Sometimes it's not the foods we consume that's the issue, it's the products we put on the food. Right now we're gonna be considering one of the biggest condiment culprits… tomato ketchup!
I like ketchup, I lavish it over almost everything. And so this one hits home for me.
Tomatoes are healthy, right?
Ketchup is principally created with tomatoes. And that means you may possibly presume it's not too unhealthy. Everybody knows that it's also stuffed with sugar, but tomatoes are vegetables, right? So at least you're getting the nutrition from those.
Well not after you boil them to death!
Ketchup is essentially produced from incredibly over cooked tomatoes that have lost almost all their nutritional value, some water in addition to a LOT of sugar.
The sugar in ketchup is worth a more detailed look. Because, whilst it begins as sugar (and this is already undesirable) before it is added to the bottle it's processed into high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and that is a good deal worse! As well as this, we get flavourings, including MSG, that often makes us need it a lot more.
When MSG won me a kiss!
It appears as though MSG is in pretty much everything everything. I remember many years ago, I was on a date with a beautiful girl I'd been obsessing over for the better part of a year. We were sharing a bag of Malteasers and she challenged me to identify the ingredients.
I riddled off one or two of the obvious ones, then I rolled the malteaser around inside my mouth as if trying to pick up a different flavor, before announcing 'monosodium glutamate?' She quickly checked the ingredients and was stunned by my super-tasting ability, which won me a kiss!!
I'm probably the only person on the planet that's actually got anything decent from MSG (well me along with the whole food manufacturing industry using it to get us addicted to their products!)
So, ketchup is not good for you. The single healthy ingredient has long shed its value and all of the additional stuff has been associated with countless health conditions.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is associated with:
- Weight problems
- Diabetic issues
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Cancers
…and it has no real nutrition. It only helps make things sweet, so you eat much more of them.
Is MSG actually unhealthful?
If you do a quick search on MSG, you can find plenty articles declaring that it has an unhealthy rep but it isn't that bad for you. And then you'll stumble upon this quote:
“It’s probably one of the most harmful substances that one can eat.”
Michael Galitzer MD
I honestly reckon that there's a little bit of a conspiracy happening, intending to prevent the majority of people from finding out the reality about MSG. With the intention that we keep eating products which are abundant in it.
MSG can lead to a little something referred to as a 'Leaky Gut' which sounds horrible as well as being linked to
- Feeling bloated
- Wind
- Diarrhea
- Stomach pain
I have to acknowledge, on many occasions I've suffered with all of those, particularly after stuffing myself with a greasy takeaway.
Wholesome Ketchup substitutes
Right, back to ketchup. We adore it. And we want to keep having it. But we don't want to get 'Leaky Gut'
The best alternative to store acquired ketchup is to prepare your very own.
If you ever fancy giving that a try, you should look at this video tutorial:
Steps to make your own simple rapid and ultra nourishing ketchup
In the event you simply don't have the time to do that, you also have one or two store bought ketchups that happen to be a much healthier choice.
In 2010 ConAgra removed the HFCS from their ketchup (Hunt's Ketchup) but they also put it back a few years after. The reason? Well I believe that they were expecting to cash in on peoples escalating awareness of the dangers of HFCS and hoping that their healthy alternative would earn them an improved share of the market.
I don't for one second believe that they actually did it out of concern for our well-being.
Of course, it didn't work, given that they put it back. But people are increasingly becoming ever more health conscious, so chances are they'll give it a second go if they decide that the public is ready for it. It's surely worth picking up a bottle and checking the ingredients once in a while.
Can you substitute ketchup with puree?
An alternate possibility, although not an incredibly tasty one, is to use tomato puree as an alternative to ketchup. In recipes this will work perfectly, but as a condiment it's simply not the same. Tomato puree isn't as sweet and has a very strong flavour. However experiment with it, include just a little sweeter and just see what you come up with. I'm fairly sure that whatever you do it'll be a good deal healthier compared with any branded ketchup!
Just don't boil all the nutrients away, load it with HFCS or lace it with 'gut-leaking' MSG! Aside of this, you can go nuts, you might even add some (deadly) sugar and you'll probably still have an improved ketchup than the one you're eating now.
Tomato puree (mixed with a sweetener) is a good alternative to producing your own ketchup since it will last a good bit longer than fresh tomatoes, requires significantly less space in the fridge and also it is effortless to rustle up in a couple of seconds when you need it. They it, and let em know how it goes.