Teriyaki Terror!
It doesn’t take much to turn a reasonably healthy meal into an unhealthy one, as we found out last night.
John (the hubby) and I hit the gym kinda late (for us) last night – about 6:00 p.m. We both did a cardio workout, plus some ab work…but cut the latter short, as John was getting hungry. Since it was already late, and we knew we were out of stuff at home, we decided to grab some take out, vs. shopping and cooking.
We hit the Teriyaki Grill, as it was close by and has relatively decent food (the entrees largely consist of grilled lean meat, veggies, steamed rice or noodles). I ordered a salmon filet for myself and a white chicken/pork combo for John – then grabbed a cup of water and sat down at one of the tables with him to wait.
As we were waiting, my attention was caught by a group that was dining in, which included a couple of fairly heavy dudes. After the server set their plates down, one of the guys picked up the dispenser of teriyaki sauce on the table and started to pour the stuff on his food. Except he didn’t stop at just a drizzle or two…he kept on pouring.
The dispenser was just like the ones used to hold pancake syrup in coffee shops like Denny’s or IHOP – and was 2/3 to 3/4 full. And it was just like watching someone drench their pancakes with syrup, too.
Finally, he handed it off to the second guy, who did the same. Between the two of them, they completely drained the dispenser. I was incredulous.
For the record, a single tablespoon of generic teriyaki sauce contains about 2.4g sugar and 690 mg sodium. There was at least a cup (16 tablespoons) in that dispenser when the two of them started pouring. Calorifically, it wasn’t that big of an indulgence, but the sodium!!! Each of ’em must have downed two days worth in just the one meal. Ugh.
Unfortunately, it’s estimated that 77% of the sodium in the average American diet is “hidden” in processed foods – just like that teriyaki sauce. Thus, reducing excess sodium is one more benefit of limiting them in your diet. Needless to state, I doubt if those guys had any idea of how much they were consuming…which is the problem. It’s not the dangers you know about, but the ones that you DON’T, that are more likely do you in.
May 10, 2009
I think most people don’t understand what adding things like sauces and dressings do to their food. Either that or they just don’t care.
I don’t know how many times I have seen people take a fairly healthy meal and turn it into something very unhealthy with 1/2 a bottle of ketchup or dressing.