Warning about Ruby Tuesday's creamy cauliflower and/or creamed spinach

[nativetxn]

Each of these dishes contain 11 grams of carbohydrates

This is not low carb and I don't know why there are so many carbs in 1/2 cup of smashed cauliflower unless they have included some sort of binder (flour? cornstarch?)

For comparison, the steamed brocolli has one carb, steamed cauliflower would have about the same amount.

So beware. I have a feeling these dishes contain refined carbohydrates. I don't know how to find out for sure.

The cheesecake, on the other hand is divine and only 6 grams of carbs which is perfectly in line with it's ingredients.

So, today at lunch we eschewed the cauliflower and stuck with the brocolli and spring mix salad (caesar instead of the vinaigrette dressing which contains sugar). We <i>loved</i> the talapia, YUM.

 

[CarolA]

I "borrowed" this from the LowCarbFriends message board.
I don't post there because but it has some decent info

I ate there yesterday and asked the girl what exactly was in the cauliflower, she brought me the ingredients, it looked like it had been torn off the back of a box (like instant pototoes).

ingredients; cauliflower,water, cream, uncolored oleo (partially hydrogenated soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, salt, mono-and diglycerides, calcium disodium EDTA added as a preservative, artificial flavoring, vitamin A palmitate), onion puree, contains less than 2% of the following: whey protein concentrate, natural flavor, vegetable fiber, garlic puree, salt, leek powder, soybean oil, propylene glycol alginate, spice, xanthan gum

I have NO idea what most of that is, but... I decided that it sounded and looked too strange for me. Plus 11 carbs for Cauliflower seemed high.

 

[Nette]

Yeah, the carbs are coming from that cream. Everything else is fairly low GI... I always say watch the milk/creams when you are in the loss phases of low Carb/GI eating... I know people who are so sensitive that 1/2 cup of SF ice cream would cause them to stall or even gain.

 

[nativetxn]

More carbs probably come from the garlic and onion puree. There are only 6 grams in a cup of cream and there cannot be a whole cup of cream in a serving of that cauliflower.

I'm not all that thrilled with the partially hydrogenated oils, either.

 

[threeboysmom]

Oh dear! I had BOTH of these as my sides with my steak!

Thanks so much for posting this! I'll stick with the brocolli next time I eat there.

 

[Beastlover]

DH and I each had one of them when we went, THEN we saw the table tent with the gram counts, we both stopped eating them. The next time we went to R.T's we each had the broccoli instead. I think it is a good choice for maintenance, but not for the losing stage. Or perhaps a better choice than fries on the side?

 

[MelanieC]

Oooh, that ingredient list looks gross! It really makes me mad when they put hydrogenated oils in food. UGGH! I really try hard to get hydrogenated oils out of my diet. Good thing I don't know what really goes into most of the things I eat when I go out to eat. I probably wouldn't eat out anymore lol! That could be good.

I wish all companies would go with all natural/no hydrogenated oil ingredients. Many are working on it and it's getting easier to get these items out of your diet!

 

[wovenwonder]

My last trip to RT I had the Tilapia [to DIE FOR, by the way] and instead of broccoli I asked for DOUBLE the cauliflower!!!! OMG, what was I thinking??? I'll know next time to double the broccoli instead. When I get the broccoli, I always ask for drawn butter on the side. So yummy to dip the broccoli in.

 

[nativetxn]

I do the same thing, Jody! Both Cleo and I asked for drawn butter for our brocolli.

 

[bicker]

Yeah, looks like its the cream. The onion and especially the garlic are both pretty far down the list of ingredients to be responsible for that much.

We're stuck with hydrogenated fats until the general public is willing to pay a lot more for food that doesn't have it. It's just not a major concern of enough people yet to make a difference.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

I had the blue cheese steak Sat. night. When I saw the carb count on the cauliflower I thought, what in the world can be in there that is 11 carbs? I make this at home and it sure doesn't have 11 carbs in it!

So I decided to have double broccoli instead. Now I'm glad I did, not only for the carbs, but the hydrogenated oil!! What do we need this stuff in there for??

I also had 5 bites of the cheesecake. I made DH order it and asked if I could just have a little. He and I both agreed that you couldn't tell the difference between that and regular cheesecake. I didn't want to get out of control, so that's why I wouldn't let myself have a whole piece to myself. That and the fact that I was STUFFED!

 

[nativetxn]

Brian, I'm still confused about the carb count, though. If there are 6 grams in one cup of cream, then it would require almost two cups of cream to give a net carb total of 11 grams.

The point is that the quantity of caulifower that they serve isn't anywhere near <i>one</i> cup much less 2 cups. So, I have to wonder if their calculations are just a little bit off. In this case, I have to wonder if there are actually 11 grams of carbs in one serving of that cauliflower.

I won't be eating it though, just in case they are correct. The manager at Ruby Tuesday's told me that headquarters often changes the carb counts as they find errors.

I suppose we will just have to wait and see what happens in the future.

 

[sha_lyn]

Onions and garlic have more carbs in them than heavy cream. In fact garlic is one carb per clove. It sound like it is the garlic and onions that are upping the count so high.

I know people who are so sensitive that 1/2 cup of SF ice cream would cause them to stall or even gain.

Sounds like they are able to digest the sugar alcohols used the sweeten the icecream. If eating the icecream is not givign them a bit of gas, then they are digesting the sugar alcohols as carbs.

I digest sorbitol very well so I avoid it. Malitol I usually count about 1/3 of the carbs. Lactitol I don't digest at all, but I can only eat one or 2 SF Reeses without getting terrible gas.

 

[nativetxn]

I thought it might be the onion and garlic puree, too, Sha_Lyn.

Thanks for the reminder about those sugar alcohols. Isomalt really affects me but the other sugar alcohols don't so I should probably avoid them.

 

[threeboysmom]

Sorry for veering from the original topic here, but I'm confused about the sugar alcohols. How do you know if you can safely eat them or not? Is there a very simplistic answer?

 

[nativetxn]

If you eat them and they cause flatulence and/or diarrhea then your body doesn't absorb them. If you have no reaction at all then your body is absorbing them totally which means you should not subtract them from the total carb count.