Three items recently spurred my interest in this subject. First, a month or so ago, my mother-in-law got a postcard from a realtor with a recipe for buckwheat pancakes on it. She planned to make them and showed it to me. “What’s this ‘no-carb sweetener’?” she asked. I had no idea. The recipe clearly wasn’t talking about some type of artificial sweetener that you use by the drop, as it called for something like a cupful. Hmmm. (But I did warn her that this was a vegan recipe, as it called for “flax eggs,” which you make by mixing ground flaxseed and water in proportions of 1:3 and letting the mixture sit for about 15 minutes. A perfectly good thing if you’re allergic to eggs, of course, and if you’re ethically opposed to animal products. But you don’t have to do it if you think that flaxseed is better for you than eggs. Just eat the eggs!)