I can't help it, I need to vent.

I'm a fan of 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray on Food Network, but ever since the New Year she's been airing "low carb" episodes NON STOP and I really want to hurt her!!! She has NO clue what low carb is and she is only hurting anyone who is considering it by misinforming them.

A few months back she made a few episodes for low carb that were very good (light on vegi's, but good nontheless). Now all the sudden she's using all these ingredients that we can't eat - not even maintenence!

Let's see... She made a PASTA dish for one and called it low carb! Maybe if she used whole wheat pasta I would be been okay, since you can have that in maint., but no.... it was regular pasta, she just used a little less of it... Ugh. Then she made a london broil, sounds good, eh? BUT she made a sauce that had almost a 1/4 cup of flour in it to thicken!! WHAT? In other show she made chicken cutlets coasted in hazelnuts, sounds good... But she coated every breast in a TON of flour first! There's a billion other things you can use besides flour to coat a chicken breast in, believe me. Then she made a fig and apricot gravy, which I suppose would be ok for Maint., until she added the 1/4 cup of flour again! There were other recipes, but my mind went blank (from all the rage).

Then she spends the entire episode saying, "I would never ever give up my carbs, I love bread, pasta and rice." yadda... yadda... yadda... She repeats this almost every 5 minutes! That's not helping anyone! What if someone just starting out on low carb listened to this and decided to quit because "Rachael Ray wouldn't do it." Unfortunately, a lot of people look up to her and as much as I hope it wouldn't change anyones outlook on low carb, I know it will.

It's just too bad she's only reinforcing all of the crap you hear about low carb. Her meals are mainly meat with tons of fat and you see very few vegetables in there, then to boot she adds flour, pasta and other illegal foods. *sigh* Oh Rachael, please don't try to be a low carb advocate. If you don't do it, don't preach it. PLEASE!!!

I'll step down from my soap box now...

Nope. It was plain ol' flour.

Too bad. I don't even want to try to figure out the carb count per serving.

maybe she has a website where you can write to her, or write to the food network directly - that is not right, too many people watch those shows.

Vikki

From www.foodtv.com If you want to check out the recipes:

Her show on "Carb-ing It...Just a Little Bit
Don't cut out the carbs completely, just reduce 'em a little bit. Broccoli rabe and orechiette; bresaola salad."
http://www.foodtv.com/food/show_tm/...7_35364,00.html includes the recipes but no nutrition summary. For these two at least, there was no flour.

Another show "Carb-Busting
Forget the carbs but not the flavor. Cucumber Snackers; Blt Frittata; Strawberries and Cream With Macadamia Nuts "

http://www.foodtv.com/food/show_tm/...7_23028,00.html

And "Curb Your Carbs" http://www.foodtv.com/food/show_tm/...7_29358,00.html

Your're right, MikieGirl. That's what I was trying to say in my last post. Rachel doesn't claim to be cooking 100% low carb or for people on induction. That doesn't mean she doesn't have the right to cut carbs in some recipes if she wants to. I don't understand the upset over this.

Not everybody follows low carbing as strictly as others, and if that works for them, then that's fine. I'm sure the network would tell you the same thing; that Rachel isn't claiming to be a Low Carb cook entirely, just lower on some meals.

If we decide to cut our fat a little bit, does that mean we don't have the right because we're low carbers; not low fatters? See what I mean?

The Food Network, should someone write and complain, would probably suggest changing to Geroge Stella's program "Low Carb and Lovin' it" to follow a strict low carb diet. JMO

I was never saying she should have aimed all her recipes at Induction (or the first phase of any low carb diet), I just meant that items like white flour, honey, and pasta should not have been used. Okay, I'll give her the one show w/ the pasta, because she flat out said "lower" carb - okay Rachael, you win that one. But I do hold her accountable for the other ones because low carbers flipping stations may come across these shows (or find them in TiVo) and be misinformed.

I also agree 100% that it is OUR responsibility to know these aren't the foods we should be eating, etc. But I also realize that there are many, many people out there that don't read the books, etc. and try low carb, and they are the ones that will be misinformed and have this diet fail them. I know it's their own fault, that they should research, but it's not always going to happen.

Basically, I just don't like that she's spreading misinformation around just to jump on the low carb bandwagon. I'm fine with her making a few low carb shows, but a) I wish she'd get her facts right, and b) I wish she wouldn't say "I could never do low carb... I love my bread, pasta and rice" over and over again - it's just annoying.

Don't get me wrong, I love Rachael Ray (in an annoying sister-in-law type of way), I just needed to vent about all the stuff saw on her show, but frankly... I still have a TiVo Season Pass to her show and probably always will.

On the lighter side: Did you hear her when she tried to claim she came up with smashed cauliflower!?!?!?! I nearly peed my pants! She thought she had this great, new idea! HA!

LOL I'll have to agree with you on that one! Smashed Cauliflower is not a Rachael Ray signature dish. Not sure who started it but I first read it in Atkins' book. I've been making it ever since.


On the other, as long as she says "lower" instead of "low," I'm ok with it (even though I sit there shaking my head). Having said that, I'm sure they have been bombarded with letters so maybe she'll go back to her ol' Rachael Ray way of cooking; which is fun to watch as long as you don't eat it! The main reason we watch is hubby has a terrible crush on her.

hehe. I was thinking the same thing. I love her show too but she was making a london broil the other day and she added flour to the gravy and a lot of honey to the salad. She said that it is a good idea to serve this dinner to your low carb friends, and I was thinking they won't be your friends anymore if they know you just busted their diet.

Yes, I caught that too, she also kept on saying a lot of my friends are on low carb diets. I don't think she has a clue on cooking low carb meals.

I do watch her shows and I also like hear but, if she is not going to inform herself on LC Cooking she should stick to her fast High Carb 30 minute meals.

yeh...While I was watching the show I was saying to my husband that she is going to get bombarded by complaint mail. I wonder if she did.

thanks for the info. i too am ticked by folks jumping on this lcing bandwagon and not knowing what the he-- they are talking about. i have found that lots of people confuse low carb with atkins. it's not the same. actually i went to barnes and noble book store looking for low carb recipe books for variety. well let me tell you that low carb to one is not lcing on atkins!!! the recipes were loaded with potatoes, pasta, breads, sugar galore...go figure. so now i only trust atkins books, atkins products before any other. now i wonder if the other (besides atkins) lc products are honest or have they tweeked the nutrition label for their own benefit. would not surprise me. also nutrisystem (i believe) and curves have developed lc plans for their members. sounds identical to atkins but without giving the credit where due. what a sneeky way of getting clients--just don't call it atkins. anyway that's my two cents.