Category: Featured

My GLP 1 journey, weeks 1&2 — the pounds drop off

Two weeks into my GLP-1 weight-loss drug journey and I’ve lost five pounds and learned some lessons about how I’ll feel during this experiment to control my weight.

When I started taking Zepbound, the pharmacist who briefed me said not to expect any weight loss the first month when I’d be on the lowest dose. This was a time to get my body accustomed to the medication and see what side-effects would surface.

I’m sure that was to temper my expectations and keep me from emailing angrily about the lack of weight loss.

But that said, I was still surprised when I dropped four pounds the first week. That was followed by a one pound loss the second week after first gaining back a few pounds when the week began.

My upscale squid dinner, one I could finish!

I took my third weekly shot last night and stand today five pounds lighter than when I started. How did that happen?

Continue reading “My GLP 1 journey, weeks 1&2 — the pounds drop off” →
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I’m hopping on the Zepbound band wagon

I’m giving up constantly trying to drop 10-20 pounds on my own. Working with my cardiologist, I’ve started taking one of the new GLP-1 weight-loss drugs sweeping the country, Zepbound.

Recent research by the Gallup organization found that 11% of Americans are taking one of these GLP-1 drugs. That’s about one of every eight people.

These medications seem to be a classic American response to an intractable problem, obesity. The U.S. obesity rate peaked at 39.9% of all Americans in 2022. Gallup estimates it at 36.4% this year, a drop that’s likely tied to increasing use of these drugs.

Rather than eat less and exercise more, over-weight Americans are taking a pill (or a needle shot) to lose weight. We look for our health answers in pills don’t we?

I personally lost 15 pounds in 2025 because I had a series of illnesses, Covid and the flu among others, that kept me in bed and not eating for two months.

Continue reading “I’m hopping on the Zepbound band wagon” →
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New U.S. dietary guidelines mean you’re on your own finding healthy ways to eat

The U.S. food scene is in a world now where up is down and black is white — namely everything science tried to tell us the past half century or so about healthy eating just got stood on its head with new dietary guidelines backed by the non-scientist, non-doctor now in charge of America’s health.

Avoid high-fat foods? No, no, drink that whole milk again, the new guidelines say. Limit red meat intake? No, no protein is good, gobble that red meat down.

About the only point of agreement with the past is to avoid processed foods, although that term — along with others like highly processed and ultra-processed — remain undefined.

How others eat it, the steak normally comes covered in cheese, which I can no longer eat.
Ready to eat steak covered in butter? New dietary guidelines promote eating fats, good luck with that.

So how should you eat?

We’re in an age where you have to find your own way. Start by knowing your body and discussing your specifics with doctors, nutritionists, even friends and relatives searching for answers as well.

I know, for example, that consuming lots of salt sends my blood pressure higher.

I’ve seen it over and over again. So I am committed to a low-salt diet.

I also know that when I eat high-fat foods, I have heart attacks — I’ve had two, — that’s enough to keep me on a low-fat Mediterranean-like diet.

Continue reading “New U.S. dietary guidelines mean you’re on your own finding healthy ways to eat” →
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We’re stepping it up in 2025

The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal (the blog you’re reading right now) drew 69,185 views in 2024, a jump of slightly more than 9,000 from 2023. Not bad for a year in which our attention was mainly focused elsewhere, producing what will likely be our last show for the Evanston 2nd Act Players.

This year, we’re returning this blog back to center stage, so to speak. Expect to see a lot more posts on relevant food topics, along with a lot more on the recipe page everyone loves here.

Our recipe page was the second most visited, after our home page, last year.

We’ll be writing about diet trends, food trends, new food products and more. If there are topics you’d like to see covered, just drop us a line by writing johnnfrank@gmail.com.

Happy New Year and happy eating in 2025!

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Vacation eating — joy or fear?

Maintaining a heart-healthy diet takes a lot of inner discipline given that we’re surrounded by so many food options that are high in salt, saturated fat and sugar. The task becomes even more daunting when you’re on vacation, especially in a foreign country with even more foods you love.

I’ve been vacationing in Italy, my ancestral homeland, with a large group of cousins. That means meals here have been wonderful family affairs with so many food options its difficult to count them all. But most involve salt and sugar. What to do, fear everything I eat or put diet concerns aside for the duration of the trip?

Pasta portions are smaller in Italy, thankfully.

I’m trying to walk a middle ground, which has meant ordering seafood as often as possible and minimizing my pasta, pastry and gelato intake. Southern Italy is a wonderful place to eat seafoods. I had a piece of amberjack in a light tomato sauce last night, for example, something I rarely see on US menus.

I’ve also had oysters and clams, albeit with pasta. Pasta portion sizes are smaller here than in the US, which is a good thing since we tend to fill plates to overflowing at home.

Gelato, of course, is the hardest goodie to pass up, especially when everyone else keeps pushing for it. And with that, I don’t do small portions well.

Grilled vegetables are on every menu in Italy, a wonderful, simply side dish .

I’m assuming I’ll gain weight on this trip, we’ll see how much when I’m back in the States and have a scale again. Then it will also be back to strictly watching the salt, fat and sugar,

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Cooking Light goes in for some ‘This is Us’ clickbaiting

Cooking Light often has great recipes, some of which I’ve shared on my recipe page. It’s daily e-mails try, as do many others, to come up with the most provocative subject lines imaginable to get us all to open the newsletters. Recently that included trying to piggyback on the popularity of NBC’s This is Us series.

I found the whole thing goofy enough to blog about it, so indulge me.

The Jan. 27 Cooking Light newsletter came with the subject line “Can Your Crock Pot Really Catch on Fire?” This just after the This is Us episode where a faulty pot burns down a house (if you’re a fan, as I am, you know the rest. I hate that neighbor now, don’t you?)

Clean eating crock pot chicken
Clean eating crock pot chicken is a favorite of mine. My wiring is fine.

I chuckled at the topic line not only because I saw it as Cooking Light shamelessly putting out some clickbait tied to This is Us but also because I can just imagine the poor reporter who was assigned that story having to call around to get comments for it.

She ended up talking to customer service at Crock-Pot and quoting someone who had talked about the same topic on the Today show apparently. Continue reading “Cooking Light goes in for some ‘This is Us’ clickbaiting” →

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Big Game low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar menu options

Holidays and special events like the upcoming Super Bowl LII (or the big game as most marketers’ now call it because they can’t use the term Super Bowl) often are the most difficult times to stay on your preferred eating plan, be it low-salt, low-fat and/or low-sugar. I’ve written a lot about this over the years here, trying to create alternatives you can enjoy.

My low-fat, low-salt manicotti, One of these has 128 calories, 1.8 grams of fat and 70 mgs of sodium. I eat five at a time

My first post about Super Bowl eating dates back to 2013,  shortly  after I started the blog, and it looked at items I bought, like no-salt potato chips and low-fat cookies.

But in subsequent years, I started making my own treats, like my home-made, no-salt, no-fat potato chips.

I also suggested a great entrée like swordfish steaks. That will dazzle and surprise your guests for sure.

As always though, my go-to Super Bowl entrée is whole wheat stuffed manicotti, using fat-free ricotta and fat-free mozzarella. I was just speaking with a group fo heart patients about eating when one mentioned to me how the thinking about fat being evil is being turned upside down these days.  Continue reading “Big Game low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar menu options” →

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First Look: Innit recipe app has lots of easy-to-follow instructions

The creators of the new Innit recipe and cooking app recently asked me to review it. I’m getting some thank-you items in return (a shopping bag, T-shirt and spatula so far, just thought you should know. That’s not enough to really change what I’m about to say one way or another). The app is free, you can download it by clicking here.

My first impression is Innit is suited to people who don’t like to cook or who have never cooked. Its step-by-step videos, some as basic as how to boil water, can take the novice past any jitters about cooking so they can prepare their own meals rather than relying on take-out every night.

Innit_homescreen
Innit’s_homescreen

The app even provides a shopping list for each dish and can talk to smart appliances  (I don’t have a smart oven, so I can’t test that out).

The app also tells you how long it will take to prepare your meal, giving you an end-time. I’m sure type A people will strive to beat that to show just how good they are.

I was able to find 10 possible recipes. The app’s website says you can personalize recipes to take into account allergies, etc. I haven’t found how to do that yet. I’d like to customize the recipes available to take out fat, salt and sugar, my three evil foods.

One salmon teriyaki recipe,for example, has 3,560 mgs of salt, two days supply for me. I’d substitute Mrs. Dash salt-free teriyaki sauce to cut that considerably. I’ll let you know in a subsequent post if I can find a way to do that.

To find nutritional info for each recipe,you tap on the calorie count to reach the nutrition info screen. Continue reading “First Look: Innit recipe app has lots of easy-to-follow instructions” →

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Sugar or sleep, which one do you pick most often?

A recent British study seems to confirm something I’ve always known instinctively from my own behavior — people who don’t get enough sleep eat more sugar than those who do.

I know when I was working I regularly would get only 5-6 hours of sleep a night and so eat sugary treats throughout the day to keep going, even though the sugar energy bursts were not all that long-lasting.

Cutting sugar, as found in treats like this, is extremely tough work, confirms a new study.

Now a new study published in  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that people who get at least seven hours sleep a night may be able to eat less sugar than those who get less sleep.

Some participants in the study were counseled on how to get to bed earlier — things like less screen time, not drinking coffee before bed time and establishing a relaxing going-to-bed ritual. Continue reading “Sugar or sleep, which one do you pick most often?” →

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Pinterest’s Top 10 Food Trends to Watch in2018

January 2018 is almost half over and I still have a lot of January predictions and review stores to post, so I’ll do my best to get them online this week. Here’s the first, a look at Pinterest’s annual Top 10 Food Trends, as reported in Cooking Light magazine.

Imagine low-sodium soups: I applaud the effort, but taste is lacking, big time.
If you plan to join the souping trend, make your own or check salt content, even on so-called low-salt soups.

Continue reading “Pinterest’s Top 10 Food Trends to Watch in2018” →

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