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Right, squeeze bottles at dawn. Ketchup, sweet chilli, barbecue, salad cream, sriracha — five sauces you probably use without a second thought. But some of these are basically pudding in disguise. Today we're guessing the sugar, teaspoon by teaspoon. Ready to be surprised by your own fridge door?
Starting easy. One tablespoon of ketchup — a normal squirt on your chips. Clue: it's often called the 'gateway sauce' because most people don't think twice about it. So, one tablespoon — how many teaspoons of sugar do you reckon are riding along?
About one teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon, roughly a quarter of it is sugar by weight once you check the label. Not shocking on its own — but most people use more than one tablespoon, and that adds up fast across a week of chip suppers.
It's got 'sweet' right there in the name, so no marks for guessing there's sugar. The clue is in how much sweeter it is than ketchup. One tablespoon — is it a little more, or a lot more?
Roughly two teaspoons of sugar in that same tablespoon — about double ketchup's count. It's closer to a dipping syrup than a savoury sauce, and recipes vary a lot between brands, so some jars run even sweeter.
Barbecue sauce sells itself on smoke and spice. But treacle, molasses and brown sugar are usually doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. One tablespoon — where does it land between ketchup and sweet chilli?
Around one and a half teaspoons per tablespoon — sitting right between the other two. Slather it generously over a burger and chicken thighs, and you could be adding several teaspoons before you've even reached for the ketchup too.
It sounds virtuous, it sits next to the salad. Clue: it's more about oil, egg and vinegar than sugar. One tablespoon — you reckon this one finally lets us off the hook?
About half a teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon — the lowest of the lot so far. Salad cream leans on tang rather than sweetness, though it's worth remembering it's still fairly high in fat, just a different story to tell.
Last one. Sriracha is famous for its chilli kick, not its sweetness. But that fermented chilli mash usually has sugar stirred in to round off the heat. One tablespoon — does the fire hide any sugar at all?
Roughly half a teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon, similar to salad cream. The chilli heat does a good job of masking it, which is exactly why it's easy to assume there's none there at all.
Start your transformation — try SugarCoach free, then £2.99/weekGeneral lifestyle education, not medical advice — personal medical decisions belong with your GP or pharmacist.