Where Mayo Goes To Hide

Most of us who are trying to eat healthfully make a concerted effort to avoid mayonnaise. We're all smart enough to know that anything made of primarily vegetable oil and egg yolks just can't be good for our waistlines or our poor little arteries! Now, we hope that you are already aware of the fact that foods like tuna salad, potato salad, and most macaroni salads are all saturated with mayo. Unfortunately, though, many restaurants and food companies are sneaky bastards and they're using mayo in several other dishes and doing a damn good job of hiding it. And then many of us who eat out often or buy prepackaged food wonder why we can't lose those last five pounds. Well, this may be why: hidden mayo can add hundreds of calories to your day without you even knowing that it's there. Here are the five places it is most often hidden. Be on the lookout.

#1 - Spicy Tuna Rolls

This is an evil secret that most sushi restaurants share. Many of them make their spicy tuna roll by mixing the tuna with a bunch of mayonnaise! They really bury it in there with a bunch of spicy sauce so that you barely even notice it, but it's lurking there in our healthy sushi, waiting to make us fat. We were so bummed when we learned this, because spicy tuna was previously one of our favorites, but not anymore. Don't waste your expensive, sushi-grade albacore on glorified tuna salad. We recommend swapping the spicy tuna roll for regular tuna or even tuna avocado, where you'll at least enjoy the source of fat and get a little potassium into your body. Just add a little extra wasabi and you'll barely notice the difference.

#2 - Guacamole

Any self-respecting Mexican restaurant would never use mayo in their guac, but several less prideful ones do. It is an easy and cheap way to thin out the guacamole, since avocados are a lot more expensive than mayonnaise. Pay attention to color. If the guac is pale, celery green, it's most likely loaded with mayo. And notice a certain tang that some guacamoles have and keep in mind that avocados are creamy, buttery and delicious, but certainly not tangy.

#3 - Artichoke Dip

We were at a friend's dinner party the other night and she served a delicious artichoke dip made from fresh artichokes. It tasted light and fresh and we gobbled up nearly the entire bowlful. We enjoyed it so much that we asked her for the recipe and almost slapped her in the face when she handed it to us. There was absolutely no sign of mayonnaise in that dip, and yet it contained quite a bit. We already knew that most packaged, blended dips contained mayo, but now we'll be suspicious of these chunky, home-made versions, too. Now, we don't want you to offend your friend and be one of those lame chicks who doesn't eat at a party, but learn from our mistake and just have a few tastes. That bowlful of mayo did not look good on us the next day.

#4 - Aioli

Traditional aioli is made from garlic, olive oil and sometimes egg, so it was never a diet food to begin with. But at a nice restaurant with a glass of vino and yummy piece of fresh baked bread, this stuff is well worth the million calories. However, some companies and restaurants have tried to make their lives easier by adding globs of mayo instead of emulsifying the oil and egg themselves. Of course, traditional aioli is common around the world, where they have much lower obesity rates than here in America, where we get lazy and add mayo. We doubt that this is a coincidence.

#5 - Dressings

Mayonnaise serves as a base for many bottled salad dressings, particularly Thousand Island and ranch. In the UK, Thousand Island dressing is called "fry sauce," and that makes sense to us. This thick, creamy mixture of ketchup and mayo works better as a dip for french fries than it does weighing down iceberg lettuce (literally and figuratively). As for ranch, go ahead and have it with your hot wings, but pouring mayo all over your salad just doesn't make sense. Keep your salad healthy and you'll feel less guilty splurging on dip when you'll enjoy it.

Comments

[deedrdo]

try making a wholesome balanced diet from non processed foods from your kitchen instead of eating out in restaurants all the time. and, no, i don't mean lean cuisine. these women obviously don't know how to cook or the first thing about nutrition.

[Blefuscu]

The authors state that "anything made of primarily vegetable oil and egg yolks just can't be good for our waistlines or our poor little arteries!"

This statement is not based on science. Please stop spreading misinformation. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the Women's Health Initiative (2006?). They found no measurable connection between heart disease and dietary fat intake.

As for your waistline, what's more fattening -- 500 calories of mayo or 500 calories of corn syrup? French people eat a ton of fat and they are thin. And it isn't because of the wine. It's because they don't eat crap food designed by "food scientists" that comes out of factories. They also sit down to eat together ( *slowly* ) with other people at a proper meal.

[asolarski]

Mayo has some protein but is mostly (70-80%) fat.

[puffhost]

I hate mayonaise, always have always will. I would honestly take a shot to the gut versus a spoonful of that crap. I worked in a deli for a while and used to have to open a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff to scoop out large amounts. So nasty. I will not allow it in my house (only once for a party).

[Erdgeist]

There problem is not mayo v. no mayo, the problem is how much food we eat at a meal. A person can eat any food they wish, but the quantity of it is what puts on the weight. People have to learn to read labels and how many calories per serving, then try to keep at levels of 400 calories for 3 meals, exercising also. In fact it is important to eat great tasting foods--all kinds. Just watch the quantity of what you eat. Sure, eat a hamburger--but eat only half or even less. If you want to get stuffed without worrying about the calories, eat two nice apples or three.

[Blefuscu]

I agree that the problem is quantity, but counting calories is ridiculous. In my view the problem is sugar. If the authors want to write a real story they should explain "where sugar goes to hide", instead of mayo. It's everywhere in processed food in this country. The most striking example being bread. Many europeans (aside from Britons) are repulsed by American bread (white or wheat, it's the same). They say it tastes like cake, and I would agree. Other culprits are breakfast cereal, almost all beverages, pasta/pizza tomato sauce, salad dressing etc.

But it's not just the fault of Kraft Foods. We want this stuff. We eat like 5-year-olds. It's no accident that the poorest and most uneducated Americans are the fattest. There's no longer any such thing as grown-up food. There is no kid's menu in America because the whole menu is the kid's menu.

A depressing chart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bmi30chart.png

[Cufflinks]

And sugar is downright wholesome compared to high fructose corn syrup which is totally replacing sugar in practically everything.

I feel the problem isn't so much calorie counting or education or reading food labels, it's that no one cooks for themselves anymore. And furthermore because we rarely eat fresh food that's been cooked by a loved one, we overcompensate for the missing taste by gorging on convenient foods that are sweet or salty or loaded with MSG. And we're still not satisfied so we eat even more and more. And then we get fat so we start playing around with weird food combinations like low-carb diets and slim fast shakes that only compound the problem.

[asmir]

first and foremost for you folks mayo is a protein and has hardly any carbs so eat a whole jar..unless your some 300lb whale who cares..and btw are you drinking 1500 calorie cocktails full of sugar when you go out..who cares about mayo=egg-oil-spices

[MTGradwell]

Now if you'd said Belgium .... Belgium is a place where they can't eat chips (or french fries, if you prefer) without a huge dollop of mayonnaise. Maybe they'd settle for "Thousand Island" or "Burger Sauce" instead, but only as a second choice if pure undiluted mayonnaise isn't available.

[InformedSources]

A couple of grams of mayo in the spicy tuna, eaten in moderation, isn't going to take up permanent residence on your midsection, ladies! I mean, that's not something you eat every day, is it? it's not meant to be a staple food.

And if you think there might be mayo in your restaurant guacamole, why not simply ask the kitchen staff? Then you can make a sensible decision for yourself, in the moment. But to be unwilling to eat anything with mayo in it, ever, is a bit compulsive, don't you think?

While I do feel compassion for the self-loathing you express here, I suggest you seek therapy instead of trying to enlist HuffPo's readership in your food-related compulsions.

[KarateKid]

HuffPost's Pick

Mayo does not harm if consumed in moderation and one can discipline himself in overall consumption. I've lost 70 pounds without all the gimmicky diets or joining Dan Marino's team, eating mayo in salads via 1000 Island dressing and in tuna salads.

It's not what you eat, folks, it's HOW MUCH you eat. And most Americans eat way too much.

[billyjoe]

A good friend who moved to Wisconsin told me that supermarkets there have entire aisles dedicated to mayonnaise and its various forms.

We went out to eat when I visited, and I ordered a BLT with the mayo on the side. When my sandwich arrived, it was slathered with the stuff, plus a small cupful on the plate.

[InstantDogma]

So when did narcissism become a religion? Just curious.
Steve

[TakeSake]

Perhaps narcissism is a necessary part of religion. The belief that one's belief is a divinely given - and that the religions of others are somehow false - must require a fair amount of narcissism.

[GeoLee]

touche

[desthmoneses]

Mayoinase (sp?) isn't really a big deal, I just lost 13 pounds these past three weeks eating lots of food with mayo, mainly tuna sandwiches. Anyways, with portion control nothing is off limits, except maybe pizza.

[luckyoldson]

Why this has to be the most SHOCKING piece of reporting I've ever encountered.

Then again, anybody who didn't already know this has to be living in a dream world.

[LapinBizarre]

Traditional aioli is made from olive oil, garlic and ALWAYS, - not "sometimes" - egg. It's a garlic-flavored true mayonnaise - no out on the mayo in this dish, only an out on commercial, store-bought pseudo-mayo. Sorry, but without the egg it ain't aioli.

[Idytme]

Actually a true aiolli is not made with eggs, garlic is used as the emulsifier. Granted almost no one does it this way, because it is so much harder to do, and the end result has a different effect, but true Chefs can and will make it this way, depending on the end result they are seeking.
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/display/recipe_id/816/

[LapinBizarre]

"Unlike the aïoli of Provence and the aillade of Languedoc, the true Catalan allioli (all, "garlic," i, "and," "oli," oil) is made without eggs."

Why don't you at least take the trouble to read a recipe before you cite it? I see, incidentally, that Mr. Wright describes himself as "the premier source of Mediterranean food, cooking and recipes". Quite a claim. Made on what basis? Not a modest man, our Mr. Wright.

[MTGradwell]

In the UK, Thousand Island dressing is called "fry sauce"? That's news to this UK resident. "Thousand Island Sauce" is called "Thousand Island Sauce", and it's a salad dressing (which admittedly does contain some mayo, among lots of other things). "Fry sauce"? Never heard of it before, but wikipedia informs me it's a sauce for dipping fries in (logical enough, I suppose), that's commonly found in the western U.S. and "is usually a simple combination of one part ketchup and two parts mayonnaise". So I guess that would contain some mayo, yes. However, we don't even call fries fries (we call them chips). Why would we use the name "fry sauce" for a sauce you dip your chips in? Even if we had such a thing? Chips are for serving with curry sauce, or with fish and mushy peas and a generous sprinkling of salt and vinegar.