24

May / 10

Label Readin’

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posted by:  Marcus

For those of you new to eating a primal or paleo diet, you might just be getting used to checking labels on your favorite foods. Scott is going strong on his changeover to a paleo diet and was telling me how he has gotten into the habit of reading the ingredient list first. He then asked about added sugars and if there is any harm to a little here and there.

This is a great question as we often recommend easily transportable items like beef jerky for a quick snack and source of protein. The problem lies in that the vast majority of jerky has sugar added as well as soy sauce (gluten). So will it kill you? No — but you don’t want to make it a habit to have several foods with added sugar. Those couple grams of sugar here and there add up and eventually you’re cheating a bit on each meal. That begins a slippery slope where you may find your tastes reverting to the Standard American Diet (SAD). While you may make an exception for jerky, if you then also figure a couple grams of sugar in your BBQ sauce or steak seasoning, etc., you can quite quickly end up with a lot of sugar.

Melissa Urban over at Whole9Life.com recently posted about this exact subject. I encourage you to read the whole article, here’s an excerpt:

So here’s a caution – read your labels.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the first ingredient or the last, or if the sugar is in the form of cane or agave or syrup or honey.  If it’s got sugar, or soy, or corn, or ingredients you can’t identify or pronounce – it’s OUT. But don’t just label-read and toss foods aside – learn from this experience.  Take a moment to be outraged at how food manufacturers and advertisers trick consumers into a false state of health by using buzzwords on labels.  Learn to translate complicated ingredients (xylitol and sorbitol = sugar).  And weed out those foods that don’t fit into your new way of eating and find healthier alternatives in your local markets.

WOD 05.24.10

Push Jerk 3-3-3-3-3

5 rds:
10 OHS
10 Pull Ups

6 Responses to “Label Readin’”

Scott
May 24, 2010 at 10:20 AM

Ahhhh…..Paleo. It’s been an interesting 5 weeks. I’ve lost 12 pounds so far and feel great. My version of Paleo includes 2 cheat days a week, since I’m not willing to give up a nice meal with wine and cheese on Fridays or chips & guac with beers on Saturday. And still I’m seeing results. I was a little sluggish the first week, which was expected given the lack of 3 large coffees /w sugar each day, but since then I’ve felt great.

You know that feeling you have after a big meal where your stomach is bloated, you are totally stuffed, and you think you need to unbutton your pants? That never happens on Paleo. I went to lunch with some friends and devoured 2 double burgers in lettuce wraps with bacon, tomato, and avocado….and felt GREAT afterward. It was definitely more food than I needed. I thought the patties were going to be much smaller. But the point it that I was shocked afterward that I didn’t feel stuffed or bloated or gross like I used to after a big meal.

I love the fact that there is no measuring what you eat. You just eat until you are full/satisfied. If you get hungry? Grab some snacks.

The hardest thing is that there is sugar in EVERYTHING!! Bacon….yep, it has sugar (although Marcus says bacon is ok). Beef Jerky….sugar. Almost every Marinade imaginable has sugar if you’re at Whole Foods, or corn byproducts and unpronounceable crap if you’re at Ralphs. Dry rubs…sugar or brown sugar is among the first two ingredients most of the time. For someone who loves to cook, it is HARD to find fun and interesting meals to cook. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read 10 good ingredients on some label….got a little excited…then found SUGAR!!

A few tips…
-Trader Joe’s has a Thai Green Curry sauce that is Paleo.
-TJ’s also has a Masala Simmer Sauce that is Paleo. The cooking instructions say to mix the simmer sauce with plain Greek yogurt (no Paleo), but it tastes fine if you skip this step.
-Whole Foods will prep Ahi Tuna Steaks for no additional charge. They put ginger, sesame seeds, and sesame oil on the steaks. When you get home you simply sear each side of the steak for 60 seconds and it tastes great!!
-Whole Foods also has a Chipotle Garlic Buffalo Wing sauce that is basically paleo. It’s pretty spicy, but works well as a marinade.

A BIG THANK YOU to Marcus in particular, but also Sean and Ruth for their help with Paleo. I’ve asked all of them 100 questions and probably talked their ear off over the past several weeks. But it has really helped.

ruth
May 24, 2010 at 8:49 PM

Scott, we’re so happy you’ve come to the darkside! Beyond just feeling AND looking great, let me know what kind of results you see in strength and metcons over the next few weeks too!

Great job today everyone!

PJ 113-123-133-138-143
WOD 5:47@73#

Jake
May 24, 2010 at 8:54 PM

PJ-155-165-170-175-180
7:57 at 95

Marcus
May 25, 2010 at 7:44 AM

@Scott, I was at TJs last night and their selection of curries wasn’t so good. I’m not sure if your local store carries different varieties.

Red Curry Sauce and Yellow Curry Sauce both have sugar on the ingredient list.
Green Curry Simmer Sauce has soy sauce (gluten) and going by memory, evaporated cane juice (sugar).
Curry Simmer Sauce does appear to be fully paleo though.

ruth
May 25, 2010 at 9:03 AM

Paleo Police strikes again! What a buzz kill! ;P

Kidding, Marcus (kind of). Thanks for doing the leg work for us.

Scott
May 25, 2010 at 3:04 PM

Damn Marcus!! You’re right about the Thai Green Curry Sauce. I think I was forgetting about Soy Sauce and maybe I had gone cross eye-ed reading labels and missed the Evaporated Can Juice. Arrrgh!! I knew the Red and Yellow Curry, while tastey, were non-Paleo. At least the Masala Simmer Sauce is still acceptable. Thanks!!
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