Homage to the Low-carb Cookie God

Last Tuesday I had a chocolate chip cookie. "I've been awfully good, and one cookie won't hurt me," I rationalized. But eating that cookie gave me a stomach ache, acid reflux for two days and painful nasal congestion--the viscous, sticky kind that won't move--for four days.

How did one cookie make me feel so bad? Was is the extra carbs? According to Pepperidge Farm's web site, one of their chocolate chip cookies (similar to the one I ate) has 20g of carbohydate. That's quite a bit if you eat low-carb, but that's less than a Luna bar, which has 25g of carb--and which I can eat without any ill effects. The Luna bar also has more sugar. What the Luna bar doesn't have is wheat. I stopped eating wheat months ago; this was my first lapse since then.

There's a saying that it's not the poison, but the dose, but in my case, wheat is poison in any amount.

Some people are amazed at those of us who don't eat wheat, but I never found it the hardship that they make it out to be. The problem is boredom: meat, eggs, nuts and salad day after day makes even filet mignon unappetizing and drives a person to eat cheap chocolate chip cookies instead. So I bought a book called 500 Low-carb Recipes by Dana Carpender. The second recipe I tried was "Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies." "With this recipe," Ms. Carpender proclaims, "I assume the title of Low-carb Cookie God." And the cookies were good: tasty with no reflux, sinusitis, blood sugar crash or carb cravings an hour later. I give thanks to the Carpender who has shown me the way to make cookies without the abomination called wheat.

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