When you go for a Paleo diet, you will not be able to eat just anything. There are some foods that you can eat and there are some other foods which you cannot. The same is applicable to the condiments which are allowed on the Paleo diet. All modern man-made and processed foods are banned in all your diet and so you may not be able to use premade ketchups, hot sauce and salad dressings but there are ways to include them in your diet.

Paleo ketchup

You cannot use a regular store bought ketchup when you are following the Paleo diet. You cannot use it because there are so many additives and preservatives added in such a ketchup. However, that does not mean you cannot use ketchup at all. You can always prepare your own ketchup at-home or you can find some Paleo friendly ketchup. You can combine tomato paste, vinegar or lemon juice, water, cinnamon, mustard powder, salt, allspice, cloves and cayenne pepper to make your own ketchup. You can also add some chilies, fennel, olive oil, black people, onion, celery, coriander seeds and garlic to make it richer. Use a blender to blend all of them together and tweak the amounts of different ingredients to your taste.

Mayo

Some people feel that mayonnaise maybe a complete no-go when you are following a Paleo diet. That is true for the store brought mayonnaise but you can make your own at home and the home-made version will be okay for your Paleo plan. To create your own mayonnaise, you will need an egg yolk, salt, mustard powder or mustard seeds, lemon juice and an oil (preferably a Paleo approved oil like macadamia, of a ghetto, almond or walnut) and vinegar. Mix them together and that will be your mayonnaise approved by Paleo diet.

Mustard

When you are following a Paleo diet, you can use different herbs and spices so as to make your food more interesting. Mustard can help you to do that because it can be used with different types of foods. You can soak yellow and brown mustard seeds overnight and then add mustard powder, water, vinegar and salt. After blending all of the ingredients together you can use the mixture in different foods. You can also use a pestle and mortar to grind them in the appropriate mixture.

Some considerations before you decide the condiment

You need to take into consideration some of the things before you can decide the condiment when you are going with a Paleo diet. While shopping, you can look at your favorite condiments and see what the ingredients in them are. You can replicate them at home with Paleo approved ingredients. Any spices, oils, hearts and seeds are generally Paleo approved and so you can use them to create your own version of condiments which are also allowed by the Paleo diet. In some cases, you don't have too completely eliminate premade condiments if you're not a very staunch advocate of paleo diet. Simply following 80:20 rule, you can allow 20% premade already made condiments while you follow Paleo for the rest 80% of the time. It is completely up to you to decide how much you will allow in your Paleo diet.

References

1. Get Sauced
2. Beneficial effects of a Paleolithic diet on cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes
3. The “Paleo Diet” — Back to the Stone Age?