Bad vs. Good Guacamole
Today is all about a product health watch. Somebody (no names!) brought a zesty guacamole to our kickball game and it never got opened or eaten. It sat in my refrigerator for a couple days, but I got hungry and I went to eat it.
It looks like it came from a traditional supermarket, but then I stopped and looked at the ingredients. I thought guacamole is supposed to be vegan or vegetarian? Not in this case! Looking at the ingredients, the 1st one is milk, which is strange (it should be avocados), the 2nd one is soybean oil and the 3rd one is tomatoes. Turns out that avocados account for less than 2% of the ingredients!
When I looked closer look at the label, it says zesty guacamole “flavored dip.” If you’re like me, I thought it was guacamole, but it’s really just the flavor. If you read the ingredient list, it has over 35 ingredients! Crazy!!! There’s whey, egg yolk, sugar, dried milk, sodium benzoate (a preservative, but also a known carcinogen, when combined with vitamin c, it creates benzene, known to damage DNA and cause diseases; it also affects children with ADHD and makes them more hyper, malt dextrin (another sugar), gelatin, cornstarch, blue #1, red #40, yellow #5 and yellow #6. Why food coloring? This is nasty! I guess with all those ingredients they couldn’t get natural avocado green. If the first ingredient is skim milk, then we know the majority ingredient is milk, so they have to color it somehow. These food colorings contribute to allergies, cause asthma, thyroid tumors, etc.
Keep it simple! Shame on you zesty guacamole dip!! The only person who should eat this is the sink monster!
Let me show you how to make a natural, easy and super yummy guacamole that only takes 8 ingredients!
- 1 whole avocado
- 1/2 Garlic Clove
- 1/2 to 1 Serrano or Jalapeno Pepper to taste
- 1/4 of an Onion
- 1/2 a large heirloom tomato
- 1 small bunch of cilantro
- 1/2 a Lemon or Lime Juice
- Salt to taste
- Cayanne Pepper (if no peppers available)
Slice the avocado in half around the seed, twist in half to separate the halves, then tap the seed with a heavy knife, turn and remove the seed. Scoop out the avocado and put it in a bowl. Mix it up with chopped onion, tomato, cilantro and seasonings. Mix and serve! It’s super health, natural and it’ll taste 100 times better than the guacamole dip that the sink monster ate!
Sink Monster!!!
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments. And if you don’t have the 90 Day Vegetarian Weight Loss program, go to EasyVeggieMealPlans.com and get one there.
Kardena Pauza
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans – 90 Day Vegetarian Weight Loss Program
Certified Personal Trainer
Poor sink monster…forced to eat guacamole FLAVORED junk. 🙂
HaHa, I know sink monster is used to getting fresh fruits and veggies not artificial junk.
The ingredients in the shop bought ‘dip’ are even scarier than the sink monster!! 🙂
I’m with you!
I live in England and I am constantly annoyed by the number of products that say ‘suitable for vegetarians’ on them and when you read the labels they are actualy full of harmfull ‘rubbish’ 🙁
it’s become that bad that I now make my own humus as I’m sick and tired of seeing additives such as whey powder and preservatives in the shop bought versions.
Yes, we really do have to go back to making food ourselves with fresh wholesome ingredients. It tastes better anyway.
These big corporations just care about making more money which means they are always looking for ways to make food cheaper.
Again, knowledge is power!
Mmmmm…this is my favorite guacamole recipe! I’ve been making this for a few years already, except without the garlic. I think it’s time for guacamole this weekend, except this time I’ll try it with the garlic. 🙂
Yeah, garlic’s excellent in it!
hi kardena, thanks for your tasty and healthy guacamole.
by the way, you look better with no make up=)
Hello,
your welcome. It’s super simple it’s unbelievable.
I appreciate your feedback!
Thanks alot.
Does anyone have any good homemade breakfast ideas that I can bring to work? I get up very early and dont want to be loud so I’d make it the night before. I know its kind of random but any ideas would be great. Thanks
Hi Brian,
This is one I make.
I take oat groats (whole oats) that I have soaked(in water) for a day and scoop it out in a bowl. Add fresh fruit and nuts/hemp seeds or sunflower seeds, dates, maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg. You’re ready to go!
I wake up at 5 am so I have the same dilemma. Sometimes I’ll make my smoothie the night before.
I am actually going to give it a go. I generally don’t like guacamole but mostly because they all look like a science experiment gone terribly wrong, something more akin to green pudding. But the pic above make it look vibrant and healthful. I will give it a go. I don’t like avocado so I might not still like it but I’m willing to try anything once!
Tricia, you are too funny! If you don’t like it that’s ok. You can add extras like tomatoes to make it more like salsa. To make sure the guac doesn’t turn brown, make sure and squeeze a lemon or lime. This way it doesn’t oxidize.
We’ll find out if you like it or not real soon!
Thank you for this article.
We just had “bad” guac at a local mexican resturant. Their guac was thinner and creamer than usual much like sour cream. I asked if they had changed their recipe and the waitress assured me they had not and said there was no sour cream in the guac. She said that it was probably because the avocados were not as ripe as usual (yeah, right). When I returned home I was terribly sick and looked up bad guac online.
Maybe they reduced it with milk to cut cost! Since I’m lactose intolerant this would explain things. Well hopefully they at least held the benzene and all the other crap thats posing as food in our society today, zesty guac flavored crappola.
Hi Karen,
Crazy the things we have to watch out for these days. Cant’ take anything for granted and we have to ask a lot of questions. Thank you for sharing your story! Who knew milk would be put in guac!? feel better!
The Guacamole Police, Kardena