Image: ShutterstockThis is not what we wanted to hear...
It's a staple of households the country over, however new nutritional advice might have you reconsidering how much ketchup you include in your diet.
When it comes to ketchup and other condiments, the nutritional value is often ignored because so little is used on our food.
But it turns out that little squirt of sauce may be doing more damage to your waistline than you might think.
With just one single tablespoon containing a higher sugar content than a biscuit or some chocolate.
“Tomato sauce (ketchup) contains a lot of sugar and salt and next to no nutritional value,” nutritionist Kristen Beck told news.com.au.
“A single serve is around 15ml and generally equates to 1 teaspoon of sugar (glucose and fructose).”
Fructose corn syrup is a product that a lot of brands use to sweeten their product.
High-fructose corn syrup, also called corn sugar is an additive in many beverages such as soft drinks and canned tomatoes.
It's known as a cheaper alternative to traditional sugar and adds a mildly sweet taste to foods without significantly changing their flavour.
“In addition to the natural sugars coming from tomatoes, manufacturers also add around 20% cane sugar to tomato sauce” Ms Beck said
And despite being low in calories, one serving of ketchup contains around 160mg of your recommended sodium intake of 920mg per day.
“When you look at the ingredients list for tomato sauce, on first glance it looks pretty good,” Beck said.
“The first ingredient is tomatoes or tomato puree (approximately 75%) which may sound healthy, but you need to remember that fresh tomatoes are almost 95% water weight. When pureed, the natural sugar content in tomatoes becomes much more concentrated — and even if sugars contained naturally in tomatoes may sound healthier than sugar, the World Health Organisation classifies sugars from fruit and vegetable concentrates as the same as all other added sugars.
“Concentrated fructose, such as that contained in tomato sauce and fruit juice extracts has been shown to be associated with the body’s inflammatory response and fat accumulation around your midsection (but fructose in whole, fresh fruit is still very healthy for you).”
Is that enough to have you reconsidering ketchup's role in your life?
Or are you not the least bit fussed by this?
