Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

[TXMonica]

Went to McD's had the BR salad no dressing, while DH and kid had their hamburgers. Came home and looked up McD's website so I could calculate my net carbs for lunch. Totally freaked out now b/c it's says:Grilled Chicken Breast:Carbs 2, DF 0, Sugar 1;Salad Mix 6/3/3;Grape Tomatoes 3/0/2;Cheese 1/0/0;bacon bits 0/0/0. The salad mix has 3 sugars in it. I had 9net carbs and 5 sugars. From a salad!!!! Who puts sugar in their Salad mix!! very fustrated.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

Take a deep breath.

It's not added sugar ... it's the naturally occurring sugar from the vegetables.

Did you look at the ingredients in the chicken?

There's nothing wrong with the burgers, either. Just get it without the bun.

[TXMonica]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

The meat ingredients did say Chicken breast with rib meat (salt, sugar etc). So now i know not to eat Chicken at McD's. But I'm so confused about the sugar thing. The book says no sugar-yet natural sugar is okay?

[pagliaccia]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

It's added sugar that is the issue. Many fruits and vegetables have naturally occurring sugar... One cup of cherry tomatoes has about 4g of sugar, for example. It's why we must read the *ingredients list*, because that's where you get into major mistakes. Hope this helps!

[pagliaccia]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

I just remembered that the salad has shredded carrots, correct? Did you eat those?

[TXMonica]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

It had two huge shaved carrrots which I did not eat, but now that I think back, it may have had some shredded carrot in it. Thanks for the info. Will have to be more careful.

[BriteWingz]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

The sugar solution is both to preserve and to enhance flavor. I would never trust anything from a fast food place without looking it up first. Some rinse their salad greens in a sugar solution water bath, because again, sugar is a preservative. Sugar and salt are cheap ways of making cheap food taste better, so it's almost a given that both will be in fast food. In a pinch, a 9 carb chicken ranch salad isn't the kiss of death. I just made a salad for lunch with three strips of bacon, a tomato quarter, an ounce of mozzarella, and 2 T of ranch dressing, and it added up to 5.1 carbs. You probably got more protein than I did, and only had 4 carbs more. So it's not as major as it feels, and next time you'll know to look it up before you order;-)

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

>>The book says no sugar-yet natural sugar is okay?>>

Food is made up of many things, carbohydrate (sugar) is one element.

Food has natural carbohydrate (sugar).

That's what we pay attention to on Atkins.

We want to avoid added sugar (in the list of ingredients).

A green bean, for example, has "sugar" because it has natural carbohydrate.

Check the last part of chapter 1 of your book for a more detailed explanation of what food is composed of (fat, protein, carbohydrate).

Does that help?

[Georgiana]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

I just made a salad for lunch with three strips of bacon, a tomato quarter, an ounce of mozzarella, and 2 T of ranch dressing, and it added up to 5.1 carbs.

Are those net carbs you're counting?

How many net carbs does your dressing have?

[BriteWingz]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

Originally Posted by BriteWingz
I just made a salad for lunch with three strips of bacon, a tomato quarter, an ounce of mozzarella, and 2 T of ranch dressing, and it added up to 5.1 carbs.

Are those net carbs you're counting?

How many net carbs does your dressing have?

Yes, net carbs

2 T ranch dressing is 1.3 carbs
1 oz of mozzarella is 1.1
1/4 tomato is 1.4
3 slices of cured bacon is .3
1 cup of shredded salad green is 1

Though now that you ask, I'm wondering if the program I use is calculating the ranch dressing carbs accurately, as I mentally always counted it as 2...?

[Georgiana]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

2 T ranch dressing is 1.3 carbs

USDA lists 2 tbs of Kraft ranch dressing as having 1.23 net carbs.

The carbs will vary depending on the brand you're using. If the label says zero per serving, I would count 0.5 g, since the labels round numbers (so anything below 0.5 will appear as 0).

1/4 tomato is 1.4

Is that total carbs minus fiber? Did you weigh it or did you just enter it as 1/4 tomato?

1 cup of shredded salad green is 1

What's in this salad exactly? What greens?

What's the source you're using for nutritional values?

[BriteWingz]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

LOL, you're all over my posts today;-)

Are those net carbs you're counting?

Total carbs minus fiber. My program does the math automatically.

USDA lists 2 tbs of Kraft ranch dressing as having 1.23 net carbs.

The carbs will vary depending on the brand you're using. If the label says zero per serving, I would count 0.5 g, since the labels round numbers (so anything below 0.5 will appear as 0).

Good to know. I guess I was thinking 2 because Hidden Valley is 2, Kraft is less.

Did you weigh it or did you just enter it as 1/4 tomato?

What's in this salad exactly? What greens?

What's the source you're using for nutritional values?

LOL, I cut a tomato in half, and then cut the half in half. So no, I didn't weigh it

The salad greens I eat are organic mixed spring greens. It's a mixture of red and green romaine, red and green oak leaf, lollo rossa, tango, spinach, mizuna, arugula, frisee, radicchio, tat soi, mustards, and chards. It's your basic spring salad mix. I know not all of these types of lettuce are on the induction list, but I'm confident that Dr. Atkins would approve;-)

My source for nutritional values is a program on another LC forum (Low Carb Friends) called My P.L.A.N. It's not perfect, but I liked it better than Fit Day, so that's what I use

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

>>The salad greens I eat are organic mixed spring greens. It's a mixture of red and green romaine, red and green oak leaf, lollo rossa, tango, spinach, mizuna, arugula, frisee, radicchio, tat soi, mustards, and chards. It's your basic spring salad mix. I know not all of these types of lettuce are on the induction list,>>

Which ones aren't?

Why do you think that any lettuce isn't allowed on Induction?

>>t's not perfect, but I liked it better than Fit Day, so that's what I use>>

Is it accurate? That's what really matters, imho!

[Georgiana]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

LOL, I cut a tomato in half, and then cut the half in half. So no, I didn't weigh it

Okay, got it. I asked because 1/4 of a tomato does not have 1.4 net carbs in the USDA database.

If you want to check USDA:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

The salad greens I eat are organic mixed spring greens. It's a mixture of red and green romaine, red and green oak leaf, lollo rossa, tango, spinach, mizuna, arugula, frisee, radicchio, tat soi, mustards, and chards. It's your basic spring salad mix. I know not all of these types of lettuce are on the induction list, but I'm confident that Dr. Atkins would approve;-)

Personally, I wouldn't worry about eating those greens, even though not all are specifically mentioned on the Acceptable Foods List.

My source for nutritional values is a program on another LC forum (Low Carb Friends) called My P.L.A.N.

Wasn't that tool at Active Low-Carber? Or does LCF have it, too?

[BriteWingz]

Re: Had a McD's Bacon Ranch Salad today/think I messed up majorly!

Okay, got it. I asked because 1/4 of a tomato does not have 1.4 net carbs in the USDA database.

If you want to check USDA:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Personally, I wouldn't worry about eating those greens, even though not all are specifically mentioned on the Acceptable Foods List.

Wasn't that tool at Active Low-Carber? Or does LCF have it, too?

The USDA gave me 1.28 carbs for 1/4 ripe, red, raw tomato. My P.L.A.N said 1.4, but the measurements (size of the fruit) were different. Actually, if I change My P.L.A.N to the same size as the USDA site (3') it says it's 2.1 carbs to the USDA's 1.28, that's a much more significant difference:-( Is My P.L.A.N known to be inaccurate?

I'm not worried about the salad greens, no one ever got fat from eating too much lettuce;-)

Sorry, yes, it's actually Active Low-Carber. I stopped posting a couple of years ago, but really liked the food journal, so I went back to continue using it. Plus it still has all of my favorites and recipes stored;-)