Pizza Dip and Cataract Awareness Month

August is National Cataract Awareness Month. The US Department of Agriculture’s Food & Nutrition researchers find that women whose average carbohydrate intake is between 200 and 268 grams per day are 2.5 times more likely to get cortical cataracts than women consume around 108 carbohydrate/day (the recommended daily allowance according to the government-run Food Pyramid is about 250 carbs/day...stupid!) If women consumes a healthy low-carbohydrate diet of 20-60 grams/day, the risk decreased even more!

One reason that scientists link carbohydrate consumption to cataracts is the increased exposure to glucose (even "complex" carbohydrates are just glucose molecules linked together in long chains, the body breaks them apart causing a rise in blood sugar) this process damages our eyes’ lenses. June 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (volume 81, pages 1411-1416).

So let's skip the deep dish high-carb pizza and try this tasty treat to satisfy those cravings!

2 links Bolinski's Organic Chicken Sausage
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 cup no-sugar marinara sauce
1 package pepperoni (I got from Italian specialty shop: Cosetta's)

Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. Chop the sausage into very small pieces. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, sausage, Parmesan cheese, and salt. In a 5 x 5 oven safe dish, spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the bottom. Top with marinara sauce (and pepperoni if desired). Bake for 40 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Makes 8 servings.

Serve with "Healthified" Crackers! Enjoy

NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving)
Traditional Dip = 260 calories, 14g fat, 7.5g protein, 12 carbs, trace fiber
"Healthified Dip" = 230 calories, 14g fat, 7.5g protein, 5 carbs, 0.8g fiber