Wrap sandwiches are one of the new trends in health food, and they have become popular with all sorts of people, whether on a diet or not. Low-carb wraps are now the newest craze on the health food market, and they are just one more of the new food items that diversify the range of choices for carb-counting dieters.
Leading the pack is fast-food chain Subway. For years, Subway has marketed itself as a health-oriented fast food restaurant, and its new low-carb wraps continue that trend. Now, Subway markets itself as the low-carb fast food restaurant, meeting your dietary needs. In December 2003, Subway reached a licensing agreement with Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., allowing Subway to offer Atkins-friendly wraps in stores nationwide.
Special wheat and soy grains are used to make the new low-carb wraps, which are high in fiber and protein. Additionally, the new wraps contain approximately two-thirds less carbohydrates than Subway's regular 6-inch sub sandwiches, and they will cost customers about 50 cents more.
Subway is not the only place to find these low-carb wraps; many restaurants carry such items, and grocery stores stock the ingredients necessary to make your own. Behind this new food craze is the larger movement toward low-carb diets, a trend that has Americans everywhere counting their carbohydrates and finding new ways to enjoy alternative, low-carb breads, pastas, fruits and the like.
There are currently two low-carb wraps at Subway right now, and the number of carbs varies from source to source. The first is the chicken bacon ranch, with approximately eight grams of net carbs. There is also the turkey and bacon melt. This has a bit more net carbohydrates. There are about 10 net carbs in the turkey bacon melt, but it's still low enough to easily fit into your low-carb diet.
Again, restaurants aren't your only source for low-carb wraps. Many grocery stores carry the ingredients necessary to create your own, and you can find recipes for the making the tortillas themselves in cookbooks and on the Internet.
There's a new kind of diet pill available that works by basically putting you on a low carb diet, but without forcing you to give up goodies like french fries and pancakes. It's called a "carb blocker," and it works by blocking the digestion of the carbohydrates in the food you eat. Seeing as how giving up things is what people generally think of when they think of dieting, and giving up carbs is pretty much what a low carb diet is all about, this little diet pill could be a small wonder.
It's actually a pretty simple recipe that makes this impressive effect possible. It's a simple, natural compound that is extracted from white kidney beans called "phaseolamin." What it does is to interfere with the stomach enzyme that breaks down starches into simple sugars, so that the carbs that you eat are never absorbed into your bloodstream. Of course, if they're not absorbed, they can never be stored as fat! And if they're not stored as fat, then you get skinny! It's a good deal.
As far as diet pills go, phaseolamin has been tested fairly extensively. Remember, this is a natural compound extracted from kidney beans, so there are millenia of epidemiological data to say that small doses are safe. And, from the research that has been done over the last few decades, it appears that larger doses are also perfectly safe. Taking carb blockers appears to be just as safe for you as eating beans.
There is no evidence that carb blockers interfere with the absorption of other nutrients, and it is probably unlikely given that no major nutrients that I know of are ever bound up in the starchy parts of your food. Typically important nutrients are bound to fats and proteins, which you will still be absorbing with no trouble while taking carb blockers. All the same, if you're going to use carb blockers over a very long period of time it couldn't hurt to have your doctor check your nutrient levels periodically to make sure that everything is alright.
One last thing you should know is that carb blockers don't have any effect on the absorption of sugar, so any sweet treats you eat will still interfere with your diet. If you eat a cake, for example, your will still absorb all the sugar from the frosting even though you are blocking out the carbs from the flour.
Finally, carb blockers are not perfect; they don't block 100% of the carbs you eat. The actual effectiveness appears to be about 60%, which is still pretty good! Let's take a look at what that means. It means that if you were eating 100 grams of carbohydrate per day, which is pretty low compared to the average American diet but not quite low enough to really be "low carb," these carb blockers would pull you down to just 40 carbs per day. Forty carbs a day is definitely a very solid low carb diet that would ordinarily be quite restrictive. So you can see that carb blockers are not a total replacement for a low carb diet, but they are fantastic in combination with a restricted-carbohydrate diet.
Both Nathan Lynch & Dallas Dougan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Nathan Lynch has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lose Weight, Bull Terrier Dogs and Education. Get incredible concotions quickly and Easily at Carbohydrate Net.. Nathan Lynch's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.
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