I wouldn't worry about it. I looked at the nutritional facts and it seems fine. Remember, you're not like spreading it on toast or something. That sodium and sugar is spread throughout an entire pot of soup, or whatever you're cooking. You'll almost certainly have to add salt anyway to the meal, and the sugar is, as Adam Ragusea likes to say, nutritionally insignificant. Neither is there reason to be scared of ingredients just because they have fancy chemical-sounding names.
A healthier alternative would be to make your own. You could freeze it in jars. I do this with chicken stock. Unfortunately, convenience/shelf life and health/nutrition are often at odds with each other.
This suggestion really depends on the dishes you cook, but you might be able to sub out some or all of the veg broth for some tomato puree+water, then amp up flavour with extra herbs, spices, onion/garlic... It'd obviously change the overall style of the dish, but can yield tasty results!
What is it that you actually have a problem with? I've gone through scores of stocks, and BTB is hands down the best by just about every metric. They are high in sodium, but that's because it's supposed to be the base of your soup; it needs salt for the flavor. And like others have mentioned, it flavors your whole pot.
Do keep in mind they do have reduced sodium versions and as concentrates it's entirely up to you how much you add; you can weaken it if you feel you need to.
They have lower sodium versions of their Beef, Chicken and Vegetable Base. 500mg vs 700mg for the Veggie base. Personally, if I'm using BTB or any stock (store or home made), I'm not adding salt until after I start assembling whatever I'm making. I've never found my recipes over salted when doing it that way. Also, keep in mind the nutrients are listed as if you added a tsp of base to a cup of water then chugged it.
Keep in mind, the main reason that stuff has so much salt in it is because salt is still the best preservative we have. The salinity is what makes it shelf stable basically forever.
You can have a less sodium-loaded broth if you make vegetable broth yourself, but the only way that's feasible is if you cook often enough that you have a consistent supply of vegetable scraps to keep making broth every week. It's doable if you treat running your home-kitchen like a job, but it can be challenging otherwise.
Organic markets nowadays will also sell you frozen broth nowadays (though it's usually meat-based), but it gets expensive fast.
For the most part, though, that sodium is just substituting salt you'd put in for seasoning purposes anyway. If it bothers you, you can try to just mitigate it through dilution.
Penzeys has a similar product that seems to be a bit healthier.
You can also start making your own vegetable stock'broth and then cook it down yourself. It's a much longer/time intensive/energy expensive effort, but if you want something with fewer ingredients and better quality, that might be the way to go.
Another alternative: replace it with nutritional yeast. Nooch is a terrific foundation for most soups and stews. Also, literally, it's chock full of vitamins!
Better Than Bouillon is the healthier alternative. :-)
I've had the same thought you had reading the ingredients.
I can't remember the name, but there is a yellow powdered vegetable broth...but there instead of saturated fat you get scads of sodium.
The way I look at it convenience broths keep me away from unhealthy meals and get me eating stews.
You can try experimenting with different flavors of miso pastes. Miso will keep in your refrigerator for years, years, years, and years. Aside from the sodium there is nothing unhealthy in Miso.
If you’re able to see a doctor for checkups, it would be worth asking about how concerned you personally need to be about cutting back on salt or other things. People can vary widely on this.
If you do need to reduce your salt intake but not so much that shelling out for the various salt alternatives on the market makes sense, I would try two things:
Replace some of the broth with a small amount of acid, like lemon juice. In most circumstances, you obviously won’t want to replace all of it, but this is an easy way to get a similarly intense flavor with less salt.
In the longer term, you can habituate to simply using less salt. How much salt we think tastes “right” largely depends on what we’re used to. Using good spices and herbs can go a long way towards making flavorful food that isn’t very salty. Umami flavors can help too, like the nutritional yeast that @elight suggested.
When you add salt can also make a difference in the flavor you get. Samin Nosrat’s Book Salt Fat Acid Heat is a great resource on this topic, and if your local library carries cookbooks, they probably have a copy.
I wouldn't worry about it. I looked at the nutritional facts and it seems fine. Remember, you're not like spreading it on toast or something. That sodium and sugar is spread throughout an entire pot of soup, or whatever you're cooking. You'll almost certainly have to add salt anyway to the meal, and the sugar is, as Adam Ragusea likes to say, nutritionally insignificant. Neither is there reason to be scared of ingredients just because they have fancy chemical-sounding names.
BTB has an organic vegetarian product if you mostly care about the processed ingredients.
Edward & Sons have a bunch of organic vegetarian low sodium bouillon cubes but I've never tried them.
A healthier alternative would be to make your own. You could freeze it in jars. I do this with chicken stock. Unfortunately, convenience/shelf life and health/nutrition are often at odds with each other.
This suggestion really depends on the dishes you cook, but you might be able to sub out some or all of the veg broth for some tomato puree+water, then amp up flavour with extra herbs, spices, onion/garlic... It'd obviously change the overall style of the dish, but can yield tasty results!
What is it that you actually have a problem with? I've gone through scores of stocks, and BTB is hands down the best by just about every metric. They are high in sodium, but that's because it's supposed to be the base of your soup; it needs salt for the flavor. And like others have mentioned, it flavors your whole pot.
Do keep in mind they do have reduced sodium versions and as concentrates it's entirely up to you how much you add; you can weaken it if you feel you need to.
As a side comment, Better Than Bullion is sold in the US at Costco stores at a significant savings over the regular grocery store sizes & prices.
They have lower sodium versions of their Beef, Chicken and Vegetable Base. 500mg vs 700mg for the Veggie base. Personally, if I'm using BTB or any stock (store or home made), I'm not adding salt until after I start assembling whatever I'm making. I've never found my recipes over salted when doing it that way. Also, keep in mind the nutrients are listed as if you added a tsp of base to a cup of water then chugged it.
Keep in mind, the main reason that stuff has so much salt in it is because salt is still the best preservative we have. The salinity is what makes it shelf stable basically forever.
You can have a less sodium-loaded broth if you make vegetable broth yourself, but the only way that's feasible is if you cook often enough that you have a consistent supply of vegetable scraps to keep making broth every week. It's doable if you treat running your home-kitchen like a job, but it can be challenging otherwise.
Organic markets nowadays will also sell you frozen broth nowadays (though it's usually meat-based), but it gets expensive fast.
For the most part, though, that sodium is just substituting salt you'd put in for seasoning purposes anyway. If it bothers you, you can try to just mitigate it through dilution.
Penzeys has a similar product that seems to be a bit healthier.
You can also start making your own vegetable stock'broth and then cook it down yourself. It's a much longer/time intensive/energy expensive effort, but if you want something with fewer ingredients and better quality, that might be the way to go.
Another alternative: replace it with nutritional yeast. Nooch is a terrific foundation for most soups and stews. Also, literally, it's chock full of vitamins!
Better Than Bouillon is the healthier alternative. :-)
I've had the same thought you had reading the ingredients.
I can't remember the name, but there is a yellow powdered vegetable broth...but there instead of saturated fat you get scads of sodium.
The way I look at it convenience broths keep me away from unhealthy meals and get me eating stews.
You can try experimenting with different flavors of miso pastes. Miso will keep in your refrigerator for years, years, years, and years. Aside from the sodium there is nothing unhealthy in Miso.
If you’re able to see a doctor for checkups, it would be worth asking about how concerned you personally need to be about cutting back on salt or other things. People can vary widely on this.
If you do need to reduce your salt intake but not so much that shelling out for the various salt alternatives on the market makes sense, I would try two things:
Replace some of the broth with a small amount of acid, like lemon juice. In most circumstances, you obviously won’t want to replace all of it, but this is an easy way to get a similarly intense flavor with less salt.
In the longer term, you can habituate to simply using less salt. How much salt we think tastes “right” largely depends on what we’re used to. Using good spices and herbs can go a long way towards making flavorful food that isn’t very salty. Umami flavors can help too, like the nutritional yeast that @elight suggested.
When you add salt can also make a difference in the flavor you get. Samin Nosrat’s Book Salt Fat Acid Heat is a great resource on this topic, and if your local library carries cookbooks, they probably have a copy.