Carnivore % question

(Sammy J Shuford) #1

EXAMPLE.
I’ll use johnsonville brats. It does have corn syrup, but it’s under 2%.

I have tested and no glucose rise.

Where do you set your limits?

#2

Carnivore means strictly zero added sugar and sweetener to me… But I only do carnivore-ish on my good days so if a condiment has a tiny bit of it and I really, really love it and it’s helpful to eat my good food, I allow a tiny bit. I am working on it but my last such condiment helps me out sometimes and I can handle it, I just don’t want to.
My occasional not so great sausages or other processed meat items have <0.5% carbs according to their labels (a fragment of it comes from added sugar when it’s a bad one that contains any), that’s borderline acceptable even with added sugar. Not really but if I must, so be it, it won’t make a difference and I don’t even feel that amount. I do my best to buy these items without any as it’s quite possible. Most of my processed meats (they are important for me but I don’t eat much of them) only have natural sugars in the paprika and other spices though. Even if I go off, I don’t add such things, maybe some good sweetener but even that is rare, it’s a personal thing, I feel more free if I am not a slave of artifically sweetened things as I was before.

I don’t sacrifice absolutely nothing with this attitude, that’s why I have it. Health and well-being is most important for me but I need joy and convenience. I can buy tasty, good enough (I mean, it’s still cheap supermarket meat but my body is fine with that) food easily so I don’t need to accept things I actually banned 1.5 decades ago (added sugar. I pretty much hated that from the beginning and there are rare exceptions but they are just that, very rare exceptions).

Oh and I HATE sweet(ened) meat with a passion (with one exception but that’s nowhere carnivore), that matters too. But mostly that Hungary usually have <0.5% carbs sausages. And that’s with all the paprika they need :smiley: So it’s easy for me. But if our sausages would have more sugar, I would just eat less processed meat, I am stubborn and like my very normal items as well at this point.

I have my list of acceptable edible ingredients, carnivore or not and added sugars happened to be somewhere on the bottom. So I am against them more than it would seem logical from a health-conscious viewpoint. Unneeded or flavorless (just sweet) sugars are the worst, they give me nothing. So it’s sad when some nice meat product only comes with it but it’s rarely a problem, thankfully.

(Bean) #3

I generally avoid corn syrup, but it isn’t a deal breaker for me if it doesn’t have anything I will react to and isn’t an every day (or every week) thing. If you’re eating fresh, whole foods 90-95% of the time, then don’t sweat it for now. Eventually you will find that those type of foods taste odd.

(KM) #4

Ever since discovering that they put sugar in my salt, I read every single label and avoid more or less all ingredients I feel don’t belong in my food, including added sugars, on principle. I really don’t think it would have any health consequences at such small levels, I’m just sick and tired of the deceptions.

(Jane) #5

I bought some Johnsonville Beer Brats for the first time in a long time, so I looked at the label. It read:

Pork, beer, corn syrup, and less than 2% of the following: (and listed ingredients). So the corn syrup on my label was before the 2% note.

Each brat is 2 gm carbs so I am ok with that. I make my own sausage with no sugar or preservatives but stuffing the casings is a lot more work so I just freeze it in 8 and 12 oz packages and use it like hamburger.

But sometimes I want grilled brats! And Johnsonville is my go-to.

(Joey) #6

Does the label indicate how many grams of “added sugar”? That would be a helpful metric for consideration.

(Jane) #7

I just checked my label again and it says “< 1 g Total Sugars. Includes <1 g Added Sugars 2%.

So that is the 2% the OP was referring to.

I sure wouldn’t worry about 1 gm added sugar per sausage link, although not sure why they add it at all. 1 gm sugar is 4 calories. Insignificant, IMO.

#8

It’s a principle for me, no added sugar in things not even needing sweeteners let alone sugar, if possible… If there is hard to find a good one, I can tolerate like 1-2 g sugar in my sausages per month (it’s very easy to do less in my case, after all)…
2% probably would be quite noticeable as it’s a huge amount of sugar, ew - but it’s my personal preference. I know people in some countries tend to put sugar into meat dishes, even we have a single dish that does that (the sugar is in the sauce with sweet vegs and it’s surprisingly fitting, my only exception where I don’t find the result bad tasting as it’s very little. oh and we use xylitol, of course, not sugar. my SO cooks rabbit like that 1-2 times a year, I taste that but it’s not my fav. just interesting and variety here and there. I only eat the meat with some sauce stuck to it).