I have largely avoided the South Beach Diet and its cult followings because I don’t believe that for most people a specific, branded diet is the answer to healthy weight loss. Most of the information I’ve seen in Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, and South Beach diet plans seems like stuff doctors have been saying for years and years and years: balance out your food to your needs, get your exercise. Honestly, have any new vitamins appeared in the last 10years that just didn’t exist before?
Regardless, I’m more open-minded to trying new foods and food combinations, especially healthy foods. I’ve decided to give some of the South Beach Diet frozen foods a shot, starting with the South Beach Diet Teriyaki Steak Wraps. Can this meal convince me that all those tan, fit people in Miami are really onto something?
Appearance and Nutrition. The South Beach Diet Teriyaki Wraps on the outside look like your average day flour tortilla wrap. You can’t really tell what is in them from the outside, although the box cover shows carrots, some kind of meat and a brown sauce, presumably teriyaki flavored.
There are two individually wrapped servings in each box and weigh in at190 calories a piece, 50 from fat. Each wrap contains 6grams fat, 540 milligrams of sodium (23% of what your daily recommended allowance), 6 grams dietary fiber (24%), and 15 grams of protein. This looks like it is packed with all the nutrition a guy should need in a lunch. On top of all that, you’ll get Vitamin A (25%), Vitamin C (25%), and Iron (20%).
Did I buy teriyaki wraps or some kind of South Beach diet bar at GNC? I looked even further into the ingredients and saw that there’s wheat gluten and wheat protein isolates as well.
Taste. The South Beach Diet Teriyaki Steak Wraps were indeed filling and worth eating. Like I mentioned earlier, it was hard to discern from the outward appearance whether these wraps were going to be any good or not, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The teriyaki sauce almost tasted like fresh teriyaki sauce. The diced beef was tender and didn’t retain the normal thawed meat texture to it. But what were really impressive were the vegetables. The broccoli florets and carrots were crunchy and very flavorful! I couldn’t believe how fresh they tasted with each bite! This was a very carefully constructed meal and I only had one of the servings.
In retrospect I should have added something else to go with my meal. I didn’t really want to eat two servings of South Beach Diet Teriyaki Steak Wraps in one sitting, partly because I didn’t want to feel stuffed and partly because I wanted to eat it again the next day. Even though 190 calories is a good chunk of change in one serving, I probably would have felt better with having another 100 or 200 calories of something else on the side.
An hour after eating the South Beach Diet Teriyaki Steak Wraps I was hungry again. Maybe it was just the quality taste. Either way, I was impressed and I look forward to trying out more South Beach Diet meals in my local grocery store. I could have these once a week.
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