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Look at the ingredients and you'll find dextrose, sugar or some natural sweetener used to cure or brine the meat:

The kicker? The label says 0 carbs. How is this possible? I don't know. I only know that if a serving of bacon (2 slices) is assumed to be 1/2 gram carb, then 6 slices is going to be 1.5grams carbs.

This is some serious hidden carbs.

I'm going to be contacting Boars Head to inquire on this. I think that what the label is saying is that the MEAT is zero carb. The flavoring that they add is not counted even though up to 25% of the weight of the meat can be brined.

I know this sounds minuscule but for us super-low-carbers, hidden carbs can screw us up BIG TIME. It could explain why many people are 'low carbing' but seeing fat gains, tiredness, and the list goes on. I'll report back.

Oh, I can tell you the answer right now. It's federal labeling laws. If a serving size has less than 1 gram of whatever, guess what, they get to list it as "zero whatever", "without whatever" or "whatever free".

Make the serving size small enough, and you can label it carb free, sugar free, fat free, calorie free, whatever you like.

Boar's Head meat may be up to 25% brine by weight, but what is that mostly? Water, not dextrose or whatever other sugar.

So, for example, if they use a tablespoon of sugar in curing a pound of meat, and the serving size is one ounce, they can label it 0 carbs. 5 grams of carbs per teaspoon, 3 teaspoons per tablespoon = 15 grams of carbs. 16 ounces per pound means 16 servings. 15 grams carbs/16 servings = <1 gram carbs per serving. Eat several servings, though, and you're hosed.

I was very happy to discover at my local farmer's market a couple of weeks ago some uncured bacon whose ingredients are "Sliced pork belly". It tastes like pork chops, not bacon, but that's ok by me! You can find uncured bacon at the store, but it's still gonna have additives.

That's why a) portion control is still important, and b) you should try to avoid the pre-packaged meats if they have any form of sugars in the ingredients list. The safest bet is plain meats cooked yourself from raw meat-- pieces of actual animals-- chicken, cow, pig, lamb, fish, etc.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yea, that makes sense. These are 'by serving'. Boars head makes a bratwust and I LOVE IT. It's 0 carb but I called and it has less than 1/2 gram per wurst. I eat one a day, so I'm going to be safe and call it 1 gram.

I do prefer fresh meats, but I'm a sucker for these brats. I'm not a big bacon fan, limiting it mostly to a cobb salad or breakfast on weekends. My first time doing MANS, I was eating bacon every single day. I was also eating pepperoni and other processed stuff. I'm doing things differently this time around. I'm consuming more oils (safflower, peanut, olive). For example, before I go to bed, I toss a table spoon of peanut and canola in with a 20 gram serving of protein.

Anywho, thanks for understanding my frustration.

Oh, and I didn't know that I can take a beef brisket and make my own cured corn beef. So, I'm going to buy a brisket, make my own brine and cook that bad boy up! I love me some corned beef, but I hate all the crap they put in it on the pre-made ones at stores.

Seems like a waste of perfectly good brisket to me when you could just give it a simple dry rub and smoke it 'til it's scabby & delicious, but whatever floats your boat!

marochka_raduga wrote:Seems like a waste of perfectly good brisket to me when you could just give it a simple dry rub and smoke it 'til it's scabby & delicious, but whatever floats your boat!

That sounds really good, but I don't have a smoker.

My wife and I just had this conversation. She bought some wheat pancake mix and like always, I picked it up and began to read the ingredients. I asked her if she realized it had trans fat in it. She said no, it doesn't have trans fat because on the front in bold lettering it says 0 trans fat. So, I showed her that in small print (among other ingredients I couldn't pronounce) was partially hydrogenated oil. I was further confused because it also said whole grain on the front but whole wheat was the 8th on the list.

I guess it's good that I generally ignore the front of the packaging and 0 in on the ingredient list.

vrsandersjr wrote:My wife and I just had this conversation. She bought some wheat pancake mix and like always, I picked it up and began to read the ingredients. I asked her if she realized it had trans fat in it. She said no, it doesn't have trans fat because on the front in bold lettering it says 0 trans fat. So, I showed her that in small print (among other ingredients I couldn't pronounce) was partially hydrogenated oil. I was further confused because it also said whole grain on the front but whole wheat was the 8th on the list.

I guess it's good that I generally ignore the front of the packaging and 0 in on the ingredient list.

Yea, I read the ingredients too. I'm pretty convinced my wife secretly wants to strangle me because I'm crazy about watching what I eat. It's probably close to obsessed.

andrewpmast wrote:I'm pretty convinced my wife secretly wants to strangle me because I'm crazy about watching what I eat. It's probably close to obsessed.

Thankfully, my husband supports me all the time, and he watches what he eats really carefully too. But for me, I did become too obsessed and it was affecting my work, sleep, mood. I think I finally figured out that I really can't eat low carb. It's a wonderful diet for most people, but longer than 6-8 weeks and my serotonin supply runs out. So I've had to back off with the obsessing, and my husband has had to support me while I eat cookies, ice cream, pita bread, etc. until I normalize a little bit and then he can support me on a more GLAD-style diet. At some point it stopped being that it just seemed like less joy in my life because of my restrictive food choices and became that my restrictive food choices had put me in a state where I really didn't experience joy anymore.

So, I'll have the motivation and energy to do great workouts, but I won't see any metabolic advantage from my diet. It's probably for the best in the long run. Now I can have some sausage without panicking over whether to count 0.5 or 0.75 grams of carb per link!

Well, I was a GLADiator for a few months and it's good stuff. It's easy to cheat though! Honestly, it makes sense to me that the GLAD diet is best overall because you eat carbohydrates but you time them out (post workout) and you don't spike your insulin response during times of rest. It's definitely cool, but in my house, it's tough because we have lots of sugary refined stuff.

I think I'm low-carbing to lose fat and then once I'm 10-11% I'll GLADiate again.

andrewpmast wrote:Well, I was a GLADiator for a few months and it's good stuff.

I know, that's why I felt ok bringing it up. Back in '98, I lost 50 pounds on essentially a vegetarian version of GLAD, but without the hard exercise. Thankfully for me, I know now how to use the "low carb" tricks like lettuce wraps and meal salads at restaurants instead of bread, rice or pasta, and at home there is no refined sugar to tempt me. My husband does not eat sugar. Period. And no bread at home, really. So that makes it so much easier! He enjoys my pumpkin-flax muffins nightly (um, am I the only one that sounds dirty to? ), and sometimes we have protein pancakes on weekends. I've also decided to hold off on fruit for now, and just see how I get along with some cereals, breads, beans and rice. As long as I don't go nuts on the cream, dressing, or butter (or go nuts on the nuts ) and choose leaner meats, I don't think I'll have too much trouble. It certainly makes it waaaaay easier to try to control calories and feel full. The last 2 1/2 days I have felt hopeful, optimistic and generally happy. And that's even with my other 3 ongoing health issues, I'm still feeling happier. God, it seems like ages since I felt that way!