Here we are, two days away from Cinco de Mayo and if you’re looking for a way to celebrate, dig into Jorge’s Carne Asada Tacos and feel positively sanctimonious about it. Jorge Cruise is the author of 11 books, almost all of which promise stupendous results in weight loss and body shaping in no time at all. There’s a “12 Second Sequence” book, 4 “8 Minute” Exercise books, 4 “3-Hour” Diet books, and most recently “The Belly Fat Cure”. While Jorge has upped the time it will take to see results from 3 hours to a whole week, “The Belly Fat Cure” certainly caught my eye. Especially after my most recent profile pictures looked more and more like the late Alfred Hitchcock and less and less like I want to look. A promise of a 4 to 9 lb. weight loss in a week was virtually irresistible.
Jorge’s system can be compared to several other dietary efforts: The Atkins Diet, with its emphasis on complete carbohydrate abstinence, and The South Beach Diet which adds to carb control the avoidance of sugar. That’s Jorge’s whole theory. Cut out the bad carbs, keep the fiber up with whole grains, and cut out the sugars and you’ll lose weight. He calls this “The Carb Swap System” and he’s trademarked it. Your goal is to select 15 sugar and 6 carb values. This is not at all as easy as you think. The average American now consumes 47 teaspoons of sugar a day or 189 grams a day! This is up from 15 grams when, 200 years ago, that was all people consumed. And in Jorge Land, that’s all you are to consume now.
Of course, the villain in all this is…processed food. There are staggering amounts of sugar in the most unlikely places. Yogurt, for instance, a 6 ounce cup of which, laden with fruit, has 11 grams of the stuff. And the Lean Cuisine people should be shot for how many grams they put into their “diet” food to replace all fat with some discernible flavor. Jorge doesn’t care about Fat grams and calories, he makes the case that insulin levels from sugar stop the body from losing weight. That’s about as technical as I want to get. You can follow the science yourself if you’d like.
Jorge has vast lists of what he calls “Belly Bad” and “Belly Good” foods. The “Belly Bads” are almost all familiar fast food culprits but for each of them, there’s a “Belly Good” alternative that generally involves finding your way to deep into the organic section of Whole Foods. I had no idea Ezekiel 4:9 Organic Sprouted Whole Grain bread existed until I paid 5.99 cents for frozen loaf of the stuff in my supermarket. But surprisingly, a lot of what Jorge substitutes is fairly easy to find. And to top it all off, yields delicious results.
I’ve made 4 of his recipes and adjusted several of mine to his principles. All in all, I find it not at a difficult way to eat. And have I seen results: Yes, the weight has come off (4 lbs in a week). And it does come off the waistline! My only problem is, I didn’t eat very much processed food to begin with so my baseline wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I just have to be super careful when I eat out. Because who knows what’s going on behind the kitchen door. Here’s the recipe for that delicious taco dinner. And a Feliz Cinco de Mayo to everyone!
Recipe for Jorge Carne Asada Tacos:
For the Tacos:
2 lbs. of flank or hanger steak
1 tbsp. McCormick Grill Mates Mesquite Seasoning
(this I could not find and substituted a Blackening Mix to great results)
8 Mission Yellow or White Corn Tortillas
½ cup chopped green onions
½ cup chopped tomatoes
½ cup chopped cilantro
For the Sides:
½ can of Progresso Black Beans, drained
½ cup Queso Fresco (Mexican Cheese)(optional)
¼ cup La Victoria Salsa Suprema or any salsa with no sugar added
¼ cup sour cream
To make the Tacos:
Preheat grill pan or barbecue to medium high heat. Season the steak with the grill seasoning. When pan is hot, cook the steak for 3-5 minutes per side. Remove from grill and let rest for 5 minutes, then slice across the grain of the meat.
Warm each tortilla over a glass flame of in a pan. Fill with steak, tomato and green onion. Garnish with cilantro.
Warm the beans and serve with the tacos, passing the sour cream and salsa.
These look great Monte, I'm from So Cal so I have cravings for Mexican food every week! Did you have a recipe for fish tacos way back when? When fish tacos are done right there is nothing better!
Fish Tacos, coming right up! http://chewingthefat.us.com/search/label/Fish{7764cd352edcf19b608e75b52a560f8f0623df8defec59f0ed185161f2ba1413}20Tacos
And here's what Susan Squires, the inspiration for this post sent us to accompany the Carne Asada…
"I will be serving carne asado en Casa de Squires on Wednesday, along with my favorite Margi recipe:"
MARGARITA RECIPE
3 PARTS TEQUILA (Don Julio or Cuervo Tradicional)
2 PARTS COINTREAU
2 PARTS FRESH LIME JUICE (plus splash fresh-squeezed oj)
SWEETEN TO TASTE WITH SIMPLE SYRUP
Shake with ice. Pour over ice into salt-rimmed glasses. Salud!
I am trying so hard to follow the low sugar diet from your book but am confused about counting sugar with carbs , how do I count them together or ?? You have the formula for sugar and carbs, am I just looking at the sugar count of do I have to do both??
Dear Valerie. I am so sorry but it’s not my book. I would suggest going to Jorge’s site for help with that question. https://www.freedieting.com/belly-fat-cure Good Luck!