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Why is there sugar in my tomato soup?

January 30, 2012

So I have been trying low sodium soups. When I have time, I love to make soup from scratch. But I often don’t have time. So, enter the effort to find canned soups that taste good and are good for me. My favorite when I was growing up was tomato soup. It was the simple can of Campbells. I didn’t know there was any other kind. My mom made it with milk. Probably whole milk. I have no idea when all the low fat and skim varieties of milk became available. When they did, she started to use them.

And grilled cheese. Recently, I have started to put a sliced fresh tomato on my grilled cheese sandwich before grilling it. Yummm. But I digress.

The amount of sodium in Campbell’s tomato soup sent me on a search for something healthier. 530 mg of sodium in a half cup. Sorry but I usually have a cup of soup and so — half the day’s salt for a cup of coup. Yikes. [http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-campbells-tomato-soup-i81752]

I tried a couple of different kinds of reduced sodium canned tomato soup. I didn’t like them. I tried tomato basil reduced sodium hoping that the basil would help. I didn’t like them. Until yesterday. Progresso vegetable classics tomato basil soup. 580 mg sodium in one cup compared to 1,60 in one cup of the Campbells. There was just one problem.

When I took the first bite, I knew there was sugar added. I could taste it. I got up and flipped the can over and sure enough — under the Ingredients list — sugar is the 3rd ingredient. Why? You have to be kidding me. So I went on a search of the other soups. You guessed it. Sugar. High fructose corn syrup. It’s there. You just have to look for it.

So back on the hunt I went for a homemade recipe. I found one I like. But it has V-8 juice in it. And v-8 juice, well, it has a lot of salt in it… Sigh. There is a low sodium version [http://www.v8juice.com/FAQ.aspx]

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Author: Roxanne

I have always loved to learn. After years of trying to pick a major as an undergraduate, I met a professor who guided me to graduate school. And from graduate school, I learned that I could always go to school and keep on learning. And so I have...

13 thoughts on “Why is there sugar in my tomato soup?”

  1. yeah… not ALL Amy’s soups have added sugar but the tomato one does. Tomatoes and milk have some sugar content but all the tomato soups add sugar and it does not even taste good to me. Wish some one would make a slightly spicy one without added sugar. I keep reading labels and looking. 🙁

  2. Covent Garden Soups. I am diabetic and thought i was eating a nice healthy vegetable soup. Until I checked the sugar levels and got a big shock. I done some additional research and can confirm the following –

    Typical vegetable soup 600 ml 1-2 grams sugar,
    90 ml of single cream 1 gram of sugar (as used in Covent garden soup)
    Therefore, a standard soup using 1/7th single cream should have approx. 2.5g of sugar per 600ml

    Covent garden soup 18 grams of sugar, or equal to 1.5 cans of energy juice (Tesco Blue Spark)

  3. I’ve searched high and low for canned (or boxed) tomato soup without sugar, but in vain. I’m afraid our only option is to start with stock (homemade or otherwise) and add tomato paste and your choice of a cream to mellow the flavor. “Evaporated cane sugar” is bogus…it’s just sugar. Cane sugar, no less. And isn’t all sugar “evaporated?” This is nothing more than a manufacturer’s attempt at deception.

  4. I personally don’t understand why any of the canned or boxed soup companies use any type of sweetener at all in tomato soup? Jaime Oliver has a great recipe for Tomato Basil soup, and you taste the wonderful fresh taste of the tomatoes, and the basil… not sugar. I have since become a vegetarian, but when I used to eat beef, I stumbled into a lot of beef stews/soups that had sugar in them as well-gross! I love sugar… in desserts, but not in soups (unless maybe in a squash soup). Maybe its a mid-west pallet thing?

  5. i also found the campbells tomato soup way high in sugar. i figured it out that i was feeling more hungry after cosuming a small bowl of the soup and the reason is the sugar that spiked my blood sugar.

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