For clean-eating carnivores, bottled marinades are a bad habit. Sure, they’re convenient—but convenience often comes with a side of junk.

1. Hidden sugar, sodium, and trans fats. That “bold” flavor? It’s usually loaded with stuff that could kill you down the road.

2. Preservatives galore. Those long, scary ingredient lists? They’re keeping your marinade shelf-stable but doing a number on your body.

3. Artificial flavors and fillers. Flavorful? Maybe. Clean? Definitely not.

4. Half-empty bottles that rot in your fridge. No one actually finishes a bottle of store-bought marinade before it goes weird.