WARNING! LC ruby tuesdays
 

My husband and I went to ruby tuesdays over the weekend, and we discovered their farce marketing of lc menu items. The tortilla wraps they use, are not lc, in fact they are whole wheat ones, ie made out of wheat, making them not atkins friendly at all.... then we ordered the cheesecake which they claim is lc. IT IS NOT LC in the least bit. The cheesecake is made with sugar. We ordered the cheesecake and when the waitress brought it to our table i had the notion to ask if was sugar free, she said no it has sugar in it but it is LC, due to the but crsut... what!!!!!.... what a way to deceive people. i would rather have the graham cracker crust with all that sugar in it instead of the nut base. Thank god we never touched it and sent it back immediatley. So this restuarant does not know what low carb means. The only real lc item is the mashed cauliflower... big whoop they don't even taste that good i make them so much better. So those of u who ate that sugary cheesecake and thought it was too good to be true.... well it was.

Here is their LC Menu with carb counts.

i know what the carb counts were, but you are not supposed to eat sugar or wheat that is the whole point of eating lc.

I thought wheat was ok. When is wheat wrong on Atkins in the latter stages?

LOTS of LC products have some sugar in them... I knwo its not really 'legal' but 1 or 2 grms of carbs 1 time in months and months really cant be that bad..after all there's even some sugar in sausage I've noticed...my bacon is sugar free.

How can it contain much sugar at just 8 carbs per slice?

I don't think there is anything wrong with the wraps/tortillas. It's better that they're made with wheat and other whole grains instead of white flour. In fact, the la Tortilla low carb tortillas are also wheat. I think you might be mistaken on these. As for the cheese cake, the server is probably not very informed about their low carb foods (it seems most of them aren't), so she probably told you incorrect information.

~Kelly Deneen

I wouldn't trust what your server told you. Maybe we can get the ingredients from their web site. I was looking forward to trying Ruby Tuesdays for a special ocasion.

the server did know it was made with sugar, she said we don't use splenda in our desserts, i wish they would. any yes sugar in cheesecake is bad even at 8g of carbs. i understand sausage and some other things may have sugar in them that is fine every once in a while but a whole slice of cake with sugar, what is the point of this diet then. I have made a great cheescake with splenda and it def was not 8 g of carbs per slice. anyway i think if they are going to market lc they should really make it lc all the way. they can harm people who really can't have any sugar like diabetics, etc like my paretns, it would have sent their blood sugar level through the roof all because they said it was lc. don't label it as lc when in fact it is not.

Jambo, I was not arguing that 8 carbs is OK even if they're from pure sugar. I'm just thinking that at 4 carbs per teaspoon, plus all the carbs in the nut crust and the cream cheese used to make the cheesecake, there doesn't seem like there'd be much room for sugar. It seems like if they were using sugar it would add up to much more than 8 carbs per slice. The slices aren't exactly small.

8g is about right for a Splenda-ified cheesecake with an almond or hazelnut crust -- my cheesecake recipe, which uses a hazelnut crust and 3/4 c splenda, is not far off that at 5.5g per slice, and it's skimpier on the cream cheese than other recipes I've seen out there. Remember, Splenda itself has 24g carbs/cup from the maltodextrin filler, cream cheese has 1g per ounce (most recipes use 24-40 oz), and an almond or hazelnut crust usually adds 2-3g per slice. Unless you're using erythritol or DaVinci for sweetener, it's just about impossible to get a cheesecake below 5g per serving. The worst thing in it is likely to be a twblespoon or two of flour or cornstarch, which helps keep the cake from cracking (an important consideration in a commercial environment), and this is an insignificant amount when spread over the whole cake.

Hilary's right that there's no room at all in that carb count for sugar. A cup of sugar is 192g carbs, and cheesecake recipes almost never contain less than 3/4 c; conservatively assuming a 16-slice cheesecake, that's 9g just from the sugar alone, never mind the other ingredients. As for the tortillas, pretty much all LC breads and wraps contain some whole wheat flour; they're not recommended for Induction, but are perfectly fine for reasonable use in OWL and maintenance. All in all, I think Ruby Tuesday's has done quite well with their LC menu.

I went there last night and enjoyed the entire meal, including my cheesecake desert. I agree that that the servers do not necessarily know what is what with the new l/c menu. I asked all kinds of questions and the waiter said he would get the manager, they didn't know much about it unless they happened to eat that way too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and had no bad carb reaction. I normally would from hidden carbs, so I beleive the carb counts for the meals were pretty close, when I put them into fitday, it came up really close also. I think to each there own, but I will go again. i had the cheesecake because it was my birthday, wont necessarily have it everytime I go, but the fact that I had a choice available, was great.

CREAM CHEESE (PASTEURIZED MILK AND CREAM, CHEESE CULTURE, SALT, CAROB BEAN GUM), SUGAR BLEND™ (LEVULOSE, LACTIN, PHASE 2TM, SOLUBLE FIBER (MAY INCLUDE TRACE AMOUNTS OF THE ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING; BETA GLUCAN, GLUCAN OR INULIN), EGGS, SOUR CREAM (CREAM, MILK, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, LACTIC ACID, GELATIN, GUAR GUM, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE AS A PRESERVATIVE), LOW FAT SOY FLOUR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BUTTER, GROUND ALMONDS, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, CINNAMON.


Thanks!

Kindof hard to read but she said that it was made with splenda and it has 6 net carbs per slice.

Low Carb cheesecake 1 Each 360cals 7carbs 32fat 11protien 1fiber 6Net carbs

well thanks for the info guys, i guess the server was wrong after all..... oh well maybe we will give them another try. thanks for putting up with my ranting. i guess it is good to vigilent about what goes into my mouth.

It looks to me like there maybe something new coming out with the whole SUGAR BLEND™ thingy there. That could be why the server said it was definately not made with splenda. great job on tracking that one down momma!!

Any reports of getting sick from this sugar blend yet? I mean like the same feelings of being sensitive to maltitol and stuff like it? Did it agree with everyone who tried it? I'm curious and anxious to go try this place out too.

I havent had any reactions from it yet, ate there last night, so I figure if I was going to, I would have. The only SA i really have issues with is whatever is in Reese SF candy and Russell Stovers toffee sticks, they are ok in moderation, but my moderation is about half of what they say a serving size is....heehehe

My wife and I were both queasy, and I was a little light headed, but this is likely a sugar reaction.

Levulose is synonymous with Fructose.
Lactin is synonymous with Lactose.

I am SOOOOOOOOOO disappointed.

Wondering what Beta Glucan is?
http://immunocorp.com/beta-glucan/faq.cfm#add

or Inulin?
http://www.inulinplaza.com/default.asp?ItemID=170

Sounds like this cheesecake company is trying to make regular sweeteners more low carb by adding these supplemental ingredients.
http://www.nutrition.nestle.com/content.asp?THE_ID=504

Either way, it's frankenfood. I'm pissed.

Well from what I read Inulin is a prebiotic and is therefore very good for me.

bgmama,
Wow, thanks for the ingredient list on the cheesecake. I like to know everything that is in the foods I eat out, since it is hard to always get reliable answers from the servers. Did they give you any other lists for the other items? I want to try the lc chicken dish with the cheese and mushrooms but was worried it would have corn starch or something to thicken sauce. Again, thanks for info. Knowledge is power!
Marie

I noticed that the ingredients list mentioned milk as one of the ingredients. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't that be a bad idea on lc plan? Seems like the milk itself would make the carb count go up. Maybe I am wrong.

According to Webster's Dictionary--
levulose

\Lev"u*lose`\ (l[e^]v"[-u]*l[=o]s`), n. [See Levo-.] (Chem.) A sirupy variety of sugar, rarely obtained crystallized, occurring widely in honey, ripe fruits, etc., and hence called also fruit sugar. It is called levulose, because it rotates the plane of polarization to the left.

What else would the Tortillas be made of, if not wheat ? Whole wheat is alright. All of the Lo-Carb tortillas I've had have been whole wheat. Hey, it's not like they're made out of corn meal or enriched white flour, right ?

Jeff

hogarth, you ate a low carb cheesecake and are pissed that it was frankenfood?????? what else would it be.

i just think that if we want to keep eating carby tasting food, we are going to have to put up with a lot of the frankenstuffs. and yes i count splenda in there.

OK -- counting splenda as a frankenstuff, I'll admit, makes everything we eat a frankenstuff, except the most simple of food.

However, my wife makes a stellar cheesecake, completely LC, and doesn't need to use Beta Glucan or Inulin or Levulose or sugar alcohols at all. (It does, however, contain Splenda.)

These companies need to realize that they CAN produce GOOD LC food, but they need to try to COMPLETELY understand the diet and REALLY think things through before they start choosing their ingredients and vendors.

For example -- the mashed cauliflower contains margarine (with hydrogenated oils) and yet they switched to canola oil in everything else because "Ruby Tuesdays cares about your health, and knows you don't want hydrogenated oils."

The cheesecake is a particularly dangerous example -- they're using synonyms for regular old fructose and lactose because they know that they're inappropriate for use. They're trying to sneak inappropriate ingredients into products that are supposed to be designed for us LCers.

Why, why why??

They're jumping on the bandwagon without doing their homework.
That's why I'm pissed.

Have to agree with you, Eve, the real change to our eating habits is getting the Junk out of our diets for the most part. Occasional treats are OK but I think we have to be aware that they are not to be had all the time. I made a lo-carb maple pecan pie for our Canadian Thanksgiving and it was delicious but it was about 7 carbs per slice and I ate almost the whole thing over the next couple of days. Didn't gain weight and didn't feel too bad because it was 7 carbs vs the 90 it could have been if not lo-carb, but I also don't eat this stuff every day. I think it's all about control - we know what we should eat and it's all fresh - we also should be aware of breaking from this sensible eating when we do and not expect miracles. I can't make a 0 carb maple pecan pie at home...:-) wish I could!!!!!
BTW, you guys are lucky - I've never seen a Ruby Tuesday's in my area - don't know of ANY restaurant that serves lo-carb options so if I go out, I'm always taking a chance on hidden ingredients.