Here is the dark secret we are not warned about.

Maybe they have a point about the ketchup though, if it has high-fructose-corn-syrup in there...
Fructose alters hundreds of brain genes which can lead to a wide range of diseases

I see here that the 'Simply Heinz' ketchup doesn't have that though, for one with no artificial sweeteners.

 

I used to, but there's another dark secret about chocolate. Out of the 11,000 edible plants, cocoa is among the top 25 most adulterated ingredients.

This article summarizes some of that: Are the Chocolates We Consume Contaminated or Adulterated?

This is one of many articles that come up in a search about adulterated cocoa...

 

Speaking of which, some foods might essentially be adulterated with glutamate, or tend to be like MSG this way: Stuff that is really MSG... & What Foods Naturally Contain MSG?

I'd think at the point one was eating a lot of free glutamate in foods, then eating MSG in addition to that would more likely induce neurotoxicity (as noted on the previous page)... could cause Alzheimer's disease. It is at least related to this in humans for being one of the foods that should be avoided by those with Alzheimer's: 5 Foods Dementia Patients Should Avoid... "MSG overstimulates the nervous system and in turn, Alzheimer’s patients experience hypersensitivity to external stimuli, including cigarette smoke, foods, and airborne chemicals. More importantly, beta amyloid protein deposits appear to increase MSG’s toxicity, accelerating deterioration."

Also, with the addition of the other foods mentioned there to the traditional umami (MSG) ingredients in a Japanese diet, the rate of Alzheimer's disease in Japan has 'risen rapidly in recent years'. So it would seem that these things add up, and an 'east meets west' junk food diet is the worst of both worlds.

The other side of MSG, sodium, is said to be a problem in Japan too. Their high salt diet may lead to a prevalence of stomach cancer. Salted foods and sauces can cause necrosis and oxidation in the gastric mucosa or epithelium, which in turn allows ulcers to develop more easily, and in turn increases the damage caused by ulcers, so excess salt isn't necessarily safer than MSG, it's just another thing to avoid in concentrated forms, especially.

I think of this issue somewhat independently of having too much salt all together, because even if a teaspoon isn't too much to eat in a day, when the salt is swallowed dry (or concentrated in a sauce), it will tend to cause a lot more damage internally. This is essentially what happens when foods are salted on the surface though, so that's probably not the best way to eat salt (which is really necessary for a fluid balance, so naturally it's digested more easily when diluted). With this in mind, I wouldn't eat something like roasted peanuts or sunflower seeds as a salty snack, whether they were simply salted or coated with MSG, either way.