Deborah Baldauf Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hey everyone. I'm on day two, and I'm feeling pretty good, but I'm a little concerned. I went to Starbucks with my husband this afternoon ... and bought what I thought was a good choice: a grilled chicken salad with roasted tomatoes. I did not have any of the dressing. I thought "perfect." Halfway through the (small) salad, I look at the ingredient list. Holy criminey!! Apparently, the chicken was grilled with potato starch! I stopped reading there because I figured that the tomatoes had sugar on them. My question is this: have I totally screwed everything up? And do I need to start over? Or should I just chalk it up to a MAJOR learning experience (read every label and do not trust anything you haven't made yourself) and keep plugging away? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan W Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 I say just carry on. You could always add a couple of days at the end if you want to do an official W30. Potato starch in chicken. So very odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitjm5 Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 You'll be aight. Just be MORE careful in the future. Peruse the dining out forum. It's nigh impossible to do on a W30 (Chipotle is a common choice for one compliant dish). Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted May 11, 2013 Moderators Share Posted May 11, 2013 I agree with Susan W about just continuing on, but restaurants may serve really scary food if you look closely. Here is a piece I wrote when I looked up Subway and their supposedly healthy offerings... The chicken at Subway ruins a Whole30. Here is a pdf of the ingredients in the chicken at Subways in the USA: http://www.subway.co...Ingredients.pdf Here is a pdf of the ingredients in the chicken at Subways in Australia: http://www.subway.co...205.10.2012.pdf The stuff is really disgusting. It is a reminder that our world is full of food-like products and not real food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanel Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I have lunch with a colleague today and I'm planning on just getting a spinach salad without crutons, cheese, or anything except the spinach and vegetables. No dressing, since I don't know if the vinegar will have alcohol. Will this be compliant??? Anything to look out for? (I plan on eating my "real" lunch before going out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee Lee Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Do your best, chanel!! you could ask for a lemon to squeeze over your salad for a dressing. I did the lemon juice & olive oil dressing route my first trip down the paleo trail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan W Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Sounds fine but why would vinegar contain alcohol? Sulphites are a concern but not alcohol. I dont care for most restaurant salad dressings so I usually just ask for olive oil and a lemon wedge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanel Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I was studying the Balsamic Vinegar thread: http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/5462-balsamic-vinegar-and-mustard/?hl=%26quot%3Bcitric+acid%26quot%3B#entry49773 Balsamic Vinegar has wine in it and wine has sulphites + alcohol, both of which are prohibited, correct??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan W Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I still dont see an alcohol issue or connection. Added sulphites are a concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanel Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Based on my reading of the Vanilla Extract thread (http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/7621-vanilla-extract/?hl=%22vanilla+extract%22) see EmilyB456 and Susan W's responses that "You are correct. No amount of alcohol is okay. I think some people are using vanilla extract with no alcohol but I have not seen any. You can also use a whole vanilla pod," I thought that Balsamic Vinegar that has alcohol in it would also then be out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyS Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Balsamic vinegar does not have alcohol in it. It's fine (unless it's a brand that lists added sulfites in the actual ingredient list). Sugar is in everything. Soy is in everything. All kinds of other odd things are in everything. Reading ingredient labels is an eye opening experience. Restaurants are not interested in serving you a plate of chicken - it has soy, sugar, and who knows what all else in it (potato starch?). This is one of the big things I learned from Whole30. Just plain old FOOD is astonishingly hard to come by - especially when a food item is promoted as healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan W Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 All vinegars start as wine. The alcohol is eaten during the process. The only vinegar that is prohibited is malt vinegar and that is because it contains gluten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinkse21 Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 I agree with Susan W about just continuing on, but restaurants may serve really scary food if you look closely. Here is a piece I wrote when I looked up Subway and their supposedly healthy offerings... The chicken at Subway ruins a Whole30. Here is a pdf of the ingredients in the chicken at Subways in the USA: http://www.subway.co...Ingredients.pdf Here is a pdf of the ingredients in the chicken at Subways in Australia: http://www.subway.co...205.10.2012.pdf The stuff is really disgusting. It is a reminder that our world is full of food-like products and not real food. I am never eating at Subway again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Operation_Transformation Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 I am concerned now because I just ate a salad from Subway! After asking a million questions of the staff I felt I was making a good decision and now I see I probably screwed up everything. I have been so good and this was the first time that I had to eat out or skip a meal and I am sick over it. I mainly don't want to impede progress or feel gross as I am just starting to enjoy the benefits of clean eating! Any suggestions? I am on day 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyS Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 It looks like the moderators told another poster in a similar situation to carry on. You did your due diligence. Thumbs' up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmunchie Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 FWIW, I bookmarked this Whole9 blog post. It makes me feel a little better. Even M&D have those days http://whole9life.com/2010/06/our-whole30-experience/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliciadunn Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 I am concerned now because I just ate a salad from Subway! After asking a million questions of the staff I felt I was making a good decision and now I see I probably screwed up everything. I have been so good and this was the first time that I had to eat out or skip a meal and I am sick over it. I mainly don't want to impede progress or feel gross as I am just starting to enjoy the benefits of clean eating! Any suggestions? I am on day 5. This is a good wake-call in understand where your food comes from. We have all been through these frustrating, eye-opening experiences! Personally, I consider fast food the devil... I am not a moderator, but I would suggest doing a Whole35 to make up for the Subway problem. Good luck either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ultrarunnergirl Posted August 13, 2013 Moderators Share Posted August 13, 2013 Sadly, you cannot assume anything. Actually you can. You can assume there will be sugar and one other violation in every darn food you buy in a package! Read. Every. Label. And you absolutely have to tell your waitress/waiter the things you cannot have. Ask him/her kindly to help you pick something that would be possible/easy for the chef to leave something out of for your meal that would make that choice compliant. Then gauge the waiter/waitress' level of interest. Sometimes they will tell you something is cooked in olive oil or butter, when they may believe that but ... gently insist that she/he double-check with the chef. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emily T Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Read. Every. Label. And you absolutely have to tell your waitress/waiter the things you cannot have. Ask him/her kindly to help you pick something that would be possible/easy for the chef to leave something out of for your meal that would make that choice compliant. Then gauge the waiter/waitress' level of interest. Sometimes they will tell you something is cooked in olive oil or butter, when they may believe that but ... gently insist that she/he double-check with the chef. Agreed. I am a few days away from completing my whole30 but there are a few items that I ate which may or may not have been violations. I'm going to do another one in a few months (probably in January - after the holidays) because the little mishaps are keeping me from 100% compliant. The biggest lesson I learned is to bother my waiter/butcher/etc. I buy all of my meat at a butcher, and when I asked the deli counter man about sugar in at least 5 or 6 different products EVERY TIME he said, no sugar, and EVERY TIME, when I insisted that he check, I learned there is sugar! I bought and ate pork sausage for a WEEK after being told there was DEFINITELY no sugar - and then they said there was, and then they said there was not. So who the heck knows. Be insistent. You're paying them for food. You can demand quality ingredients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMG Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Ugh, I hate living in a world where "chicken" has an ingredients list... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarahlinsey Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Glad I am not alone in trying to navigate eating outside the home! Just home from a three day family trip. Fortunately my sister was with me and a day ahead of me on W30 - she was much more diligent about interviewing waitstaff about ingredients than I would have been. Despite being really lucky with all of the restaurants we ate at (the chef actually came out at one restaurant and said he'd cook us whatever we wanted and the waiter at lunch today was on Day 9 of a W30 - and not his first!) I am not 100% confident that everything I ate was compliant. I'm on day 21. I'm going to keep on going because I have no way of really knowing if something wasn't compliant. I guess I'm just being skeptical. Still waiting for "tiger blood" to kick in… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 One thing it really makes you aware of is how much rubbish is sold as food Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NazzaB Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Yuck. Reading that subway ingredients list makes me feel ill. It's incredible how many ingredients are in something that should only have ONE ingredient. Not that I eat Subway often but very occasionally when I'm desperate and on the road at work I will have a chicken and salad wrap from there - no sauces. Definitely not going to be eating one of those again any time soon. I'm attempting my 3rd Whole30 (first time I didn't read the rules properly and was still having artificial sweeteners and paleofying junk foods) and the second attempt I only lasted 12 days before throwing in the towel. Even though the first time I didn't do it properly, I did notice just how much 'artificial' food was everywhere and it made me super mad! The more research I do, the more mad I get. Especially when I see some of my friends and relatives really struggling with their weight and trying to eat 'healthy' but just getting it wrong every damn time because of all the additives and hidden ingredients in everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChickenNoodle Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Anything with a label is suspect. Try to stick to foods you prep yourself whenever possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connie_m Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 No wonder I felt so sick the last time I had a Subway salad with chicken on it (and I even ate it dry because I was suspect of any of their dressings). I'm on about day 12 or so of my Whole30, but have been gluten free and soy and basically processed food free for 9 months or so now and I felt awful last time I had a subway salad - swollen joints, achy all over for a day or two. No wonder! How maddening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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