by Jen Leech

Created on: July 18, 2009

Of course salad dressing is not always fattening. Like anything salads can be healthy, or unhealthy depending on what you choose to eat. For the purpose of this article I have compared some salad dressings to see what kind of difference there is. The first thing that I discovered is that this is not readily available information in a forum where it can be easily compared. Many sites and products will spend lots of time talking about how low fat they are and how natural they are. This leaves out mention of the points that are relevant to this discussion, how much fat is actually in the dressing.

Low fat or fat free are not as straight forward as they may seem. Fat free doesn't mean that there is no fat. Fat free means that there is less then 0.5 grams of fat in a single serving and low fat means three grams or less of total fat. Some will say that it is a straight forward as the type of dressing. A creamier dressing, they will say, will be more fattening. I have not seen this to be so.

In comparing the fat content of four types of dressing, I have found that they can all be high or low fat, depending on what you buy. The dressings that I compared were all for serving sizes of two Tbsps. A regular Italian dressing had 109 calories (100 from fat), with 11.1 total grams of fat, while the low fat alternative of the same dressing had only 20 calories with only three from fat. The total fat in this dressing, 0.3 grams. The regular Ranch dressing had 148 calories (140 from fat) and 15.6 grams of fat. The low fat Ranch dressing had 48 calories (3 from fat) and 0.3 grams of fat. The regular Caesar dressing had 150 calories (144 from fat) with a whopping 16 grams of fat. The low fat Caesar dressing had only 60 calories (41 from fat) and 4.5 grams of fat. Regular Honey Mustard dressing rang in at 150 calories (117 from fat) with 13 grams of fat while the low fat Honey Mustard had 70 calories (36 from fat) and 4.0 grams of fat.

These numbers speak clearly to the fact that every salad dressing is different. A range of 16 - 0.3 grams of fat is huge. That is the difference between a very unhealthy side dish, and a great healthy choice. How can you know that you are making the best choice for the dressings that you buy? Read the label. Reading the label will show you what is in the dressing. It will tell you about calories, fat sources and other dietary concerns.

The source of the fat in the dressing is also significant. In a fattening creamy dressing, most of the fat will come from butter, cream or some other saturated fat from dairy products. These fats will raise your cholesterol and settle into your hips. In an oil and vinegar dressing made with olive oil, the fat will be rich in essential fatty acids such as Omega 3 and 6. These fats will help your skin and hair to be healthy. It will raise your good cholesterol and lower your bad cholesterol. These fats are essential to the function of the brain, skin and many other organs.

As with any other part of a healthy lifestyle, you will need to be careful about what you put into your body. The more you educate yourself and read labels, the more you will be able to make an educated decision about the healthiest products for yourself and your family.

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http://www.caloriecontrol.org/foodlabels.html
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-salad-dressin gs-ic0401

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