Zoodles as a Fat Delivery Vehicle

Though many people attribute the surprising popularity of zoodles to its clever name -- who doesn't like to say zoodles? -- there could be a more compelling reason for the ascendance of this verbal mash-up of zucchini and noodles. As with its vegetable buddy cauliflower, zucchini is a very efficient fat delivery vehicle when shaped as a noodle and is far lower in carbs than the pasta it replaces in recipes. (One cup of cooked spaghetti has 43g carbohydrates versus only 6 grams in one cup of cooked zucchini.)


My daughter recently gifted me an OXO Good Grips zoodle maker for Mother's Day, and it's been fun seeing how much butter, cheese and bacon I can combine with the tasty vegetable noodles. For dinner last night (see photo below), I sauteed the zoodles in butter and added bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Eager to find more uses for my new toy, this morning I searched online for some recipes using zoodles instead of pasta. Some of these recipes skimp on fat because of misguided perceptions perpetuated by old school media and registered dietitians that fat is bad for you; so I will just add more of the good stuff like avocado, cheese, etc. and use the full-fat version of any ingredients with the unfortunate modifer low- or non- before fat.

 Chicken Zoodle Soup from skinnytaste

  Find the recipe for Crock Pot Chipotle Chicken Zoodle Soup here.

Shrimp Florentine from Allrecipes

This recipe for shrimp Florentine with zoodles is your basic scampi with spinach and zoodles. I'll probably increase the butter and add some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Zucchini with Meat Sauce from Butter is Not a Carb

What zoodle recipe sampler would be complete without a zoodles and meat sauce dish? This recipe includes mushrooms, but I may also other veggies hanging out in the crisper and maybe some bacon and cheese.

This is the zoodle maker I received for Mother's Day. It's technically called an OXO Good Grips 3-Blade Spiralizer with StrongHold Suction. It couldn't be easier to operate, clean and store. The color coded blades nest in an adorable storage box when not in use. And, unlike the smaller hand held models like the Veggetti, this spiralizer yields minimal zucchini wastage.

My new zoodle maker is a snap to use.

Will the Real Diet 'Craze' Please Stand Up?

Why Low-Carb Diets Are Not Pet Rocks 

Despite the fact that people have eaten relatively low-carb high-fat diets throughout human history, many dietitians and medical doctors insist on calling low-carb high-fat diets a "craze."

The implication is that sane people eschew fat in favor of carbs, consuming meals like fortified breakfast cereal and skim milk instead of bacon and eggs. Never mind that the fat soluble vitamins sprayed onto enriched cereal flakes will not be absorbed by the body in the absence of the dietary fat that was deliberately removed from the milk for "health" reasons. Or that the popularity of low-fat high-carb diets has led to the biggest epidemic of obesity and associated metabolic diseases since human beings started roaming the planet. 

If you look at a timeline of human history, the relative millisecond in which the medical community has pushed carbohydrates over fat is the aberration from the norm. In reality, it is the low-fat high-carb diet that is the fad, a dietary experiment that has resulted in worsening health throughout most of the first world, which mistakenly followed the United States and its dietary guidelines like lemmings over a cliff.


It should be noted, however, that the United States -- the country that first promoted over-consumption of carbohydrates -- also produced the Kardashians and Donald Trump. As with these pop culture phenoms, it all boils down to money and image management. Medical and dietary groups in first world countries have been bribed encouraged by #BigFood companies like General Mills to redefine a balanced diet as obtaining half of one's calories from carbohydrates (a non-essential macro-nutrient) as a means to move product.

Despite the lack of any solid evidence (read Nina Teicholz's The Big Fat Surprise to learn more about the dearth of good science behind the U.S. Dietary Guidelines), skim milk and margarine were deemed healthy while bacon and butter became dietary devils.

The designers of the high-carb low-fat diet craze turned the tables against the standard American diet it replaced and acted as if humans had been feasting on fruits, grains and lean proteins all along. Using  textbook marketing techniques to confuse a public with limited memory, they labeled historic eating patterns as a craze when just the opposite was true.