Saucing The Tomatoes

The Fed Up Challenge doesn't officially start until Monday but I decided to get into the spirit of things by cooking my own tomato sauce. I'm aware that one good way to get away from the "evils" of processed food and gain control of what you're eating, especially the big bad three additives of salt, sugar and fat, is to cook stuff yourself.

My usual, easy "pasta for lunch" meal is made with store-bought tomato/pasta sauce in a jar. Specifically I've been buying Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara, which, according to the front label is "All Natural" and "Made With Extra Virgin Olive Oil," and according to the back label contains the following:

Tomato puree (water, tomato paste, citric acid)
Diced Tomatoes
Cabernet Wine
Salt
Sugar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Soybean Oil
Dried Onions
Basil
Dried Garlic
Spices

Pretty straightforward, right? No long, multi-syllable chemical enhancements or preservatives, just some regular food items that I can buy myself. The serving size is a 1/2 cup, which contains 70 calories, 590 grams of sodium, or 25% of the recommended daily value, and 9 grams of sugar. Before deciding to take up the challenge of giving up, or at least cutting way back, on sugar, I was mostly concerned about the sodium. 590 grams is a lot of salt, especially for 1/2 cup and that brings up one of the tricks food companies use to make us think their products are healthier than they really are: the so-called serving size is unrealistically small. I've heard that in Italy it's traditional to eat pasta with just a small coating of sauce, but I admit I like mine the American way, doused in sauce. My usual amount is closer to a full cup, which means I'm getting half my daily allotment of salt in one serving of pasta with sauce, plus 18 grams of sugar.

With all that in mind I set out to make my own tomato sauce. Check back tomorrow to hear how it went.