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Addicted to ketchup: Student, 19, eats her own weight in red sauce every year
Melissa Ibbitson is ketchup’s number one fan - because she eats her own body weight in tomato sauce every year.
The 19-year-old has the red stuff with almost every meal and gets through a staggering three bottles a week.
She loves tomato sauce so much that she has even walked out of a restaurant because they didn't stock her favourite condiment.
The theology student, from Lincoln, has been a ketchup fan her whole life, but her addiction really kick-started four years ago.
Her ketchup addiction means she gets through the equivalent of 11 stone of the stuff every year - more than her own body weight.
Melissa's obsession with the sauce has no limits - she had a birthday cake shaped like a ketchup bottle last year and even gets ketchup-themed presents for Christmas.
She said: ‘I can't remember how it became such an obsession but now I can't live without it.
'My friends get really embarrassed when I ask for 12 sachets for my meals at the student's union, and I'll get extras to take home with me.
'I eat so much of the stuff - I dread to think what it's doing to my body.'
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The tomato sauce-addict says she dare not think about how much she spends on the sauce - but with the average bottle of ketchup costing £1.85, the average year's supply sets her back about £300.
She said: 'Heinz tomato sauce is my favourite, but as a student I sometimes can't afford to be picky.
'I would rather have a brand that isn't Heinz than no ketchup at all.
'I pick up sachets anywhere I can - the union, the pub, fast food chains - it's the best way to keep my costs to a minimum.'
Melissa owns an 'I love ketchup' tea towel, a personalised ketchup bottle and a ketchup-bottle shaped tin.
Melissa said: 'When I lived at home my mum used to get annoyed with me. I would get through the ketchup quicker than she could get to the shop to buy it.
'Since I've moved out and have been making my own meals I've got even worse.
'For breakfast I'll have spaghetti or beans on toast with ketchup, lunch will be a sandwich with ketchup and I have ketchup with whatever I have for dinner.'
Although Melissa does like other condiments, she says nothing compares to her love for red sauce.
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She said: 'I like brown sauce and mayonnaise but it's quite rare that I eat that compared to how much ketchup I eat.
'My favourite thing to eat with ketchup is chips - I won't eat them without it.
'I've tried ketchup with more or less everything and it goes better with some things than others.
'I have it with my roast dinner and gravy some times, and it goes really well with salad.'
