Mastering the Art of a Healthy Salad and Dressing Combonation
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A salad can be an excellent way to get most of your vegetables in at one sitting. However, pouring on a generous amount of salad dressing can tack on excess fat, calories and sodium, sabotaging your efforts to eat more healthfully. When you are selecting a dressing at the grocery store, consider how to decipher best and worst for your favorite dressing options.
When looking at Nutrition Fact labels on salad dressings, the “serving size” is always listed as 2 tablespoons. When preparing a salad at home, it is easy to pour way beyond that. Try to drizzle, don’t drench. Below is a comparison of the average nutrition content in various salad dressings types, based on the 2 tablespoon serving size.
Dressing Type
|
Calories
|
Total Fat
|
Saturated Fat
|
Sodium (mg)
|
Ranch |
145 |
15 |
2 |
245 |
Blue Cheese |
140 |
15 |
2.5 |
279 |
Caesar |
160 |
17 |
3 |
317 |
Italian |
90 |
8 |
1.3 |
486 |
Balsamic
Vinaigrette |
60 |
5 |
0.3 |
140 |
The creamy style dressings contain sour cream, mayonnaise, buttermilk, heavy cream, yogurt or some combination of these ingredients; while the vinaigrettes/Italians have a base of oil and vinegar, making them lower in fat and calories. Many vinaigrette and Italian dressings are made with olive oil, which is a great source of heart healthy monounsaturated fat.
Whichever type of dressing you prefer, there are abundant “light” versions which have less fat and fewer calories. Note that the sodium can still be high. There’s a fairly newer line of dressings made with Greek yogurt including Lighthouse Foods OPA dressings. See specific brands which offer tasty reduced fat options below.
Dressing
|
Calories
|
Total Fat
|
Saturated Fat
|
Sodium (mg)
|
Hidden Valley Ranch Light® |
80 |
7 |
1 |
290 |
Litehouse Foods OPA Blue Cheese® |
60 |
5 |
1 |
220 |
Ken’s Lite Creamy Caesar® |
90 |
8 |
1.5 |
320 |
Wishbone Light Italian® |
35 |
2.5 |
0 |
340 |
Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette® |
45 |
4 |
0.5 |
350 |
Annie’s Light Raspberry Vinaigrette® |
40 |
3 |
0 |
55 |
Most premade dressings are loaded with sodium, even the lower fat ones, so you may opt to make your own at home. A great way to reduce the sodium as well as the fat content is to prepare a vinaigrette dressing. Mix two parts oil, two parts vinegar and one part water and then add herbs, spices and other salt-free seasonings. If you want to lighten up the fat in a bottled dressing consider mixing half full fat and half low fat. For example, mix Hidden Valley Ranch® with Hidden Valley Ranch Light® to cut the total fat by 25 percent and saturated fat by 60 percent. You can whip up a Greek yogurt dressing using low fat Greek yogurt and low fat buttermilk as a base and add a seasoning packet from Hidden Valley®. Another easy idea is to add salsa to low fat ranch for a delicious flavor and texture twist. So the next time you prepare a salad at home, “dress it for success” by choosing a lighter version of your favorite dressing!
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Article provided by Cooper Clinic Nutrition Services.