Line up your condiments. How many have sugar in the first five ingredients?
The Short Answer
Open your refrigerator door. Pull out the ketchup, barbecue sauce, salad dressings, teriyaki sauce, sriracha mayo. Check the ingredient list. If sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, or any sweetener appears in the first five ingredients, you’re adding hidden sugar to foods you thought were savory. Condiments are where sugar sneaks in without detection: a tablespoon here, a squirt there, adding up to surprisingly significant amounts while flying under your awareness radar.
Something to Sit With
How many of your condiments have sugar in the top five ingredients?
What’s your realistic daily condiment consumption adding in sugar?
Which condiments are worth keeping, and which could be swapped?
Learn More
The Audit Process.
Step 1: Gather everything
- Ketchup
- Barbecue sauces
- Salad dressings
- Marinades and cooking sauces
- Asian sauces (teriyaki, hoisin, sweet chili)
- Mayonnaise-based sauces
- Relishes and chutneys
- Hot sauces (some, not all)
Step 2: Read the first five ingredients
Ingredients are listed by weight. If a sweetener appears early, there’s substantial sugar.
Step 3: Note the sugar grams per serving
“Serving size: 1 tablespoon” may understate what you actually use.
Common Offenders.
These are typical values, not fixed ones: brands differ and recipes change. Sauces and condiments are reliably where sugar hides; the grams on your own label are the ones that count.[1]
Ketchup: Typically 4g sugar per tablespoon. First 5 ingredients usually include sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.
Barbecue sauce: Often 6-12g sugar per tablespoon. Some brands have more sugar than tomato.
Sweet chili sauce: Can exceed 10g per tablespoon. It’s essentially chili-flavored syrup.
Teriyaki sauce: 5-8g per tablespoon. The sweetness is the feature.
Honey mustard: 4-6g per tablespoon. Honey is sugar.
Thousand Island/Russian dressing: 3-5g per tablespoon.
Ranch dressing: Often 1-2g per tablespoon, lower but not zero.
Balsamic vinaigrette: Varies wildly; some have significant added sugar.
Relish: 3-4g per tablespoon. Sweet pickle relish is called that for a reason.
The Accumulation Problem.
One tablespoon here doesn’t seem like much. But:
Realistic usage (this page’s arithmetic on the typical figures above):
- 2-3 tablespoons ketchup with fries: 8-12g sugar
- 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce: 12-24g sugar
- 3 tablespoons salad dressing: 6-15g sugar
Daily accumulation:
- Ketchup at lunch, dressing at dinner, sauce on meat: easily 20-40g sugar
- That’s comparable to a candy bar, from “savory” foods
Invisible calories:
- 20g sugar = 80 calories from condiments alone
- Calories you didn’t decide to eat
Lower-Sugar Alternatives.
Typical label values again; brands differ, so check yours.
Mustard (plain): 0g sugar, strong flavor
Hot sauce (most vinegar-based): 0g sugar
Olive oil + vinegar: No added sugar, make your own dressing
Salsa: Usually 0-2g per serving
Horseradish: 0g sugar, powerful flavor
Plain mayo: Typically 0g sugar (check label)
Soy sauce: Usually 0-1g sugar (some teriyaki-flavored ones are sweet)
Vinegars: 0g sugar, variety of flavors (balsamic, red wine, apple cider)
Making Substitutions.
Instead of ketchup: Mustard, hot sauce, salsa, or reduced-sugar ketchup
Instead of barbecue sauce: Spice rubs, mustard-based sauce, or make your own with less sugar
Instead of sweet dressings: Oil and vinegar, lemon juice, Greek yogurt-based dressings
Instead of teriyaki: Soy sauce with ginger and garlic (without the sugar)
Instead of sweet chili: Sriracha or sambal oelek (less or no sugar)
The Recipe Opportunity.
Many condiments are simple to make without sugar:
Basic vinaigrette: 3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar, salt, pepper, herbs
Tahini dressing: Tahini, lemon, garlic, water
Yogurt sauce: Plain Greek yogurt, lemon, herbs, garlic
Spice-based sauces: Mustard, horseradish, herbs (flavor without sweetness)
Made yourself, you know exactly what went in.
Further reading:
- Popkin BM & Hawkes C, “Sweetening of the global diet, particularly beverages: patterns, trends, and policy responses”[2] — The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2016
- Drewnowski A & Rehm CD, “Consumption of added sugars among US children and adults by food purchase location and food source”[3] — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2014
- Monteiro CA et al., “Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them”[4] — Public Health Nutrition, 2019
Written by AI, directed and approved by me. How this is made →