Dont Soak Your Salad
- ciaralitchfield
- May 30, 2014
- 2 min read
The reason behind many people’s weight gain is that they are simply unaware of the amount of fat and calories they are consuming. Had they known the nutritional content of certain foods its likely they would have made a different choice. When it comes to hidden calories salads are a common crime scene.
After making an angelic base of lettuce and veggies it’s so tempting to grate over some cheese or add high fat protein such as bacon. More often than not the real shocker is the salad dressing and too many of us are guilty of drowning our salads in the stuff.
I’ve analysed 7 popular dressings to show you which choices are best and where you could be tripping up. The results are based on using 1 table spoon but most of us will use far more than that so keep this in mind! (Results are in the picture above)
The worst, and unfortunately my favourite, is the Caesar dressing coming in at 64 calories and 6.7 g of fat! That’s the same amount of calories as adding 2 and a half thin slices of bacon to your salad! This dressing is basically an emulsification of fat and liquid which gives it its creamy texture and high calorie content. This is often the case for most opaque looking dressings as the fat droplets have taken the transparency of the liquid base away.
The best dressing is the balsamic. Swapping from Caesar to Balsamic will save you 43 calories per teaspoon and cut the fat content dramatically. Vinegars are naturally low in calories however balsamic does have a higher sugar content than say cider vinegar. Devote vinegar lovers boast about its amazing health benefits stretching from blood glucose control to having anti-cancer properties! Il have to look into these but either way the benefits out weight those of the Caesar.
The best option is to stick to oil based home made dressings. Try mixing oil with lemon juice or Dijon mustard. Alternatively buy dried herbs and spices and cover in the oil, then just leave it to soak up the flavour.
To bulk up your salad go for lean protein or fish rather than coated or cured meats. For some crunch swap your croutons (73 calories a serving) for sesame seeds or home toasted bread. Pine nuts are a great source of Vitamins A, D and C promoting good immunity and vision. At 135 calories and 9.7g of fat (monounsaturated) per serving you may want to add them instead of your protein.
