The Store-Bought BBQ Sauce You'll Want To Skip If You're Watching Your Sodium Intake

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There's nothing better than going hogwild on BBQ ribs and brisket, unless you or a loved one are sensitive to salty sauces. To keep anyone from feeling left out at a barbecue, the first step is to avoid using condiments that are total salt bombs. One product that definitely doesn't make the cut is Frank's RedHot Buffalo 'N BBQ Thick Sauce.

Frank's RedHot offers plenty of sauce flavors that are beloved far and wide, but this cross between its classic RedHot Sauce and thick BBQ sauce contains 580 milligrams of sodium in  2 tablespoons. To make pulled pork, smoked chicken, or spicy oven-baked spare ribs, you'll use a lot more than that. Adults should ideally consume 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day or 2,300 milligrams at maximum, and 6 tablespoons of this product puts you over the former number, while 8 puts you over the latter. That's not even counting the additional salt you might consume via side dishes, seasoning rubs, or just from the shaker.

If the flavor of this product sounds intriguing to you, try mixing homemade BBQ sauce with Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce, but be sparing — a tablespoon of the cayenne sauce contains 570 milligrams of sodium, making it even saltier than the Buffalo 'N BBQ. The saving grace is that it's quite spicy, so you can get away with less. To be even safer, make condiments entirely from scratch to control how much salt goes into them.

Consuming too much salt is no joke, even for diners who don't follow low-sodium diets. A super salty meal can cause unpleasant short-term effects like bloating or dehydration, while long-term consequences include high blood pressure, kidney stones, and even strokes or heart failure. If you host cookouts on the regular, reading the label on sauces can be crucial to avoiding these pitfalls.

Regarding products to avoid, Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Barbecue Sauce may seem like a good alternative to Frank's Buffalo 'N BBQ, but it's actually even saltier, with 690 milligrams of sodium in 2 tablespoons. In Tasting Table's ranking of popular barbecue sauce brands, Soy Vay Asian Honey BBQ Sauce placed fairly high, but its intense saltiness was a flavor drawback. Turns out it's a nutritional red flag, too: This sauce contains a whopping 590 milligrams of sodium in a single tablespoon.

As for better choices, the popular Jack Daniel's Original BBQ Sauce contains 230 milligrams of sodium and Stubb's Original Barbecue Sauce contains 250 milligrams, each in a two-tablespoon serving. These are not low-sodium foods, but won't put you over the standard daily limit when used in moderation. Meanwhile, one of the least salty sauces on the market has to be Primal Kitchen Organic & Unsweetened Classic BBQ Sauce, which contains 115 milligrams in two tablespoons. It may not taste the most traditional, but if you're quite salt-sensitive, this is a decent bet.