Ketchup Summer
August 20, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
This is the year (and this is, in particular, the summer) that Charlie took a huge liking to ketchup. At home, the proportion of the red stuff on a plate is, at times, significantly less than that of the food it’s meant to accompany, and Charlie has watched patiently as I’ve done what I can to shake those last drops out. Down here at the beach, he’s mostly had ketchup in those little packets; he tends to eat them first (before the hot dog or burger and fries). Given that there’s more ketchup than actual tomatoes consumed around here, I was interested to know that “the cheap, mass-produced processing tomato yields more concentrated nutrients than the fresh-market varieties that are picked green,” in a recent article on tomatoes in Smithsonian Magazine by Arthur Allen (better known in autism circles for writing about vaccines and the “autism epidemic”).
And Charlie has also enjoyed an occasional slice of a Jersey tomato, which truly have that taste of summer—sunshine warmth and juicy, sweetness and tang.
Neither of my kids have had ketchup on their fries. NIck likes just lettuce or plain cheeseburgers. I seem to be the only one for the pickles, onions and ketchup. Matt likes the tomato soup from Trader Joes
Well, I’m first glad to hear that Casey isn’t the only one who is ketcup crazy (he sucks what’s left out of the packets) but that it also might be good for him!? Awesome. Oddly, my friend found out her kid went silly everytime he had everyday ketchup due to the high fructose corn syrup! I found this interesting. She gets the Organic without….Yes,tomatoes rock, I am growing little ones this year and it’s such a joy to just pick, rub the dirt off and eat. Now that’s summer!
Ahh, ketchup. Adam treats ketchup like an entre, not something to dip food in too. Does the same for maple syrup.
But then again, with the taste of some of the GF/CF foods, I can’t say I blame him all that much too.
Nice picture of those famous Jersey tomatoes–they look delicious from here…and vine-ripened vs. gas ripened. Interesting find on the nutrients in ketchup.
Eleanor knows about ketchup but never got a taste for it…now tomatoes, field ripened, are another thing
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