Thread: Aaack! Stealth fructose!

I woke up this morning with what I interpreted as a "sugar hangover." For me, that means a mild headache and feelings of hunger (very rare for me these days).

The only thing I could think of was the stewed tomatoes my hubby cooked with the chicken last night. The dish tasted kind of sweet, even though DH never adds sugar to the food he cooks for me. I'm heading into maintenance now, so I didn't think a small quantity of tomato sauce would be a problem.

This morning, I checked the label on the can of stewed tomatoes(DelMonte, I think). The 2nd or 3rd ingredient after tomatoes is, you guessed it, high-fructose corn syrup.

Here's the kicker: the front of the label proclaims: ONLY 7 Net Carbs!
Of course, if you check the ingredients, out of a total of 9 carbs, 7 are "sugars"--and those not all the natural tomato sugars either, as it turns out. Don't they get it? It isn't only the amount of carbs, it's the KIND of carbs. Mainlining sugar just doesn't feel good to me any more.

I didn't eat very much--less than the "serving size" of 1/2 cup (which is less than a third of the can!) But I think those heavy-duty sugars in the mix had an unpleasant after-effect.

American tastes have gone to the Dark Side for sweetness, and manufacturers have picked up on it. Most of the time, I stick with whole, fresh fruits and veggies--for good reason. A few extra gms of sugar won't kill me, but I resent the fact that I let them sneak up on me!

Really?!? I would not have guessed tomatoe sauce has HFCS! Thanks for the heads up.

This is a perfect example of why I alawys read the labels these days. You can purchase stewed tomatoes without HFCS, but you have to keep your eyes on the labels. I am often shocked at the number of products that manufacturers place HFCS into unnecessarily.

The carbs from the tomatoes themselves may have been as much to blame as the HFCS. I love tomatoes, but I know to use them cautiously, because they are (relatively) highly glycemic.

I can't handle low-carb spaghetti sauce, sadly. Cherry tomatoes seem to do no damage, though.

About fructose... I have a quote from one of Atkins' older books stating that fructose is allowable on low-carb diets. I'm not kidding. I'll post it sometime soon. (This just goes to show you that you shouldn't believe everything you read in Atkins -- we learn new things as we go along.)

You're probably right, Doc. Those stewed tomatoes, the little I ate, were very sweet, probably owing to the vine-ripe quality. Usually my tomato intake is limited to a few cherry tomatoes.

I've learned the hard way to alwaysa check the ingredients list on everything I buy. I had the same experience once Barb had but it happened an hour after I ate. The only processed food I had put in my dinner was a can of chicken broth. Sure enough I checked the ingredients and third on the list HFCS. Just yesterday I had the opportunity to buy a half gallon container of ranch dressing for $3.39 but again 3rd ingredient HFCS. I absolutely will not eat anything with HFCS in it not even if it appears last on the list.

I REALLY use commercially canned tomato products with caution. It's also my understanding that if an ingredient comes into the product previously processed/blended, that those ingredients are not requried to be listed on the label. Say for example- tomato sauce on the label of Ragu spaghetti sauce. That tomato sauce or paste used could have HFCS and we would never know it. This info comes to me from an extremely reliable authority. One of those "dirty" little commercial secrets that consumers aren't supposed to know. We just happen to have a huge Unilever plant in town that makes all the Ragu spaghetti sauce.

This is the number one reason I've switched to organic Muir Glen canned tomatos. As far as I can tell, none of their products have any added sugar. Their fire-roasted tomatoes are awesome. Yeah, they are a little pricey but worth it. I watch for when Wild Oats or Whole Foods have them on sale and stock up. That being said, I don't eat much tomato, but Muir Glen is what I use when I do.

Doctor Insomnia, you mentioned that it was an older book of Atkins' that said that fructose is allowable on LC diets. Back then, fructose was recommended to diabetics as a sweetener because its impact on blood sugar is modest. However, it was later shown to have a whole host of problems of its own. The following link refers to those problems (scroll down to Fructose for Diabetics?):

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfo...hfructose.html

Thanks for the heads up, Barb. I think the next time I'm at Wild Oats, I'll check out their canned tomato sauce offerings.

Last night I had dinner at my son's house. It was my granddaughter's birthday. They had: smoked pork ribs, NO salad, creamed corn, asparagus, watermelon, grapes and cole slaw. Cole slaw had sugar. No to the creamed corn. No to the fruit. After eating 4 ribs, I found out they used a rub on them with sugar. Sigh. I ate a lot of asparagus! This AM, up half a pound!