The corporate marketing machine is pretty sneaky about it’s labeling practices, skirting the law to make their products appear healthier than they are. Take one of the most popular foods in the American diet, ketchup. This condiment goes with many popular savory dishes like eggs, French fries, burgers, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. Everyone, especially kids, love ketchup for its sweet and tangy taste. When combined with fatty, salty foods ketchup creates an irresistible flavor combination in any dish.
Heinz is the ketchup market leader with 60 percent market share in the U.S. However, there are many reasons you and your family should reduce or avoid consumption of this popular, processed brand.
If you absolutely can’t go without your ketchup a better alternative is using an organic, GMO-free ketchup brand or making your own from organic tomato paste, water or broth, honey, salt and apple cider vinegar. Making your own is easier and cheaper than you would think and gives you ultimate control of your food.
So why is Heinz ketchup a bad choice? Just look at the label.
Legally ingredients must be listed in order of amount use, with the predominant ingredient listed first. Heinz ketchup ingredients are as follows: tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spices, onion powder and natural flavorings.
Here’s where Heinz gets tricky. They list corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup as two separate ingredients. They are in fact the same thing. If combined, these two ingredients then would be listed first on the ingredient label. Corn syrup is in fact the main ingredient in Heinz ketchup. If they listed it first, however, it would make their ketchup seem unhealthy or unappealing.
If you are not aware of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, this is probably the biggest reason to avoid a product like Heinz. A barrel of high fructose corn syrup was tested by an Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researcher and found to contain high levels of mercury. Yes, that’s right MERCURY, the toxic heavy metal that affects the brain and nervous system. This product should not be in your children’s food!
If this isn’t disturbing enough, let’s look at the other ingredients.
The tomatoes in Heinz ketchup are listed as “ripe” and “red” but they are also processed, loaded with pesticides and possibly genetically modified. To keep costs down, Heinz uses low quality ingredients, choosing instead to spend their money on marketing and advertising to manage customer perceptions.
Distilled vinegar is another Heinz ingredient made from GMO corn, which is also grown with loads of pesticides.
Heinz also uses the cheapest type of salt, which can cause toxicity in the blood, high blood pressure and mineral imbalances if eaten in high quantities. And we all know that there is nothing natural about natural flavorings, or else they’d list it as a recognizable food or spice. Natural flavorings is just label speak for chemicals.
So we hope that going over the ingredients in Heinz ketchup has raised your awareness about what’s really hiding in your processed food and condiments. It’s not as innocent as it seems.
Because the American diet is full of processed products like this, with hidden, detrimental ingredients, it’s always a good idea to do periodic cleanses to remove built up toxins. The 21-Day Body Makeover will help you flush these processed toxins.
Cleaning your body is just as important as cleaning your house. If you go too long between cleanings, the dirt will build up and become much tougher to get rid of. In some cases, these built up toxins can cause diseases, immune issues, weight gain and allergies. Removing toxic foods from your pantry is a great idea. But flushing your body of past damage and toxins will leave you feeling lighter, clearer and more energetic.
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