Frugal Finance: Healthy Food Swap: Safflower Mayonnaise

Contributed By Christie O, Owner and Author of AVERAGE MOMS WEAR CAPES

So I mentioned last week that mayonnaise has preservative called EDTA in it which is short for a word I cannot pronounce: Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid.

EDTA has many uses from treating lead poisoning to preserving color in textiles as well as food. It can be toxic in large amounts, causing kidney or liver damage, or can complicate existing conditions. However, it’s in almost nearly all supermarket mayonnaise, so it’s difficult to avoid.

Whilst whittling down the preservatives from our pantry and fridge at home (mainly because I’m searching for the root of my 5 year old’s tic), I went shopping to find alternatives (I listed some of them last week.)

It was a little frustrating when I first started looking because we use mayo (I love mayo!)

I preferred the light mayo, which had less fat and calories but didn’t taste as awful as the non-fat kind. I never used a whole lot of it, but for the things I use it on, I sort of need it! But there wasn’t a single one on the shelf without EDTA.

I went to the natural foods section and found one that was just sort of ok, it was a lemony type mayo and my son liked it but I was luke warm over it. So I came home and I went online and found out that another alternative (besides making your own) is safflower mayonnaise, and there is one by Hain.

I almost bought it right there online but when I went to Nature’s Food Patch, a healthy food store near us, I found it (hurrah!), bought it and came home.

It.is.AWESOME.

Here are the ingredients:

Safflower Oil Expeller Pressed, Egg(s) Whole, Grain(s) Vinegar, Water, Egg(s) Yolks, Salt Sea, Cane Juice Dehydrated, Spice(s), Lemon(s) Juice Concentrate,Honey, D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin E,Rosemary Extract, Flavor(s) Natural, Paprika Extractcolor(s)

As opposed to my previous favorite mayo:

Water, Soybean(s) Oil, Vinegar, Corn Starch Modified,Egg(s) Whole and Egg(s) Yolks, Corn Syrup High Fructose, Salt, Lemon(s) Juice, Xanthan Gum (Sorbic Acid [Calcium Disodium EDTA Used to protect quality]), Phosphoric Acid, Dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Beta Carotene, Citric Acid,Flavor(s) Natural & Artificial, Flavor(s) (Soy),Phytonadione (Vitamin K), Paprika Oleoresin

It has a few more calories, but I don’t use a lot. So I’m ok.

We use it for our chicken salad, for turkey sandwiches (like I’m about to) and YUM.