Jerry Everetts  burbled across the ether:
. SOOOO I picked up the book, and read a good bit, it

Which book?  There are many different lowcarb plans.

So I guess my question would be do we have to avoid

Depends. :)  If you have sugar issues (i.e. you get cravings after
eating even a tiny amount of sugar) then it would probably be a good
idea to skip it.  But most people can handle trace amounts of sugar.  If
it says that it has sugar in it somewhere, but the nutrition label says
zero carbs per serving, it usually means that there is less than one
gram per serving (so count one gram anyway).  Also watch the serving
size.  Sometimes the manufacturer plays games with serving size so they
can truthfully claim zero carbs per serving.  (US manufacturers are
allowed to round down.  So .5 = zero, and  .6-.9= <1 or 'less than 1").

If you are following the plan correctly it is very hard to get much less
than 20 a day.  Plenty of things have some amount of carb, like the
'zero carb' sausages you mention above.  This is known as "hidden
carbs".  Eggs have carbs.  Even coffee has carbs (1 gram per 6 oz, plus
.5 per Tb of cream, and 1 per splenda packet or 2 tsp splenda bulk). **

**The new USDA nutrition database doesn't show this anymore (the food
industry reports the information to the USDA, they don't lab test
themselves-- so when the clinical studies started coming out last year
vindicating lowcarb and the database was being updated.... well, a lot
of those foods suddenly dropped their carbs.)
But you can still see it if you know what to look for.  For instance,
the regular coffee doesn't have the almost 1 gram per cup listed, but
expresso still has its carbs.  Expresso is made from the same beans
coffee is (just cooked longer).  So if expresso still has carbs, coffee
still does too.  If the old USDA database is still available for
download, then I suggest getting and using that one instead of the new
improved one.  It has the old values that show hidden carbs.

Anyway.  (sorry, rant over)  Assume all suspicious foods have at *least*
one carb per serving.   You will find that it adds up fairly quickly.
But to answer your question after my longwinded cautionary note:  no.
It won't hurt you for the short amount of time that you will be eating
that low of carbs.

Welcome and howdy, Jerry & wife. You don't have to have 20 carbs a
day, but something under. I never had trouble getting close to the 20
but some people do. Be sure to eat some vegies if you can.

I'd avoid any sugar in meat products if I could. A teensy amount
shouldn't hurt, but then it isn't 0 carb. They are rounding down. I
think they can put 0 if it is .5 Those can add up quickly if you are
only eating 20 a day.

I had been eating some packaged turkey thinking it was carb-free. When
I looked at the label, it had 2 carbs per serving and had sugar in it.
Yikes. They'll stick sugar in anything.

--  
Jean M.
New food of the week: black olives.

Do away with flipfloping to e-mail.

Hi Jerry, welcome to the group!

Keep in mind that sausage is NOT on the acceptable foods list for induction,
if it's not on the list, YOU DON'T EAT IT!