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Healthy eating boils down to so much more than the base ingredients of your meals, and while you may be eating ample vegetables, protein, carbs, and fat, the sauces and condiments you choose to dress your dishes in can make all the difference in your weight loss journey. Achieving healthy and sustainable results is dependent on creating a calorie deficit that you can stick to, often by making small swaps in your diet that exchange less healthy food options for their more nutrient dense counterparts.
Making these changes is important not only for more filling foods, such as pasta and white bread, but also for the sauces you’re using to make these ingredients taste better. Eating a generally healthy diet but still not seeing the results you’re after? There’s one popular sauce that health experts agree may be standing in your way.
Asian inspired dishes are popular for both takeout and to recreate at home, and for good reason: they’re delicious. But these dishes, especially when made at Americanized restaurants, can often include teriyaki or other sweet sauces which quickly enhance the calorie content of your meal, making it more difficult to create the deficit needed to see results from your eating plan.
“Condiments can be a sneaky source of added sugar, empty calories, and extra sodium. Look out for premade Asian sauces like teriyaki or sweet and sour - instead look for a lower sugar option or make your own,” suggests Zoë Schroeder, MS, RDN, CSCS. “Whatever you get, read the label and check for added sugar.”
Sugar is a common ingredient in condiments and sauces, and especially with iterations such as teriyaki, it’s important to check the label to see how much added sugar you’re really consuming. If you’ve eliminated or cut back on eating sweets from the day to day but then consume ample amounts of teriyaki dressing on your salad or chicken, the benefit of your otherwise low-sugar diet is entirely negated.
“Every tablespoon [of teriyaki] has about 7 grams of sugar,” warns Mikayla Barrett, registered dietitian and Content Creator for Trifecta Nutrition. “If you’re making a stir fry or eating out there could be upwards of 5-10 tablespoons of sauce that comes out to 35-70 grams of sugar.”
Instead, if you’re still craving the teriyaki flavor but are looking to cut down on your sugar intake, there are DIY alternative routes you can try. “A healthier alternative to teriyaki sauce would be a low sodium soy sauce or a “soyaki” sauce which is a combination of soy and teriyaki sauce to lower the sugar content,” suggests Barrett.
It’s important to remember that you can eat nearly any food in moderation, so you don’t necessarily have to cut teriyaki sauce out of your diet in order to see results. That being said, the amount of sauce it takes to properly flavor your meal to the extent you would want is more than likely going to dramatically increase the calories of your dish, and you’ll be better served selecting a lower sugar option or taking note of the serving size and adhering to that guideline.
Cooking, even for weight loss, is meant to be enjoyable so you should never feel as though you have to skimp on flavor in order to reach your goals. However, sauces such as teriyaki which are higher in sugar should be consumed in moderation to reap the benefits of your healthy diet, as sugar is one of the most well-documented causes of weight gain from it’s high calorie content and propensity for increasing cravings.
Ideally you should be able to find sauce options which can serve the flavor with no added sugar so you can continue to eat foods you enjoy that satisfy your taste buds without overwhelming your body with artificial sweeteners and excess calories.
