Nutritionist Advice: Condiments

In this article by Josh Bezoni – Nutritionist, he takes you  through the aisles of the grocery store and shows you good and bad choices for some of today’s most popular condiments.

Now, Let’s Go Grocery Shopping!

These condiments are great choices if you want a beer belly. Kroger and Lawry’s Marinades contain high fructose corn syrup as does Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup (so does the original Heinz 57). Kraft’s Light Asian Toasted Sesame Reduced Fat Dressing and their Thick N Spicy Barbecue Sauce also contain MSG and Hidden Valley’s Ranch Dressing also contains a hefty dose of MSG.

Heinz Organic Tomato Ketchup is a great choice over the original because it doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. When it comes to barbecue sauce, make sure you choose a flavor or a version or a brand that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup or MSG in it. Curley’s Famous Hot and Spicy Barbecue Sauce is a great example. When it comes to salad dressings, make sure you choose a low sugar version that doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. Newman’s Own has a lot of salad dressings that fit the bill. You can also always use olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette as a great choice for dressing salads.

Kikkoman’s Natural Soy Sauce contains a whopping 920 mg per tablespoon of sodium compared to their less sodium version which has 575 mg, close to half.

Prego’s Italian Sauce Traditional has 10 g of sugar per half cup while Lucini’s Hearty Artichoke Tomato Sauce has only 230 mg of sodium and less than 1 gram of sugar.

This photo shows Old El Paso Taco Seasoning on the left which contains hydrogenated oils (avoid). On the right is McCormick’s Original Taco Seasoning which doesn’t.

When it comes to the obesity additive sodium (salt), making better choices like choosing the low sodium versions of certain foods is a great idea. For example, McCormick Original Taco Seasoning has 430 mg of sodium while the reduced sodium version has only 300 mg. I bet you can’t tell the difference when you eat it.

Miracle Whip fat-free dressing contains high fructose corn syrup as its second ingredient while Whole Foods 365 Light mayonnaise contains no high fructose corn syrup. Look for mayonnaise that uses olive oil instead of canola oil, too.

Instead of going with the Reduced Fat (or regular) Jif Peanut Butter that’s full of hydrogenated oil and corn syrup solids, go with Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter that contains two simple ingredients, peanuts and salt. What’s more, instead of buying Welch’s Concord Grape Jelly which has 13 g of sugar per tablespoon, you can choose Welch’s Reduced Sugar Concord Grape Jelly which has just 5 g of sugar and no artificial flavors or sweeteners.

This photo shows an example of household products that have hidden obesity additives in them. For example, the Pillsbury moist supreme classic yellow premium cake mix has hydrogenated oil, while Kraft oven-fried extra crispy chicken mix/ has MSG, and Knorr vegetable recipe mix also has hydrogenated oil.