Ketchup is one of the most popular condiments that can be added to a wide variety of meals. I can’t eat a hamburger or french fries without getting some ketchup involved! Over half the time, I use ketchup on hot dogs, but not if I can add sauerkraut and mustard – in that case there is no need for ketchup! Other people use ketchup on their eggs, potatoes, and chicken tenders. I will add that there are some people who simply have no respect for a good steak and they add it to their steak, which I find appalling – but to each their own.
An All-American condiment, ketchup is among the most utilized additions to any meal here in the USA, where 97% of homes have at least one bottle somewhere in their pantry or kitchen. While ketchup isn’t a product of the USA, (the first ketchup traces back to China) the USA has certainly made this the American way of consuming burgers, fries, and other dishes.
The Facts About Sugar in Ketchup
When you use a tablespoon as an example, the 15 calories in ketchup don’t look too bad considering there isn’t any fat. Compare that to mayonnaise, which has about 103 calories with 12 grams of fat in the same tablespoon, and it looks even better!
However, when you dive into the fact that there are 4 grams of sugar, (mostly added sugars – as sauces are high up in our added sugar foods list), you really have to be careful about how much of this delicious condiment you add to your food. Yes, 4 grams may not seem like much, but that’s only in one tablespoon. I, for one, consumer much more than one tablespoon when I’m loading up on unhealthy french fries.
(I’d also like to go on record that for the same amount of sugar I can drink 4 Bacardi Rums.)
24-36 grams of sugar is about the maximum we are supposed to consume each day, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. However, being overweight Americans, we average a whopping 88 grams of sugar on a daily basis and keep in mind that added sugars have zero nutritional value.
According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, we are not supposed to consume more than 24-36 grams of sugar a day. Yet, the average American consumes 88 grams of added sugar each day, and these added sugars have no nutritional value.
When you dive into the labels, you’ll see all the this I warned you about when I talked about added sugars. Stuff like high fructose corn syrup, which is another fancy marketing word for sugar, appears in many major brands, including Heinz.
Ketchups With Zero Sugar
Always looking for answers, I set out to make the change to sugar free ketchup. Below is a list of ketchups without sugar as well as links to where you can find them on Amazon.com, since everyone can get access to that store and also get anything sent to them within a day or two it’s the easiest option.