Look for salt and sugar in processed foods, Costco rebates more than cover annual fee

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, TOO: Like so many others, Hunt's Pasta Sauce contains a lot of salt, but sugar and high fructose corn syrup also are listed as ingredients. A half cup contains 23% of the recommended daily maximum of sodium.

LOW SODIUM SAUCE: Colonna offers low-sodium Marinara (a half cup contains only 3% of the sodium you should consume in one day), but the regular Marinara Sauce, right, packs 25% of the recommended daily maximum. Both also contain added sugar.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Salt, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are common ingredients in many bottled and canned pasta sauces.

At the ShopRite in Paramus, Victoria sells one of the few bottled sauces without added sugar, and its Vodka Sauce doesn't contain artery clogging cream.

But Victoria's Low Sodium pasta sauce is hard to find. 

A half cup of Victoria Marinara contains 18% of the maximum amount of sodium you are supposed to consume in a day.

ShopRite's own Wholesome Pantry Organic Pasta Sauces contain only 8% of the recommended daily maximum.

You can cut the sodium in your pasta sauce by using canned tomatoes with little or no added salt, and blending them with a higher-sodium bottled sauce.

Another way to cut the sodium in your pasta dish is never, ever salt the pasta water.

ADDED SUGAR: Classico Cabernet Marinara is another sauce with added sugar. Below, ShopRite's Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Capellini with shrimp, left, and Whole Foods' Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli with sardines and anchovies.

Victor's Healthy Kitchen

Here is a video on how to prepare the capellini and shrimp:

NO ADDED SUGAR: Dannon's Oikos Triple Zero Blended Greek Yogurt contains only 6 grams of sugar (a teaspoon is about 4 grams), but loses out on taste. We prefer Siggi's, a thick Icelandic-style yogurt with 9 grams to 11 grams of sugar, made with milk from grass-fed cows.

How Costco pays me to shop

Every February, Costco Wholesale members receive their "rewards" from using the no-fee Costco Anywhere Visa Credit Card.

In my case, those $365 in cash rebates on warehouse and Costco.com purchases, gasoline, restaurant meals, travel and stuff you buy in other stores totaled more than 3 times my annual membership fee of $120.

COSTCO'S ASIAN ACCENT IS MORE PRONOUNCED: Nissin Raoh Japanese-style Ramen is one of the many Asian products on the shelves of the Costco Wholesale off of Route 46 in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center.

KOREAN NOODLES: Costco also carries Japchae, Korean glass noodles made from yam flour.

GLUTEN FREE: These Organic Rice Ramen Noodles are made from millet and brown rice, and they are sodium free.

DELICIOUSLY THICK: An Asian Indian-style Mango Lassi is a thick smoothie made with milk from grass-fed cows. In Costco's refrigerated case last week, I found two 32-ounce containers of the organic lassi for $5.79 after an instant savings of $3.

5% BACK: Now, Amazon Prime members using the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card get 5% back at Amazon's Whole Foods Market in Paramus and elsewhere. That's the same rebate they receive when shopping on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile.com. The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express offers 6% back at Whole Foods and other supermarkets, but not at Costco, and carries a $95 annual fee.