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A FULL HEAD OF

Published by Becca on April 5, 2007 in General.

LETTUCE!!! that’s right. Today has been a pretty average day, except for one thing. I ate an entire good-sized head of iceburg lettuce! I know, I know, Romaine is better for you. blech Acctually, I do have a bunch of Romaine in the fridge right now, but I just don’t think it lends itself as well to taco salad. Which reminds me of my favorite “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” question (probably because I never actually watched the show and I saw this one on a commercial so it’s really about the ONLY question I remember from the show!) which went something like this:
Which of these options is NOT the name of one of Frank Zappas children?
A) Moon Unit B) Dweezil C) Ahmet Rodan or D) Taco Salad
I hope you can all figure out the correct answer…are you sure? Is that your final answer?!
Wow that got annoying fast!

2 Responses to “A FULL HEAD OF”

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  1. 1 Chris
    Apr 5th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    That is a FREAKING lot of lettuce.

    I read something interesting about eating a whole head of lettuce:

    THE CHINESE RESTAURANT EFFECT
    Many years ago a patient asked me why her blood sugar went from 90 mg/dl up to 300 mg/dl every afternoon after she went swimming. I asked what she ate before the swim. “Nothing, just a freebie,” she replied. As it turned out, the “freebie” was lettuce. When I asked her just how much lettuce she was eating before her swims, she replied, “A head.”

    A head of lettuce contains about 10 grams of carbohydrate, which can raise a type 1 adult’s blood sugar about 50 mg/dl at most. So what accounts for the other 160 mg/dl rise in her blood sugar?

    The explanation lies in what I call the Chinese restaurant effect. Often Chinese restaurant meals contain large amounts of protein or slow-acting, low-carbohydrate foods, such as bean sprouts, bok choy, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts, that can make you feel full.

    How can these low-carbohydrate foods affect blood sugar so dramatically?

    The upper part of the small intestine contains cells that release hormones into the bloodstream when they are stretched, as after a meal. These hormones signal the pancreas to produce some insulin to prevent the blood sugar rise that might otherwise follow the digestion of a meal. Large meals will cause greater stretching of the intestinal cells, which in turn will secrete proportionately larger amounts of these hormones. Since a very small amount of insulin released by the pancreas can cause a large drop in blood sugar, the pancreas simultaneously produces the less potent hormone glucagon to offset the potential excess effect of the insulin. If you’re diabetic and deficient in producing insulin, you might not release insulin, but you will still release glucagon, which will cause gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis and thereby raise your blood sugar. Thus, if you eat enough to feel stuffed, your blood sugar can go up by a large amount, even if you eat something undigestible, such as sawdust.

    The first lesson here is: Don’t stuff yourself. The second lesson is:
    There’s no such thing as a freebie.* Any solid food that you eat can raise your blood sugar.

  2. 2 Candace
    Apr 6th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

    Romaine tastes a whole lot better in taco salad when you squirt lime juice all over it. Of course all Mexican food tastes better with lime juice all over it–Thai food too.

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