There are many studies that try to highlight the bad eating habits that are taking over the day to day of the vast majority of people. Stress and haste make the time spent in the kitchen practically non-existent and, therefore, the precooked, packaged, frozen dishes, etc. They form a too-present part of our lives. Obviously, this is an easy and quick solution for punctual occasions, but resorting to these wildcards on a continuous basis is anything but advisable.
No food maintains its natural properties after passing through the processes of chain production in which also add a multitude of external elements that delay their expiration at the cost of making them less healthy. And the sauces case is no exception.
All the negative points that we are going to talk about below referto conventional packaged sauces, those that can be found in any store or supermarket. Because when it comes to products of this type, homemade and with natural ingredients, their benefits tend to stand out much more than the negative consequences they may suppose.
You have to start talking about the added sugars, one of the elements that are most looked at with magnifying glass in recent years. Health problems in which continuous use can be translated have placed them on the point of view of nutritionists and even physicians, and many people are beginning to become aware of it. The packaged sauces have an added sugar content too high, especially if it is all varieties destined to be used as a sweet recipe dressing.
A good example is the chocolate syrup, probably the most used in breakfasts, snacks and desserts. Depending on the brand that is analyzed the level of sugars varies, but in most cases (except, of course, those that are produced “without added sugars”) more than half of its composition is made by sugar, reaching figures as exorbitant as 71%. When it comes to flavors like chocolate or caramel, it becomes less surprising to check these exaggerated amounts of sugar; But when you talk about sauces for savoury dishes, the results are not very different.
Taking as a reference the barbecue sauce, whose traditional origin comes from the United States of America and has been established as one of the preferred in our society, there have been studies in which different brands of this product are compared to obtain a Average estimate. The data amounts to 30 grams of sugar for every 100 milliliters of salsa, in a calculation for which a total of 42 condiments of this type made by different companies have been taken into account. It seems difficult to assume that a flavor so distinctive, strongly associated with the meat, contains that level of sugars, but you can find cases where they graze the 50 grams for every 100 milliliters.
The worst thing is that this pattern is repeated with ketchup, Caesar sauce, mustard and a long etcetera.
Before dealing with the issue of the amount of calories that the packaged sauces provide to our diet, we must make clear something that, although it seems obvious, should not lose sight: we are talking about a nutritional supplement, ie, sauces are never taken alone. You will be thinking that it is totally unnecessary to make that clarification, but it is essential to keep in mind when analyzing the caloric problems that these products pose.
The amount of calories that sauces have would not be too worrying for itself, but when it is added to a recipe in which the main food is, for example, veal, the drawbacks begin to emerge.
The most obvious is simply that the caloric intake is triggered and can reach figures not recommended by health and nutrition professionals. However, the most dangerous factor is that, on many occasions, when it is a condiment that we think only adds some flavor, we do not consider it. In this way, you are eating extra calories without being too aware of it.