Careful With Those Condiments
Condiments- we all love some form of them (from ketchup or mustard to ranch and soy sauce and our favorite spicy BBQ.) But do you really know what’s in those condiments? Often times they are filled with salt (not the natural kind), sugar, and other not so wonderful ingredients. Turn over your favorite BBQ sauce to read the ingredients and chances are it has high fructos corn syrup, caramel color (which can lead to the formation of a carcinogen called methylimidazole), as well as icky preservatives such as Sodium Benzoate. Even some of those organic salad dressings have plenty of processed vegetable oils in their ingredient list. I used to not even think twice before pouring on BBQ onto my chicken or burger. I never really liked dressing so I didn’t think about the ingredients when buying it for my hubby. I was in the dark completly. I had no idea that chronic exposure to these coupounds can lead to brain inflammation and eventually cognitive decline.
But you don’t have to go without those delicious sauces in order to stick to a clean and healthy lifestyle. I found lots of recipes to make my own ketchup and salad dressings (which you can find by searching “paleo ranch” or “paleo ketchup”). However, if you are like me and don’t want to spend all your time in the kitchen making condiments there are several brands of healthy condiments out there these days thanks to the growing demand for healthy options. As the general public learns more about the detrimental effects that too much sugar and processed oils can have on one’s health our options are broadening.
Here are some of my favorite brands of condiments that I buy for our family. You can find most of these on Thrive Market. In fact, they are having a sale right now (30% off as of 1/6/22). AND if you sign up for a new membership you get 40% off your first purchase with this link. Otherwise you may be able to find them in the healthy section of your local grocery store. A lot of them are available on amazon as well. You will notice that “Primal Kitchen” is one of our favorite brands.
Our Families Favorite Condiments:
Most of there can be found at Thrive Market (click here) or click on the name for the link to buy elsewhere…
–Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo: I love using this to make potato salad for our summer BBQs. I hate potato salad but my hubby LOVES it and I couldn’t stand reading the ingredients of the store bought stuff so now I make it from scratch. I also use this to make our own Paleo Ranch Dressing when I’m feeling like spending more time in the kitchen. 😉 But if you don’t like making your own ranch Primal Kitchen has that too…
–Primal Kitchen Ranch Dressing with Avocado Oil
–Primal Kitchen Organic Unsweetened Ketchup
–Good Food For Good Spicy Ketchup: This is my son’s favorite!
–Primal Kitchen Organic Spicy Ketchup
–Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos: We use this to replace soy sauce
–Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos Teriyaki Sauce
–Primal Kitchen No Soy Teriyaki Sauce
–Primal Kitchen Golden BBQ Sauce
–Yai’s Thai Pad Thai Sauce (they make a number of other amazing sauces)
–Primal Kitchen Organic Spicy Brown Mustard
–Organic Yellow Mustard by Good and Gather: I’m super excited that Target started carrying organic mustard. While often mustard doesn’t have awful ingredients it does have vinegar which unless it’s organic is often derived from GMO corn. No good!
–Organic Ketchip by Good and Gather: Target also makes an organic ketchup. It still has sugar but it’s organic and if you have picky eaters this is a nice substitute. My hubby likes this brand.
–Primal Kitchen Classic BBQ Sauce
–Stubbs BBQ Sauce: This one is a bit out of left field. It’s not organic, it does contain sugar, BUT it’s non GMO and doesn’t have a ton of junk in it. It’s kind of my hubby’s happy medium BBQ sauce. I showed him the ingredients on one of his favorite BBQ sauces and he started buying this as a better alternative. He LOVES his BBQ sauce and likes all different flavors so this is his compromise. 😉
–Good Food Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce
–Siete Traditional Hot Sauce: This is one of my favorite hot sauces.
Some others that look good but we haven’t tried yet:
–Primal Kitchen Ceaser Dressing with Avocado Oil
–Primal Kitchen Pizza Sauce Unsweetened (not a condiment per se but most pizza sauce has added sugar and yucky oils). This one does not have junk in it.
–Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce: I haven’t tried this one yet but bought it to put on some wings soon. I’ve only found it at Thrive Market online but I’ve seen it at Costco as well.
–Primal Kitchen Ranch Dip (I haven’t tried this but we recently got it free from Thrive. I’ll bust it out at our next social gathering with a yummy veggie tray) I’ve only found it at Thrive Market.
–Primal Kitchen Cocktail Sauce
–Primal Kitchen Jalapeno BBQ Sauce: This looks good if you like spicy. We need to try this one. I’ve only found it at Thrive Market.
–Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo with Avocado: We got this free from Thrive Market as well (they often have great free product deals with a minimum purchase)
–Primal Kitchen No Dairy Alfredo Sauce: I am not a fan of alfrado but I’m sure this would be amazing if I was.
–Primal Kitchen Tartar Sauce: I don’t like tartar sauce byt my hubby does so I’m excited about this new find!
–Tessamae’s Matty’s Organic BBQ Sauce: I haven’t tried this one yet but the ingredients are on point!
They also sell a lot of these at Target for a pretty good price (when comparing to amazon) so you may want to shop around.
Do you have any clean and healthy favorite sauces? If so, feel free to share in the comments below!
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