One of our fave sauces contain more salt than a McDonald’s hamburger

Please don't ruin pesto for us, it's all we have.

The delicious green sauce goes well with everything. Pasta. Pizza. Sandwiches. Pasta. Chips. Pasta. Breadsticks. Pasta. Pasta. Well, as it turns out, some popular brands of pesto actually have more salt in them than a McDonald's hamburger. And that's per serving. A study conducted by Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) showed that some pestos have up to 1.5 grams of salt per serving. Italia Organic Vegetarian Pesto No.5 Basil and Italia Pesto No.1 Classic Basil by Italian food company Sacla were discovered to have more salt than seawater. 100 grams of those pestos is also two and a half times saltier than peanuts. The research found that those pestos contain 1.5 grams of salt per serving which is more than a McDonald's hamburger. They also found that the amount of salt in these pestos has risen since 2009. While other popular pestos contain significantly less salt in them, the least salty ones actually come from supermarket own-brands. Tesco's Reduced Fat Red Pesto and Aldi's Specially Selected Italian Pesto Genovese both contain less than 1 gram of salt per 100 grams. CASH's Sarah Alderton said that many people are totally unaware of how salty pesto really is. However, she also said that regardless of how little salt there is in some pestos, at the end of the day, it's still not good for you.

"None of the products we surveyed could be described as 'healthy', so consider having pesto in smaller portions, less frequently, or try other pasta sauces lower in salt and fat instead."

Excuse us while we go weep silently into a big bowl of pesto pasta.