Today in the Kitchen: Condiments and their ingredients

Is your refrigerator door full of jars and bottles with smudged labels dating from the previous decade? It might be time to clean out, and while at it, consider the ingredients from a health perspective.

Mayonnaise is perhaps the king of condiments. It consists primarily of oil and eggs. Low-fat mayo usually has just egg whites, no yolks.

Soybean and canola oils (usually processed with toxic solvents, partially hydrogenated, containing trans fats) are used in commercial products, as well as distilled vinegar, and spices.

Natural products can be found that use olive oil, a better fat than soy, and undistilled vinegar, which has enzymes and nutritive value removed by distillation.

Full-fat mayonnaise is high in fat and calories, as well as salt. You can make your own, which allows you to control the amount of ingredients used. Recipes abound.

The homemade variety is quite rich, and a little goes a long way.

Alternatively, mashed avocado, which is mostly (good) fat, can be used in place of mayo. Avocados contain vitamins and minerals, as well as oleic acid which helps lower cholesterol, aids digestion and is an antioxidant to boot. Hard to beat.

Mayo has a reputation for spoiling, but in fact, the vinegar/lemon juice creates an acidic pH which has been found to be inhospitable to bacteria.

Still, it’s a good idea to refrigerate foods with uncooked eggs in them, and to discard them if they’ve been unrefrigerated for more than a couple of hours.

Prepared mustard, the stuff we put on hot dogs, dates back to Roman times, when the seeds were ground with wine to make a paste similar to what we eat today. Mustard seeds, which are in the Brassica family of plants, contain cancer fighting compounds.

Commercial products also contain wine or vinegar, which create an acidic pH, and salt, all of which are preservatives. Therefore, opened mustard will last up to a year under refrigeration, but will lose flavor.

Mustard (dry or seeds) has medicinal qualities including digestive, laxative, antiseptic, and circulation stimulant properties.

The seeds contain Omega 3 fatty acids, minerals, including selenium which tends to be lacking in modern diets, and even some protein.

The condiment has no fat and very few calories, but tends to be high in salt.

Ketchup is made primarily from tomatoes, of course, and here I must remind you that conventionally grown tomatoes are one of the crops most heavily laden with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. And, when cooked down, what remains is even more concentrated.

For this reason, I think it is worth a little extra money to buy organically grown tomatoes and tomato products, including ketchup.

The rest of the ingredients in ketchup include salt (a lot of it), sweetener (high fructose corn syrup in the conventional brands), and distilled vinegar.

Again, you can make your own, or buy a product from the natural foods section that has organic tomatoes, reduced salt, undistilled vinegar, and natural sweetener.

Ketchup is fairly low in calories, and contains some Vitamin C, minerals, and the antioxidant lycopene.

Relishes. One of my instructors told the class that he had worked in a pickle factory once, and that what goes into relish is this and that, from here and there, and well, not very palatable.

Knowing that, wouldn’t it be fun to make your own from fresh ingredients? Or, skip the relish and try sauerkraut, which is really good for us.

Sauerkraut, especially if you make your own, is full of enzymes and probiotics (the good flora in the gut) that aid the digestive tract, phytochemicals that boost the immune system, and a substance that has been found to help fight cancer.

Finally, in the Southwest, a discussion about condiments can not be complete without mentioning hot sauce.

Opinions run strong on this subject, so I will only address the health aspects: that hot peppers have been proven to aid with weight loss, kill cancer cells, prevent sinus infections, serve as an anti-inflammatory agent, and provide gastric relief.

Besides being tasty, hot sauce might save you some money on over-the-counter pain relievers and digestive aids!

Samaya Jones is a Holistic Nutrition Consultant and Natural Foods Personal Chef. She writes for newspapers, natural health Web sites, and teaches wine education classes. She can be reached at ncsamayj@gmail.com.