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At the Grocery Store

What to check for on ingredient labels:

Whole foods Zealot- fanatical-

Sugar

Sugar being additive, other additives that are used for preservation or taste or texture. In a perfect world we would never consume any of this and every ingredient we used would be just what it is, but I live in the real world - by showing- you can see your option so that you can make realistically good decisions consistently.

How to tell when sugar on a nutrition label matters
Example:
4 grams sugar = 1 teaspoon.

Bacon
The ingredients shows it DOES have added sugar- but in this case, how much, and how much will you be eating? For instance, there the bacony-egg cups recipe in week 1 - calls for 2 slices of bacon for 6 of these “cups” which you will eat 2 for a breakfast serving. The sugar is so small that it is listed as “0 grams” of sugar per serving, even though there is some type of sugar in the ingredients. You will be having only ½ a slice of bacon per serving of that bacony-egg cups recipe. So is this something to worry about - 50% of what’s close to zero grams of sugar? Probably not. IF 1 piece of bacon had 1 gram of sugar (which it apparently doesn’t)- that would be ¼ of a teaspoon - which you are eating only ½ a slice in the bacony-egg cups, so that means you’d be eating ⅛ tsp. Of sugar. Which you actually aren’t- that’s hypothetical- so just to show how in this case, the “sugar” added in the ingredients in my mind isn’t something to worry about- the flavor the bacon adds to that recipes is incredible.
Contrast

Tomato
Hunts brand of diced canned tomatoes - 3 grams of sugar per ½ cup (NO added sugar in ingredients- so this is the naturally occurring sugar IN the tomatoes themselves.
Contadina - diced canned tomatoes -
Contadina tomato paste “italian herb” - 2 tbsp - 4g sugar - 35 cal - has high fructose corn syrup and wheat in it.
Hunts- actually didn’t have sugar added, but still had 4g sugar per 2 tbsp. hmmm…..

Truvia/Swerve/Erythritol in Smoothies
I did not include the “carbs” in the final nutrition facts of these smoothies - this is because erythritol is not absorbed by the body. The kind of carbs we are concerned with are the ones that our body absorbs and utilizes as calories.
Important to note, erythritol and stevia do not cause blood sugar or insulin spikes- which is the type of thing that can cause problems with weight stabilization.
Always look at the ingredients because the packaging and advertising often doesn’t say it all. There are a number of “truvia” or “stevia” sweeteners that actually contain some real sugar, or fillers like maltodextrin that CAN effect blood sugar. OR “stevia in the raw” - a HUGE bag - you can bet this is mostly dextrose. 1 for 1 with sugar isn’t possible with actual plain stevia. So a LOT of filler has to be added to make it like that.
Truvia brands NOT all the same- small container only erythritol and stevia OK - larger bags that say for baking or that browns like sugar- look- they contain sugar in the ingredients as well.
Monk fruit sweeteners- still mainly sweet because of the erythritol
Erythritol is almost completely excreted through your urine.
When I first start using it I found it best to increase the amount I used slowly, because I would get a little gastric upset at first but then my body seemed to adjust to it after a week.j
Erythritol has a glycemic index of 0 out of 100, so you basically can’t get any better when it comes to a sweetener that won’t affect your blood sugar or act as a CARB in your body.
Show the many different brand options for this sweetener now.
On the go in my purse- got this from my sis in law- a small container to buy to keep in.

Tomato Based Products

You want products you buy to have no ADDED sugar.
What can be confusing is that certain things like tomatoes, have natural sugars already IN the tomatoes. So the nutrition profile might say “2g sugar) and then you might think, ooops, can’t use that it has sugar. In reality, what you want to look at is the INGREDIENT list for added sugar - like sugar, corn syrup, brown rice syrup, doesn’t matter how natural it is, if it’s an ADDED sugar, for our purposes it’s not a good idea.
Really does vary- some brands are JUSt tomatoes, calcium chloride and salt, and then others have high fructose corn syrup and even hydrolyzed wheat protein! Crazy.
Often it’s the “flavored” ones that have this extra crap- like “Italian herb” flavor etc.
Once I actually calculated it out, it looks like the ones that have sugar added, still don’t have any more grams of sugar per serving than the brands without sugar- I have no idea why this is- perhaps again the amount added is very tiny- however, in cases where we have choices- like 2 brands that don’t have sugar added and 2 brands that do, why not choose the one without added sugar?
Tomato Paste
Tomato Sauce
Dice/Whole Tomatoes

Coconut Milk

2 types of coconut milk:

• Canned - high cal/creamy - almost always in the Ethnic aisle - NOT in canned aisle - go fig. You would think it would be mainstream enough now to make it to the canned aisle too.
• Cardboard box kind - low cal - flavor and some texture. Usually in refrigerated aisle, but also in the juice aisle you’ll see boxed low cal nut milks and coconut milk there too.

Most coconut milks, canned and boxed, have a gum ingredient added to them- guar or xanthan - that makes their texture smooth and creamy without lumps. I admit I LOVE the texture. However, I find it causes constipation or at least slow bowels for me. I think the amount you have makes a difference as well.

There are a few brands of organic canned coconut milk that do not have these added gums - they are just coconut milk only - there is a difference in texture a little - however, if it does better for your digestion  may be worth it.
Brands: Natural Value brand - link to online source in the online ingredients guide

Sometimes, especially at beginning of P3 recipes call for a reduced-fat version or “lite”canned coconut milk, because it’s a very high calorie item/calorie dense- we want the creaminess but can necessarily down a whole can all by ourselves- 1 full can of full-fat coconut milk has 700-800 calories depending on brand - the “lite” canned coconut milk is essentially just regular canned coconut milk with water added to it- so you can buy low fat canned coconut milk OR you can make your own by adding 1 part full fat canned coconut milk to 2 parts water.

Non-stick Cooking Sprays

Show comparisons of:
One with yucky ingredients
Ones with just what it is - olive oil, coconut oil, etc. - I even found these at Walmart.

Mayonnaise

These days we’ve been told it’s best to avoid canola oil, which is what traditional mayo brands were made with.
Always check ingredient labels- can be so deceiving- one brand says on the front “olive oil mayonnaise” but on the back, the first oils listed were soy and/or canola oil, and the olive oil was the 4th ingredient listed. Ingredients are listed, by law, from largest to smallest in terms of how much of each ingredient was used.
You can now find mayonnaise made with avocado oil. Primal foods is one brand- ingredients are just: avocado oil, eggs, egg yolks, vinegar, sea salt, and rosemary extract. All organic.

Many mayo’s have sugar in the ingredients.

Lunch Meats

From time to time, they come in handy. It’s better than grabbing a baked muffin at starbucks any day.
Natural doesn’t mean no sugar - applewood is natural, organic, but has sugar added.
True story brand has no sugar added
Organic food praire chicken breast has no sugar
HAM deli meat usually has sugar because people typically have a sweet ham taste.

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