If you look in almost any kitchen, you are sure to find a bottle of ketchup. Although it is an extremely popular condiment, most people are unaware of what is inside. Once you find out, your opinion of ketchup may just change.
Ketchup is put on a wide variety of items, including hamburgers, hot dogs and French fries. It is more popular than any other condiment so how could there possibly be anything bad about it? After all, some people even feel as if ketchup fulfills some of your vegetable quota for the day because it does contain tomatoes, doesn’t it?
If you were to flip the bottle of Heinz ketchup over a look at the nutrition label, you might actually be surprised with what is on the inside.
It starts out fairly tame, as the primary ingredient is tomatoes. From that point forward, however, it begins to go downhill. Here are some of the other ingredients you will find in ketchup.
Distilled vinegar
High-fructose corn syrup (sugar)
Corn syrup (more sugar)
Salt
Spices
Onion powder
Natural flavouring
So are you telling me ketchup needs a double dose of sugar? It’s little wonder it is so popular!
The ingredients on the nutrition labels must be listed in order of the greatest amount to the least amount. It is according the weight, not according to how much space it fills. At this point, we all know that high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup are just other words for sugar. When you put those together, however, sugar is actually the number two ingredient!
An interesting experiment was done in which a typical 1.3 L bottle of Heinz ketchup was filled with how much sugar was on the inside. You know how much it came out to?
33 tablespoons of sugar!
Holy cow!
In a typical 2 tablespoon serving to ketchup, there are 2 teaspoons of sugar. When you consider the fact that women are not to be eating more than 6 teaspoons of sugar daily, it doesn’t take much sugar to fill that quota.
A simple squirt of ketchup on your hamburger or for dipping your fries manages to fill one third of your sugar quota for the day.
Are you curious why distilled vinegar was on the bad part of the ingredient list? Most people are familiar with the beneficial effects of apple cider vinegar but the distilled vinegar Heinz uses is not healthy. It is made from genetically modified corn, a fact that Heinz openly admits on their website.
Most people try to avoid genetically modified foods when possible, as there is some concern over how they affect our health.
The genetically modified foods and how they are grown has been blamed for many issues in the environment. Not only is it an issue with our individual health, there is also the thought that it has led to the disappearance of bees all over the world. That issue, known as colony collapse disorder, could be a real problem for all humans.
If you notice that spices and natural flavouring are also found on the bad ingredients, you may have some questions. In reality, nobody but the food manufacturers know what finds its way into those elusive ingredients. They are even permitted to get away with it by law. In fact, it is how they are able to make their secret recipes, because they hide a variety of items under that particular part of the label.
Natural flavourings must be free of artificial ingredients and colours but it can still pose a problem for vegetarians or vegans. Some of the hidden items inside of those spices or natural flavours could even contain animal byproducts!
You can learn more about how to make your own healthy ketchup from scratch in this video:
Via: Health Eternally
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