| Your Health | | |  | Eating Well |
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| | Take 5 | | | | Salad Dressings | | | | | | | Salad dressings are no longer just a summer food. We eat salads all year round now so salad dressing is a regular supermarket purchase. But which ones should we avoid and which are the best choices? | | | | Nutrition Information | | | | Per 100g | Calories | Fat (g) | Saturates (g) | Fibre (g) | Sugars (g) | | Ballymaloe honey & mustard dressing | 552 | 51.2 | 12.3 | 1.1 | 6.3 | | Tesco light choices balsamic dressing | 85 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 11.4 | | Hellman’s French dressing | 283 | 26.5 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 7.4 | | Kraft light caesar dressing | 95 | 3.6 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 9.8 | | Lakeshore healthy tomato & roasted onion dressing | 81 | 5.5 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 5.9 |
| | | | Paula's Verdict | | | What’s immediately striking from the table above is the difference in calorie, fat and saturated fat contents. Most salad dressings will contain some oil, and this will contribute greatly to the calories, fat and saturated fat. It’s important to check the ingredients list (see below) and ensure that any oil that they contain is olive oil, since these contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.
Low fat dressings are likely to have something else added to make up for the absence of fat, and we can see this here with the Light Choices dressing, which is low in fat but high in sugar, so be aware of this.
The Lakeshore healthy tomato & roasted onion dressing stands out for me as it ticks a lot of boxes – low in saturated fat and calories, and low in salt. You can also see from the ingredients list that it contains recognisable ingredients, unlike some of the dressings that have a very long list of ingredients, including some additives and preservatives.
Bear in mind that the nutrition information in the table is per 100g of dressing, and you are likely to only use about 10-15g of dressing on a salad. But at times when you eat a lot of salad, such as during the summer, it will all add up so it is important to compare the nutrition information and ingredients list when choosing a dressing.
| | | | Ingredients | | | Ballymaloe honey & mustard dressing
Sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil (16%), olive oil, white wine vinegar, honey (8%), garlic, wholegrain mustard (4%), Dijon mustard (3%), salt, pepper
| | | Tesco light choices balsamic dressing
Balsamic vinegar (50%), water, tomato puree, sugar, cornflour, vegetable oil (1%), colour (plain caramel), garlic puree, salt, black pepper
Balsamic vinegar contains: red wine vinegar, grape must, preservative (sulphur dioxide)
| | | Hellman’s French dressing
Water, vegetable oil, spirit vinegar, sugar, sweet mustard (7%), salt, modified maize starch, stabiliser (xanthan gum), olive oil (1%), pasteurised egg yolk powder, dried garlic (0.8%), parsley, flavouring, coriander, tartaric acid, oregano, antioxidant (calcium disodium EDTA)
Sweet mustard contains: water, vinegar, mustard seeds, salt, sugar, citric acid, colour (curcumin)
| | | Kraft light caesar dressing
Water, spirit vinegar, dextrose, modified starch, medium fat hard cheese (3%), vegetable oil, salt, mustard, garlic, wine vinegar, onions, egg yolk, flavouring (contains milk), spices, anchovy paste, thickener (xanthan gum), lactic acid, colour (titanium dioxide), parsley, yeast extract
Mustard contains: water, mustard seed flour, spirit vinegar, salt, flavouring, sugar, spices
Anchovy paste contains: anchovies, salt, refined olive oil
| | | Lakeshore healthy tomato & roasted onion dressing
Water, tomatoes (16.6%), tomato puree, white wine vinegar, vegetable oil, sugar, herbs, roasted onions (2.5%), spices modified maize starch, salt
| | | | Take 5...Types of Rice | | | |
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