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Best Eats – The Best Alternative to Ketchup
Commencing operation . . .
Overview
Ever since discovering a superior alternative to tomato soup, I have been on the hunt for a tomato sauce replacement. Ketchup is an incredibly versatile condiment to enhance the overall flavour in many foods.
- You dip your chips and onions rings in it.
- You spread it in your hotdogs and burgers.
- You add it to eggs and meatloaf.
However, unless you prepare your tomato sauce, the chances are that the ketchup you use includes unnecessary amounts of sugars, which are especially harmful to people with diabetes. I took a look at the grocery store I shop, and the healthiest ketchup I could find had the following ingredients.
Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Tomatoes* (180g per 100g Ketchup), Sugar*, Spirit Vinegar*, Salt, Spices* (contains Celery), Onion Powder*, Garlic Powder*, *Certified Organic ingredients
Nutrition
Typical values | Per 100g | Per serving (15ml) |
Energy | 507kJ | 88 kJ |
119kcal | 21 kcal | |
Protein | 1.2g | 0.2 g |
Carbohydrate | 27.3g | 4.7 g |
of which sugars | 27.0g | 4.6 g |
Fat | Trace | Trace |
of which saturates | Trace | |
Fibre | 0.7g | 0.1 g |
Sodium | 0.9g | 0.2 g |
Salt | 2.2g | 0.4 g |
On the whole, this is not too bad, but the sugar content is staggering. Surely there is a healthier alternative? If you do not wish to prepare your ketchup, then the next best thing I have found is tomato puree.
Tomato Puree
Ingredients
Tomatoes, acidity regulator citric acid
Nutrition
Typical values | PER 100g | per 20g serving |
Energy | 403kJ | 81 kJ |
95kcal | 19 kcal | |
Fat | 0.4g | 0.1 g |
of which saturates | <0.1g | <0.1 g |
Carbohydrate | 17.1g | 3.4 g |
of which sugars | 12.6g | 2.5 g |
Fibre | 2.8g | 0.6 g |
Protein | 4.4g | 0.9 g |
Salt | 0.05g | <0.01 g |
Okay, so I admit this product is not perfect either, but comparing the two, the tomato puree has less than half the sugar content and significantly less salt than the ketchup! There is a bit of citric acid to regulate the acidity levels of the tomatoes in the puree product, but apart from that, the tomato puree wins out over the ketchup.
Conclusion
Tomato Puree is my replacement for ketchup. It is bland in taste, in comparison to tomato sauce, due to the lower sugar content, but this does not pose an issue for me, and once you become accustomed to the taste, it shouldn’t bother you either. Give it a try!
Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.