Tomato ketchup or tomato sauce is loved by children as well as adults when they have fast foods. Foods like pasta, pizza, toast, bread, lettuce, French fries, fried chicken or burger are served with tomato ketchup.
However, it is important to the know the side effects that ketchup has on overall health. Just because tomato ketchup is a perfect match for those foods, and enhances their taste, most of us think that tomato ketchup is harmless. However, the fact is, this sauce is laced with preservatives and chemicals.
Overusing tomato sauce for a long time can cause certain health problems like diabetes and obesity.
If you take a look at the ingredients list on a bottle of the most popular ketchup brand, Heinz, you might notice that, after starting with what you may expect, it quickly takes an unhealthy turn. The first ingredient is tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, and the second is distilled vinegar, which is no surprise. Next comes high-fructose corn syrup, followed by… corn syrup. In other words: sugar and more sugar.
In fact, a normal bottle of Heinz ketchup contains the equivalent of 33 tablespoons of sugar!
The suggested serving size of ketchup contains two teaspoons of sugar, which means most people are getting close to 1/3 of their suggested sugar intake a day just from putting a little on a cheeseburger.
To read more about hidden sugars in chrildren’s diets, click here