Walden Farms no calorie products
 

Today, while I was in the supermarket, I noticed some items that claim to be calorie free. It's by a company called Walden Farms and they have so many things from salad dressing to BBQ sauce, to chocolate and pancake syrup to jam. Normally, I wouldn't go for stuff like this, and I tend to take a more whole foods approach to my food, but I just couldn't resist. I got the honey dijon salad dressing and the thick and spicy BBQ sauce.
The dressing claims to be calorie free, sugar free, fat free, carb free, gluten free, cholesterol free, and it has no preservatives.
I was starting to think... ok, so what DOES it have?
The only thing I could find is sodium, the dressing has 270 mg/2 tbs, and the BBQ sauce has 210 mg/2 tbsp. That's not really a killer or anything, for me at least.

So I guess the question is: How bad is this stuff? I looked for the high fructose corn syrup and all that stuff but there's nothing. Is it any good? I haven't tried it yet, I'm kinda scared lol :o

Has anyone tried it or heard anything about it??

I love their cole slaw dressing. And the dips for fruit. Haven't tried anything else because they are hard to find around here.

I just bought their calorie free Sweet Onion dressing but I haven't tried it yet. It does seem a bit chemically but I figured I'd give it a try. I have a big salad every day and I use a lot of dressing on it (about 100 calories worth of Kraft Light Catalina usually), so it would be nice to find a zero/very low cal one that I liked and could use at least sometimes.

I've been using their dressings for a couple of years. They are a little runny, but the flavors are great. I particularly like their honey mustard and caeser dressings. My parents tried their chocolate sauce and said it was bad - they recommended just sticking to the dressings.

The peanut butter is the 2nd most disgusting thing I've ever eaten. Ick. Not fit for human consumption, imo.

Oh wow. I'm gonna have to try the chocolate even tho dolphinea said it was bad. Its calorie free chocolate LOL.

Its absolutely disgusting stuff, tastes like a mouthful of chemicals. I highly recommend you stay far away.

I tried the chocolate sauce/dip and marshmellow stuff at a party. I didn't like them. :p

I concur. The chocolate is disgusting.

OK so I didn't listen. The first thing I did after reading the post was go to the store. The Chocolate fruit dip is disgusting....

What a coincidence--I just picked up the ranch salad dressing today. I saved my receipt in case I don't like it but I am very optimistic. Hopefully it is not too good to be true.

I've only tried a couple of their products so long ago, I don't even remember what I tried (maybe I'm blocking out the traumatic memory). I think it was the chocolate sauce or maybe it was caramel and a salad dressing, and they were so horrible that I threw them out and still cringe whenever I see the Walden Farms label.

I remember wiping off my tongue, they were so bad.

Yeah, seriously, spend the few calories to get something that tastes decent :)

As for dressings, I do have 2 low calorie recommendations that are awesome. TonTon ginger dressing is 10 calories per TBSP and has even won awards. If you've ever had a salad at a Japanese restaurant, it tastes just like that. TonTon has other dressings but I've never had them before
http://www.tontonsauce.com/sauces_ginger.cfm

Galeo's Miso Wasabi dressing is fabulous and 14 calories per TBSP. I think I could drink the bottle it is so good. They have other dressings as well but again I haven't tried them:
http://www.galeoscafe.com/wasabi.html

I've seen the dressings at various stores but Whole Foods has both of them. They are real foods, not chemicals.

I bought the walden farms bbq sauce and it was horrible. I gave a piece of the chicken I made with the sauce on it to the dog and she wouldn't even eat it. So you know it had to be bad.

It tastes very much like a jarful of chemicals.

lol I haven't tried the stuff but heard a lot of bad things about it... however, for low cal, there's a product called laughing cow/skinny cow and I recommend any of the desserts..I have the mint ice cream cones with chocolate tops (150 cals), not bad on the ingredients either but i couldn't pull em up just this moment...mainly they deal in dairy.

You know, I can manage so many things--Shiratake noodles, eating dry salads, every veggie under the sun but I absolutely abhor the "chemical farms" products. I am not sure what the stuff taste like. I just know it doesn't belong inside the human body.

eh dunno, just drinking water from the tap (or bottles sometimes) gives out a lotta chemicals nowadays... I guess it depends.

As someone who likes to cook...I just make my own dressings at home. I actually feel better going ahead and spending the calories on REAL food and not have to worry about what god forsaken calorieless chemical I just put in my body.

I dipped my pinkie into the ranch dressing and thought it tasted like...ranch dressing. So I have a question for the people who do not want to put any chemicals into their body. What do you do when you go to the doctor and get a prescription? In the U.S., our Foods and Drugs are both monitored by the FDA. So why do you trust their judgment at the pharmacy counter but not in the condiment aisle? I'm not trying to be smart here, I would really someone to explain the difference.

I personally think it is healthier for us to limit the unnatural chemicals that go into our bodies and that does include medications. Now I wouldn't say that it would be realistic for most people to never take any medication because there are definitely times when the positives of taking a medication for your health outweigh the negatives. I don't really want to ingest large amount of chemicals on a daily basis and it isn't like the chemicals that we do eat do us any good, so I'm not sure why someone would want to consume them freely. Besides, prescription drugs you take have a purpose and they have been tested and usage has been well documented which isn't really the case for things labeled as food.

So for me personally, I rather spend the 20 calories or so on a dressing that is more natural than try to eat some chemical concoction. Although I could really taste the chemicals in the walden farms stuff, it was gross.

I don't blindly trust the pharmacy or the condiment aisle.

I'm on a fair number of medications, but I never take a medication on blind faith. I ask the doctor what the medication's benefits, risks, and side effects. Then I ask the pharmacist the same thing, and then I read the pharmacy printouts, and then I do additional research online on medical sites I trust (usually medical journals).

As for food additives, I also do that research. There are many books on the subject. I've read a few but so long ago I don't remember the titles (but I found a few that sound similar to the ones I read, that I list at the end of this post).

When I read an ingredient I don't recognize, I check it out online, and try to sort out the hype and urban legend from the truth - mostly by verifying the credentials of the person(s) providing the information.



Food Additive books


A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, 7th Edition: Descriptions in Plain English of More Than 12,000 Ingredients Both Harmful and Desirable Found in Foods by Ruth Winter

Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper's Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels (Paperback)
~ Kimberly Lord Stewart

Food Additives: A Shopper's Guide To What's Safe & What's Not (Perfect Paperback)
~ Christine Hoza Farlow

Actually, I rarely, rarely take any meds at all. In any case, even if you cannot go completely chemical free it really is best to limit your exposure.

OK, so my sister and I found these products at the store recently, and they were on the clearance rack. So for $2.00 I bought the calorie-free scampi sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. I almost threw-up after just dipping my finger in. The rest went down the drain....I saw the chocolate and the caramel dips, and was only slightly tempted... I have a feeling it too, will taste like chemicals.

My mom loves these this brand, and I've brought it up to her that they can't be good for you. As a gluten free girl I've come to learn that companies can hide A LOT of things under "natural flavorings". some naturally derived flavors when actually listed can have names that ramble on like a science experiment. no wonder they label them under a generic term. I say buyer beware, and dont even get me started on agave nectar. it's up there near the top of the lists with heavily processed and very "unnatural" things masquerading as health food.

I personally don't have a problem with chemicals. Water is a chemical. Arsenic is all natural. If a good tasting, all chemical, no natural nothing product with low or no calories came out of a lab and on to my grocery shelf I'd be all over it.

Sadly, Walden's products do not seem to meet the first criteria to me. Too bad, I really wanted to like them.

I have never heard of the products. We don't have access to a lot of brands here in Canada. I just thought I should mention something I learned on the Tyra Banks Show LOL. You really have to be careful with products that claim to be "calorie free". There is actually a guideline that if a product is less than 5 calories it can legally be listed as calorie free yet it can have up to 4 calories per serving. If a serving size is very small like a teaspoon and you use half a cup you may actually be getting quite a few calories from that "calorie free" product. On the Tyra Show, she was actually talking about the Becel butter spray that claims to be calorie free but actually contains 4 cals per spray. After you get done coating your popcorn or other food, you can add a lot of calories easily without even knowing it.
I just wanted to add that info, I hope it is helpful :)

I saw the same stuff in the store and thought the same thing - well then what IS in it???? I decided to pass. I am sticking with the old WW trick of dipping my fork tines in salad dressing instead of putting it on my salad or chicken or whatever I am using it for. I did an experiment and put 1 tsp of it in a small bowl and then re-measured it after I finished eating - I was blown away that barely any was used! Way better than eating chemicals!

I'm not chemical-phobic. Every substance on earth is made of chemicals. Even on the nutrition labels, some of those hard-to-pronounce, chemically-sounding-words, are sometimes GOOD things. If you don't know that niacin and folic acid are vitamins, or that acetic acid is essentially vinegar, you can be avoiding harmless or even beneficial foods.

I do use artificial sweeteners, though I'm using less and less. I used to buy a bag of Splenda every few months. I think I bought the bag I have now about three months ago, and it's still about 2/3 full.

It's not primarily that I'm more conscienciously opposed to artificiality - it's just that the more real food I eat, the less tasty the artificial seems.

I've been using the ranch for about a week, it's awesome! I use it with a spring mix, which is a stronger-flavored salad so maybe that helps with the taste?

I love it cause it has a nice strong spicy-ranchy flavor. Totally worth the 3 bucks I paid!

I've seen very few positive reviews of their products, but tons of negative reviews. I don't know how they stay in business.

There's a big difference between a product made in a laboratory than one grown in a garden. It's just not food. In the words of Dr Will Clower "If it ain't food, don't eat it" :lol:

I really like some of their products. They offer a money-back guarantee, I believe. I have noticed the consistency varies, but that hasn't stopped me from using them, yet!

I like the Walden Farms Thousand Island and Creamy Bacon dressings. I didn't care for the Ranch that much, but I wouldn't describe it as horrible. I've never liked a Ranch except the 'real' Hidden Valley brand, so I knew their Ranch would be a long shot for me. Thousand Island is very good, and it comes in single serving pouches which are great when traveling or going to restaurants.

I did try the Peanut Butter and agree that it wasn't good. I've also tried one of the fruit spreads which was fine...sorry...can't remember which flavor. I also have the BBQ sauce, which I thought tasted good.

I found a Peanut Butter at Target called 'Better'n Peanut Butter' that works for me. It's 85% less fat and 40% less calories than regular PB. It's supposed to be refrigerated and I'm not a fan of cold PB, but I use it mostly on PB toast so it works for me.