The chef sells a jalapeño gazpacho with a lot of fat and a strawberry gazpacho with a lot of sugar
Despite its high cost of 16 euros per liter “it is not a luxury product at a nutritional level”, according to an expert
Two more have been added to the growing supply of prepared gazpachos available in supermarkets: one of strawberries and another of jalapenos of Dabiz Muñoz, the renowned chef owner of the DiverXO restaurant.
Available for just over a week in the gourmet section of El Corte Inglés, where Muñoz also marketed his own Easter toast, these two new products not only stand out for their price —15.80 euros per liter— and privileged situation within the establishment —boxes full of ice with the face of the cook right in front of the box—, also for its nutritional composition.
With the data in hand, Dabiz Muñoz’s strawberry and jalapeño gazpachos are the most caloric on the market.
The strawberry gazpacho has 113 calories per 100 grams, more than double that of most gazpachos on the shelf. The one with jalapeños amounts to 206 calories per 100 grams. The normal, according to various rankings that have reviewed the entire offeris to be between 40 and 60 calories per 100 grams.
Thus, one of the most caloric that there was until now was the fresh gazpacho from Hacendadowith 75 calories per 100 grams.
Both are sold in pint containers, so a whole bottle of the strawberry is 565 calories and one of the jalapenos, 1,030 calories (approximately half of the recommended daily calories).
Are more than a full McDonald’s menu made up of a quarter pounder with cheese, small fries with ketchup and a small regular Coke, which adds up to 940, according to the chain nutritional calculator.
“As nutritionists, we don’t like to talk only about kilocalories, because there are very high-calorie foods with interesting nutrients, such as nuts,” he acknowledges. Beatrice Robles, nutritionist and food technologist. “But examples like this are very visual. Half a liter of gazpacho you can drink it perfectly in a meal and in bottle format it goes great as a snack. And this is very hot. Furthermore, from fats that are not of very good quality“.
Worse than a white label gazpacho
The jalapeño gazpacho has green tomato, green pepper, high oleic sunflower oil and olive oil. They are the four main ingredients. The oils cause not only that it is very caloric, but also that it has a high content of fats.
“It’s too high in fat, especially considering it’s a product to drink“, points out Antonio Rodríguez, responsible for the project SinAzúcar.org. “In addition, a large percentage of it is sunflower oil.”
“It has more sunflower oil than olive oil. And olive oil is refinednot virgin or extra virgin, because it only says ‘olive oil’, so we lose part of the antioxidants and bioactive compounds,” adds Robles. “That’s amazing, because It costs more than twice as much as top-brand gazpachos”.
“Nutritionally it is not a luxury product. It’s not better, not even remotely, than any other. Most of the packaged gazpachos, including private label ones, contain extra virgin olive oil. There he is already quite a few steps behind,” continues the expert.
This deep green gazpacho, which Muñoz promoted on Instagram as “polyjuice potion”, has 21 grams of fat per 100 grams.
“Gazpachos usually have around 3% fat that comes from extra virgin olive oil, which is of good quality. This one has seven times more. The energy value is greatly increased without providing us with interesting nutrients. It’s worrying,” says Robles.
A whole boat would include 105 grams of fatmore than double that of the aforementioned McDonald’s menu.
The technologist also highlights that the product includes as additives dyes that modify the properties of the product to achieve a more attractive color.
“Other gazpachos are attractive in themselves. The additives are safe, but in gazpachos they are used to preserve and maintain the texture,” he adds. Muñoz’s gazpacho, with whom this newsroom has tried unsuccessfully, “has all the characteristics of an ultra-processed product with the aggravating circumstance that it is made pass for a ‘gourmet’ product that nutritionally it is much inferior to other processed From the market. For me, it is a worse product”, settles the expert.
A shot of sugar
The chef’s strawberry gazpacho is lower in calories than the jalapeño gazpacho, but it has an unusual ingredient in gazpachos: sugar.
Its main ingredients are plum tomatoes, a strawberry puree with sugar and, again, high oleic sunflower oil. This oil contains more oleic acid than normal sunflower oil and has good properties for frying, according to the experts consulted, but in no case is it similar to virgin olive oil.
It also includes ketchup and ground chipotles.
“It has a lot of sugar,” says the person in charge of SinAzúcar.org. “Three times the usual in this type of product”.
According to the label, Dabiz Muñoz’s strawberry gazpacho has 6.3 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product. Robles calculates that 2.5 grams are from added sugars (the sugar in the strawberry puree), while the rest are free sugars that come from the strawberry itself.
Nutritionists and the WHO have long recommended limit the consumption of juices and crushed fruits due to their large amount of free sugarsas opposed to whole pieces of fruit.
“It is not a very high percentage. A Coca-Cola has about 10 grams of sugar for every 100,” says Robles. “But we are already talking about having added sugars, which gazpachos do not contain“
How to recognize a good packaged gazpacho
Muñoz’s gazpachos arrive on the shelves of El Corte Inglés Gourmet after launching their torrijas and a line of sauces —smoked ketchup, ali-oli, brava, mojo picón, etc.— at a rate of 34 euros per kilo.
Beyond the calorie kick they represent and their high percentage of fats and sugars, Rodríguez sees no problem in consuming them “occasional form”.
Robles insists that there is many better and cheaper options on the market. In that the packaged gazpacho is, in general, a “good processed”. How to distinguish between the linear options?
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“I have come to see monstrosities like salmorejos that contain mayonnaise. But in general they have good ingredients,” he recommends. “I would look at the list of ingredients, that it has the ones you would use at home to make a gazpacho or salmorejo. have a high percentage of vegetables and that the fat is of good quality (extra virgin olive oil). Finally, I would look at the amount of salt: that it does not take more than 0.8 grams per 100, because the recommended maximum is 5 grams a day.
To be fair, he concludes, the only advantage of Muñoz’s gazpachos is their low salt content. “But it doesn’t justify the rest.”