
Like a lot of my life changes, this one has a bit of history.
For the last 20 years or so, I’ve had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I’ve been treating both with prescription meds, and that’s kept it in check. No improvement, mind you, but it’s not gotten worse, either.
At the same time, I’d had the same doctor, who I’d picked when we moved back to Atlanta in 2001. He was the same age as me, because I’d heard to pick someone my age so they would believe me when I told them how I felt.
Then, a year ago, my health insurance had a falling out with the large hospital system my doctor was a part of, and I was forced to find another doctor. After some thought I decided to start seeing a doctor 20 years younger than me, the thought being he would be more in tune with options.
So after my first checkup in January 2022, the numbers were in line with where they had been for 10 years or so. Cholesterol was a little high, weight was high, and my A1C was high. But where my previous doctor had always seen that as the “same old same old,” my new doctor wrote me a rather stern report, and said that if it didn’t improve soon, we would need to look at more strict treatment, like insulin.
Well, dayum. So this is what the younger doctors do?
As you can imagine, this led to some serious consideration on my part. What can I do to keep from having to treat diabetes?
After a few weeks of research, and an honest discussion with my doctor, I came up with a plan: go on a low carbohydrate diet. Where most people eat 300 to 500 grams of carbs a day, I decided to limit myself to 50 per day. As you can imagine, for someone who loves pasta and breads, this was quite a change. While I plan to tell more about this in coming posts, I will tell you that it has worked so far, and I have lost 40 pounds, and all my cholesterol and A1C are in the normal range.
So, where is this post going?
Well, about the same time I started the low carb diet, I also discovered how much I like to drink mixed cocktails like Old Fashioneds. But, as I went along I realized real simple syrup was just carbs dissolved in water. And other mixers like Kahlua were just as bad.
So, having said that, this leads to the point: Low Carb Mixers. And the first is a low carb coffee mixer to replace Kahlua.
Here’s mine:
- 1 cup black coffee
- 6 packets of sucralose or other artificial sweetener
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to taste
Stir and refrigerate
I use this as my normal coffee liqueur in mixes, although to be honest I find it leaves my White Russians a little short on the sweet side, so I add a shot of syrup made with artificial sweetener.
Look for more low carb options I have discovered in the past year!
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