Hi everyone,

I have this really bad habit of pouring too much of ANY sauce on everything I eat. For example, I bake a tiny portion of fries but I ruin everything by dumping, what?, half a cup of ketchup on it?

Or general tso, as bad as it already is, I just HAVE to pour so much sweet and sour sauce on it.

But it even applies to healthy food I eat.

When I have subway, I go for fat free sauces, yet ask the person to put so much sauce to make it soggy.

I know this is a really stupid question, but how can I stop putting so much sauce on my food?

It's as if I want to hide the actual taste whatever I'm eating. I've tried gradually pouring less and less sauce on my meal, but it's just not the same. It just tastes... dry.

I don't know. I mean it's okay to add some flavor with a dressing or something, but not too much right? I don't know how to keep that in moderation!

How about using a tiny sauce dish, and limit yourself to what will fit in the dish, without pouring the sauce directly on the food. Just dip the tip of the food into the sauce for each bite

I agree with Suzanne. Also, use mustard whenever you can, if you like it. It's very low-calorie. I use a lot of it.

Try using sauces/seasonings with fewer calories and more intense taste. Things like ketchup and sweet & sour taste good but are kind of blah, so we have a tendency to kind of keep mindlessly eating them. Things like spicy dijon mustard, ketchup with Tobasco sauce, tangy vinegrettes, etc. will make you really take notice of and appreciate the taste, so you feel like you need less of it to be satisfied. You can also find low-fat recipes for fattier sauces. For example, this is my fat-free recipe for tartar sauce (great on fish that's been rolled in egg whites & bread crumbs and pan-seared):

1 cup fat-free mayonnaise
3 tablespoons skim milk (if needed to thin the mayonnaise)
3 tablespoons chopped onions or scallions
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet or dill pickles
1/4 cup finely chopped pimento or red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or watercress
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
(you can also add 1/4 cup chopped jalapeno if you like a little kick)

How about mixing some water in with your sauce to stretch it out. I do this with my salad drsg so I use half as much to coat my salad but still get the taste

Also, for ketchup, I use the low carb kind which only has 5 calories per tbsp compared to 16 calories for regular ketchup. I can't taste the difference. The calories seem small but if you use a lot it can add up.

Can u use lemon juice/vinegar/fat free dressings/fat free sauces/salt and pepper/cayenne or red chili pepper flakes/fat free yogurt as dressings?
My fav is lemon juice (freshly squeezed, no sugar or no water)...

Also always get dressing on the side and dip each fork of salad into it...
As far as ketchup for fries...try using tomato puree (can blend at home), mixed with salt and pepper!

The suggestions posted already are all good. Though I agree with them, I'd like to offer a different take.

I don't think pouring on too much sauce is the worst thing, actually. Do you actually eat all of the sauce? Maybe not. Are you worried about being obsessive-compulsive about it? Well, that's another thing entirely. But I think you can eat lots of most sauces and succeed on a diet.

Unless a sauce has a lot of butter, cream or sugar, it's probably not that fattening. Just work it in to your calorie limits (or whatever you count).

Make sauces that have some of the things you need anyway. For example, tomato sauce can be a puree of tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and other veggies. You are getting a necessary (and low-fat) serving of veggies with this kind of sauce. If you use it over pasta, well, the sauce is probably better for you than the pasta! And if you add a small amount of sugar, it really isn't that bad. (Adding a cup of sugar is bad; a few spoonfuls is not.) Salt isn't bad by itself, either, unless you have heart problems. Just use a reasonable amount.

Same thing with bean sauces and salsas.

For creamy sauces, try skim milk and yogurt with some thickeners.