[iDriveX]

So I saw this recipe over on another forum and thought I'd bring it to my beautiful MacNNers. There seems to be two types of people on this forums (1) Beautiful People that think dieting is for lazy people and (2) Fat and Unhealthy people that are happy with their fat and unhealthiness and think dieting is unhealthy.

So if there are any people actively trying to loose weight and are doing or considering doing Atkins (about the only thing that works for me), here's a great Taco Dinner that beats Hamburger Patties any night:

http://www.idrivex.com/tacos.html

You are making the taco shell out of melted shredded cheese. After you nuke the cheese in the microwave for about 3:30, you let it cool for about a minute and then you take a greased spatula and make a Taco Shell out of the drying cheese. Soon the cheese will harden and become crispy like a Taco Shell.

[KeriVit]

mmmmmmmm.... taaaacccoooos....

[ManOfSteal]

[ort888]

...or you could just use whole wheat tortillas like we do. Probably a lot better for you than eating that much cheese.

Cook up a little meat with a ton of peppers, onions and seasoning, throw it in a whole wheat tortilla and you have a very good meal that tastes like yor cheating.

[iDriveX]

Originally posted by ort888:
...or you could just use whole wheat tortillas like we do. Probably a lot better for you than eating that much cheese.

Cook up a little meat with a ton of peppers, onions and seasoning, throw it in a whole wheat tortilla and you have a very good meal that tastes like yor cheating.

But those wheat tortillas have about 12-15g total carbs in them. Not good for me...

[sugar_coated]

Tacos are snack food for many.

[DeathMan]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
But those wheat tortillas have about 12-15g total carbs in them. Not good for me...

You're still worried about carbs? I thought that stupid craze was over. Eat more vegatables, and whole grains. Exercise. You'll get to your 170.

I've used FitDay.com to track my activity and foods, and in less than one month I've lost over 10lbs. And this is backing off quite a bit this last week and a half.

And I've done all this without cutting out any major food groups.

[ManOfSteal]

140 x 40, eh?

[ort888]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
But those wheat tortillas have about 12-15g total carbs in them. Not good for me...

Do you honestly believe that a handful of melted greasy kraft cheese is better for you than a whole wheat tortilla?

[JHromadka]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
But those wheat tortillas have about 12-15g total carbs in them. Not good for me...

Not sure about your neck of the woods, but look for low carb tortillas with 3-4g. I like Mission Tortillas the best.

Cool idea though! I'll have to try that. I lost 50 pounds on Atkins myself. For the bashers, it's all in how you do the diet. While on the diet, I actually ate more healthily than I did before, because I stopped eating all the free crap that people bring to the office and ate grilled/steamed vegetables instead of fries when I went out to eat.

Congrats on your progress!

[Gankdawg]

Originally posted by ort888:
Do you honestly believe that a handful of melted greasy kraft cheese is better for you than a whole wheat tortilla?

Do you honestly believe that everyones bodies process food/nutrients/carbs/etc the same way?

[iLikebeer]

Originally posted by ort888:
Do you honestly believe that a handful of melted greasy kraft cheese is better for you than a whole wheat tortilla?

I suppose next you are going to say that I shouldn't use half a stick of butter to cook my LB. of bacon for breakfast. Or that I shouldn't add extra salt and pepper for taste.

[iDriveX]

Thank you! That's my point. My body responds to a pretty much starvation form of Atkins where I eat about 10g of Carbs or less a day and restrict myself to about 1200 calories a day. One might argue this is just calorie restriction but if you start portioning those 1200 calories towards Carbs more, my body will not loose the weight.

[Cubeoid]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:


140 x 40, eh?

Shhhhhh! You're ruining it.

[malvolio]

I'll wait for the Taco Bell version.

mmmmm....ketosis...

I actually don't understand why people think ingesting minimal carbs and loading up on protein is a good idea. Oh, that's right, it's because some dead doctor with heart problems wrote a book! Brilliant!

Go vegan.

[Millennium]

Atkins is all right, but you need to be very careful with how you do it. It's not meant to be a permanent change; as others have mentioned, it is very much a quick-fix. It harnesses what would otherwise be a self-destruct mechanism in the human body, and that is not something you want to mess with lightly.

All this said...

[Randman]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
There seems to be two types of people on this forums (1) Beautiful People that think dieting is for lazy people and (2) Fat and Unhealthy people that are happy with their fat and unhealthiness and think dieting is unhealthy.

And how did you come up with that nugget?


Oh, and to screaming: vegans tend to fall ill due to infection and viruses much, much easier due to weakened immune systems. Many also tendto be snippy bastards about their belief system. Luckily most of them are too weak to actually pose a threat to humanity.

I fully agree with Anthony Bourdain's observation of the Hezbollah-like faction of veggie-people, the vegans.

[Twilly Spree]

Dammit people. If you want to lose weight it is so simple. Eat less calories than you use.

That isn't starvation, you'll get all the nutrients you need, the fibers etc only less calories. Eat what you want, when you want just not too much. This will make the body use up its stored fat and whammo! You get slimmer.

This isn't rocket science! Dead simple.

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
Eat more vegatables, and whole grains. Exercise. You'll get to your 170.

Too damn right.

[TheBadgerHunter]

Originally posted by ort888:
...or you could just use whole wheat tortillas like we do. Probably a lot better for you than eating that much cheese.

Cook up a little meat with a ton of peppers, onions and seasoning, throw it in a whole wheat tortilla and you have a very good meal that tastes like yor cheating.

Whole wheat tortillas are a bitch to work with and to be honest the taste just isn't there.

Get some ground turkey, cook it up with some lime juice and lime tabasco sauce. In another pan saute some green peppers, white onion and garlic. Add some fresh parsley if you've got. Grate some cheese, put some of the ground turkey on your tortilla, bit of the peppers an onions, top with cheese, cook in a dry non-stick pan until the cheese is melted an the tortilla is slightly crispy on the seam.

[JHromadka]

Originally posted by screamingFit:
mmmmm....ketosis...

I actually don't understand why people think ingesting minimal carbs and loading up on protein is a good idea. Oh, that's right, it's because some dead doctor with heart problems wrote a book! Brilliant!

Go vegan.

Even before the Atkins diet, I never trusted. vegetarians as it is, and every vegan I've known was a skinny, sickly-looking, pale girl with a chip on her shoulder.

BTW, you know Atkins died from a fall, not heart problems (which were genetic) right?

Oh, yes. All vegans are sickly. Strange how my family and I haven't been sick 'cept once or twice our entire lives...

It's about balanced nutrition and exercise and not taking in more calories than you can burn. The key here is "balanced" and starving your body of carbs is not a healthy answer. Just like ingesting boat loads of red meat to have it rot away in your colon for the next several years is NOT healthy.

And, Atkins died a fat slob who had heart attacks in the past. Real picture of health

[Oisín]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
140 x 40, eh?

You mean 200 x 50, right?

[waxcrash]

Originally posted by screamingFit:
And, Atkins died a fat slob who had heart attacks in the past. Real picture of health

It was the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a veggie group that opposes meat consumption that said the Atkins was fat when he died. Actually, Dr. Atkins was retaining water due to organ malfunctions when he died.

Originally posted by JHromadka:

BTW, you know Atkins died from a fall, not heart problems (which were genetic) right?

Didn't know that. Gotta link?

Originally posted by iDriveX:
Thank you! That's my point. My body responds to a pretty much starvation form of Atkins where I eat about 10g of Carbs or less a day and restrict myself to about 1200 calories a day. One might argue this is just calorie restriction but if you start portioning those 1200 calories towards Carbs more, my body will not loose the weight.

It will if you exercise. That's what carbs do.

[DeathMan]

good heavens. rule #1 of nutrition: don't cut out entire food groups. you can be vegan, and still not cut out food groups. but you can't be atkins.

atkins requires you to cut out at least 2 food groups. (the base, all-mother food group grains and cereals) and the fruits. you're fooling yourself if you think atkins is a healthy way to live.

I'm neither beautiful, not overly fat, but I have seen results in simply eating fewer calories than I eat. when you do that, you'll naturally gravitate toward foods that are better for you, and "waste" fewer calories on things like a blizzard, or a tortilla completely made out of cheese.

all bodies burn calories to do any kind of work. all bodies need protien for new tissue development, all bodies convert food eventually to sugar, and when you don't use all the sugar, it gets stored on your body. this is obviously simplified, but that basically how it works.

we might need to add nutrition to the political/war/religion lounge.

[AB^2=BCxAC]

I've lost 40lbs in the last year, and all I can say is: cut the fat, eat more vegetables and fibre, and excercise as often as you can.

Atkins? Your taco recipe includes Crisco, whole fat cheese, vast amounts of salt in the seasoning, and probably regular beef (not lean or low fat). It's a cardiac arrest platter designed to kill your arteries and eventually your liver! I'll admit it looks delicious, but I'd be scared to eat that way often.

Originally posted by waxcrash:
It was the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a veggie group that opposes meat consumption that said the Atkins was fat when he died. Actually, Dr. Atkins was retaining water due to organ malfunctions when he died.

Actually, it was an independent doctor who was giving the ME reports and then he gave them to the PCRM who then went to the New York Times. He has had problems with his heart in the past which is undoubtedly fact - what it was caused from, no one can say. Because of the families (oh, I'm sorry, the Atkins Corporation's) unwillingness to perform an autopsy, nothing will ever be known for sure.

Here's some more information for those not so easily swayed by corporate greed and voodoo medicine:
Atkins Exposed

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by AB^2=BCxAC:


Atkins? Your taco recipe includes Crisco, whole fat cheese, vast amounts of salt in the seasoning, and probably regular beef (not lean or low fat). It's a cardiac arrest platter designed to kill your arteries and eventually your liver!

I just saw that. Crisco. For crying out loud. The man wants to lose weight and then uses Crisco, which is full of trans fats.

"Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as "good" cholesterol. It can also cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Many food companies use trans fat instead of oil because it reduces cost, extends storage life of products and can improve flavor and texture."

Get rid of that ****. Don't melt cheese into an ersatz taco, eat healthily instead. Fresh fruit, fresh veggies. Nuts, beans for fibre. Oatmeal for breakfast, with a handful of crushed walnuts mixed in.

[JHromadka]

Originally posted by hayesk:
Didn't know that. Gotta link?

CNN article. Atkins had cardiomyopathy -- a serious disease of the heart muscle.

screamingFit, I'm glad you and your family are healthy. You obviously take better care of yourselves than the vegans I have known. There are people like myself that used the Atkins diet and ended up lowering calorie content as well, which of course results in losing weight.

I certainly do not think that eating bacon, beef, and butter for all meals will be healthy long term, and any low-carb person that does is in for a world of hurt later on.

What works for one person does not necessarilly work for another. We're sitting here on a Mac board, when 90%+ of people think PCs are better. For us, the Mac works better. For iDriveX and myself, Atkins works better.

[olePigeon]

Carbohydrates take about 4 calories per gram to burn. Most fats take about 9 calories per gram to burn.

So why the f*ck are people giving up carbohydrates for bacon and beef?

[kupan787]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
atkins requires you to cut out at least 2 food groups. (the base, all-mother food group grains and cereals) and the fruits. you're fooling yourself if you think atkins is a healthy way to live.

Not to argue that Atkins is good or bad (its been around for a long time, it worked for my brother 8 years ago), but you do know that the US Department of Agriculture created the Food Guide Pyramid, not some health organization or people that are looking at the best interest of your body. I would like to see something from the HHS (United States Department of Health and Human Services) or other health organization, rather than an Agro board.

[kmkkid]

Blah blah blah. All this talk about losing weight. I've been trying to GAIN it for years!


I'm stuck at 125, never more never less. Whether I starve or gorge. It can't be healthy.



Chris

[TheBadgerHunter]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
I just saw that. Crisco. For crying out loud. The man wants to lose weight and then uses Crisco, which is full of trans fats.

"Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as "good" cholesterol. It can also cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Many food companies use trans fat instead of oil because it reduces cost, extends storage life of products and can improve flavor and texture."

Get rid of that ****. Don't melt cheese into an ersatz taco, eat healthily instead. Fresh fruit, fresh veggies. Nuts, beans for fibre. Oatmeal for breakfast, with a handful of crushed walnuts mixed in.

I found that odd as well. Even lean ground beef has enough fat that you don't need any oil.

[rozwado1]

If I had any patience right now I'd read the entire thread.

Atkins was an assh0le, but a marketing genius.

Meat and fat cannot successfully make up a nutritious diet - no matter how many vitamins you supplement with. Also, there are no such thing as "Net Carbs" - all BS.

I eat 3000 calories a day and maintain around 8% body fat. I eat all food groups and supplement with protein. Cut sugars and bad fats, eat vegetables (read: not cooked in butter) and whole grains and quit being a lazy fat fcuk. Get off your ass and exercise.


p.s. - I was a chubby kid so you have no excuses.

[KeriVit]

Ok- I think it's agreed. And I think anyone who ever tried Atkins can agree. It's not a way of life.

It can be if done right- with low fat protein and low fat carbs.

But it is a good jump-start. However, from that point on, you just gotta eat right and exercise.

Can we leave iDriveX alone now? He was just trying to share something yummy. If that's a daily- there could be issues. Maybe the next day a nice salad and some chicken- ok?

As for the recipe- it's not necessary to make tacos more fattening- but hell, I'd try it. Everything in moderation.

[TailsToo]

Two things have worked for me:

1. Date a sex-crazed girl. You never think of eating then; you're always... umm...busy with something else!
2. Date a psycho girl, who will piss you off enough to where you'll be angry all of the time, and just the rage alone will burn calories. This seems to happen to me a lot more than the first.

Of course, going to the gym helps too.

[Cody Dawg]

I tried the low-carb diet and all it did was make me feel greasy and...blegh.

The Atkins diet is comprised, mainly, of consuming insane amounts of animal matter and fat. It's disgusting.

Right now I am eating out of a big bowl a delicious fresh medley of chunks of papaya, cantaloupe, and strawberries. I bought them tonight and I cut them all up, spritzed with fresh lime juice, and it is SO YUMMY.

Dinner earlier was skinless roasted chicken and fresh steamed broccoli.

No one can tell me that the carbs that I am eating are not good for me.

I believe in eating food that is not processed and as fresh as possible, no matter what it is.

Yes, I eat beef, but it has to be a lean steak or lean cut of meat.

Atkins is all about being a lard-ass - literally - if you ask me. (Not that you asked.)



I just had my fourth baby and I think I look pretty good, considering...carbs are okay if you exercise.

[iDriveX]

By the way...the Crisco is spray people! I used it to put a small amount of grease on the plate so that the cheese didn't stick. Think one small spray and then use a paper towl to spread it around.

And your bowl of strawberries and other fresh fruits are high in sugar. But let me guess it's good sugar.

And since when did eating "animal fat and matter" become a crime?

[iDriveX]

Here's a vegas article for you:

Children 'harmed' by vegan diets
By Michelle Roberts
BBC News health reporter, in Washington DC


Putting children on strict vegan diets is "unethical" and could harm their development, a US scientist has argued.

Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, attacked parents who insisted their children lived by the maxim "meat is murder".

Animal source foods have some nutrients not found anywhere else, she told a Washington science conference.

The Vegan Society dismissed the claims, saying its research showed vegans were often healthier than meat eaters.

'Development affected'

Professor Allen said: "There have been sufficient studies clearly showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded, possibly permanently."



There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans
Professor Lindsay Allen, US Agricultural Research Service

"If you're talking about feeding young children, pregnant women and lactating women, I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods [animal source foods] during that period of life."

She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese, butter and meat.

"There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans," she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).


Missing nutrients

She said the damage to a child began while it was growing in the womb and continued once it had been born.

Research she carried out among African schoolchildren suggests as little as two spoonfuls of meat each day is enough to provide nutrients such as vitamin B12, zinc and iron.

The 544 children studied had been raised on diets chiefly consisting of starchy, low-nutrition corn and bean staples lacking these micronutrients.

Over two years, some of the children were given 2oz supplements of meat each day, equivalent to about two spoonfuls of mince.

Two other groups received either a cup of milk a day or an oil supplement containing the same amount of energy. The diet of a fourth group was left unaltered.

The changes seen in the children given the meat, and to a lesser extent the milk or oil, were dramatic.

These children grew more and performed better on problem-solving and intelligence tests than any of the other children at the end of the two years.

They also became more active, talkative and playful at school.

Adding either meat or milk to the diets also almost completely eliminated the very high rates of vitamin B12 deficiency previously seen in the children.

No quick fixes

Professor Allen stressed that although the study was conducted in a poor African community, its message was highly relevant to people in developed countries.

She accepted that adults could avoid animal foods if they took the right supplements, but she said adding animal source food into the diet was a better way to tackle malnutrition worldwide than quick fixes with supplements in the form of pills.

"Where feasible, it would be much better to do it through the diet than by giving pills," she said.

"With pills it's very hard to be certain that the quantity of nutrition is right for everybody and it's hard to sustain."

In Africa, good results had been obtained from giving people a dried meat on a stick snack which proved both nutritious and appealing.

Professor Montague Demment, from the University of California at Davis, said more emphasis should be placed on animal source food to combat global malnutrition.

Vegan defence

However, the claims have been dismissed by the Vegan Society in the UK.

In a statement, it said increasing numbers of people were opting for a plant-based diet.

Kostana Azmi, the chief executive officer, said: "The vegan diet can provide you with more energy, nutrition, and is bursting with goodness."

She said plant sources were sometimes a safer, and cheaper source of nutrients.

For instance, animal sources of omega-3 oils, needed for the development of the brain and nervous system, were often contaminated with pollutants, such as mercury in fish.

In addition, the vegan diet was often a healthier alternative. She said dairy and meat products were rich in saturated fat, while plant based diets were low in it.

The society does recommend that vegans supplement their diet with vitamin B-12 pills.

The US Agricultural Research Service is part of the US Department of Agriculture.
Story from BBC NEWS:

Story

[demograph68]

Originally posted by Cody Dawg:
I just had my fourth baby and I think I look pretty good, considering...carbs are okay if you exercise.

There's a baby?

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by iDriveX:
But those wheat tortillas have about 12-15g total carbs in them. Not good for me...

replacing carbs with fat from the cheese, and if it's imitation cheese, then .. pure oil .. sick.

[Sherwin]

The Sherwie diet:

1) Go veggie (not vegan). No excuses.
2) Cut your carbs. That doesn't mean supplement with half a cow - see item (1) above.
3) Run 10 miles per day, Sundays off. No excuses.
4) Lift weights three times per week. No excuses.

Note regarding (2): I used to own a book on sports nutrition, written ten years before anyone had heard of Atkins. IIRC (long time since I read it / ex nicked it from me), it suggested the low carb, high fat approach of Atkins but without all the meat.

That'll be $24.99 thanks.

iDriveX:

Lindsay Allen

Is talking rubbish 'coz she's paid to by the US meat industry. give a starving African kid any kind of additional food and it'll be livelier.

[Cody Dawg]

There's a baby?

Yeah, isn't he cute? They're all cute and they make me really happy.

About eating animal fat, I'm not saying it's bad except if that comprises the main bulk of someone's diet. Seriously, that animal fat is going somewhere...where do you think it's going when you eat it?

I once was a vegan and I got really sick after about 7 years. I had some bad muscle wasting and other problems that developed like the inability to gain weight, any weight. I looked anorexic. One day while I was swimming I developed a heart arrhythmia and went to the hospital to find out that my mineral levels were very poor, like potassium, even though I ate bananas all of the time.

Anyway, then I started eating meat again and now I feel 100% healthy, but I eat it here and there and don't eat it as the main staple of my diet a la Atkins.

[Cubeoid]

I was watching Bill Maher stick it to some big wig republican the other night. Great stuff. The discussion was about the food pyramid, and the only reason why dairy and animal products get pushed so much, is because the meat and dairy councils fund political campaigns. Maher totally owned his lying ass.

Oh, and Atkins is just helping to fund the chaos. It's not a diet, but a business scheme which will make many people sick. Whole grains, the major source of carbohydrates have been the staple of human diet for thousands of years.

I have been studying nutrition for some time now. I recomend the following book to anybody and everybody, it will clear up a lot of things and hopefully break stereotypical ideas about veg'nism

May All Be Fed: A Diet for a New World

[wdlove]

Sounds delicious.

Yes, the baby is cute.

[DeathToWindows]

The DeathToWindows undergraduate diet

Ok. I've got a dining plan - and everyone knows that dining hall food sucks... so I use that in moderation (I.e. don't eat the 700kcal cheeseburger... eat the turkeyburger that tastes better and is 350kcal or so). On weekends, do a run to your local greengrocer (in my case, that's haymarket...) and get a boatload of fruit. Snack on that. Raid a good bakery (not your local grocery store).

So: fruit for breakfast + dining hall (moderation) for lunch + dining hall (even more moderation) for dinner + fruit & bread for a late-night snack

and on weekends, avoid the hall and just eat real food (i.e. bread, cheese, veggies and fruit)

[iDriveX]

Currently, the iDriveX diet...knock it if you want but it's working:

Morning:
2 BIG glasses of water
One Egg Beater Cup
Slice of cheese cut up into the egg beaters
side of two links of sausage

Lunch:
2 BIG glasses of water
2 slices of cheese
16 slices of peperroni (the kind you would put on a pizza)

Dinner:
2 BIG glasses of water
Lean Hamburger Patty cooked on the grill, slice of cheese on top

alternate with

2 BIG glasses of water
Small chicken ceasar salad

Dessert (every now and then when I need something sweet):
Cut up Strawberries, Raspberries and blackberries with a bit of cool whip