Most people think that salads are a healthier option, while they’re on a diet. And when you’re out and are faced with the choice of having a greasy burger or other fast food at a restaurant, a healthy salad might be your only way out. But what most people might not know is that the salad might not be as healthy as advertised. Everything about it is 'unhealthy' has to do with its dressing. An unhealthy dressing may foil your dieting plans along with your salad by being full of fats and calories. If you are worried about how much salad dressings might destroy a healthy food option like salads, then continue on reading.
What’s wrong with Processed Salad Dressings?
Right off the bat, it's a no brainer that processed salad dressings contain high calories. As an example, if you're at a big-name food chain like McDonald's, the Southwest Salad with grilled chicken may sound like a reasonably safe choice. It contains 320 calories and 9 grams of fat, along with 960 milligrams of sodium which is about 40% of your recommended daily intake.
-However, even if you add just an ounce and a half of the creamy southwest dressing, you in fact will be adding an extra 100 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 340 grams of sodium to your ‘healthy’ salad. And it gets worse if you obliviously choose to add creamy Caesar to the already caloric rich salad. 2 ounces of the creamy Caesar contains 190 calories, 18 grams of fat, and 500 mg of sodium. This is usually the norm when it comes to most restaurants that use processed commercial salad dressings in general.
-Moreover, while also packing a nutritional gut punch, nearly all commercially produced salad dressings contain ingredients that are not considered to be a part of the whole foods diet. For example, the creamy southwest dressing stated above contains corn syrup solids as one of its ingredients and soybean oil in addition to that. Other dubious ingredients consist of corn starch, vinegar, and natural flavours sourced from unspecified animals or vegetables.
-The creamy Caesar dressing lists soybean oil second among the ingredients, fructose farther down the list, and rounds out the ingredients with corn syrup and caramel colour. Regrettably, these ingredients are regarded as essential ingredients for commercially prepared salad dressings.
What to do next?
If you’re somebody who wants to lead a healthy lifestyle, both at home and when you’re out, what can you do? For starters, you can take a look at all the ingredients of the salad dressing bottles. Do be wary, not to purchase any dressings which contain, corn starch, syrup, or soybean oil. You could look for dressings that have black seed oil or olive oil in them, along with real spices.
You could always try to make some salad dressing on your own at home as well. It can be considered a cost-effective method by some but might not suit everyone. With a few basic ingredients, from your refrigerator, you too could easily fashion up a dressing in no time. You might need additional guidance; you could look up different salad dressing recipes that you might enjoy. You could always take your dressing along with you in a nifty container when you are eating out.