Debate: Is salad dressing always fattening?

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Is salad dressing always fattening?

Results so far:

Yes		18%	221 votes	Total: 1226 votes
No		82%	1005 votes	Total: 1226 votes

Yes

1 of 3

by A. Pesarosa

Created on: February 24, 2009 Last Updated: March 28, 2009

Chances are, if you favorite salad dressing is very delicious and tasty, it's fattening. People will always be quick to point out there are fat-free varieties. I have a few bottles, myself. They are practically full. One is out-dated.

According to a survey by the Association For Dressings and Sauces, the top three regular, full fat salad dressings people most like are Ranch, Italian, and Blue Cheese.

From the household names in my fridge: Ranch - 16 g. fat and 150 cal., per 2 tbs. serving Italian - (sorry, make my own) Blue Cheese - 13 g. fat and 120 cal., per 2 tbs. serving

I love a good salad dressing as much as the next person, but yes, the very best ones are fattening. Even my newly discovered oil-and-water based Greek salad dressing comes in at 11 grams of fat and 100 calories per serving.*(Don't even ask about my favorite jarred, specialty Caesar - so creamy that it can only be found in the refrigerated section of the produce market!)

The thing to remember is: if you are already happily and healthily maintaining your weight eating as you please, then, by all means, go ahead and keep eating whichever dressings you like. Particularly, if it keeps you reaching for the carrot sticks, broccoli, and fresh salads instead of the potato chips.

If, on the other hand, you are trying to quickly drop 5 or more pounds- you definitely want to keep an eye on your intake of fat and calories, and watch out for ones that may otherwise sneak past you. If you're on a lowfat or low-calorie diet, or if you use more than the recommended serving size, you could easily blow your whole meal allotment on just a salad!

If you're not crazy about fat-free dressings, you can always do what the fashion models do and spritz with a little lemon. Or, consider making your own healthier house dressing' with olive oil, vinegar, and your favorite spices. Balsamic vinegar is delicious all on it's own, and may offer other health benefits.

Another way to avoid unwanted calories in your salad dressing is to think about topping your salad with veggies and meat prepared in your favorite marinade, instead of salad dressing. You can just have everything all at the same time- no muss, no fuss, no fat-free.

I actually have a friend who eats salad with only salt and pepper to taste. With the yummiest and freshest naked ingredients, she says, there is no need to dress a salad at all.

Salad dressing can be tricky, adding extra fat and calories, but there is no need to suffer over it. Even if it's fattening enough (like my sinful creamy Caesar) to count as a forbidden food,' it's better to enjoy what you like in moderation, rather than deprive yourself and then go overboard.

Simply check the labels, and rearrange other foods in your diet to make room for your favorite salad dressing, if need be. You will also need to remember to use the correct serving size, as many people go over without realizing.

Keep in mind, there are always creative ways to enjoy a salad with healthy ingredients from your kitchen, or without using any type of dressing. The most delicious salad dressings are often fattening, but your salad doesn't have to be.

* (I do have one lowfat favorite - Ken's Steakhouse Caesar Lite is surprisingly delicious and spicy, for a low-calorie salad dressing.)

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1 of 17

by Gail M Feldman

Created on: October 25, 2010

All salad dressings contain fat. Some contain animal fat (many creamy dressings) and others contain vegetable oil (oil-and-vinegar) but all fat, be it butter, lard or extra-extra virgin olive oil, contains the exact same number of calories per unit. Therefore in terms of fat content, every salad dressing is equal. However, fat is not salad dressing's only ingredient. Another major ingredient in most is sugar, and it is virtually always processed sugar.

You cannot reasonably eliminate all fat from your diet; your hair will fall out, your skin will slough off, and you will be at risk for every disease association with fat-soluble vitamin deficiency. Gulping down vitamin pills is useless if you're not already taking in those same vitamins in your food; it is not by accident the pills are called "supplements" rather than "replacements." However, processed sugar (white sugar, high fructose corn syrup) has absolutely no nutritional value at all, and can be deleted from your diet not only with no ill effects but with quite a few beneficial ones. (For example, the number one cause of elevated blood serum cholesterol is tobacco-smoking; number two is processed sugar. Animal fat is number three, and the first to have actual nutritional value.) Nature provides useful complex carbohydrates galore; you don't need a Snickers bar (or a half-gallon of creamy salad dressing on one's lettuce) to satisfy your body's carb requirements.

When Adele Davisadvised taking in the equivalent of three tablespoons of salad dressing a day to ensure proper representation of fat in the diet, she was probably not thinking of creamy dressing, but it wouldn't have mattered, weightwise (healthwise, it might have). She also added that most people already take in much more than that, but her imitators nonetheless began to advise dieters to drink three tablespoons of dressing a day (which is not what Davis said). That is the same kind of illogic that might be keeping you from eating eggs, for fear that the cholesterol in the yolks will clog your arteries; as it happens, egg yolks also contain lecithin, a substance that dissolves blood serum cholesterol. None of this, by the way, takes into account the difference between good and bad cholesterols; the former are absolutely necessary for processing the latter, for energy production (which means, among other things, that good cholesterol helps you LOSE weight), for regulation of insulin levels and for protection of liver function.

What has all of the above to do with salad dressing's being fattening? We've already determined that fat is necessary, and that one salad dressing's fat is no more fattening than another's. It is the sugar content, not the fat content, that determines fatteningness, and that varies from dressing to dressing, so if you can read a label, you can see clearly 1. that some dressings are less fattening than others and 2. which ones they are - by the sugar content. If you want to lose weight healthily, and not just lose it regardless of what else you're doing to your body, then also pay attention to what kind of fat the dressing contains; monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats will do your body good, in moderation, and saturated fats and trans fat will do it harm. The healthier you are, the better you will feel, and the better you feel, the less likely you are to crave foods that cause you to gain unwanted weight, so the two issues are by no means unrelated. In addition, let me repeat that important word, MODERATION. You can overdose on just about anything if you try hard enough. A bottle of dressing should last through more than one salad if you're not entertaining a crowd. Even a dressing full of animal fat, white sugar and a big "MAKE ME FAT" sign on it won't be fattening if you only use a drop once in a while. (A good rule of thumb would be to use just enough dressing to moisten, not drown, your veggies.) It's not the dressing that is fattening; it's what you do with it.