Category: personal account

I never planned to write a low carb bread book, but it came about due to both interest and need.  Beginning in September 2021, I began to experiment with low carb breads that were not made from nut flour. By mid-December I was finally successful and posted the recipe for Low Carb High Protein Yeast Bread, and this bread turned out to be a “game changer”.  It was what I called “real bread that happens to be low carb.” But, most impressive were the macros! Each slice of Low Carb High Protein Yeast Bread had only 1.6g net carbs and 11.4 g protein. I knew I was onto something.

The ingredient that made this first ‘real bread’ possible was vital wheat gluten, which is not wheat flour but one of several types of wheat protein isolate. Wheat protein isolate is to wheat, what whey protein isolate is to dairy, and both are proteins that have been used in food production and as a protein supplement. This ingredient gives bread its distinct “pully” texture and makes bread different from cake or pastry. Discovering this and other low-carb ingredients resulted in me re-visiting my old hobby of bread baking – something I did over the previous 35 years before adopting a low carb diet in March 2017.

After posting the recipe for Low Carb High Protein Yeast Bread in mid-December 2021, I began to have people contact me on social media to request that I bake the breads and ship them to them. One person wanted me to courier them several loaves, and I had to explain that I am a Dietitian in full-time private practice and had no time to bake bread as a sideline. A few people tried to convince me to open a low-carb bakery (which I also had no interest in), and then some said I should write a cookbook featuring recipes for these low-carb bread. I mentioned this to one of my young adult sons, who thought I should consider the idea. Without really thinking it through, I created a Twitter poll asking who would be interested in such a book and then asked the same question on Facebook and Instagram. The responses were overwhelmingly in favor, so the following morning, I looked at my young adult son and said, “it looks like I am writing a low-carb bread book.”

And so, it began…

The recipes in this book form a completely different category of low-carb bread. They contain no nut or seed flour, and while cheese and egg may be included as ingredients in a recipe, they do not form the basis of the bread. In addition, these bread contain no psyllium, chia seed, xanthan gum, guar gum, or inulin, as these ingredients often cause digestive issues. As a result, Low Carb Breads of the World may remove unnecessary barriers that people currently have to adopt a low-carb lifestyle. This book makes culturally appropriate and ingredient-appropriate bread available to people from bread-centric cultures with high rates of type 2 diabetes, including Southeast Asian and Hispanic.

Low Carb Breads of the World is more than a cookbook or a collection of recipes. It introduces novel ingredients for baking low-carb bread and explains how to use them successfully in different types of recipes.  The recipes provide an opportunity to utilize the ingredients and the methods to produce a variety of breads of the world. These recipes are not perfect replicas of the high-carb originals but are as close as I was able to get them using readily available low-carb ingredients with minimal allergens or ingredients that cause digestive issues.

I hope that people from a wide range of backgrounds will apply the information in my book to create low-carb versions of bread central to their cultures, thereby making a low-carb diet accessible to those who would not have otherwise considered it.

While I never set out to write a low-carb bread book, I realize that this book will do what I do in my private practice: help people pursue a healthier lifestyle.

You can click on the “free download” button below to get a FREE 27-page booklet that explains the essentials about this new category of homemade low-carb breads and includes the “game changer” that led to the development of the others.

To your good health!

Joy Y. Kiddie MSc, RD

FREE DOWNLOAD

Includes the “game changer” recipe that led to the development of all the others.

Click on the free download button below to get your FREE 27-page booklet with recipe.

With the new Covid-19 variant now in circulation, widespread flooding in the Pacific Northwest and out East, and the resulting supply shortages in many areas affecting food prices, many people feel overwhelmed.  I find that I do best in these situations when I embrace that which is unchangeable, while focusing on changing the things that I can.

I think that circumstances are more about how we look at them and respond, than about the situations themselves, and our reaction to the weather around us exemplifies this. 

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who said that there is a ‘space’ between a stimulus (or an event) and our response, and in that space we have the power to choose our response. This includes our reaction to a new strain of Covid, environmental events such as the weather, and the condition of our own health.

”Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor Frankl

When I woke up to the snow this morning, I decided to embrace the unchangeable, and this  short video touches on that.

We have the power to choose how we are going to respond in any situation, and this includes everything from the weather, to our own health.  We can choose to change the things that we can, while embracing the unchangeable.

When I set out to restore my health four years ago, that’s exactly what I did.  Maintaining it simply takes making those same choices, daily.  It really does come down to recognizing that there is a space between the circumstances and our response, where we have the power to choose.

To your good health!

Joy

You can follow me on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lchfRD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/
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Copyright ©2021 The LCHF Dietitian (a division of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.)

LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything  you have read or heard in our content.

After reading the journey of one of my clients, “J” asked if she could tell her story. I thought it would be good for others to hear of her past struggles with disordered eating and how she came to realize she was a food addict. This is “J”, in her own words.

“I could not stop eating. I ate in secret and until I was ill. I repeated this behaviour over and over again, despite the negative consequences. For 20 years of my life, from the age of 9 to the age of 29, I struggled with food addiction, disordered eating, obesity, and yo-yo dieting. My mind was incessantly focused on one of three things:

• • what I was going to eat
  • how I was going to keep myself from eating, or
  • how to compensate for what I had eaten

In addition to disordered eating and food addiction, I faced severe depression and ADHD.  I isolated myself, struggled with exhaustion, and was unable to focus on my work. I frequently wished I had not been born, or that my life would end.  I attempted numerous diets and attended eating disorder treatment programs, but was unable to stop my binge eating and associated compensatory behaviours for any significant amount of time. Twice, I successfully lost approximately 70 pounds but on both occasions, I gained back all of the weight back, and more.

Approximately two years ago, I reached my highest weight of 250 pounds and decided to make one more attempt to lose weight, and began researching low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets. Through this research, I discovered books, articles, and podcasts about food addiction. As I read and listened, I became certain that I qualified as a food- and sugar addict. I learned that sugar and flour are addictive substances and decided to remove them from my diet. I searched the internet for a dietitian who could help me to formulate a meal plan that eliminated the foods that I found addictive. I discovered Joy’s website and contacted her to schedule a Complete Assessment Package. Joy developed a meal plan for me that excluded the foods that were addictive for me and which allowed me to feel satisfied and energized, while losing weight. For the first time, weight loss did not feel like work.

I have so many reasons to recommend Joy as a dietitian. She supports me in my health, weight loss, weight maintenance, and sugar addiction recovery goals while also understanding and taking into consideration my history of disordered eating. She provides me with much-needed accountability. I am able to troubleshoot any challenges I am having with my health or weight loss, and she helps me adjust my meal plan to address these issues. Joy is incredibly knowledgeable about food and nutrition, and is a dependable support in my life.

I have lost well over a 100 pounds, and am a normal body weight and a waist circumference. I am so thankful for my weight loss, and my improved physical health. Even more importantly however, my depression has been significantly better, and I am truly enjoying life. In addition, my ADHD symptoms have greatly decreased, and my mental capacity has significantly improved. For the first time in my life, I can complete my work with little procrastinating.

I have been profoundly blessed and am so thankful for the role that Joy has played in my healing journey. I know there are many others who struggle with food addiction, and I hope my story provides some hope.”

I feel it is important to add that as a Dietitian, I do not specialize in food addiction or disordered eating — but I do help with the “eating end” of things for those who are getting support for these issues through other means.

Some people with food addiction find a 12-step group helpful, while others prefer individual counselling with a trained food-addiction counsellor. Many do both.  Whatever works best for them is fine with me. I am only a part of their recovery process.

While it is a sensitive topic, I am mindful that for some with a background of disordered eating, a “keto” diet can sometimes be another form of food restriction. When it makes sense to achieve clinical outcomes, I may choose to use a low carb diet, rather than a keto diet if I am concerned that food restriction may be an issue.

I do not encourage food restriction except when it comes to person’s specific “trigger foods” that have been identified in their process of their recovery, and for those with a disordered eating past, this sometimes takes some negotiation.  While weighing and measuring food is not what I want for the majority of my clients, many food-addiction counsellors do recommend this and  I am happy to support my clients in this way.  

NOTE: Just like I am in remission of T2D and HTN, I believe that people like “J”  are in remission of food addiction and disordered eating. We aren’t “cured”.  It is my belief that for both of us to remain in remission requires us to keep walking in what enabled us to get there in the first place, one day at a time.

More Info?

If you would like more information about my services, please have a look on the tab above, or send me a note through the Contact Me form.

To your good health!

Joy

You can follow me on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lchfRD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lchf_rd

Copyright ©2021 The LCHF Dietitian (a division of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.)

LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything  you have read or heard in our content.

I just got “the call” that my mother who lives on the other side of the country, has tested positive for Covid-19. She has all of the major comorbidities, so prognosis is not good. Following the news, most of us know that age, obesity, hypertension and diabetes are known to significantly increase the risk of requiring hospitalization and death from Covid-19 (you can read more about that here, here and here), yet all but one of these comorbidities can be put into remission.  We can’t change our age, but we CAN reduce our weight, lower our blood pressure and normalize our blood sugar. To improve our quality of life outside of the pandemic, and to have the best chance of fighting it off if (or more likely when) we get it, we need to put our energy into achieving a normal body weight (and waist circumference), blood pressure and blood sugar now.

I am from a family of people that always ‘battled with their weight’.

My dad was tall and very fit when he was younger, a boxer and a ski-jumper but as he aged he accumulated excess weight around his middle. He then developed type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart issues and eventually was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which is sometimes referred to as ‘type 3 diabetes’ by some clinicians. I wrote this article about that when he was first diagnosed.

My dad died just a few weeks shy of his 91st birthday, which is a ‘ripe old age’ of course, but for the last 40 years of his life, he was not in good health. He took multiple medications; due to multiple metabolic conditions related to his diet and lifestyle. Except for his age, many of these conditions could have been put into remission — or at very least, been much better controlled with a change in diet and lifestyle.

My mom will be turning 85 this fall, and has been overweight since I was little. She too has type 2 diabetes and takes multiple medications for various conditions, many related to diet and lifestyle; conditions which could have been greatly improved, if not put into remission with a change in diet and lifestyle. It wasn’t for lack of trying “diets”. When I was young, she weighed her food, counted points and went to “groups” and at times she lost weight, only to put it all back, and then some. Eventually, she stopped trying. I can’t say that I blame her, given what I now know about the drivers to hunger.

Shared comorbidities

When I became overweight and then obese, and developed type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, I justified that I was at high risk since both of my parents had the same.  I realize now that the “high risk” was our shared diet and lifestyle, more than genetics. Our shared comorbidities were adopted.

I grew up loving to eat good food and unfortunately considered food as both a reward, and a comfort. When someone was happy, we celebrated with good food. When someone was sad, we consoled with “comfort food”.  Food was “medicine”, but not in a good way. It didn’t heal, but contributed to the underlying hyperinsulinemia that drove the disease process. (I’ve written several articles about this topic, but if you only want to read one, I’d recommend this one.)

Those who have followed me for some time know that 3 years ago I began what I call my “journey”.  It took almost two years to do, but I lost ~60 pounds and a foot off my waist and I put my dangerously high blood pressure and uncontrolled type 2 diabetes into remission, as a result.  I recently posted a summary here, to mark my three year health recovery anniversary; two years of active weight loss and a year of maintenance.

So why am I writing this post?

Like many people, I am upset by this whole “Covid thing” — not just because of my mom being diagnosed. I’ve been following the news, and realize that the hope for a vaccine any time soon is dim, and effective treatments are still lacking. An article published in the journal The Lancet the other day reported that while ~90% of those who have been hospitalized with severe Covid-19 develop IgG antibodies in the first 2 weeks, in non-hospitalized individuals with milder disease or with no symptoms, under 10% develop specific IgG antibodies to the disease.  That means that except for the sickest people who actually survive being hospitalized for several weeks with Covid-19, more than 90% of people who get Covid-19 and recover outside of hospital don’t develop antibodies to this virus [1]. Since the whole purpose to develop a vaccine is to challenge the body to develop antibodies to the virus — the very fact that most of the time people who don’t get that sick don’t develop antibodies, means that the likelihood of most people developing antibodies to a vaccine may be minimal.  As well, in light of this data herd immunity is also a dim prospect because most people that get this disease don’t produce antibodies, which means they aren’t immune and can probably get this virus again.

With little immediate hope of an effective vaccine or of herd immunity, what CAN we do to lower our risk?

I think that we first need to realize that many experts believe it is simply a matter of time until we are all exposed to the SARS-CoV2 virus and develop Covid-19, so we must look at lowering our risk of having a poor outcome. We can’t change our age, which is the biggest risk factor but we CAN do something to change the high risk comorbidities such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Too Much and Too Little is Killing Us

For many of us, having both too much and too little is killing us.

We have diets with way too much refined carbohydrate, usually combined with large amounts of refined fat, and our usual diet is full of these in the form of pizza, pastries, take out foods and snack foods.  We now know from a study that was published almost 2 years ago[2] that this combination of both refined carbs and fat results in huge amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine being released from the reward centre of our brain — way more than when we eat foods with only carbohydrate, or only fat separately. This huge amount of released dopamine results in us wanting to eat these foods, and craving these foods, and being willing to pay more for these foods than foods with only carbs or only fat [2]. Dopamine makes us feel good, and is the same neurotransmitter that is released during sex and that is involved in the addictive ”runner’s high” familiar to athletes. This is one powerful neurotransmitter! It is this dopamine that is driving why so many people on “lock-down” have turned to baking bread and pastries for comfort, and buying snack foods with this same combination once they finally get through a long line to get into a grocery store! 

Too much of these refined “foods” is contributing to 1/3 of Americans and 1/4 of Canadians being obese, and another 1/3 in both countries being overweight. These foods are driving the hyperinsulinemia that underlies many metabolic conditions, including type 2 diabetes and hypertension.  These diseases were killing a great many of us before Covid-19, but knowing that these comorbidities increase our risk of hospitalization and death when we get the virus, why don’t we consider limiting these? I think it is because eating these foods make us feel good and so we self-medicate our stressful lives with something that is socially acceptable. High carbohydrate and fat foods are much more socially acceptable but what will it take for us to see that this for what it is and to consider that we need to change how we eat. If we aren’t willing to admit that our obesity, high blood sugar and high blood pressure are a problem, then maybe we are simply in denial. I certainly was, and wrote about this in “A Dietitian’s Journey”, the account of my own health recovery.

No, I am NOT saying that “all carbs are evil” and I’ve written about this previously, but we need to differentiate between what most of us eat as “carbs” and whole, real food that have carbs in them. I believe we need to eat significantly less of the refined foods that are contributing to our collective weight problem and metabolic health issues, and eat more of the real, whole foods that have gone by the wayside in our diet. I’ve written about the science behind this type of dietary change in many previous articles, and that eating this way is both safe and effective. What I can’t do is motivate people to want to change.

It is my hope that by presenting the evidence, as I have in several recent articles posted on this website that comorbidities such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes are significant risk factors to requiring hospitalization or of dying of Covid-19, that it may motivate some people to consider making some changes. If not now, when — especially given that the hope of a vaccine and/or herd immunity is likely a long way off.

I wish each of you good health and a long life.

If I can help, please let me know.

Joy

You can follow me on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lchfRD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lchf_rd
Fipboard: http://flip.it/ynX-aq

Copyright ©2020 The Low Carb Healthy Fat Dietitian ( a division of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.)

LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything you have read or heard in our content.

Reference

1. Altmann DM, Douek D, Boyton RJ, What policy makers need to know about COVID-19 protective immunity, The Lancet, April 27, 2020, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30985-5
2. Di Feliceantonio et al., 2018, Supra-Additive Effects of Combining
   Fat and Carbohydrate on Food Reward, Cell Metabolism 28, 1—12

Ten weeks ago, with her endocrinologist’s knowledge, this young woman discontinued insulin to begin a low carb diet. She has been gradually achieving normalized blood sugar, but this morning she had her first totally normal fasting blood sugar level since being diagnosed as type 2 diabetic! How cool is that?

As relayed in the first part of this account (posted here), at this young woman’s insistence her doctor gave her 12 weeks to ‘try a low carb diet’ and then he would put her back on insulin.  Needless to say, he was not optimistic that changing her diet would ‘work’.

When she saw him a few weeks after beginning a low carbohydrate diet, and after lowering her fasting blood blood sugar from 16.8 mmol/L (303 mg/dl) to approximately 7.5 mmol/l, he told her that that the only way she could get her blood sugar below 7.0 mmol/L was to begin injecting insulin again. She responded by saying that she was not even half-way through her 12-week “trial period” and that she wanted to continue. As a result of her on-going “dawn phenomenon” (and upon my recommendation) she asked her endocrinologist to add an extra dose of Metformin* at bed-time to prevent her liver from making so much glucose in the morning (via gluconeogensis) and while he agreed, he said that if her HbA1C was not below 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dl) the next time she has it checked, he was putting her back on insulin.

*Metformin does not lower blood sugar, but helps the body become more insulin sensitive and to keep it from manufacturing glucose from stored fat or protein which is what underlies high morning blood sugar.

This coming week she is having her 3 month blood work and she and I both realize that it is unlikely her HbA1C will be below 7.0 mmol/L because there was a two week period this summer where she had several friend’s weddings, and got off-plan a bit. While she was quite disciplined, a few things she ate that were low glycemic index complex carbs still caused her blood sugar to rise above the levels she had been achieving. She got right back on plan after the weddings, and has been doing absolutely amazing! I am so very proud of her!

Here is a graph of her blood work over the past 10 weeks, including the ‘blip’ in the middle from the weddings;

She is not “there” yet, but this week she began having much less variation in blood sugar and the graph continues to be shifted downward. She is doing so well.

She has begun delaying the first meal of the day to noon because she doesn’t feel hungry in the morning, and is making extra effort to try different timing for taking her late-night and early-morning Metformin, so as to maximize the reduction in fasting blood sugar from dawn-phenomena (gluconeogenesis). This morning, while we were on our weekly Skype call, she took her blood glucose. 4.7 mmol/L (85 mg/dl)!  This was her first normal early morning glucose since being diagnosed as being Type 2 diabetic in 2017!! I asked her to hold the meter up to the screen and took a picture of it!

Note: I’ve edited out her name and made the numbers a bit more readable.

In just 10 weeks, this young woman has gone from a 2 hour post-meal glucose reading of 18.7 mmol/L (337 mg/dl) to between 6.5 mmol/L (117 mg/dl) and 7.9 mmol/L (142 mg/dl).

The normal “goal” for 2 hour post-prandial glucose for someone with type 2 diabetes is ≤ 7.8 mmol/L (141 mg/dl) and in just 10 weeks, she is already doing considerably better than that!

As I did in the first post about her progress, I asked her to write in her own words what it has been like and how she feels.  This is what she wrote today;

“I have been working together with Joy for close to 3 months now and I am amazed at the progress being made. Monitoring my blood glucose levels consistently has given me more insight into how and when I should be eating and taking my medication. This is key to the progress that I have made. There have been highs and lows, with life and weddings getting in the way, but getting back on track from any deviation is crucial. Knowing that I was accountable to Joy and my blood glucose monitor motivated me to get back to those lower numbers.

With the guidance of Joy, I have adjusted the timing of my Metformin and made tweaks to my diet which will help lower my numbers and prevent spikes. I found that I was not hungry in the mornings and all I needed was my coffee, so I pushed my first meal to lunch and my second meal has been dinner. My cravings have been close to eliminated and I don’t feel the need to snack between meals.

The biggest issue has been my increased fasting glucose due to the dawn phenomenon. To avoid a nightly prescription of insulin (which I never want to take again), I have been invested in figuring out when the nighttime spike is occurring and how I can adjust the timing of my Metformin to minimize it. For the past couple of nights, I have been checking my blood glucose levels every 1-2 hours, and have narrowed down the time at which the spike occurs. This investigation has lead me to my lowest ever fasting glucose reading today of 4.7!!! This is a number I never thought I would see. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. I keep checking to see if I read the number wrong but there it is every time!

This has been a slow and steady road, but being consistent and invested in my health is starting to pay off. It has all been worth it and I cannot wait to see what the next 3 months bring!.”

Note: This is what only one person has been able to achieve following a well-designed low carbohydrate diet the last 10 weeks, but these results are quite consistent with Virta Health‘s 10-week results from their outpatient study with 238 subjects published in October 2017 and outlined in this post.

Post-publication addendum (August 23, 2019): I was asked on social media yesterday why I didn’t start this young woman on a very low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet from the outset. This is what I replied; “Diabetes Canada has not (yet?) deemed a LC or very LC diet as safe and effective medical nutrition therapy. I start people at 130 g of carbs, then reduce carbs as necessary to achieve clinical outcomes as a prudent approach. Hence why I conclude the article w/ hope of future policy change.“

I partner with people’s GPs and Endocrinologists to enable them to oversee reduction and de-prescription of injected insulin (or other medications that may result in low blood sugar when following a low carbohydrate diet) while their patients follow a well-designed low carbohydrate diet to effectively manage their blood sugar. It is fantastic to see people such as this very determined young woman replicate what hundreds have done under the care of knowledgeable clinicians and as published in an ever increasing number of peer-reviewed studies.

It was so exciting to recently witness hundreds of CDEs in the United States being taught how to use a low-carbohydrate diet and a very low carbohydrate (ketogenic) diet as medical nutrition therapy with people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and how to manage the many medications prescribed for people with diabetes (you can read about these two presentation in this post and this one)!

I long for the day that Diabetes Canada releases an update to Clinical Practice Guidelines similar to what the American Diabetes Association (ADA) did last year, which enables clinicians to recommend a low carb or ketogenic diet as a therapeutic option for those with diabetes.

For more information about the clinical changes at the ADA, you can read any one of several articles from April 2019 that are posted under the Science Made Simple tab above, including this one.

If you would like more information about my services, please have a look under the Services tab or in the Shop. If you have questions, please feel free to send me a note using the Contact Me form above and I will reply as soon as I can.

To your good health!

Joy

You can follow me on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lchfRD
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lchf_rd
Fipboard: http://flip.it/ynX-aq

Copyright ©2019 The Low Carb Healthy Fat Dietitian (a division of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.)

LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything  you have read or heard in our content.

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Recently, I came across a social media post about someone that wanted to drink green tea for it’s health benefits, but just couldn’t get over it’s “bad taste”.  I followed the origin of the thread to Reddit, where people guessed whether green tea’s “off taste” for that person may be genetic, like the taste of cilantro. While that can be the case (i.e. genetic sensitivity to a compound called 6-n-propylthiouracil which is found in some flavonoids), others touched on whether it was because the person was making tea using supermarket green tea bags rather than loose tea, whereas a few people hit on the complexity of the issue.  In this post I will discuss some of the factors that affects whether your green tea has a pleasant or “off taste”,  because after all green tea should be something you actually enjoy and not only drink for it’s health benefits.

NOTE: The first part of this article are some personal details of my experience learning to prepare multi-ethnic food and beverages and the second part of the article is specifically about the preparation of green tea and its health benefits.

Once a Foodie, Always a Foodie

I have been adventurous in trying different kinds of food and beverages since I’m little and I remember my parents taking me to an authentic Japanese restaurant even as a kid.  As a teen, I enjoyed cooking multi-ethnic food and learned authentic Cantonese cooking in the 1970s when my mom took a course in Chinatown. In the 1980’s, I learned authentic Thai cooking from the friend of a family business associate who was from Thailand and in those days one couldn’t buy pre-made Thai curry pastes that are available everywhere now, so I sourced the raw ingredients in Lao-Thai groceries and hand-pounded them myself in a mortar and pestle (that I still own and use!). I still have the recipe books sent to me from Thailand.

It didn’t matter whether it was Asian, Middle Eastern or Jamaican, I was a bit of a purist; wanting the ingredients and cooking method to be as authentic as possible. For me, the best way to find out how to make something was to ask someone from that culture that loved to cook.

What was true about food was also true for beverages.

I couldn’t just enjoy a cup of coffee or glass of wine without knowing more. Whether it was the origin of the coffee beans, the length of time the beans were roasted, or how long the water is in contact with the beans — I needed to know, and I was interested in such things when it was not popular either.

Before “West Coast coffee” was a thing and before there ever was Starbucks® or Peet’s, there was a place called La Vieille Europe on St. Laurent Blvd in Montreal which was where I got my single origin, whole bean coffee. As I found out years later, the son of the roaster that owned that store taught the original roaster from Peet’s in the US how to roast beans. Small world.

When I lived in wine country (Sonoma county) of California for a few years in the early 2000s, I was determined to educate my palate to distinguish between different types of wine, which I did. I knew what I liked — which turned out to be an expensive habit when I returned to Canada after 9/11.  At the beginning I explored the wines of Australia and found some I really liked, but missed the delicious and inexpensive  wines of Sonoma and Napa.

Once again, my palate returned to coffee, but finding a decently roasted coffee in Vancouver BC was harder than I thought. Given that this was the “West Coast”, I was discouraged how difficult it was to find good quality Arabica beans that weren’t over roasted. I stumbled across a few small roasters that did an excellent job, but in time they modified their roasts for “local tastes”, so once again, I was back looking for a new roaster. On a few occasions, I ordered from La Vieille Europe in Montreal because in the 40 or 50 years they have been in business, they never lost their passion for properly roasted, single origin coffee.

Over the 20 years I have lived in Vancouver, I discovered the world of quality tea that is largely unknown to most non-Asian born Chinese. There was one excellent tea importer in the Chinatown that I knew of and one that is still in the Richmond Public market that have single origin estate teas that rival the diversity of the best coffee roaster. Over the past 20 years, I’ve explored different types of tea from China and  have come to like a few; my favourite of which is a fermented tea known as Pu-ehr.

A number of years ago, I stumbled across matcha tea in a specialty Japanese store before it was a “thing”.  Knowing nothing about it, I have since found out that I had been using ‘culinary matcha‘ (designed for making Japanese sweets) for drinking.  No wonder it tasted bitter and I needed to blend it with other ingredients to make it palatable. Thankfully, when fresh it had the same health benefits, which I wrote about in 2013 in this article about the Role of Green Tea Powder (Matcha) in Weight and Abdominal Fat Loss. As you’ll read below, I have since learned about making and enjoying real ceremonial-grade matcha, which is intended for drinking from large matcha bowls.

Learning about Japanese Green Tea

At the beginning of this year, I began to explore green teas from Japan when I discovered Hibiki-An, an online tea importer from Uji region of Kyoto. My culinary world expanded once again.

Unable to decide between the many different types and grades of tea that they carry, I order a sampler of 3 types of green teas (Sencha, Gyokuro Superior and Sencha Fukamushi).  They came in 4 oz individual bags — the quantity that can be reasonably be used up within 3 months, when it is fresh.  All 3 teas were all of “superior” grade, which is not the best quality (as my palate is not developed yet) but is a high grade tea.

When the tea arrived, it came with very specific brewing instructions (a summary of the much more detailed instructions on their web page). I’ve since learned that different types of green tea require different water temperatures and different lengths of brewing time.

Wow, who knew?

For the purpose of “cooling” the water to just the right temperature, there is a yuzamashi — which is a small ceramic cup with a spout that the boiled water gets poured into to cool momentarily before being poured into the kyuzu; a special tea pot with a single handle, built in mesh filter and large opening for the water (see photo, above).

You don’t need the get fancy, though.  I had these things for years from my days exploring different regional teas, but one can use an ordinary bowl to cool the water and any plain ceramic tea pot to brew the tea in!

Tea to Water Ratio, Water Temperature and Steeping Time

Each type of green tea has a very specific ratio of green tea leaves to water, and very specific water temperatures and steeping time.

For example, of the three teas in my sample set, Sencha is brewed at 80° Celsius (176 ° Fahrenheit) for one minute, Gyokuro is brewed at 60-70 ° Celicus (140-158° Fahrenheit) for 1 -1/2 to 2 minutes and Sencha Fukamushi is brewed at the same temperature as regular Sencha, but for only 40-45 seconds.

I’ve discovered that following these guidelines using good quality, fresh tea leaves makes a cup of tea that is like nothing I’ve tasted anywhere before. It is not simply snobbery, but the science of what makes for a good cup of tea.

Note: I downloaded several studies that have researched the difference in brewing time, water to tea leaf ratio and water temperature but have decided against boring anyone with the details.

Recently, I became ready to move onto “real” matcha tea and ordered some from the same supplier in Japan.

It came in tiny cans (quantities that should be used up in a 3 week period).

The colour was a bright jade green and the taste had no hint of bitterness whatsoever!

It tastes amazing!

My teas ordered from Japan are my “weekend teas” and during the week I used run-of-the-mill Sencha purchased locally at a Japanese store.

I drink them because I like them and for the health benefits.

Health Benefits of Green Tea

The health benefits of green tea are many. Several large-scale population studies have linked increased green tea consumption with significant reductions in the symptoms of metabolic syndrome; a cluster of clinical symptoms which include insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (high levels of circulating insulin), Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease including coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis.

Catechins make up ~ 30% of green tea’s dry weight, of which 60—80% are catechins. Oolong and black tea which are produced from partially fermented or completely fermented tea leaves contains approximately half the catechin content of green tea. 

It is believed that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) which is the most abundant catechin in green tea actually mimics the action of insulin, which has positive health effects for people with insulin resistance or Type 2 Diabetes [Kao et al].

EGCG also lowers blood pressure almost as effectively as the ACE-inhibitor drug, Enalapril, having significant implications for people with hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiovascular disease [Kim et al].

Green tea catechins also have benefit for weight loss. A 2009 meta-analysis of 11 green tea catechin studies found that subjects consuming between 270 to 1200 mg green tea catechins / day (1 — 4 tsp of matcha powder per day) lost an average of 1.31 kg (~ 3 lbs) over 12 weeks with no other dietary or activity changes [Hursel].

Drinking 8-10 cups of green tea per day is enough to increase blood levels of EGCG into a measurably significant range [Kim et al], but matcha contains  137 times greater concentration of EGCG compared to green tip tea [Weiss et al].

WARNING TO PREGNANT WOMEN While EGCG has also been found to be similar in its effect to etoposide anddoxorubicin, a potent anti-cancer drug used in chemotherapy [Bandele et al], high intake of polyphenolic compounds during pregnancy is suspected to increase risk of neonatal leukemia. Bioflavonoid supplements (including green tea catechins) should not be used by pregnant women [Paolini et al].

Green Tea Shouldn’t Taste Bad!

The reason someone would find green tea has an “off flavor” was because the tea was either not fresh, not of a half-decent quality, was brewed at the wrong temperature or for the wrong length of time. Think about it this way; it all a person ever drank was cheap pre-ground coffee, they might think coffee tasted bad, too.

The fact is, one doesn’t need to order tea from Japan to enjoy a decent cup of green tea! I found the green teas below at a local Japanese grocery store and when brewed properly they are great as everyday tea.

If you aren’t adventurous to explore ethnic markets or time is limited, I can highly recommend the online supplier I mentioned above as having excellent price for the quality of green tea, very good explanations on their web page and quick delivery.

For everyday use, I have a little water cooler (yuzamashi) bowl and small single handed tea pot (kyuzu) so brewing a decent quality sencha green tea (my daily tea of choice) has become second nature, but as I mentioned above, one doesn’t need special equipment to make a decent cup of green tea!  All you need is the  right amount of fresh, good quality tea leaves steeped for the right length of time in hot water that’s at the right temperature. The only thing to keep in mind is that once the package of tea is opened, it needs to be stored in a sealed, airtight, light-proof container and used up within 3 months or sooner.

Making a good cup of green tea is not really much different than brewing a good cup of coffee. To make a good cup of coffee, one needs to consider the country / countries of origin of the beans, the bean roasting time and temperature, the brewing method involved (drip, espresso, French press, etc), the required water temperatures needed for that method, and the different grind of beans and a specific water-to-ground-bean ratio required for that brewing method. It sound’s complicated, but if you a few types of coffee regularly, it’s not hard.

It’s the same with green tea.

In one sense, there is a lot to learn at first to make a good cup of green tea but on the other hand, once you know a few basics and find a green tea or two you really enjoy, the rest is easy!

Tea has amazing health benefits, but unlike the cough medicine Buckley’s®, there is no need to drink tea that “tastes terrible, but it works”!

If you would like to know more about what I do as a Dietitian and how I can help you with weight loss or to seek to reverse the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure and other related markers, please send me a note using the Contact Me form on this web page.

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To your good health!

Joy

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LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything  you have read or heard in our content.

References

Gayathri Devi A, Henderson SA, Drewnowski A. Sensory acceptance of Japanese green tea and soy products is linked to genetic sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil. Nutr Cancer. 1997;29(2):146-51

Hursel R, Viechtbauer W, Westerterp-Plantenga MS. The effects of green tea on weight loss and weight maintenance: a meta-analysis. Int J Obes (Lond) 2009;33:956—61.

Paolini, M, Sapone, A, Valgimigli, L, ”Avoidance of bioflavonoid supplements during pregnancy: a pathway to infant leukemia?”. Mutat Res 527 (1—2): 99—101. (Jun 2003)

Kao YH, Chang MJ, Chen CL, Tea, Obesity, and Diabetes, Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 50 (2): 188—210, February 2006

Kim JA, Formoso G, Li Y, Potenza MA, Marasciulo FL, Montagnani M, Quon MJ., Epigallocatechin gallate, a green tea polyphenol, mediates NO-dependent vasodilation using signaling pathways in vascular endothelium requiring reactive oxygen species and Fyn, J Biol Chem. 2007 May 4;282(18):13736-45. Epub 2007 Mar 15.

Weiss, DJ, Anderton CR, Determination of catechins in matcha green tea by micellar electrokinetic chromatography, Journal of Chromatography A, Vol 1011(1—2):173-180, September 2003