Testimony of the Day
“Hi Maria, I had to show you my before and afters. My son had his 1 yr old photo shoot in the middle of August. I went on your ketogenic plan in the middle of October. We had a new photo shoot for Christmas done three months into my new life style.
I am down 35lbs, almost 4 pant sizes and I feel amazing. Better yet your information in both your books and your blog, not to mention all the wonderful recipes in your cookbooks have given me so much confidence. I am not guilt ridden every time I eat. On top if everything else, I have introduced six women to the “healthified” way. Now they are seeing success with all the info you provide too. I know I have already thanked you once. But I just have to thank you again. You are one of the best things that has happened to me in 2013.
So thanks again and I love you new keto-adapted book. It’s the best be far. Thank you for all you do for your clients and thank you for everything you have done for me!” – Shauna
Click HERE to start your journey to a keto-adapted diet!
POTASSIUM FACTS
One question I get all the time is “If I can’t eat potatoes or bananas on your diet, how will I get my potassium?” People suffering from high blood pressure are wrongly informed to eat potatoes and bananas. Yes, they both are high in potassium, which is essential for heart health because potassium is an important intra-cellular electrolyte; it helps reduce blood pressure and heart rates by countering effects of sodium. BUT high carb foods cause your insulin levels to increase and as your insulin increases, so does your blood pressure. Insulin affects your blood pressure by causing your body to retain sodium. Sodium retention causes fluid retention. Fluid retention in turn causes high blood pressure, and can lead to congestive heart failure. So eating potatoes and bananas to help blood pressure is counter-productive.
Eating high carb foods eventually causes insulin receptors grow resistant to insulin. This causes a magnesium deficiency. In a healthy body insulin stores magnesium, but a lifestyle of high carb eating causes damaged cell receptors and magnesium can’t get into the cells so it passes out of your body through urination. Not only that, but for every gram of starch you eat, it requires 42mg of magnesium to process it! Magnesium in your cells relaxes muscles. If your magnesium level is too low, your blood vessels will constrict rather than relax, which will raise your blood pressure and decrease your energy level (as well as cause headaches and migraines). So not only are potatoes and bananas causing more issues with blood pressure, they are causing a magnesium deficiency as well (restless leg is a common sign of a magnesium deficiency).
The banana is also high in fructose. Fructose is a sugar that can only be metabolized by the liver, which breaks down into a variety of waste products that are unhealthy for your body, one of which is uric acid. Uric acid drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure. The average American now consumes 70 grams of fructose EVERY day!
The common mis-perception that those are the only 2 foods with potassium. There are many foods higher in potassium (people just LIKE to eat those foods! lol). One healthier way to get potassium is a zucchini! A zucchini has more potassium than a banana and is full of vitamin C without all the sugar and starch to go along with it.
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per cup)
Potato = 116 calories, 0g fat, 3g protein, 27g carbs, 2g fiber (25 effective carbs)
Banana = 134 calories, 0g fat, 1g protein, 35g carbs, 3g fiber (32 effective carbs)
Zucchini = 20 calories, 0g fat, 1.5g protein, 4.2g carbs, 1.4g fiber (2.8 effective carbs)
I’ll stick with my zucchini and keep my blood sugar at a normal level.
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| Zucchini Crisp |
Zucchinis are starting to invade my garden! I am about to play “ding dong ditch” with them on my neighbors porch. Here are some awesome ideas.
1. Zucchini “Pasta” using this handy dandy tool: Spiral Slicer
2. Grilled Prosciutto-and Zucchini Ribbons
4. Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, zucchini cupcakes and zucchini Twinkies
Wow! I love this post!!! Loved the “ding dong ditch”! hahaha! I wish you lived next door to meeeee!!!!! hehehe! Can’t wait for zuchs to be a dime a dozen, Summer’s just around the corner here!
Haha France, you make me laugh! 🙂
I made a zucchini/spinach gratin last night with US Wellness Meats no sugar bacon, some onion and Parmesan. It was incredible. A little labor intensive to get out all the water, but delicious just the same. We are also growing the zucchini and summer squash in our garden, too, but I will turn green with over-consumption before I ding, dong, ditch them.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I don’t have a lot of veggies I like (it is a problem, I know), but zucchini is a love. I didn’t care for miracle noodles, but I very much look forward to trying the zuc “pasta” LOVE LOVE LOVE this post
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Thank you! I don’t like many veggies, but zucchini are my favorites. I look forward to the ‘zuc pasta’
Thank you!
Just got my spiral slicer in the mail and can’t wait to use it on all the zucchini I got at our local U-pick. Can I make noodles and freeze for later? Will they hold up as a pasta or noodle for soup or turn out too soggy? Just curious as we had our first frost last night (in Alaska), so I think I better get started preparing for winter!
No, sorry, they won’t freeze. They work great in soups. The bullet #1 above has 2 soup recipe links. 🙂
Nice recipe. Great work done. But i am assuming how much fat it contains. I am very sensitive about my health issue. So i need to think first. But you definitely did a great job.
Fat is not the enemy. It is the only macronutrient that can help balance blood sugar and keep you full longer. I suggest you read my book “Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism”. 🙂 http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/1451555946
I wish I’m a great cook like you. I want to try those foods. I also wish that you’re one of my neighbor so if ever you have a new dish, I could taste it right away. Those make me hungry.
Thanks! 🙂
Just brought home my Spiral noodle maker lastnight. Made an amazing zucchini stir fry. Can’t wait to try some of your other recipes here. So glad to hear all the great benefits of zucchini.
On another note… wondering which program you use to make your photo collage??
Thank you! I just use Picasa. 🙂
Maria! We’ve been using our new slicer to make both zucchini and kohlrabi noodles. You got me curious how much potassium is in kohlrabi so I looked it up and there’s 473mg in one cup of kohlrabi, not too shabby, eh? I had NO IDEA there were other good sources of potassium besides bananas and potatoes! Awesome post!
That’s awesome! 🙂
Maria do you think that it’s a good idea to take a potassium supplement or is it best to get it in the food that we eat?
It is always best to try and get it from food, but much of our food supply has been depleted of many of these essential vitamins and minerals. So supplements are needed if you are showing a deficiency. 🙂
Hi Maria, I want to stick to the low carb diet but I’m having trouble regulating the portions of each macro nutrient. I eat about 80 to 100 gms of carbs, 60 to 80 of protein and the rest fat. Instead of losing weight I gained weight (about 10 pounds), so frustrated. Besides the weigth I got lots of celulite (to make matters worse). I have never been overweigth but I do desire the lean body I had before. Am I over eating on the fat, carbs or protein? I’ve been starting to eat more carbs again (healthy ones in form of vegetables, fruits, and only tortillas 1 or 2) and kept the healthy fat low but not too low and protein about the same. Is maybe low carb not working for me? Its been only a week since I changed the diet, but I think I’m starting to see results already. Can I find all this info in your book? I know low carb is the best choice for a healthy diet, but what if it makes me gain weight instead of loosing it?
I don’t think you cut the carbs enough. I recommend getting below 30g of carbs per day to enter nutritional ketosis (fat burning mode). At 100 grams of carbs your body is still in sugar burner and the increased fat will be counter productive. I recommend less than 30 grams carbs, less than your lean body weight in protein and the rest fat (60-80% of calories). I talk in detail about the plan in my Metabolism book. 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Healthy-Metabolism-Maria-Emmerich/dp/0988512408/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=A51JBC26TWGDE&qid=1367969981&s=generic&sr=1-3
Thanks, I´m really interested in getting most of your books 🙂
Hi Maria,
I’ve been following your site for a month or two now and have really enjoyed it. I found it while looking for recipes for a ketogenic diet to help control my epilepsy (Were you aware of this application for seizure control? You don’t mention it at all, although perhaps because its outside your realm of expertise.).
We’re getting to zucchini-glut time in our garden, so I cam in search of recipes. Seems every link above takes me right to the home page… Might it be because of the new website design? I’ll try to search a different way, but wanted to let you know of the issue if you weren’t aware.
Thanks for all you do!
~Amy
Hi, Yes, I have actually treated several clients for seizure control. One young boy went from as many as 100 seizures a day to none in 48 hours!
Thanks!
Hmm, the links all redirect properly for me. Maybe try again. 🙂
I was seizure free for just over a month, then last week was having 6-8 per day. Frustrating. My seizures are mild (simple partial seizures in the front temporal lobe… so no loss of consciousness even, just weird daydreams with INTENSE deja vu), so I’m really not thrilled about the thought of taking medication with side effects like “inability to cope with daily life”. Seriously! Still waiting on the MRI to find out if there might be another reason for the seizures, ie. brain tumor. However, even if it *IS* tumor(s), a ketogenic diet would be one of the best courses of action to fight cancer. For me it’s win-win!
As for the links, they *look* like they’re going to go to the right place, but before the page loads, they go right to your home page. I’ve tried on my laptop AND iPad, both using Safari, if that helps at all. It’s not a huge deal as I found the recipes I needed through the tags at the top, but just thought you’d give you a heads up especially given you’ve been updating your blog.
Which I love, by the way. Thanks so much for all you do!
Thank you! I really hope your results come back OK and you can continue to manage it with diet. So sorry and hope you are doing better soon. 🙂
Maria, I just finished your keto adapted book, really enjoyed it!! I started to eat the Maria way about a week ago , still adjusting, still some headaches. But I’m keeping the carb under 20g a day and trying to increase the fat ( just made your keto fudge, out of this world!!)
Now I’m trying to figure out what additional supplements I might need . Currently I don’t have any health issues ( apart from some neck pain 🙂 and here are the supplements I’m taking, all in the evening :
Norwegian fish oil 1000mg
Kelp 600mg
Vitamins with rose hips 1000mg
Vitamin k-2 (MJ-7) 100mcg
Iron 25mg
Vitamin D3 2000IU
Magnesium citrate 400 mg ( I will switch to your recommended one ones this is done )
Anything I need to add or change? Potassium maybe? I would really appreciate your input. Thank you, and happy Thanksgiving 🙂
Please check this out: http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/top-10-supplement-mistakes/
Thank you for the kind words!
Thank you Maria, that was amazingly helpful. You are such a God sent 🙂
Are are so sweet!