6
SO LONG, SWEET DRINKS AND DRESSINGS
Sometimes it’s not the meal itself that’s sabotaging you, it’s what you’re having with it, even if it’s something you’ve been led to believe is a healthy choice. A fresh salad packed with veggies becomes nothing more than a sugar delivery vehicle when it’s drowned in “low-fat” dressing. What you’re sipping matters, too, whether your drink is sweetened with added “natural” sugar or high-fructose corn syrup or it’s a “diet” version. Drinks and dressings aren’t usually given as much thought as what to order off the menu, but just because they fly under the radar, they’re by no means innocent. My guess is that you’re about to be surprised by the Sugar Impact (SI) of these sneaky sugars and their stealth attack on your waistline and health.
CAN THE SUGARY DRINKS
There’s a reason the saying isn’t, “Eat, and be merry!” We’ve arrived at liquids. Let’s give them the respect they deserve, considering you can fast without food for a day or even more, but go without water, and you’ll feel it fast—your mouth dries up, and you’ll get nauseous, light-headed, and maybe even have heart palpitations.
But choice is not to be taken lightly in this category. There’s a huge divide between beverages that give you incredible health benefits, like boosting your immunity and brain function, and those that wreck your blood sugar levels and leave you fatigued and frustrated. I’m going to make sure you’re always reaching for drinks that do triple duty to fuel your fast fat loss, sky-high energy, and peace of mind. You can do this!
THINK ABOUT IT
When you drink throughout the day, more than likely you don’t give it a second thought. It’s less about choice than habit, isn’t it? Once you’re a sweet tea or soda drinker, it can become a habit that you haven’t given thought to in years—until you go to break it. Then you may find you get a serious wake-up call that makes it hard to deny the hold some of these sugary, jolt-inducing concoctions have over you.
The mindless funnel of liquids with and between meals is one of the biggest ways sugar sneaks into your body and wreaks havoc on your weight and metabolism, and now there’s evidence that added sugar in beverages does much more harm than ever imagined. That additional sugar usually comes in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, which is nothing more than a high-calorie, nutrient-free setup for chronic disease.
ANYTHING BUT SWEET
Let’s start with some of those innocent looking sugar sweetened beverages. Check out the ones I call out on the list of high SI drinks, and notice that if you’re going to remove hidden sugar from your diet, you’ll need to have more than soda in your crosshairs. Fruit juices, instant breakfast mixes, and even most vitamin-supplemented waters all have added sugar, too, and I bet the odds are good you’re drinking one or more beverages on that list most days, if not every day.
You may be justifying these drinks away or, worse yet, barely aware you’re slurping in empty calories and setting yourself up for chronic disease. The harsh truth? You can’t afford to give this habit a pass. To your body, there’s no difference between a Gatorade and a full-sugar soda (though diet sodas are actually worse, as I’ll explain in Chapter 7). Enhanced waters and fruit juices can be just as bad, and forget about any sweet drink you need to make with a scoop. Of course, drinking one of those canned “weight-loss” shakes to lose weight is, well, just ironic (check the sugar content—it’s shocking!).
But the news is especially bad if you drink carbonated sodas infused with high-fructose corn syrup. Sugary sodas have been linked to a 78% increased risk of endometrial cancer. A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention looked at data from more than 23,000 postmenopausal women who were followed for 24 years, from 1986 to 2010. These women might have had a lot of other unhealthy habits, too, but there’s mounting evidence that just drinking sugary drinks is enough to put you at risk for serious health conditions, especially because of the fallout from the pounds it packs on.
Obesity is its own problem, but it also creates risk factors for more serious disease. It increases estrogen and insulin levels, and higher levels of those hormones are risk factors for—guess what?—endometrial cancer. See how that goes? Study after study shows the link between the added sugar in drinks and the swing they take at your health. They hook you, then take you down ounce by ounce, with no obvious signs, until suddenly you don’t even recognize the chunky, exhausted, aging person in the mirror.
Sugar-sweetened beverages have been connected to an increased risk for obesity and diabetes, which are also linked to lower cognitive performance and cognitive decline. They’re also connected to heart disease and metabolic disorders. Seriously! What this essentially means is that if you keep drinking sugar-sweetened soda, you’re damaging your body in countless ways.
CAFFEINE
If you’re a coffee drinker, you might be reaping some serious rewards for your habit, even beyond its help popping your eyes open in the morning. That is, as long as you’re not pouring in sugar and cream and serving that cup of joe up with a muffin.
Coffee beans and green tea are packed with beneficial antioxidants, so there’s more to that cup than meets the eye. Green tea has been used medicinally for thousands of years, and both it and coffee have many health benefits attached to the plant chemicals still in them when they’re brewed. Caffeine sparks an increase in adrenaline, which triggers the release of fatty acids from your fat storage (something called lipolysis). So the buzz and energy you get from caffeine, or that you used to get before you needed it just to feel normal, is due both to the shot of adrenaline and these fatty acids floating around serving up energy to burn.
So it’s no surprise that most research points to evidence that our beloved, humble coffee is linked to lower weight. But what’s really interesting is that studies show in the long run caffeine actually improves your insulin sensitivity and lowers your risk for diabetes. And it can improve liver function. Coffee can also reduce your hunger, even if it’s decaffeinated, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Coffee’s not a complete disease-fighting slouch, either. Last July, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund International announced findings that the antioxidants in coffee and its role in regulating insulin may make it protective against endometrial cancer.
If you’re a green tea drinker, you’re an even bigger winner. Green tea may actually hydrate as well as water (the idea that caffeine causes dehydration is a myth). Plus, it’s full of heart-protective and free radical–fighting polyphenols. Green tea lowers your risk for developing chronic diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer. It’s rich in flavonoids, including the catechin epigallocatechin gallate, which is thought to be key to green tea’s anticancer and antioxidant powers.
Too much caffeine can work against you, though, and you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever thrown back just one cup too many, or downed that Americano too late in the day. Or you may just be a slow caffeine metabolizer, which makes you more sensitive to caffeine than most. It can make you wired, anxious, and irritable. So stick to a cup or two a day (organic, and without mycotoxins, if possible), get the benefits you deserve, and sleep well.
ALCOHOL
If you’re not a drinker, you can skip ahead. And if you don’t drink now, I’m not encouraging you to start. But for those of you who like to uncork now and then, I’m going to make you just as happy as that glass of wine does—the Sugar Impact Diet will not take away your wine (personally, I would never do a diet or create one that took away mine for the long term!).
Alcohol isn’t sugar, but its fate is nearly the same. Fermentation of fruit and grains creates alcohol. During the fermentation process, enzymes gobble up the sugars. Wine, beer, and hard alcohol generally don’t have residual sugars, though some of the cheaper wines or sweeter wines do (it’s why quality matters). Of course, if you’re using a mixer like tonic water or cola, or an alcoholic blend that has added sugar, you’re getting both alcohol and sugar.
Although alcohol is metabolized differently than sugar, the end result is very similar to that of fructose metabolism. Most of that glass of wine or shot of tequila (roughly 80%) skirts insulin response and takes the HOV lane to your liver. Your liver then converts it to acetaldehyde (a close relative of formaldehyde, and a poison). Some of the alcohol becomes glucose, but a lot of it becomes free fatty acids, triglycerides, and VLDL—the end products of fructose metabolism.
It turns out that a little alcohol—5 ounces of red wine, 1 ounce of hard alcohol—may be cardioprotective and help with weight loss. Evidence suggests that reasonable drinking of any kind of alcohol can raise your good cholesterol, the large fluffy HDL particles. If wine isn’t your thing, your second best option is tequila. Unlike vodka and other hard liquors, it’s not made from grains (see Chapter 4).
But, as with everything, it’s all about the dose. Too much can lead to fatty liver, poor eating habits, nutrient deficiencies, and inflammation. For the transition weeks in Cycle 2 (yes, I’m asking you to abstain—but only for 2 weeks!), we’re giving the liver a much-needed break, and removing alcohol is part of that strategy. Why?
When you drink alcohol, you’ll sideline fat-burning. Alcohol cuts to the front of the metabolic line as soon as it arrives. Your body puts everything else on hold, including fat metabolism, to metabolize alcohol.
A word of warning to the ladies—you get intoxicated more quickly than men (even of the same weight) because you have less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in your stomachs than men do, so you can’t break the alcohol down as fast. If you’re menopausal, you’ll also become more intoxicated on smaller doses of alcohol than you did when you were younger.
And another brief caution: alcohol seems to stimulate appetite, not suppress it, so if you thought you were going to get away with swapping out alcohol calories for dinner, think again. It doesn’t affect satiety like food calories do, and it can actually increase hunger and mindless grazing. Basically, that means when you’ve had a few, you decide you’re starving and you don’t have the willpower to keep yourself from plowing through the salty snacks in the pantry (because we both know you’re not going to binge on crudités, right?). You wake up feeling lousy for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the remorse and guilt that come with falling off the diet wagon.
GO GREEN
Juices can be dicey; you have to be really careful about sneaky sugar. The best vegetable juices and green drinks are straight green, meaning, made only from vegetables. Otherwise, you have to be sure they’re not tweaked with added fruit and bottled as “healthy” juices. Check the label (especially for apples, carrots, or beets), or, better yet, make your own.
Even if you do, don’t go thinking you’ll drink them all day, every day. Sure, they’re low in sugar and carbs, but they can still drive up your blood sugar! Ideally, drink one with your meal, but if you’re having it as a snack, consider adding a tablespoon of chia seeds for some extra fiber and protein to temper your blood sugar response.
WATER: THE CLEAR WINNER
Of course you can never go far without hearing the consistent chorus about getting eight glasses of water in a day, and I’d have you drink even more if I ruled the world. If you want to burn fat, build muscle, and have glowing skin, water is your answer. Let me give you seven reasons that drinking enough water is that important:
1. Water helps you eat less during your meals. A study in the journal Obesity (Silver Spring) showed that when people drank 8 ounces of water before each reduced-calorie meal, they had greater fat loss compared to people who didn’t drink water before they ate. Another study presented at the American Chemical Society’s annual conference showed that 2 glasses of water before every meal helped people lose an average of 15.5 pounds (5 pounds more than the non-water drinkers) over 3 months. The one time I don’t want you drinking water is during meals, because it can dilute the stomach enzymes that break down protein. But before and after your meal, drink up!
2. Water can make your skin glow. I’ve met women who spend hundreds of dollars at a time on top-shelf skin care to hydrate their skin, when they should really be reaching for some H2O. Because skin is your body’s largest organ, it’s also your most significant detoxification agent. Perspiration and evaporation are mechanisms designed to cleanse your skin and remove waste. Without adequate water, that waste builds up, leading to breakouts, acne, and other problems. Poor hydration also means your body can make less new collagen, and the existing collagen becomes brittle.
3. Water helps muscle maintenance and recovery. Muscle tissue is about 75% water, which explains why even 3% dehydration can reduce muscle strength up to 15%. Dehydration also shrinks muscle cells and leads to protein breakdown. Optimal hydration replenishes electrolytes and reduces exercise-related inflammation.
4. If you’re not well hydrated, you’re not detoxifying. Even if you’re eating organically, dehydration means your body can’t detoxify with maximum efficiency. Water flushes waste from your cells, but when you’re dehydrated, your cells draw water from your blood, stressing your heart and preventing your kidneys from purifying blood. Your liver and other organs also feel the pressure. Toxic buildup leads to constipation, literally forcing your body to cling to the waste it needs to eliminate.
5. Dehydration can raise stress hormones. Some experts believe dehydration is the number one cause of stress. Even mild dehydration of 1–2% can raise levels of the stress hormone cortisol. And what’s cortisol good at? Storing fat around your middle and breaking down muscle.
6. Dehydration can create fatigue. When you don’t drink enough water, nothing good happens. Your metabolism screeches to a halt, your fluid balance is upended, and your blood volume drops. Your heart struggles to deliver nutrients and oxygen to your tissues. You’re hit with headaches, brain fog, and fatigue. Ironically, fatigue will probably mean you reach for a different liquid altogether—keep the coffee coming, right?
7. Water can reduce cravings. Thirst can come disguised as hunger, and you’re in a bad way when you can’t tell the difference between just needing some water or that Krispy Kreme donut.
8. Hint: try the water first. And if cravings are gnawing at you before bed, see if water beats them back. According to a study at the University of Washington, drinking 8 ounces of water at bedtime can shut down your evening hunger pangs. Sweet dreams.
See here in Chapter 8 for more helpful information on water, including how much of it to drink and when.
YOUR SUGAR IMPACT SWAPS: DRINKS
You’ll make the biggest impact on fast fat loss, higher energy, and glowing skin when you stop drinking your calories. Sugar-sweetened drinks are one of the biggest barriers between you and the you you’re about to become. Ditch high-SI drinks, especially sugar-sweetened sodas, for anything on the low SI list. And remember, water is a great swap for any beverage!
YOUR SUGAR IMPACT SCALE: DRINKS
Sneaky sugar in sweet beverages has a huge hidden impact—it’s one of the biggest highjackers of your waistline and health. When you drop high-SI beverages from your daily routine, you’ll fast-track fat loss and support your move from sugar burner to fat burner. Stay hydrated, my friends.
LOW SUGAR IMPACT
All teas
Green drinks (greens only—no fruit, carrot, or beet added)*
Green tea (no sugar added)
Hint water
Organic coffee and decaf coffee
Sparkling mineral water
Teeccino
Unsweetened coconut water
Unsweetened fruit essence teas
Water
MEDIUM SUGAR IMPACT
Dry red wine
Dry white wine
Gin
Gluten-free beer
Kombucha tea (no sugar added)
Tequila
Tomato juice
V8 (not with fruit juice)
Vodka
HIGH SUGAR IMPACT
Beer
Brandy
Capri Sun
Carnation Instant Breakfast
Carrot juice
Champagne
Commercial “smoothies”
Crystal Light
Diet soda
“Enhanced” waters (with sweeteners)
Fruit juices
Fuze
Gatorade
Kool-Aid
Mixed drinks
Nestlé’s Quik
Port
PowerAde
Rockstar energy drink
Rum
Slim-Fast
Sobe
Soda
Sweet tea
Sweetened coconut water
Vitaminwater and most vitamin-supplemented waters
Wines—sweet, dessert
SAYONARA SUGARY DRESSINGS, SAUCES, AND CONDIMENTS
If there’s one thing I wish, it’s that I was standing next to each and every one of you when you took your Sneaky Sugar Inventory. Before that, I bet you might have looked me square in the eye and sworn, with impressive conviction, that you weren’t eating any sugar.
So if you now find yourself taking a deep breath about taking sugar banishment to the next level, not to worry. We’re going to ease into this nice and slowly, removing sneaky sugar and swapping sweet dressings, sauces, and condiments for near-even taste trades, but with huge improvements in SI. You’re going to hand over the sugary toppings and replace them—from high to medium to low SI—with healthy oils and real vinegars. You’ll trade sauces and ketchup for mustards and salsas. Odds are, you’ll like your swaps so much that you’ll never look back. They’ll bring fireworks of rich, layered flavors to your food—and they’ll be supporting you, not sabotaging you! Let’s show them some love!
SWIMMING IN SUGAR
This category is about to expose you to the land mines of sugar lurking in your fridge and pantry, just waiting to plump you up and wreak havoc on your blood sugar. Keep spooning them in and before you know it, dollop by dollop, they’ll have laid the groundwork for insulin resistance and chronic disease. But the good news is you can dodge them—and all their hidden sugar and the harm they might do—when you simply know where they are. It’s time to liberate yourself from the grip of goop with hidden ingredients!
You may already be on to the fact that barbecue sauces and ketchup are loaded with sugar. But this is not just about the obviously sweet sauces—you have to be vigilantly en garde with any kind of sauce or spread. Regard them all as suspect. You’d be amazed at the amount of sugar in everything from balsamic vinegar to sundried tomatoes. (Yes, even in sundried tomatoes! I know! It was a complete eye-opener for me, too.) And let’s be honest—anything glazed is just code for “shined with sugar.”
Sugar isn’t the only thing slipping into these pre-packaged dressings and toppings hoping to go unnoticed. Salt is dumped in with a heavy hand, as are soy and gluten. If you’re sensitive to either of them, be sure you’re reading labels; if you don’t, you may find out they’re in there the hard way. But remember, this is not about giving up the sauces (or any food) you love. It’s about making smart exchanges. There are great alternatives to every dressing and condiment you’re using, I promise. I’m also willing to bet they’ll improve the flavor and nutritional value of your food.
Here’s a great example. If you’re sensitive to soy, trade soy sauce for coconut aminos. If you don’t have a soy issue, get rid of gluten-y, salty soy sauce anyway and, instead, use liquid aminos or wheat-free tamari. Yum! In fact, as far as swaps go, I like coconut aminos even better than soy sauce, and I’ve discovered red wine vinegar is a huge improvement in flavor over balsamic. I’ve tossed sugar-sweetened marinara and will never go back now that I have mad love for checca sauce, which is just chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and basil (see the recipe here).
Swaps really are the secret sauce (pun intended) to success on the Sugar Impact Diet, and I’m going to take all the work out of finding them for you so you have healthier and tastier options at the ready. But swaps are so much fun, you’ll be coming up with your own in no time, then passing them on to the next wave of SI players.
VINEGARS: PUCKER UP!
Vinegar is a sour-tasting liquid used as a condiment and for pickling, not to mention its function as a natural cure-all and cleaning agent. It also has a built-in chef’s bonus—an indefinite shelf life! It’s made by turning sugars into alcohol, and that alcohol into acetic acid. The alcohol used is typically wine, cider, or beer, but any fermentable carb, including fruits, can be used as a source. It’s the acetic acid it becomes, though, that’s the organic force to be reckoned with.
Vinegar has been used medicinally—and as a seasoning and preservative—for thousands of years. But until recently, most of its use in treating everything from cuts to tummyaches was scientifically suspect. Now? There’s a lot of recent evidence to suggest it really is useful as a health aid, especially in lowering blood sugar levels.
Carol Johnston, Ph.D., head of the nutrition department at Arizona State University in Tempe, has done studies showing that vinegar decreases both fasting blood sugar and post prandial blood sugar, and has suggested it can help people with type 2 diabetes manage their disease. And other studies, including another by Johnston, show there’s reason to believe vinegar improves insulin sensitivity to a high-carb meal in people who have insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes.
So there doesn’t seem to be much harm in having a couple of teaspoons spritzed on top of your salads. Plus, vinegar is a natural, flavorful tenderizer, so you can also use it to marinate your clean, lean protein—whether it’s grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, or wild-caught, cold-water fish. If you have issues with Candida (see the Resources online at http://sugarimpact.com/resources for how to find out), avoid all vinegars except unfiltered apple cider vinegar—it may actually be helpful in fighting a Candida overgrowth by serving as a prebiotic and helping restore beneficial microflora balance.
GOODBYE, BALSAMIC
Even for all vinegar’s real or imagined magical powers, there are exceptions to the rule. Enter balsamic vinegar. Yes, the very one we love and use the most, the most flavorful, and the one we thought was healthiest of all. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you.
Balsamic vinegar comes in two varieties, the real deal and the get-it-on-the-shelf-fast kind. Authentic, traditional balsamic vinegar has been made in Italy for hundreds of years. It’s expensive and prized by gourmet chefs and foodies. It takes years to come to market and undergoes rigorous testing before it does. Made from white grape juice, which is boiled to create a concentrated syrup, it’s fermented and then aged in wooden casks for a minimum of 12 years. The aging process removes water, making balsamic vinegar thicker than regular vinegar and further concentrating the grape sugar. Since it has more sugar, it has more calories, too (even though, like apple cider vinegar, it does have antioxidants).
But, of course, big food companies aren’t going to endure a 12-year production process to get a product in stores. So they accelerate its journey to the shelf with highly processed manufacturing, supplying you with something called “condiment balsamic vinegar,” modeled after the good stuff. There are variations in the process and the time it takes, but there’s no requirement that it be aged 12 years; sometimes it’s aged as little as 2 months. This vinegar we know as balsamic is usually made from white wine vinegar and has caramel coloring (for color and added sweetness) and thickeners like cornstarch and gum, all of which add calories.
The condiment balsamic vinegar is the stuff we get in salad dressings, sauces, dips, and marinades. It can have as many as four times the number of calories in a cup as regular cider vinegar! So proceed with caution, whether you’re using balsamic vinegar or its kissing cousin balsamic vinaigrette, which, as a salad dressing, can have added sugar, oil, and seasonings.
TOMATOES—NOT JUST FOR RATING MOVIES
Tomatoes seem like they’re more at home in the veggie bin, though technically they’re a fruit. But whether you say to-may-toe or to-mah-toe, they have all the antioxidant power we attribute to the planet’s healthiest foods.
The health outlook for tomatoes gets pretty bleak, though, when they’re puréed and packaged with sugar. If there’s a kitchen in your house, odds are there’s marinara sauce on the shelf. It’s as much a staple as salt and pepper—pasta is always there for you as a quick, feel-good go-to when you need to serve up something filling, fast. But store-bought spaghetti sauce, even the ones with labels that look like they came right off the boat from Italy, are often vessels for added sugar and other preservatives.
People often excuse adding sugar in marinara as necessary to cut the acidity of the tomatoes, though it’s possible to choose less-acidic tomato varieties. It’s beside the point in large-scale manufacturing, anyway; usually in commercial production, sugar—even high-fructose corn syrup—is poured in simply to help hide cheap ingredients and increase shelf life. The added sugar (and usually salt) enhances taste in the absence of good tomatoes and herbs, and there’s often artificial coloring and thickeners (again, high-fructose corn syrup!) to boot.
So to avoid dumping a dessert sauce on a meal already pretty high in carbs, skip pasta sauce that lists sugar—of any kind—as an ingredient. I hope it goes without saying that includes those with high-fructose corn syrup. White and vodka sauces should throw up obvious red flags, too—they often have even more sugar and calories because they contain cream and cheese. But others are sneakier; they slip in sugar as lactose in low-fat cheese.
Also, be sure to check out the amount of sugar per serving. Usually a serving of pasta sauce is a half a cup, way less than you’d ever ladle on your noodles. Some sauces contain 12 grams of sugar—or almost 2.5 teaspoons—in that half a cup. Before you put that jar in your cart, ask yourself whether you’d be willing to swap the sauce for a handful of sugar cubes on your rigatoni. Eek!
I suppose you could argue that you have a fighting chance with jars of marinara and other sauces—at least you can read their labels before you buy them. You actually have to hunt online to find the ingredients used in the sauces on big brand pizzas. And when you find them, you’ll never be able to unknow what’s in them. You’ve been warned!
NOW YOU’RE COOKIN’
Instead, make your own! It’s so fast and easy! Think of the warm, slow simmer of tomatoes on your stove, filling your kitchen with a delicious aroma. You’re stirring in some love… okay, maybe I’m getting carried away. But you get the gist—homemade always tastes better, and it gives you control over what’s in your food. (See here for my favorite sauce recipe.)
As a fruit, tomatoes already have a small amount of sugar in them, and they’re exploding with natural flavor. So when you make your own sauces—from alla checca to marinara—you don’t need to add any sugar. Start with meaty, fresh organic (or home-grown) tomatoes with low acidity. You can also use diced tomatoes or pureed tomatoes with no added sugar; just make sure you’re choosing ingredients in a glass jar or a BPA-free can.
There’s no single way to make marinara sauce—everyone’s claim to the best is based on tradition and taste. Beyond tomatoes, the ingredients you can add run the gamut. They can be as colorful or conservative as you like—extra virgin olive oil, onions, carrots, garlic, herbs, parsley, anchovies, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper… even red wine (after Cycle 2). So experiment and enjoy!
SLIPPERY SAUCES
People love to slather. Gooey sauces and condiments are squirted, squeezed, and swiped on almost anything edible in an effort to add flavor, and, usually, some sweetness. Sugar is an addiction, after all, and that means we can contrive ways to make it go with anything, anytime, anywhere.
Ketchup and barbecue sauce are faves all over the world, and their popularity (and contribution to waistlines) is only growing. Yes, there are tomatoes in ketchup. And some vinegar and a few other tasty good seasonings and spices. But conversation about their nutrient content ends there. Commercial ketchup is dosed with sodium and sugar, usually high-fructose corn syrup. There’s typically 4 grams of sugar in a single tablespoon of ketchup! That’s a teaspoon!
Barbecue and steak sauces are other tomato-based flavorings notorious for sneaky sweeteners. They come in many more shapes and sizes than ketchup, and some US-based regional preferences have more sugar than others. The source of added sugar in them ranges from brown sugar to molasses and honey, and 2 tablespoons contain around 13 grams of sugar. Even quick and easy homemade recipes often casually call for ketchup as a base, so right out of the gate, you’ve got added sugar in your sauce.
I know we’re mostly talking sugar here, but beware the high salt in gluey, brush-on pastes, too. We get most of our daily salt from processed foods. (Did you know sundried tomatoes are also really high in salt? Strike two!) The current FDA recommendation for salt is to get no more than 2,300 milligrams a day, with the added note that certain groups should have no more than 1,500 milligrams a day. When 1 tablespoon of ketchup has over 150 milligrams of salt (and almost 3 grams of sugar, and over 4 grams of total carbs), you have to wonder if that sweet sauce is worth it. You’re not really wondering, are you?
Research on salt’s impact on blood pressure is mixed, but I, for one, am not risking the potential health smackdown from the sugar-salt combo in sauce packets. And I don’t want you or any other Impact player to, either. There are way too many delicious and interesting ways to flavor your food and support your health in the bargain. That world is just about to open up to you, as soon as you kick your sugar habit and reset your sensitivity to it. (Rest easy, it’s only going to take 2 weeks!)
Need a little mouthwatering encouragement? Homemade salsa and alla checca are fresh, amazingly flavorful alternatives to marinara and tomato-based sauces. In Cycle 3 of the Sugar Impact Diet, you can also bring back marinara sauce and some dressings, even those with a little bit of sugar. Remember, this is a low-SI diet, not a no-sugar diet!
HOMEMADE VERSUS STORE-BOUGHT DRESSINGS
Flip over any bottle of commercial salad dressing, including those hawked with healthy labels, and a-ooga! Wow, what a surprise. It’s like an anti–weight loss party—added sugars, high sodium, less-than-stellar oils like soybean oil, and sometimes even hydrogenated oils—or more accurately, trans fats. Lots of dressings are high in sugar, including vinaigrettes and creamy ones like French and Thousand Island.
You may feel like you’re wearing a healthy halo when you’re eating a nutrient-dense salad, but if you’re dousing it with a sugar-laden salad dressing, you may have solved one of the weight-loss resistance mysteries that’s been plaguing you for years. I’m not saying you might as well have been pouring fudge over your veggies but—well, okay, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Most full-fat dressings have 2 grams of carbohydrate per serving (a serving is usually 2 tablespoons), but the fat-free versions contain 11 grams or more. That’s over a teaspoon of sugar for each tablespoon of dressing! Run!
My advice? Keep it simple—mix a base of some high-quality extra virgin olive oil with a dash of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and some seasoning to taste. Voila! Or experiment with some red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard combinations. If you’re feeling creative, you can try tahini, a creamy spread made from sesame seeds. How about olive tapenade in place of olive oil, or some guacamole? As long as you’re working with low-SI ingredients, mixed to suit your taste, it’s hard to go wrong.
NO THANK YOU, JAM
Many a morning ritual begins with some sort of fruity spread being dragged, bleary eyed, across a piece of burnt toast or a muffin. Jams, jellies, and marmalades propped on breakfast tables across the country all bask in the fruit-association glow, but they don’t get the pass whole fruit does as a healthy breakfast choice. Why not, you ask? I’ll give you one guess!
Whether they’re store-bought or homemade, how many jams do you know that are made only from fruit, and fruit alone? Even if they are, jams are a condensed sugar hit—like juice with a lot less liquid.
So steer clear of jams and jellies, even homemade. Fruit should be sweet enough to give you your morning fix—and once your taste buds are reset to pick up the rich, subtle sweetness fruit offers, it will be.
MY IMPACT!
Susan Stephens
Starting weight: 124 lbs.
Current weight: 114 lbs.
Total lost: 10 lbs.
I lost 30 pounds on the Virgin Diet this past year, but I was still struggling with sugar and gluten. I could never just have three bites of either—one or two bites would trigger a feeding frenzy. I have always had a sweet tooth, and sugar was my drug of choice when I was overstressed.
I have IBS, so I would get severe gas and pain in my abdomen after overindulging. The gas at work was very embarrassing after eating lunch. My gut was not healing even after using the gut-support protocol.
Then I tried the Sugar Impact Diet, and everything changed. I did not gain my normal 10 pounds over the holidays. I lost 10 pounds! My total weight loss for this year is 40 pounds, including the weight I lost on the Virgin Diet. I lost inches from my waist. My fasting blood sugar went from 97 to 80. The gut-support supplements are working better. I am getting a better night’s sleep. I am more aware of the hidden sugars and am diligent in keeping them out.
I am looking forward this next year to learning to cook delicious and healthy meals that my diabetic husband will enjoy, too. Overcoming my addiction to sugar has made me more focused at work and less in a fog, which has increased my performance. I feel more confident that I can set goals and complete them. Thank you, JJ Virgin, for your diligence in helping us all become healthier.
YOUR SUGAR IMPACT SWAPS: DRESSINGS, SAUCES, AND CONDIMENTS
You can make a huge, fast dent in sneaky sugar and save money just by cutting out all commercially made dressings, sauces, and condiments. You can almost instinctively feel that they need to be poured down the drain, can’t you? Drop this slop and let your food breathe. When you swap out sugar-heavy sauces for rich, natural flavor enhancers, you’ll feel it from your taste buds to your toes.
YOUR SUGAR IMPACT SCALE: DRESSINGS, SAUCES, AND CONDIMENTS
High-SI sugar that slips in on the side can be some of the most surprising, but it can also be some of the easiest to let go. Why? These elegant low-SI options are full of flavors that blow the doors off those garish high-SI sugary toppings and make your food taste better than ever.
LOW SUGAR IMPACT
Avocado oil
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos*
Checca sauce
Coconut aminos
Hot sauce
Macadamia nut oil
Mustard
Nutritional yeast
Olive oil
Olives
Pesto
Red Malaysian palm fruit oil
Salsa
Sesame oil
Sour dill pickles
Tabasco
Tapenade
Vinegar
Walnut oil
Wheat-free tamari*
MEDIUM SUGAR IMPACT
Bread and butter pickles
Caesar dressing
Fish sauce
Green curry sauce
Italian dressing
Marinara sauce (no sugar added)
Pickle relish
Red curry sauce
Sweet pickle relish
Sweet pickles
Tomato sauce
HIGH SUGAR IMPACT
Asian-style salad dressing
Balsamic vinaigrette
Balsamic vinegar
BBQ sauce
Blue cheese dressing
Brown sauce
Catalina dressing
Cocktail sauce
French dressing
Hoisin sauce
Honey mustard
Honey mustard dressing
Hot and sour sauce
Ketchup
Marinara sauce (sugar added)
Peanut sauce
Ranch dressing
Raspberry vinaigrette
Steak sauce
Sweet chili sauce
Tartar sauce
Teriyaki sauce
Thousand Island dressing
Worcestershire sauce
You’ll get a giant SI benefit when you ditch the “healthy” drinks and sauces that have been sabotaging your weight and health for years. When you recalibrate in these categories, you’ll block two of the main thoroughfares for sneaky sugars, setting the stage for fast fat-burning and a revved metabolism. And once you’ve reset your sugar sensitivity, you’re going to love the way your new, low-SI drinks and toppings bring your taste buds to life!