Foods that harm: salad dressings

Various salad dressings give flavour and zip to lettuce and other greens; they are even more important in potato, egg, tuna and similar salads because they help hold the ingredients together. However, while the salad dressings you buy at the grocery store may be flavourful, they are rarely healthy. Read on to learn more.

Traditional salad dressings also add lots of calories, and those made with eggs, cheese or sour cream contain saturated fats and cholesterol. Cheese, creamy and oil-based dressings, as well as mayonnaise, are high in fat.

Although some dressing recipes, such as mayonnaise and Caesar salad dressing, call for raw eggs, they should not be used because they may harbour salmonella bacteria. Instead, use imitation egg products; these contain egg whites that have been treated to kill bacteria. Commercial salad dressings are pasteurized to kill any microorganisms, and their high vinegar content discourages the growth of new ones.

Commercial dressings often contain wheat or corn starches, soy and perhaps eggs. Anyone with food allergies, celiac disease and other food intolerances should check the labels carefully. Products made according to a standard recipe do not list all the ingredients. In such cases, call the manufacturer for a list of ingredients.

The olive, corn, canola and other vegetable oils used in most salad dressings provide vitamin E and because their fats are unsaturated, they do not tend to raise blood cholesterol levels.  Fortunately, there is an increasing number of low-fat alternatives, although these are not necessarily low in calories.

The classic vinaigrette dressing is a mixture of vinegar and oil. The standard recipe calls for three to four parts oil to one part vinegar, but you can reduce the amount of oil in several ways.

• For instance, you don't need as much oil if you mix it with a mild balsamic, wine or rice vinegar.
• Another option is to dilute with water, defatted broth, wine or juice, depending upon the desired taste.
• You can also reduce the amount of oil by selecting one with an assertive flavour, such as walnut or olive oil.

Creamy dressing

• For a creamy texture and appearance without the saturated fat, add non-fat yogurt to the vinaigrette dressing. Or replace some of the oil with buttermilk.
• Experiment with herbs and spices.
• When eating at a restaurant, mix your own low-fat dressing by asking for oil and vinegar or a fresh lemon.
• If you select a house dressing, ask that it be served on the side.
• Blue cheese dressings rank near the top in fat and calories, and their distinctive flavour is hard to duplicate with low-fat alternatives. Try blending equal amounts of low-fat cottage cheese and yogurt with a little vinegar to make a creamy dressing; then crumble in a small amount of blue cheese for flavour.
• If a recipe calls for a mayonnaise dressing, start with a low-fat type. Then blend the mayonnaise with an equal part of low-fat yogurt.

A salad that's drenched in dressing is high in unnecessary calories and becomes soggy quickly, because vinegar wilts lettuce and other greens.

• Use a very light sprinkling of oil to coat the greens, and mix the other ingredients — such as raw vegetables or artichoke hearts — with a small amount of vinegar.
• Then toss the two together just before serving.
• As a general rule, 15 to 30 millilitres (one to two tablespoons) of dressing should be ample for one kilogram (four cups) of salad greens, and 300 millilitres (1 1/4 cup) of a mayonnaise-type dressing should be enough for one kilogram (four cups) of potato, tuna or chicken salad.