Don’t let diet lose in cold battle
October 10, 2004
Summer’s gone, autumn’s here, and the leaves are changing.
And that means the cold and flu season is upon us. As I write this,
I have a scratchy throat, a stuffed nose and a tight chest. Now
seems like the right time to fill you in on low-carb cold care.
Yes, there is such a thing as low-carb cold care, but let me warn
you about a few potential pitfalls.
When you’re feeling under the weather, please don’t
decide, “I’m sick. I deserve pampering. I may as well
go off my diet.” Nutritionists from Dr. Atkins to “Fat
Flush Plan” creator Ann Louise Gittleman, MS, CNS have long
insisted that eating sugar will weaken your immune system, and a
1995 study showed that the activity of immune system cells called
leukocytes decreases significantly when blood sugar levels rise.
If there’s any chance that eating a lot of carbs will keep
you sick longer, you don’t want to do it!
Just as important, if you’ve been low-carb for even a few
weeks, you’ve probably noticed a dramatic increase in energy.
Do you really want to give yourself one of those energy-sapping
blood sugar crashes that come after the blood sugar rush? Talk about
feeling wretched.
Here are some thoughts to keep in mind for your low-carb cold care:
Juice is not your friend; it’s a great way to take in tons
of sugar without any of the fiber that would buffer its absorption
if you were to eat the fruit. However, Hood has now added low-carb
juice drinks to its nationally distributed Carb Countdown line.
The Hood juice products all have 100 percent of the recommended
daily allowance of vitamin C per 8 ounce serving, with 5 grams of
carb. Instead of fruit or juice, take vitamin C pills.
Hot beverages soothe a scratchy throat and loosen chest congestion.
Tea is the obvious choice. If you usually put honey in your tea,
be aware that just one teaspoon has 5.7 grams of carbohydrates,
all of them sugar. There are a couple of brands of sugar-free imitation
honey on the market: Steele’s and HoneyTree. I’ve also
been drinking Sipper Sweets brand sugar-free raspberry lemonade
mix, made hot. This is very easy to make and has just 1 gram of
carbs per serving.
Beware of cold medicines! Cough syrups and liquids like NyQuil
have a lot of sugar. If you like NyQuil and/or Dayquil, buy the
gel caps. Also, opt for sugar-free cough drops.
Source:www.fortwayne.com
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