Salad Dressing Choices: Which Are Best when Dieting?

The typical situation is this: the scale number is up and the jeans won't zip, so the diet is on! We resolve to eat smarter and exercise more. But as good as our intentions are, how do we do that? What is eating smarter? And which salad dressing is best?

Pick a Diet, any Diet

The answer to which salad dressing is best, is: "It depends".

Obesity and the diet business is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are many types of diets today and many of us have tried a few. So, when picking specific foods, the first place to start is to decide whether your diet approach will be low fat, low carb, or simply low calorie. It's up to you and your dietician or doctor to determine which approach might be best for you.

For me personally, leaning toward low carb works best for me. But I learned while dieting on the Medi-Weightloss program, whereby I lost 40 pounds, that calories and portion size are just as important. So, I've learned to adjust my thinking away from believing that just because something is low carb it will make me skinny. Having said that, you know how your metabolism works. You know how you've lost weight in the past. Pick the diet that gets that scale headed in the right direction and makes you feel good. If you haven't found a diet that does that, read up, pick one and stick with it to give it a chance to provide results.

A good website to connect with other dieters, read about diet plans and track your daily eating and activities is Calorie Count. In their search box drop down list, pick "Ask Mary" and type "diets" to read her opinion and advice in regard to various diets.

Diets = Salads

No matter what diet plan is chosen, a staple meal in most restricted food plans is a leafy salad. The lettuce in salads provides healthy nutrients such as calcium, iron and magnesium, vitamin A, B6 and C. All varieties of lettuce are very low in calories and carbs. There are 8 calories and 1.6 carb grams for a cup of Iceberg lettuce, 10 calories and less than 1 carb gram for Romaine, and 8 calories and 1.1 carb grams for spinach. Each one of these leafy choices contains varying amounts of nutrients with the darker varieties being more nutrient dense. However, they are all good choices for a low fat, low carb food and fit into almost any diet.

The dangerous part about choosing this potentially low calorie, healthy meal, revolves around what gets added to the lettuce! Depending on the diet plan, dieters may add more vegetables, croutons, cheese, bacon bits, etc. When putting a salad together it is important to count every single item that goes into that salad, including the salad dressing.

Salad Dressing Choices

There are thousands of salad dressings. All companies that bottle salad dressings are mindful of the many varieties of diets people are following, both due to health issues such as diabetes or simply in an effort to lose weight. When a popular trend in diets pops up, so does a new salad dressing to match. Let's take a look at the calories and carbs in two tablespoons of a variety of traditional dressings as provided in the Calorie Count website:

Ranch (Kraft) - calories 148, carbs 1.3
Honey Mustard (Litehouse) - calories 140, carbs 3.0
Thousand Island (Kraft) - calories 120, carbs 5.0
Zesty Italian (Kraft) - calories 109, carbs 1.8
Caesar (Newman's) - calories 150, carbs 1.0
French (Wishbone) - calories 50. carbs 8.0

Now the reduced fat or reduce calorie versions of these same dressings:

Ranch (Compliments) - calories 30, carbs 3.0
Honey Mustard (Newman's Lighten Up) - calories 70, carbs 7.0
Thousand Island (Wishbone) - calories 50, carbs 9.0
Italian (Wishbone Fat Free) - calories 20, carbs 4.0
Caesar (Newman's Lighten up) - calories 70, carbs 3.0
French (Kraft Fat-Free) - calories 45, carbs 11.0

If you are on a low fat diet, it is obvious that the reduced fat/calorie versions will help your daily count stay in line. However, if you are on a low carb diet, that "low fat" version can may increase the carb count by several grams. That may not sound like much, but keep in mind that a strict low-carb diet in the early stages allows only 20-30 grams of carbs. So, using a dressing that increases carbs by 2 grams eats up the dieter's daily allotment by 10%! (It's no secret that the way salad dressing manufacturers reduce the fat content is by increasing the sugar.) My personal favorite low calorie dressing is Pomegranate & Blueberry made by Eating Right, a Safeway brand, with 30 calories, 1 g fat and 5 grams carbs.

It's Not Just About the Calories

In addition to the calorie and carb content, notice which brands have the Omega-3 ALA fats. The Wishbone website explains the importance of this nutrient stating, "Because your body can't make omega-3 ALA, it is considered an essential nutrient which must be supplied by foods in your diet."

Read the ingredients and nutrient content label and choose wisely. Compare various brands, as they can differ greatly as well! Read, think, be conscious!

Use Salad Dressing Spritzers to Save Fat, Carbs and Calories

My absolute favorite salad dressing choice is salad spritzers. Salad spritzers, which are a thinned down version of salad dressing in a spray bottle, are a great healthy food choice no matter what diet plan you are following.Ten sprays of Wishbone's Balsamic Breeze Vinaigrette is only 10 calories and 1 carb gram. Their Ranch Vinaigrette is 15 calories and 1 carb gram. Additionally, the sodium content is lower in the spritzer form than their bottled cousins.

These salad spritzers taste good and cover the salad better than the traditional creamy kind. If you are serious about wanting to cut down on the calories, but not willing to give up good taste, try these. You'll be amazed at how delicious and easy to use they are! My favorite salad spritzer is Wishbone's Asian Silk, which is a sesame ginger vinaigrette, with a slightly sweet flavor.

Watching what you eat is an important part of staying healthy, and the key to eating healthy is to eat consciously, never stuffing food into your mouth without thinking. Pick a plan that works for weight loss if that is your immediate goal, but also devise a long-term food plan that you can follow the rest of your life too. And when it comes to making that salad, pick the right salad dressing!

Related Reading:
17 Day Diet Tips Blog
"How to Stay Slim after Weight Loss"
"Tips for Dining Out on a Diet"
"Why are Americans so Fat?"
"How to Burn Bonus Calories"