Salads are not only an extremely healthy choice in food, but they can also help dieters to lose weight. However, pouring on the salad dressing to add some flavor to a meal can negate the low calories and healthy advantage of the salad. Fortunately, there are many varieties of low calorie salad dressing that are just as delicious as regular salad dressings.
There are many different types of commercial salad dressing targeted for different dietary needs. Reduced fat, fat free, oil free, sodium free, low calorie and reduced calorie dressings cater to how the body uses the ingredients’ calories, which can affect an individual’s health and weight. For example, a low calorie salad dressing that is oil free can benefit a person who has a problem not only with his or her weight, but with cholesterol as well.
Low calorie salad dressing is available in almost every flavor of regular dressing, like bleu cheese, Russian, Italian and so on. Sometimes, the reduction in fat and calories tends to make these types of dressing less tasty. To solve this problem, many gourmet recipes have been created that are naturally low in calories but do not lack in flavor.
It is very simple to make low calorie salad dressing at home by substituting high calorie ingredients with lower calorie ones that taste similar but are more healthful. For example, people who like using mayonnaise as a salad dressing can easily substitute hung curds. They can simply drain the whey from the curds and whip it up until it is the right consistency. Another do-it-yourself low calorie salad dressing is lime juice and vinegar.
When choosing a low calorie salad dressing, consumers should not be fooled by advertising claims. A dressing may boast that it contains only 59 calories per tablespoon (14.78 ml). However, 50 of those calories might come from fat, which dieters should avoid.
The caloric content of any given food is required by law in the U.S. to be posted on the food’s label. Calories from fat, located underneath the total amount of calories per serving, are what consumers should be most concerned about when choosing a low calorie salad dressing. The calories that are not from fat are burned for energy and generally do not cause people to gain weight.