think tastes best and is appropriate to what you want--and which enables you to use the least amount possible, and buy the smallest, non-ultrapasturized amount at a time so that it's as fresh as possible and as uncluttered with preservatives. But if you want your coffee as light as it gets with 1 fl. oz (two of the single serve half and half containers), then it makes absolutely NO difference whether you use half and half or cream, or milk to get it there...
as long as you use the same amount of the lower fat dairy product that you'd use of the fuller fat dairy product. Protein Power won't care. A carb is a carb.
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2. Full fat cheese is better. The fat isn't the problem when it comes to being overweight. Full fat cheese will make you feel full faster.
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Personally, I do think full fat cheese tastes better...but I happen to prefer neufchatel to full fat cream cheese, and neuf is lower fat. Same consistency, same carbs/protein per ounce, and no more or less 'processed' than cream cheese--just lower fat. I also prefer natural emmentaler to most swiss cheese (a version of Swiss cheese which is naturally lower in sodium and fat and which has a nuttier taste.) If the carb count is the same and you want to lower fat, it's not a crime. It's not necessary to lower fat--but there's nothing wrong with making that choice.
What you DO want to avoid is processed cheeses. Get real cheeses from the cheese case or from cheese makers, and avoid the stuff masquerading as cheese that has been pre-sliced or pre-cubed and put into plastic packages.
And if, like some, eating full fat cheese DOESN'T make you stop eating when satisfied (or if you're never satisfied), then you might want to take a look at choosing naturally lower fat forms of cheese like emmentaler over swiss, neufchatel over cream cheese, dry grating cheeses over the more semi-solid ones, dry curd cottage cheese over creamed full fat, etc.
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3. Stick to strawberries and blueberries for starters. You can try adding fruit with a slightly higher carb level once you hit goal.
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Actually, *any* berry is considered a low carb choice. Raspberries and black berries are actually much lower per cup (raw) at 8g ECC than blueberries at 16g ECC for the same portion size. For that matter, frozen unsweetened melon balls at 13g ECC per cup raw are lower than strawberries for the same portion size. There are plenty of carb-portion appropriate sizes of stone fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums, and even half a medium sized apple, some grapes, half a banana or a half a tangerine falls within meal limits.
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1. How much half and half is allowed? i use some in my coffee twice a day, is it ok? ( coffee doesn't trigger cravings for me, i've been usong it all along without problems; i used to have it w skim milk though and hated, HATED every sip of it)
2. It says 7-10 EEC carb g per meal, does it mean we HAVE to eat that amount or it's the max we can have?
3. Also, for the whole day we are allowed no more than 40 g carbs, it it OK to have more at some that 10 at some meals and less than 7 (or not at all) at others but sum up to <40 a day?
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PP isn't about eating foods you don't like, especially not at the Hedonist level. Sometimes I have three large cups of coffee a day and I also use half and half in my morning shake. Unless you're dairy sensitive, it's not a problem.
7-10g ECC per meal is recommended to keep from producing insulin spikes and messing up your blood sugar. If you need to eat more carbs at a certain meal, and that doesn't mess up your blood sugars, that's fine...but the Eadeses do mention that if you have to eat more carbs, it's better to eat them earlier in the day than later.
And if you're trying to figure out which foods are the most appropriate for eating this way, make sure that you compare equal portion sizes--the sizes you'd actually consume, preferably--in making your decision. Sites like
www.Fitday.com, the USDA and
www.nutritiondata.com can be a lot of help with that.