Day 24 Restart Dilemma - Coconut Water etc.

[VTGuy]

Hi everyone. It's day 24 for my partner and I. Mostly good, but results have been a little up and down for my partner. Here's the dilemma: We were going through how we've been doing over the past 3+ weeks, and found some accidental problems. (1) We've had a fair amount of coconut water - maybe an average of a glass every 2 days. We didn't realize until last night that this was not recommended. We've been very careful on other fruits, having a piece of fruit less than once every 2-3 days. We didn't consciously have the coconut water for a sugar fix, it was a "different" drink to have and enjoy. How problematic is this? (2) We realized that there have been a few unintentional mistakes - maybe bad label reading. For instance, I realized that a week ago, I ate dried cranberries in a restaurant salad and didn't even think about the fact that 99% of them have sugar added. I also had Viva Coconut water on one of the first few days, and saw after that it had 1% fruit juice sugar. We've been enjoying this Whole30 and haven't done any of this on purpose, but we also want to get the most out of it. Thoughts?

[Tom Denham]

Nothing you have done is worthy of a restart, but you have gotten a bit more sugar in your diet than is best. Since you don't mention terrible sugar cravings, I think this only slowed you down. It is just part of the learning experience. It happens to all of us. I just had a learning experience yesterday...

I went to Whole Foods and noticed they had reorganized the meat case. I started looking at the sausage and decided to study the ingredient cards in search of something new. Most sausage has sugar added, but I kept noticing something I had never seen on the ingredient cards before - canola oil. Then I looked at my old regular sausages - Bratwurst and Chorizo. Both now list canola oil as an ingredient. I called a butcher over and asked why they now had canola oil in all the sausages. She explained that the spices they added to the meat came in already prepared and they just mixed it with the meat in the store. She said the recipes had not been changed in a very long time, but they had recently gotten new ingredient cards. Basically, she said I had been buying sausage with canola oil in them for the past year, but it had not previously been disclosed as an ingredient. The truth is that while canola oil is a bad one, it is not banned during a Whole30 and the amount in the sausage spices is probably not enough to worry about. Nonetheless, I no longer have a source of Bratwurst and Chorizo. I will miss them.

[missmary]

Basically, she said I had been buying sausage with canola oil in them for the past year, but it had not previously been disclosed as an ingredient. .

grrr! I hate that this kind of thing happens, and I wonder if it might explain my gurgly tummy from chorizo yesterday (undisclosed ingredients?). one more reason to just make everything myself -- including sausage, I guess.

[kb0426]

I always get suspicious when I just see the labeling as "spices" thinking there may be something - such as sugar - lurking. I guess this is another reason to know your butcher, read labels, and like missmary said, make your own!

Shedding a tear for you Tom! But looking forward to a new Chorizo recipe maybe?

[Moluv]

VT Guy- I too was indulging in the coconut water and then read on here that it was a bad idea. Not only was I bummed that I was doing my W30 "wrong" I was also upset because I had come to rely on it. I'm terrible at drinking enough water and thought the coconut water was a good way to get more fluids, but really it's just juice and even if it doesn't have much sugar in it, it is still replacing water. It was a sad day for me! Then when I stopped drinking coconut water I started drinking more kombucha- so I'm having the same problem but with a different beverage. Drinking more water is just something I have to keep working at and part of what I want to get out of my (extended by numerous restarts) Whole30. So for me, coconut water is a no-no, as well as excess kombucha, because I have a tasty beverage dragon. However, if you don't have a problem drinking plenty of water, then I don't see any problem with occasional coconut water drinking as it is technically compliant. Either way, it is definitely not something to stress about or restart over. And the other accidental sugar intake is also permissible. I'm pretty sure M&D addressed that in one of the daily emails. And this post addresses this issue really well:

http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/5580-dont-over-think-this/

[Moluv]

And I'm glad I can finally stop being jealous of all the chorizo Tom has been eating.

[Guest]

Does Boulder sausage sell outside of Colorado? They have compliant German sausage and chorizo. I just found out about the chorizo and bought some. As a kid, my dad at the New Mexican chorizo on white bread with cheddar. Needless to say, I'm not quite sure what to do with the chorizo, yet. I'm not even sure what to expect from the flavor, but I am pretty sure it won't be made with NM chile. I'll report back. We can visit Hawaii for ghee, TX for marrow bones, and you can all come to CO for sausage. I'm sure we can think of other destinations to add to our Whole30 on the road.

Back to reading labels the next time I buy things in packages.

[VTGuy]

Thanks, everyone. That's a big help. The sausage one has been tricky, that's for sure. We've wound up making our own little turkey patties with ground turkey and various spices / onion of our own. They're pretty quick.

[Pia650]

Tom I had the exact experience in whole foods. I will sure miss them!