Re: New member & questions

[Guest guest]

Oh, Vicki! You're so right!!

My buddy and I had Japanese food last week. We both figured that it would

be mostly veggies, and very lightly breaded, if breaded at all. I had

shrimp tempura, she had Oyako Don (chicken and rice with an egg mixed in).

The sauces almost killed us. The restaurant had no nutritional data, but

the research I did later confirmed that at least in her sauce, there were

two tablespoons of brown sugar, and not much else! My sauce was a very

light soy based something, but it must have had a fair bit of sugar too. I

haven't seen 250 in months, and even then it was an accident! The BG Buddy

hit 350 (her control isn't that good to begin with)!

Be very, very careful what you eat, and never be afraid to ask what's in it.

Robin G.

>From: whimsy2@...

And when eating in restaurants Watch Those Sauces!

>Vicki

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[Guest guest]

The chance of getting an answer you don't want to hear is no excuse for not

asking. ;-)

Robin G.

>

>This afternoon, my wife and I were in a speciality store here in

>Germany that was selling " Genuine Imported American Blueberry

>Muffins " . The first ingredient on the list was " Sugar " followed by

> " Flour " . So the muffins had more sugar in them than flour! (and that

>didn't include the blueberry jam which was listed in seventh place).

>

>We stopped off at a small cafeteria in the store to have coffee. With

>the coffee was served something that looked like small round pieces

>of brown bread arranged on a plate. I bit on one to see what it

>tasted like and to my surprise it turned out to be made from pure

>brown sugar, somehow textured to make it look like brown bread.

>

>Sometimes we ARE afraid to " ask what's in it " !

>

>

>

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[Guest guest]

Robin

You wrote:

> My sauce was a very light soy based something,

> but it must have had a fair bit of sugar too.

> I haven't seen 250 in months, and even then

> it was an accident! The BG Buddy hit 350 (her

> control isn't that good to begin with)!

> ...

> Be very, very careful what you eat, and never

> be afraid to ask what's in it.

This afternoon, my wife and I were in a speciality store here in

Germany that was selling " Genuine Imported American Blueberry

Muffins " . The first ingredient on the list was " Sugar " followed by

" Flour " . So the muffins had more sugar in them than flour! (and that

didn't include the blueberry jam which was listed in seventh place).

We stopped off at a small cafeteria in the store to have coffee. With

the coffee was served something that looked like small round pieces

of brown bread arranged on a plate. I bit on one to see what it

tasted like and to my surprise it turned out to be made from pure

brown sugar, somehow textured to make it look like brown bread.

Sometimes we ARE afraid to " ask what's in it " !

[Guest guest]

Robin

> The chance of getting an answer you

> don't want to hear is no excuse for not

> asking. ;-)

It is not the fear of getting an answer we don't want to hear that

stops us from asking but the justified expectation of being lied to.

How many times have you asked a waiter a question and received an

answer that you really believed? Admittedly, in the US you stand a

chance of getting a truthful answer but here or in France waiters

will lie to you just for the sheer pleasure of it. My wife always

asks if the food is fresh and most European waiters ignore the

question or look offended. In the US, when she asked if the eggs are

fresh she always got answers of the type: " Well, dear, they came from

a fresh chicken so I guess they are. "

In his book, Dr. Bernstein recommends taking some of a suspect food

in your mouth, mixing it with saliva, spitting it out into an ashtray

and running a urine test strip on it. The enzymes in your saliva will

convert the carbohydrate into sugar and the test strip will show if

it is active, carbohydrate-wise. I have never had the nerve to do

that in a decent restaurant but am seriously considering it now.

My plan is to ask the waiter next time if the sauce contains sugar.

If he answers: " No " , then I will order the meal and tell him that I

am going to test the sauce for sugar and will send the meal back if

the result is positive. I confidently expect him to refuse to serve

me and ask us to leave the restaurant. I will let you know what

happens.

[Guest guest]

Robin

> The chance of getting an answer you

> don't want to hear is no excuse for not

> asking. ;-)

It is not the fear of getting an answer we don't want to hear that

stops us from asking but the justified expectation of being lied to.

How many times have you asked a waiter a question and received an

answer that you really believed? Admittedly, in the US you stand a

chance of getting a truthful answer but here or in France waiters

will lie to you just for the sheer pleasure of it. My wife always

asks if the food is fresh and most European waiters ignore the

question or look offended. In the US, when she asked if the eggs are

fresh she always got answers of the type: " Well, dear, they came from

a fresh chicken so I guess they are. "

In his book, Dr. Bernstein recommends taking some of a suspect food

in your mouth, mixing it with saliva, spitting it out into an ashtray

and running a urine test strip on it. The enzymes in your saliva will

convert the carbohydrate into sugar and the test strip will show if

it is active, carbohydrate-wise. I have never had the nerve to do

that in a decent restaurant but am seriously considering it now.

My plan is to ask the waiter next time if the sauce contains sugar.

If he answers: " No " , then I will order the meal and tell him that I

am going to test the sauce for sugar and will send the meal back if

the result is positive. I confidently expect him to refuse to serve

me and ask us to leave the restaurant. I will let you know what

happens.

[Guest guest]

> My plan is to ask the waiter next time if the sauce contains sugar.

> If he answers: " No " , then I will order the meal and tell him that I

> am going to test the sauce for sugar and will send the meal back if

> the result is positive. I confidently expect him to refuse to serve

> me and ask us to leave the restaurant.

, if you have the confidence that you will be lied to, why would you

bother going through this exercise? To prove a point? What is the benefit?

Just so that you know that all waiters lie to their customers? To me, when I

spend my hard-earned money in a restaurant, I want it to be an enjoyable

evening with my husband, not a confrontational one with my waiter

Many sauces contain sugar or some kind of sweetener. And many additionally

contain flour or cornstarch or some other thickener which may also impact

our bg's. If you are trying to eliminate these suspect sources of

carbohydrate, stick to sauceless dishes - a grilled chicken or steak and

veggies.

[Guest guest]

> , if you have the confidence that you

> will be lied to, why would you bother going

> through this exercise? To prove a point?

> What is the benefit? Just so that you know

> that all waiters lie to their customers?

The benefit is that the waiter might be motivated to go back to the

kitchen and ask if they have ready, or could prepare to order, a

sauce that was not so heavily laced with sugar that it results in

BG's up in the 300's (see Robins's posting) if he is told IN ADVANCE

that the sauce is going to be tested at the table. Bernstein does not

give this reason - just that he tests anyway and simply doesn't eat

the stuff if it fails a table-top urine test. He claims that you can

find restaurants serving exactly the same sauce, some using sugar,

some not, and the only way to tell reliably is to test it.

> To me, when I spend my hard-earned money

> in a restaurant, I want it to be an enjoyable

> evening with my husband, not a confrontational

> one with my waiter

I spend my hard-earned money on essentials, restaurants get only my

easy-earned money. I am not confrontational with my waiter, my wife

is. I don't know how much dealings you have had with French waiters

but usually you do what THEY want or it gets confrontational, whether

you wanted it that way or not. And you have to lose the contest or

they spit in the soup. I am hoping that I can phrase my request in

such a way that it won't come to a conflict. They might even have a

diabetic waiter who would know what I am up to.

> Many sauces contain sugar or some kind of

> sweetener. And many additionally contain

> flour or cornstarch or some other

> thickener which may also impact our bg's.

Sure, but they don't have to. When I am served fish, I don't expect

to have it to come with a sweet sauce. If they want to put sugar in

their chocolate pudding, that's OK by me, I don't eat the stuff. But

why should I get sweet-tasting fish? Some cooks add a dash of sugar

to everything, just in case. And it makes me want to throw up.

Prepared spare ribs are usually soaked in sugar but you can make them

just as tasty yourself and not use one grain of sugar.

> If you are trying to eliminate these suspect

> sources of carbohydrate, stick to sauceless

> dishes - a grilled chicken or steak and

> veggies.

I go out of my way to eat complex carbohydrates but avoid

monosaccharides everywhere I can. Who needs them? I am now so sugar-

sensitized, I can practically smell the stuff, even highly diluted. I

feel sure that if refined sugar had never been invented and somebody

tried to market it now, we would need a prescription before we could

buy it - and the list of possible side-effects would be staggering!

Try getting a sauceless dish in Europe - you will end up in a fast-

food place where the sauce comes separately in a sealed plastic

packet. Ugh!

(P.S. Why does Heinz put sugar in their canned baked beans? Do

Americans eat them for dessert?)