Does Louisiana Brand Original hot sauce actually taste good, or have your taste buds just been blown away by a sodium bomb? If you've never checked the label, you might be in for a salty surprise.
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00:00Does Louisiana Brand Original Hot Sauce actually taste good, or have your taste buds just been
00:05blown away by a sodium bomb? If you've never checked the label on Louisiana Brand Original,
00:10you might be in for a salty surprise.
00:13Compared to other hot sauces, Louisiana Brand Original Hot Sauce is unusual. It contains
00:18a whopping 200 milligrams of sodium in a single teaspoon. This means that one serving accounts
00:24for about 9 percent of the USDA's daily recommended sodium intake for adults.
00:28Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby!"
00:32Hot sauces typically have around 124 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon. This makes Louisiana
00:37hot sauce approximately 61 percent higher in sodium than many other sauces on the market.
00:42All that salt does serve a purpose. With an ingredient list only three items long, there's
00:47not a lot of places to tease out that extra flavor. Louisiana hot sauce is cayenne peppers
00:52combined with salt and vinegar, which is fermented for at least one year.
00:55A common ingredient in vinegar-based hot sauces, cayenne peppers are naturally high
00:59in vitamin C and contain natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The fermenting
01:04process reduces the heat of the peppers and adds complexity to the flavor profile. Fermented
01:09foods are also said to have certain health benefits, as they introduce bacteria to the
01:13gut that can potentially have a probiotic impact.
01:16Distilled or white vinegar is Louisiana hot sauce's third ingredient, and it may also
01:20have some mild health benefits. Some studies suggest that distilled vinegar might help
01:24reduce cholesterol and maintain healthy blood sugar levels, though since it is acidic, it
01:29should be consumed in moderation.
01:30Like other vinegar-based hot sauces, the amounts of cayenne pepper and vinegar in a bottle
01:37of Louisiana are so little that whatever health benefits may exist are negligible, at best.
01:42With so few ingredients overall, it seems that the sodium is going to be the thing that
01:46makes the biggest impact. And while sodium is an essential part of a balanced diet, diets
01:51that are chronically too high in sodium can cause some significant health problems, including
01:55high blood pressure, kidney disease, stroke, and heart failure.
01:59In moderation, Louisiana hot sauce is fine, but you may not want to douse every meal in
02:03it. So, how does it compare to other sauces on the market?
02:07Crystal, another popular Louisiana-style hot sauce, has 110 milligrams of salt per teaspoon,
02:12or 5 percent of the daily recommended value. The extremely popular Hoi Fung Sriracha has
02:17even less, just 75 milligrams of salt, or only 3 percent of the daily recommended value.
02:23Valentina hot sauce has 64 milligrams of salt, or a little over 2 percent of the daily recommended
02:28value.
02:29So, if you're trying to reduce your sodium intake, you have other options.