Ketchup Calories

Heinz introduced us to our beloved ketchup with the slogan, "Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!" We have taken this slogan to our heart. We add ketchup to hamburgers and French fries and lots of other fast food to make it tasty. Ketchup is a favorite condiment of children and adults alike. Sometimes, health conscious people also end up covering their diet food with ketchup in order to add some zing and flavor to it. But, do we know the amount of calories that we intake in this process?

Ketchup Calorie Count

Ketchup Calories
Serving Size	Calories	Calories from Fat	Fats	Sodium	Sugar	Total Carbs	Protein
10g (1 packet)	15	0	0.02 g	67 mg	1.37g	1.5g	0.1g
240 g	233	7	0.7 g	2674 mg	54.6 g	60.4 g	4.2 g
1 oz	27	1	0.11 g	316 mg	6.46 g	7.11 g	0.49 g
100 g	97	3	0.38 g	1114 mg	22.77 g	25.08 g	1.74 g
1 lb	440	15	1.72 g	5053 mg	103.28 g	113.76 g	7.89 g

Ketchup was earlier known as catsup or ketsiap. If you are interested to know about catsup vs ketchupa, then let me tell you, there is as such no difference between the two. Both are sweet tangy condiments with tomato, onion, salt, cinnamon as the primary ingredients. This amazing condiment was the invention of the Chinese who created it with fish, spices and soy sauce in the 1600s and introduced it to Europe and Indonesia. Later, people started adding their own ingredients which were available in their local markets like walnuts, tomatoes, mushrooms, oysters, lemon, etc. Some made it sweet and sour, while others made it hot by adding red pepper flakes. Finally in 1872, Henry John Heinz came up with a ketchup recipe that made use of tomatoes, sugar, salt, onions and other spices and introduced it in the commercial market.

Though ketchups can be made from different food products like anchovies, mushrooms and walnuts, sweet sour and tangy flavored tomato ketchup is what people love. Almost 97% of American families use ketchup as an important ingredient in many dishes. People love to pile ketchup on almost all fast food; burgers, hotdogs and the like.

There are many different types of ketchups apart from our favorite tomato ketchup. Walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, grape ketchup, banana ketchup, cucumber ketchup and red pepper ketchup are some of the other ketchups which are used. Ketchup can be either homemade or bought at a supermarket which most of us do as we get a lot of different varieties and brands to choose from. Also, it is not very easy to make ketchup at home.

Ketchup can be used as a substitute for tomatoes in tomato recipes. But, since we gain more calories this way, it is advisable to use tomatoes. It should also be remembered that tomatoes contain lycopane which help in the prevention of cancer. But when we use ketchup as a substitute, the nutritional value comes down due to the huge amount of salt and sugar. Sauces are other substitutes for ketchups. They are better because they can be made fresh at home and of course they contain no preservatives.

So folks the next time you go to a burger joint, remember that you are eating a packet of calories when you top your burger or French fries with ketchup. Eat your burgers without too much ketchup and enjoy their actual taste without having to pile on those extra calories.