[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/llvlcshow/llvlc417-jennifer-eloff.mp3[/podcast]
Jennifer Eloff, low-carb cookbook author of the bestselling Splendid Low-Carbing, is our guest today on The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.
Jennifer Eloff has lived the life of a literary character–in fact something like Swiss Family Robinson rewritten by Jane Austen! Somehow in her transcontinental wanderings she has had time to blog and write some of the seminal low-carb cookbooks available on the market today. She may even have another one or two coming soon after a seven-year hiatus! Listen in for today’s trans-Atlantic interview from the heart of Africa.
Also, don’t miss out on your FREE Quest bars! Listen in to learn more from our most successful sponsor EVER!
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 417
– Support our sponsor: Get TWO FREE QUEST BARS
– Jennifer Eloff bio
– Splendid low-carbing: A complete guide for low-carb living
– “Splendid Low-Carbing” blog
– Jennifer’s column on stevia: “A Possible Stevia Side Effect – Hypoglycemia”
Thanks, Jimmy! It is kind of strange to be listening to this podcast from deep within the jungles of South America. Isn’t technology awesome!
Really neat stuff, Jennifer. You did fabulous!
What a great episode! It was awesome to finally associate the voice and the personality with the blog and cookbooks. Can I just say I am waiting anxiously for the next cookbook to be released? There is of course no pressure now that Jimmy let the cat out of the bag. 🙂
Thank you Jennifer for all the time and effort you have placed on paying it forward. My menus would definitely be more dull without your cookbooks in my repertoire.
Great podcast! I enjoyed listening to Jennifer and have enjoyed her blog and recipes!
Hi Jimmy,
Since I first saw her name on your upcoming guest list, I’d been eagerly awaiting your interview with Jennifer.
Being diabetic & having a limited number of healthy low-carb treats, I craved more variety. So, when I discovered the “Splendid Low-Carb Desserts” cookbook, it felt like I’d hit the jackpot!
By replacing sugar with Splenda & replacing flour with her own “Splendid Low-Carb Bake Mix” (ground almonds, whey protein powder & vital wheat gluten) along with a few other tricks, Jennifer has slashed the number of carbs in traditional recipes – muffins, cheesecakes, fudge, cookies, squares & more – to give us equally delicious low-carb versions, all under 10 g carbs per serving. She even shows how to “de-carb” your own recipes.
Having learned the importance of reducing my glycemic load, from another of your guests, Dr. Rob Thompson, I find Jennifer’s low-carb bake mix fits the bill perfectly. One cup of All Purpose Flour = 84.0 carbs vs. one cup of her mix = 9.9 carbs!
A couple of my favorite recipes from “Splendid Low-Carb Desserts” are “Lemony Delight Muffins” – lemon glazed & very filling (154.2 calories, 10.1 g protein, 10.2 g fat, 4.7 carbs) & “Chocolate Almond Cheesecake” – a totally satisfying, creamy milk chocolate that melts in your mouth with every bite (1/16 serving: 246.5 calories, 7.9 g protein, 21.2 g fat & 6.7 carbs.)
I’m so grateful to have discovered Jennifer’s Low-Carb cookbook series, as well as her blog, and consider her dessert collection, in particular, a very valuable tool to help prevent ever having to feel deprived livin’ la vida low-carb. A word to the wise: halved recipes taste just as great. Simply put: Jennifer Eloff makes living well with diabetes a whole lot easer! A big thank-you goes out to Jennifer for sharing her amazing gift of creativity in the kitchen.
Also, I would like to say a special thank-you to another miracle worker, when it comes to innovative low-carb solutions, the very generous Dana Carpender, whose writing led me to Jennifer’s work, as well as to your own website.
Of course, I would also like to thank you Jimmy, for the wonderful interview with Jennifer & for your continued work. I always enjoy your “unstoppable enthusiasm” as you continue to educate & motive us all!
Jimmy:
Great Interview with Jennifer Eloff.
I do have a question:
Jennifer mentioned “a gland” that shrinks from using too much Splenda, which gland was that? I just couldn’t quite hear her. I Tried to go back and listen several times, but could quite hear which Gland she was talking about. I think she said you had to eat at least 52lbs of Splenda a year for that to happen. Did I hear that correctly? Also, I thought it was very interesting what she had to say about Stevia and Hypoglycemia with people who have Diabetics 1. What’s interesting about that is that the same DNA Gene that is with Diabetic 1 is also the same DNA Gene for Celiac Sprue. And I just started using Stevia, and have been having lots of headaches. It could just be a Confidence, but it’s the only know thing that I have brought into my diet in the past few weeks. So, if you find anything out on that, I would be very interested.
Thanks again for a great podcast. I always learn so much.
Hi Cathi,
This “Thymus gland” issue is what is known as a “red herring” or a totally ridiculous distraction, and it often happens in food safety research done in labs. The Thymus gland was only shown to shrink in rats fed the human equivalent of 35,172 teaspoonfuls per day of Splenda, but no problems were found if that dose was halved to a human equivalent of 17,586 teaspoonfuls of Splenda per day. OK so how many people will ever even have that safe amount of Splenda? None. It is more typical to have 4-12 teaspoons of Splenda per day, but even in extreme cases, of which my family has been the most extreme for 18 years now because of all of my recipe development and testing, we had the equivalent of some 500 cups per person per year, or (500 x 48)/365 = 65 teaspoons of Splenda per day – a small fraction of even the safe dose. To put matters in perspective, I propose that if a person ate 35,172 teaspoonfuls per day of sugar for a year, not only would their Thymus gland shrink, they would be dead. The logical take-away from this is that moderate consumption (and in this case “moderation” is actually pegged quite high) poses no problem. I just have to look at my sons, who grew up on Splenda instead of fructose and sugar, and compare them against the mean in society, where young folks consume a lot of high fructose corn syrup and sugar, to know that using Splenda instead of these “natural sweeteners” was a definite positive! For our family, 18 years ago, switching to Splenda was a qualified risk, but 20-20 hindsight has shown it to have been a very smart decision. As for Diabetes type-1 and Stevia, here is a link to my article on that: http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2009/10/possible-stevia-side-effect.html and I find what you said about the DNA Gene for Diabetes-1 being the same as for Celiac disease, fascinating!
95% of people who have Celiac have a particular gene (DQ2 allele).
Celiac causes autoimmune disorders. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. And THAT may be the connection between the two diseases. Celiac is more common in Type 1s than in the general population. So, some people might have Type 1 due to autoimmune responses caused by Celiac, and THAT may be the genetic connection.
My son is homozygous (he got the gene from BOTH parents) for the DQ2 allele, and he is Type 1. Did undiagnosed Celiac CAUSE his Type 1? We don’t know, but it is certainly a possiblity.
Dear Roxanne,
You have no idea how pleased and happy I was to read how I’ve helped you to enjoy desserts again. That is exactly what has driven my creativity all these years.
Thanks for your kind words and enthusiasm. ((((HUGS)))
A funny or not-so-funny story: My dear DH, Ian, wanted to give me a good star rating and no doubt 10 out 10, but he accidentally clicked on the 5th star and there was no way to correct the mistake, as the computer program remembers the IP address and does not let you vote twice from there. He felt so bad. My sons thought it was funny. Then I related the story and one of my biggest fans misunderstood and quickly voted and proudly told me she had also given me a 5 star rating! LOL 5 stars is for a good hotel, so it’s understandable, but waaah, here it is different! Too funny, but I’ll say that even after those two boo boo’s, I’m grateful that the star votes are still up there. It’s nice to get positive feedback, even after all these years. Thank you for taking the time to say thanks.
So Jimmy, you approve the use of Splenda?
I use it myself at times Trixie.
I noticed this on lowcarbfriends:
“Just wanted to say that you helped me to feel a lot better about the use of Splenda. Thanks for that.” Robyn
This is an example of the good that flows from Jimmy’s interviews.
Jimmy, in the podcast, you asked what the mechanism was that caused hypoglycemia in Type 1 diabetics who use Stevia. Type 1 diabetics must administer insulin themselves, since their body doesn’t do it for them. Because of this, they can’t naturally compensate for a sudden, unexpected blood sugar drop. In other words, once the insulin is injected into their bodies, they can’t suddenly take it out because of a sudden blood sugar drop. Instead, they must compensate by eating fast acting carbohydrates, instead.
For instance, exercising drops blood sugar like crazy. If my son (who is type 1) is going to be exercising, he purposely brings UP his blood sugar first (by eating something carby), then removes his pump for the duration, so he isn’t getting any insulin. Even then, he usually has to check his blood sugar multiple times, because he still goes low.
With regards to Stevia causing low blood sugar, I have to say that my Type 1 diabetic son has used it with some regularity, and has never noticed any problems with low blood sugar afterward. So it may be a YMMV with regards to that.