Condiments: What’s Unhealthy?

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What are hotdogs without ketchup, sandwiches without mayonnaise, and grilled chicken without BBQ sauce? Unfortunately, as delicious as they are, most common food condiments are also very unhealthy, having too much fat, sugar, or artificial additives that can cause many unwanted health problems, over time. But what if you knew that these unhealthy food condiments have guilt-free substitutes that you can use as your heart desires, without worrying for its health anymore?

The good news doesn’t stop here: you can prepare these healthy condiments at home. They are easy to make and use common ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen.

Hey, did I mention that you can also save money with them?

Top 7 Unhealthy Food Condiments and Top 7 Guilt-Free Replacements

1) Ketchup

Ketchup is delicious. I’ll give you that. I love it, too. Well, I used to love it – I’ve stopped toping my hotdogs, fries, and nuggets with it. Why? I found out that it’s full of harmful ingredients.

  • The “tomato concentrate” they use is just another smart way of saying “overprocessed tomatoes that have no taste (that we try to cover with a lot of sugar, salt, and unhealthy flavors) and no nutritional value left whatsoever.”
  • Way too much sugar or worse artificial sweeteners. High fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, which has a connection to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
  • May contain GMO corn – in the high fructose syrup corn, syrup corn, and distilled vinegar.
  • Too much salt.
  • Plus artificial flavors and other additives.

Yes. That bad! So, I gave up on ketchup.

And since I’m a health enthusiast – just like you – I tried to find natural options to it. Bye, bye ketchup, welcome healthy store-bought or homemade salsa!

If you want to buy it, look for it in health stores and check the label. Buy only salsa containing a few ingredients that are natural and safe to eat.

But if you are a foodie and you like to cook, then here’s a quick, simple DIY salsa recipe:

DIY Salsa

Salsa is the healthiest option to ketchup. The best part about it is that you can make it yourself with fresh ingredients from the garden (if you have). You can play a little bit with the ingredients if you like, add something more or less to your taste, and add other elements that you feel that it will make your salsa even better.

You will need:

  • A can of tomato paste or 1 cup of freshly cut tomatoes
  • A half teaspoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients:

  • Hot pepper flakes or chili (if you want to make it spicier)
  • Onion and garlic
  • Cilantro
  • Turmeric

Blend everything, and there you have it! Ready to use. Store it in the fridge.

2) Mayonnaise

If you love mayonnaise, maybe you’ll have second thoughts about it and never use commercial mayonnaise again when you learn what it contains.

It has bunches of unhealthy fats:

  • Hydrogenated or highly processed Soybean oil (of course, with GMO soy) or other types of oils
  • Lots of sugar

A healthier option is to make yourself homemade mayonnaise from organic egg yolks, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper to taste. So simple, easy, tasty, and less expensive to make that you won’t want to buy mayonnaise ever again.

Avocado Mayonnaise

  • 1-2 Avocados (depending on how big they are and how much mayonnaise you need)
  • ½ teaspoon Mustard (a healthy one with no artificial additives in it)
  • 2-3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed Lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon of olive oil (optional)

Blend until a mayonnaise comes out of it. Enjoy!

3) BBQ sauce

Tasty? Yes! Healthy? Not so much!

I’m talking about the BBQ sauce you have in your hand. Put it down and let me tell you why it’s not right for you. Then I’ll tell you a healthier, guilt-free option to it. Deal?

  • Sugar base – usually the first ingredient in BBQ sauce, sugar or its other unhealthy cousin, high fructose corn syrup, is in such a significant amount that it’s like you would eat sugar with a teaspoon.
  • Modified starch – another GMO
  • GMO soybean
  • Unhealthy artificial additives like flavors, colorants, thickening agents.

DIY BBQ Sauce

Mix a fantastic homemade BBQ sauce from natural ingredients of tomato paste, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and chili pepper. If you want a fancier one, try dates, blueberries, apricots, mango, honey (or molasses if you’re going for a smoky taste). It’s an all-natural, delicious, and guilt-free homemade condiment replacement for BBQ.

4) Ranch Dressing

Ranch salad dressing is just another concoction of chemicals that your digestive system might not like it at all. If you read the label, you will see a long list of hard to pronounce chemical ingredients, including monosodium glutamate, which is a flavor enhancer hidden in foods. If you didn’t know it already, it’s one of the worst food additives ever, as it’s an excitotoxin – yes, a toxin that excites (overstimulates) the brain cells, leading to brain damage. Adverse reactions include headaches, fatigue, accelerated heart rate, tingling, numbness, eye problems, neurological problems, and in time, obesity.

Yogurt Dressing

A healthier condiment that replaces the ranch dressing would be sour cream or plain yogurt mixed with your choice of herbs (parsley, dill, chives, and basil), onion, garlic, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put them all in a bowl. Whisk to combine. As simple as that.

5) Hot Sauce

It’s great to add a kick to your dish with hot sauce. However, commercial hot sauce contains high amounts of sodium and many harmful food additives. 

There are more straightforward and more accessible ways to spice up your dishes like red pepper flakes, jalapenos or chili peppers. Mix them with tomato juice, and here you have it: a very hot sauce that it’s a natural condiment with benefits for your cardiovascular system.

6) Soy Sauce

If you’re an Asian food lover, it’s hard not to use soy sauce. Almost all recipes include it. But soy sauce is made with GMO soy, and it also contains monosodium glutamate that it’s messing with your brain and makes you ask for more of this bad stuff.

The fermenting process may include wheat, and for people who are gluten intolerant or just excluded wheat from their diet, it’s not a healthy condiment anymore.

So, let’s put an end to this and find a healthier as well as tastier option.

Tamari Sauce

Organic Tamari sauce (made from non-GMO soy) is a better alternative to the condiment soy sauce. Even if tamari sauce is fermented, it doesn’t use wheat, and so, it’s gluten-free and non-inflammatory. Check the label before you buy it, though, and make sure it contains healthy ingredients. You don’t want to swap one bad thing for another, do you?

7) Queso

A famous nacho dip, queso is not suitable for your arteries and cholesterol levels, as it contains too many calories, and too much sodium and saturated fat.

DIY Dairy-Free Sauce

  • 1 cup soaked overnight cashews
  • ½ cup nutritional yeast (or more if you want)
  • onion
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Ready to Make the Switch to Healthy Condiments?

Most commercial condiments sold in supermarkets are not real food, with valuable nutrients, and real food ingredients. They are a “cocktail” of chemicals meant to taste good, induce cravings and even addiction – so you come back and buy them again and again, and make loads of money at the expense of your health. Why not turn to guilt-free, delicious, fresh, and healthy condiments instead?