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Old Tue, Jun-17-03, 23:54
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Mamabeek Mamabeek is offline
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Posts: 389
 
Plan: Suzanne Somers'
Stats: 142/118/115 Female 5'3"
BF:
Progress: 89%
Location: Central Coast California
Question Tabs do you have any of her books?

Suzanne has lists of foods in the back of each of her books to help you figure out what is 'legal' level one, almost level one, level two and FUNKY! (I just love that term)

Yes cream sauces are ok, but no, flour or cornstarch thickeners are not. Guar Gum is a good thickener that has no carbs in it. Arrowroot is a no no though. White sauces are one of my favorite things, and since my DH can't have much acidic food, tomato based sauces have to be kept to the minimum at my house anyway. I love to blend cream, white wine, and spices and toss in a little guar gum to thicken it up. I then nuke veggies in the sauce and it's to DIE for. Yesterday I threw in some parmesan cheese and precooked shrimp. YUM!

Ezekiel bread in the orange package is totally legal. Somewhere around here someone said it had some kind of sugar in it, but today I read the lable while I was shopping and it is 100% legal. Just sprouted grains yeast and sea salt. Trader Joe's has a couple of breads without sweeteners if you happen to have that store in your area, but finding sugar free breads is really hard, even in health food stores. Legal tortillas or pitas are easier to find. Do you have a bread maker? If not you can still make bread, but they aren't too expensive now and they make life much simpler. There are TONS of legal bread recipes out there and even packaged mixes that are legal. Suzanne has many bread recipes to try.

Sugars to avoid are listed as "sugar," glucose, sucrose, brown sugar, molasses, honey, any kind of syrup, dehydrated cane juice, and fruit juice. Glycerine is ok (I had to go ask about that one.) If none of those things are listed in the ingredients but you see sugars listed in the nutritional panel that's ok. Some ingredients may have sugar in them, but as long as there is no ADDED sugar it's generally ok. Also check that if there is a sugar on the ingredient list it also shows up on the nutritional label. For example bacon and most sausages are cured with sugar but it is used up in the process and there is none left in the final product. Same for alcohol. You can cook with it because it will evaporate off and leave just the flavor. Same for alcohol based flavoings if what you are making is heated along the way.

Aftificial sweeteners are fine as long as you keep in mind that too much of any of them CAN cause an insulin response. Some people seem to be more sensitive than others. I don't have much problem with Stevia, Sucralose (Splenda) or Aspartame (don't do much saccharine because I don't like it). Fructose usually causes more of a reaction but I use it in ice cream so it will freeze soft (all the other artificial sweeteners freeze hard as cement) and as long as I confine myself to one bowl a day I'm ok.

Your diet today looks fine! The carb snack is ok, but I'd avoid having it so late in the day. Suzanne reccomends limiting your carb meals to breakfast or lunch so you have more active time to burn off the carbs.

Yes, the sugars in fruits are fine, but she doesn't suggest going overboard with them. Berries in particular are good because they are very low in sugar and not terribly acidic. Some fruits and even veggies are off limits, like bananas, coconut, sweet potatoes and carrots because they are so very high in starch and sugar together. She suggests that these should be the first things to encorporate back into your diet once you arrive at your goal weight. So yes, eat fruit smoothies for breakfast or even lunch and feel free to use fruit as a snack, but if you stall one of the things to look at is how much fruit and which fruits you are eating. This also depends on how you react to fructose, the sugar in fruits. As I said above, some people are very sensitive and will have an insulin response when others will not.

Hope some of that helps!
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