Whether it's a splash of ketchup, lashings of brown sauce, or a dip of sweet chilli, find out how healthy (or not!) your favourite is...
Sauces. There’s one for everyone isn’t there? Whether it’s a humble splash of ketchup on your fish and chips, lashings of brown sauce on your bacon, or a posh pot of sweet chilli dipping sauce, everyone has a favourite.
But have you ever stopped to think how many extra calories you might be adding to your already calorific meal, just with a dollop of your fave sauce?
We’ve taken a look at 14 of the most popular sauces, like tomato ketchup, mayonnaise, Reggae Reggae sauce, mustard and plenty of other of the nation’s favourites to see where they stand in the health stakes.
Who could have ever predicted that some of these sauces could be so unhealthy? Click through our gallery to sort through the healthy sauces from the not-so-healthy.
We’ve looked at the calorie content, sugar, fat and salt content in each sauce per 100 grams, to reveal which are the healthy sauces., so you can be smarter about which sauce you chose to add to your meal.
Plus keep an eye out for the culprit that contains over 10 teaspoons of sugar, in every 100 grams – shocking!
Which of these sauces is your favourite? Did the results shock you? Let us know in our comments section below…
Heinz Salad Cream
Rating for calorie-counters: 2/10
Cal: 329 (per 100g) - highest calorie count!
Fat: 26.8g
Saturated fat: 3g
Sugar: 17.5g
Salt: 1.1g
Weight: 460g
Price: £2.24 at AsdaVerdict: Who knew that our beloved Salad Cream would be so calorific? Whilst we agree it's delicious, this condiment is one you'll want to avoid eating regularly, especially if, like us, you like to enjoy it between 2 slices of white bread with some cheese.
Colman's seafood sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 2/10
Cal: 296 (per 100g)
Fat: 23g
Saturated fat: 2g
Sugar: 19g
Salt: 0.79g
Weight: 250ml
Price: £1.38 at TescoVerdict: Seafood sauce is tangy and delicious, yet almost a quarter of every 100 grams is fat. You won't want to make this your regular sauce of choice!
Hellmann's Light Mayonnaise
Rating for calorie-counters: 3/10
Cal: 271 (per 100g)
Fat: 26.7g
Saturated fat: 2.6g
Sugar: Sugar free!
Salt: 0.69g
Weight: 450g
Price: £2.49 at TescoVerdict: We all knew mayo wasn't going to be the slimmest of sauces... per 100g there are over 270 calories plus more than a quarter of it is fat. Thankfully this lighter option has less than half the calories of real mayonnaise - just imagine!
Hellmann's Garlic Mayonnaise
Rating for calorie-counters: 3/10
Cal: 269 (per 100g)
Fat: 26.9g - highest on fat!
Saturated fat: 2.7g
Sugar: 2.2g
Salt: 0.7g
Weight: 400g
Price: £1.99 at TescoVerdict: No surprises that Hellmann's garlic version of their classic mayonnaise tells a similar story to their normal mayo. Per 100g, it's very high in fat, although it is on a similar level to the light mayonnaise, rather than the full fat version.
Colman's English mustard
Rating for calorie-counters: 4/10
Cal: 188 (per 100g)
Fat: 9.3g
Saturated fat: 0.6g
Sugar: 9.8g
Salt: 3.1g
Weight: 170g
Price: £1.54 at Asda
Verdict: Thankfully the hotness of mustard stops most people from smothering too much on their meal, which is no bad thing as mustard is surprisingly fatty, with over 9 grams of fat in every 100 grams.
Blue Dragon Original Sweet Chilli sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 4/10
Cal: 184 (per 100g)
Fat: 0.6g
Saturated fat: Sat fat free!
Sugar: 43.2g -
that's over 10 teaspoons of sugar!
Salt: 1.3g
Weight: 380g
Price: £1.50 at AsdaVerdict: We can hardly believe our ears. Our favourite sweet chilli sauce contains a whopping 43.2 grams of sugar! Brownie points for the very low amount of fat, but over 10 teaspoons of sugar is just unforgiveable!
Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae Jerk BBQ sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 5/10
Cal: 121(per 100 grams)
Fat: 0.1g
Saturated fat: Sat fat free!
Sugar: 27.1g
Salt: 0.4g
Weight: 315g
Price: £1 at AsdaVerdict: We have to admit we thought this sauce would be more calorific than it is. Not bad with 121 calories per 100g, and practically fat free. It's just that hefty amount of sugar you'll want to watch out for!
HP Brown sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 5/10
Cal: 121 (per 100 grams)
Fat: 0.2g
Saturated fat: Sat fat free!
Sugar: 22.7g
Salt: 1g
Weight: 425g
Price: £1.50 at AsdaVerdict: Who doesn't love a bit of brown sauce on their bacon, but we bet you never think about the extra calories you're adding to your already fatty breakfast. The good news is, this sauce isn't too bad for you, per 100g there's barely a trace of fat - but just look at that sugar content!
Lea and Perrins' Worecester sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 5/10
Cal: 113 (per 100ml)
Fat: 0.2g
Saturated fat: Trace
Sugar: 19.6g
Salt: 1.5g
Weight: 290ml
Price: £2 at AsdaVerdict: Whilst Lea and Perrins' is pretty high in sugars and salt, we're betting that you only use a very small amount at a time, in which case this sauce doesn't add too many extra calories to your meal.
Branston Pickle
Rating for calorie-counters: 5/10
Cal: 111 (per 100g)
Fat: 0.2g
Saturated fat: Sat fat free!
Sugar: 23.9g
Salt: 1.6g
Weight: 520g
Price: £1.85 at AsdaVerdict: Who knew Branston pickle was so sugary? But at least it's fat free and only just over 110 calories per 100 grams.
Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Rating for calorie-counters: 7/10
Cal: 105 (per 100g)
Fat: 0.1g
Saturated fat: Trace
Sugar: 23.5g
Salt: 1.2g
Weight: 460g
Price: £1.75 at AsdaVerdict: Ahh ketchup. The old British favourite, a portion of fish and chips just wouldn't be right without it. Calorie-wise ketchup doesn't score too badly, it's 105 calories per serving, and it's virtually fat free, yay! However that sugar content is pretty dire, stick to the reduced sugar version, which has cut the amount to 16.3 grams.
Colman's Mint sauce
Rating for calorie-counters: 9/10
Cal: 21 (per 100g)
Fat: 0.2g
Saturated fat: Sat fat free!
Sugar: 0.3g
Salt: 1.7g
Weight: 250ml
Price: £1.38 at Sainsbury'sVerdict: We knew there had to be a diet friendly sauce out there somewhere! Colman's mint sauce is so low in calories, with hardly a pinch of fat. You can afford to treat yourself to a little bit extra with your roast with this sauce.
