So I’ve been on this Game On! diet for a month. It’s gone awesomely! But I’m now a day away from the end of it, and I’m looking at ways to be less strict without blowing it and gaining back everything I lost.
A little background–I’ve spent the past month preparing nearly everything from scratch for absolute minimum calories. I’ve eaten a hard-boiled egg, a low-fat cheese stick, and an apple as a meal many times. I’ve worked HARD for this weight loss!
So anyway. Looking at food. Thinking “I’ll eat more salads, now I can have dressing!” I picked up a raspberry vinaigrette and looked at the ingredients. You know what I’m going to say, right?
Yep. Sugar.
I picked up another salad dressing, this one labeled “Lite.” It was Italian, and “sugar” came before “red peppers” on the ingredient list. Since I could see the red pepper bits floating in the dressing, that made me fearful of just how much sugar was in that stuff.
Exploring, I picked up a bottle of Russian salad dressing. The FIRST ingredient was corn syrup! Even before water, corn syrup.
After that I was on a mission. Roomie pondering her snack choices? Pick something up and read the ingredients. Stuck behind a slow-moving cart? Let’s have a look.
There was sugar in the Asian Sesame dressing. Sugar in the pasta sauce. Sugar in the packet of chili seasoning. There was sugar in the lemon pepper. Not natural sugars, like in an apple. Added sugar. To lemon pepper.
And then when I got home, this was going around my Twitter feed.†
Now, there’s no denying that an Asian salad has lots of stuff in it that’s good for you. It’s just astounding that it has so much sugar in it too.
I like sugar. I like tasty food. I am not on a quest to ruin it for all of us. I’m just…astounded at how much sugar is in practically everything?
Yikes.
†To be clear, that article is NOT talking about added sugar versus naturally occurring sugar. They’re just looking at all sugar. Still disturbing, no?
Pompeian Vingarette’s mostly do not have sugar. The Pomegranate one I use is sugar, and gluten, free. Yes, it costs a little more, but then it is a higher quality.
I think I saw those in the store, but didn’t pick one up. Clearly I should have!
Make your own! It really is super simple and you put in exactly what you want. Until I moved to the US I had never bought salad dressing, but I guess I got lazy when I moved here.
An excellent idea, and something I’m going to have to learn. I’m starting pretty much from scratch on the healthy eating thing, so that hadn’t even occurred to me.
Got a favorite recipe?
Wow, that’s cool, Mel. Never thought of that.
KD, yikes on the sugar. This stuff is tough.
Looked at a ketchup bottle tonight–tomatoes, water, high fructose corn syrup, then some MORE corn syrup…ugh.
I buy balsamic vinegar that is more natural, and has less sugar. My favorite is a peach white balsamic, but there are many to choose from. The company I use is called Saratoga Olive Oil Company. http://www.saratogaoliveoil.com/ They have storefronts locally that let you taste the various vinegars. Now I am not saying you have to come to Vermont or New York, I am sure you can find some locally. Start at your local food cooperative. Not sure how many calories are in this vinegar, but I put it in a mister and spray it on the salad. That way I use less. Good luck finding something that works for you.
Thank you for the info, Cathie! I’m starting from scratch, knowledge-wise: Always been a ranch dressing kind of girl. But I guess it’s time my tastes grew up. 😉
…I’m almost afraid to ask where salt came in on those lists…