Digesting The Label is a series that takes a look at what exactly is in the food that we're buying and eating from a nutritional standpoint. Every two weeks, we'll examine a food and help determine whether or not it's all it's cut out to be .. or in some cases, even better for us than we thought. This week, we're looking at the sodium content in creamy salad dressings.
Salad dressings, especially creamy salad dressings, generally have a bad rep in the world of greens. Because for the most part, salads at our favourite fast food chains drenched with creamy sauces aren't exactly considered nutritious.
Celebrity personal trainer Jillian Michaels says ranch dressing, for example, has about 140 calories and 130 of those calories are from fat. She notes they also have high levels of sodium and very little nutritional value as well. She adds salads with added cheeses, fried meat and tortilla chips also add to an unhealthy meal.
If you're shopping for your own salad dressings, watch out for labels as well — sometimes the words "low-fat," "light" and "fat-free," may not always be telling the whole story (for example, less fat can mean more sugar).
Of course, you can always make your own salad dressings to avoid any added sugar, salt and fat, but for the people who just love a tablespoon (or two) of creamy dressing on the side, we took a look at some of the most popular store-bought options.
From creamy ranches to Caesar to fruit-flavoured dressings, here are 28 cream-based salad dressings ranked by sodium. For this list, we opted out of sugar content (mostly because they were so low), and decided to focus on salt and fat. We've also included a full list of ingredients so you know exactly what's in your bottle.
Did we miss any you were interested in? Let us know in the comments below:
