Introducing: Junk Food That Isn’t (Sweet!)
July 5, 2007 by Sara Ost
Filed under Diets and Dieting, Food and Drink, Misc., Nutrition
Benjamin Franklin allegedly said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” (Ben was also a total player. Go Ben.) When I find junk food that is unexpectedly healthy, I feel a similar wave of reverence, not for God, exactly, but just general waviness.
Once a week or so, I’ll be sharing healthy junk food discoveries. Mind you, not lame junk food substitutes, but actual junk food that is still miraculously healthy.
Junk Food That Isn’t, #1: Ketchup
Americans committed to the ketchup love affair back in the 1600s, before they were technically even Americans. I thought ketchup was just a watery, sugary version of tomato sauce, perhaps born of desperation, but I was way off. Ketchup came to America from Asia, where it was originally a spicy, vinegary sauce called ketsiap. For the record, “catsup”, “catchup” and other non-k variants are not legit. (Stun your friends tonight with that factoid. You’re so welcome.) In the innovative tradition of utilizing leftovers, New Englanders added tomatoes to ketchup in the 1700s, thereby kicking the super pungent taste down a few notches and simultaneously using up all the tomato skins, cores and mushy parts that were evidently sitting around in problematic heaps. Old man Heinz started bottling the stuff in 1876 and ketchup quickly became the definitive American sauce.
The nutritional thing about this otherwise homely condiment is that it’s a veritable explosion of antioxidants in your mouth (in addition to being an explosion on your white t-shirt). Tomatoes contain lycopene and lutein, two rockin’ antioxidants that nourish your eyes (thus sustaining your Stumbleupon addiction). Tomatoes have to be cooked to release these phytonutrients, so if it’s antioxidants you’re after, you’re actually better off eating ketchup instead of tomato slices on that sammich. Though personally I recommend doing both so you get the veggie serving, too.
Ketchup satisfies my junk food criteria because it is a) processed, b) full of corn syrup and c) suspiciously uniform in color.
Because food should be patriotic, or something:
Remember the whole Heinz-Kerry ketchup ruckus in the last presidential election? Well, you can officially dress those Freedom Fries with W ketchup. You’ll be happy to know it only comes in one flavor: American. Yeah, I know, tres relief.
Ben Franklin said no such thing. In his autobiography he attributed his success to drinking only water and not beer like his colleagues. He though that beer prevented people from achieving success. He was fond of wine though.
Thanks Nick!