If you’re adding lots of vegetables into your diet, congratulations! This is one of the most important things you can do for your health.
However, there’s one huge caveat to keep in mind when you’re chowing down on all those colorful veggies: If you are using commercial salad dressings as part of your meal, you are likely undoing a significant amount of the benefits from the healthy foods you are working so hard to eat.
The vast majority of ready-made salad dressings from the supermarket contain a whole host of nasty ingredients; if you read the label critically, you don’t want to be subjecting your healthy vegetables to this culinary insult. It would be like eating a lovely organic grass-fed beef burger, and slapping a slice of processed, plastic-wrapped cheese on top of it. You just wouldn’t do it.
There are a number of reasons that make commercial salad dressings an appalling waste of your hard-earned dollars and should be permanently shunned from the grocery cart.
Toxic oils
If you take a moment to skim the ingredients list on the back of pretty much any salad dressing you can buy, the first or second ingredient will be one of the following oils:
- Vegetable oil
- Sunflower or safflower oil
- Soybean oil
- Corn oil
- Canola oil
- Ungraded olive oil
The problem with these oils is that they are made up largely of polyunsaturated fats. This fact on its own is fine, but the way the oils are produced causes the delicate polyunsaturated fats to become oxidized and rancid. The oils are extracted via high heat and pressure, and the process often uses chemical strippers, cleansers and deodorizers.
It’s important to note that the dressings labeled with words like “simply natural” and “organic” probably still feature these toxic oils as one of the main ingredients. Even those labeled as an olive oil dressing usually have one of the industrial oils as a close second on the ingredients list. This is because these refined chemicalized oils are cheap and plentiful, and are used to fill in the gaps between more expensive, higher quality ingredients.
Don’t be fooled by attractive branding and a fancy bottle — always flip it over, read the label, and be critical of what you’re buying. Even though it cost more and came from the health food aisle, it may still be full of toxic junk!
Questionable additives
All too often, you will see ingredients such as the following, which are actually just other words for, you guessed it, sugar!
- Glucose syrup
- Corn syrup
- Molasses
On many salad dressing labels, sugar, or one of its many relatives, will be among the first ingredients. Don’t tarnish your healthy veggies by pouring sugar over them! You can use whole food sugars, such as a little maple syrup, honey or fruit in your homemade dressings.
Many salad dressings also contain vague words that can cover up for GMOs, MSG or wheat. These include caramel color, yeast, “spices” and anything with the words autolyzed or hydrolyzed. It’s best to avoid these ingredients, since they are simply food-like substances that are engineered to stimulate the brain’s taste centers without adding value or nutrition.
Finally, look out for additives with long, difficult to pronounce names. These are generally preservatives, such as sorbic acid, disodium phosphate and calcium disodium EDTA. Many dressings contain a long string of several of these chemical ingredients near the end of the list. There is no reason to eat these processed chemicals when you can make your own more delicious dressings that will promote health rather than pollute the body.
Fat replacements
If you choose low-fat or fat-free dressings, which have been marketed as healthier alternatives, it’s important to know that these actually impair the absorption of nutrients from vegetables. There are many vitamins in vegetables that are fat soluble, as opposed to water soluble. Examples are vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin K.
We cannot use these valuable nutrients from our food unless we consume them with fat. Saturated and monounsaturated fats, such as those found in butter, eggs, coconut oil, real sour cream, real yogurt, avocado oil and olive oil, have been shown to facilitate the most effective release of these fat-soluble vitamins.
Not only do fat-free dressings provide suboptimal nutrient absorption, they generally also contain junky “fat replacements” which thicken the dressing and allow for a more pleasant mouthfeel, to trick us into thinking we are eating fat. If these thickeners and emulsifiers weren’t added, there is little chance we would ever consume these nasty dressings. These are some ingredients to look out for:
- Carrageenan
- Guar gum
- Modified starches
- Xanthan gum
So without further ado, let’s look at some real, whole food salad dressing recipes that you can easily whip up in your kitchen. The simplest dressings take less than five minutes, and you can make larger batches and keep them in the fridge.
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Real Food Caesar Salad Dressing
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 2tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 small cloves garlic
- 1tbsp Dijon mustard
- 6-8 anchovy fillets packed in water or olive oil
- 2 large egg yolks, preferably pasture raised
- 1/4tsp salt
- 1/4tsp pepper
- 1/2cup avocado oil
- 2tbsp olive oil
- In the bowl of a food processor combine lemon juice, garlic, mustard, anchovy fillets, egg yolks, salt and pepper. Blend together and mix thoroughly.
- In a slow stream add the avocado oil and olive oil through the hole in the lid. Adding the oil slowly is the key to making the dressing. This will help it emulsify and become creamy. Keep the food processor on until all the oil has mixed in.
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Zesty Italian Salad Dressing
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 3tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 small squirt of Dijon mustard
- 1/4cup olive oil
- 1/2tsp onion powder
- 1-2cloves finely minced garlic
- 1/2tsp each of thyme, basil and oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Pull all ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously.
- Enjoy on top of any salad or as a marinade.
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Real Raspberry Vinaigrette
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1/2cup white wine vinegar
- 1/4cup olive oil
- 1/4cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- 2tsp honey
- Put all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Great on a salad with feta and cashews, grilled chicken salad, or as a marinade for pork.
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Chipotle Lime Vinaigrette
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1/4cup olive oil
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1tsp honey
- 1tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
- 1clove garlic, crushed
- zest of 1/2 a lime
- 1/8tsp cumin
- 1/8tsp chili powder
- salt & pepper to taste
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, honey, garlic, lime zest, cumin and chili powder.
- Stir in minced fresh cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Orange & Rosemary Vinaigrette
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 3tbsp fresh lime or lemon juice
- 1/2tsp Dijon mustard, optional
- 3/4cup extra virgin olive oil
- Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1tsp chopped rosemary
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Whisk together lemon juice, mustard and olive oil.
- Add the grated zest and juice of one orange and 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary.
- Allow flavor to infuse overnight for best results.
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Ginger Asian Vinaigrette
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 3tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 large piece fresh ginger
- 2/3cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1tbsp sesame oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Peel the piece of ginger and grate, then squeeze the resulting grated ginger to obtain about 1 tablespoon of ginger juice and discard the grated ginger.
- Whisk together in a bowl the grated ginger juice and the rice vinegar; continue whisking to incorporate the olive oil. Add the sesame oil and season to taste.
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Hemp Oil & Chive Salad Dressing
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| Prep Time: |
| 5minutes |
| Cook Time: |
| nocook |
| Total time: |
- 1tbsp hemp oil
- 1tbsp chives, finely chopped
- 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1tsp red wine vinegar
- 1clove garlic, minced
- 1/2tsp honey
- Whisk all the ingredients together and serve over your favorite greens!
—The Alternative Daily
When shopping for avocado oil, look for an extra virgin, unrefined avocado oil. Unrefined avocado oil is dark green and has a floral smell with a mild flavor. The only avocado oil we use in our kitchen is from Ava Jane’s Kitchen. Try a bottle for free today!
Sources:
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120619FerruzziSalad.html
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/olive-oil-health-benefits
http://wellnessmama.com/1531/salad-dressing-recipes
http://www.newmansown.com/products/newmans-own-olive-oil-vinegar-dressing
http://draxe.com/is-your-salad-dressing-killing-your-weight-loss
http://www.drcate.com/salad-dressing-the-silent-killer
http://www.rubiesandradishes.com/2014/07/17/paleocaesarsalad
http://paleoleap.com/salad-dressing-and-vinaigrettes
http://paleogrubs.com/salad-dressing-recipes
http://paleomagazine.com/32-delicious-paleo-salad-dressing-recipes
http://www.savorylotus.com/salad-dressings
http://www.lifemadefull.com/2014/01/09/paleo-salad-dressing-recipes
http://www.lifemadefull.com/2013/02/14/amazing-asian-salad-dressing
http://thingsmybellylikes.com/2013/05/27/hemp-oil-chive-salad-dressing
