I just wanted to plug Walden Farms dressings. They are no cal, no sugar, no carbs dressings and they taste good to me. I bought ranch dressing at the store (renderns warehouse market ) and just tried some on cucumbers. Mmmmmm they were good tasted like ranch only slightly thinner, but still the taste. Check them out for all you sald eaters plus their site has other stuff 2.
I looked at the site, and it said vinegar and spices, but I know vinegar does have a small amount of calories... so perhaps it's no calories per serving? How big is a serving?
Hmmmm, keep in mind that they say you need SOME fats in your salad dressings in order to absorb the nutrients from the veggies.
Eating your salad or carrot sticks with a little fatty salad dressing may actually be better for your health than pouring on the fat-free stuff.
A new study shows that eating fresh vegetables with a little fat, such as oil-based salad dressings or cheese, helps the body absorb valuable nutrients found in vegetables, such as lycopene and beta-carotene, which have been shown to help prevent heart disease and cancer.
In contrast, eating a salad without any fat in it may deprive your body of these healthy nutrients, which are known as carotenoids.
"We're certainly not advocating a high-fat diet, or one filled with full-fat salad dressing," says researcher Wendy White, associate professor of food science and nutrition at Iowa State University, in a news release. "Our findings are actually consistent with U.S. dietary guidelines, which support a moderate diet, rather than one very low, in fat."
"But what we found compelling was that some of our more popular healthful snacks, like baby carrots, really need to be eaten with a source of fat for us to absorb the beta carotene," says White. "If you'd like to stick with fat-free dressing, the addition of small amounts of avocado or cheese in a salad may help along the absorption."
Researchers say that the popularity of fat-free and low-fat salad dressings has grown in the last 10 years, and 20% of men and 33% of women say they always choose low-calorie rather than full-calorie salad dressings.
Fat Helps the Body Absorb Nutrients
Vegetables commonly found in salads are essentially fat-free and are a rich source of healthy carotenoids. In order for these carotenoids to be absorbed by the human digestive system, fat is needed. But researchers say exactly how much fat is needed to provide optimal absorption of these nutrients is not clearly defined.
In the study, which appears in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers compared nutrient absorption after eating salads with varying levels of fat.
Seven healthy men and women ate salads of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots topped with Italian dressings containing 0, 6 (0.2 ounces), or 28 grams (almost 1 ounce) of canola oil on different occasions during a 12-week period. Hourly blood samples were taken for 11 hours after the meal and tested for nutrient absorption.
The study found that only negligible amounts of alpha- and beta-carotene and lycopene were detected in the blood after eating a salad with fat-free dressing. Significantly more of these substances, known as carotenoids, were detected in the blood after eating salads with reduced-fat dressing or full-fat dressings.
Researchers say this study shows that the minimum amount of fat required for optimal absorption of these nutrients from the salads is more than 6 grams of added fat. But because salads are often consumed with other items that contain fat, the use of a reduced-fat salad dressing may still allow the body to reap the maximum nutritional benefits of fresh vegetables.
That's why I love coming to 3FC. I learn something new with every session!
I'm a new convert to baby carrots (what a neat snack!) but always felt a touch guilty for having to have the ranch dip with them (otherwise, I can't eat 'em). I'll still only have about half an ounce of dip per serving of carrots, but now I can dip without guilt!
That's why I love coming to 3FC. I learn something new with every session!
I'm a new convert to baby carrots (what a neat snack!) but always felt a touch guilty for having to have the ranch dip with them (otherwise, I can't eat 'em). I'll still only have about half an ounce of dip per serving of carrots, but now I can dip without guilt!
Awww pooey on that. If you wanna dip, dip!
I was glad to hear this news myself because fat-free dressing is something I just could never get myself used to. I've tried loads of fat-free salad dressings and I can't eat 'em. They make me gag. Some things just weren't meant to be fat-free. Now, if it's a naturally fat-free dressing you make yourself, like something made of vinegar and lemon juice, etc, you can't really help that - IF that's what you like. I think it's gross. But some people like that. I'm talking about commercially-made bottled dressings. The little bit of fat from the soy oils, etc, is what makes them taste so good, in my opinion.
Like I said, I definitely do the light dressings. My two favorites include Marzetti's Light Honey French and Ken's Steakhouse Light Sweet Vidalia Onion. Heavenly, that one is!
Wyllen is on to the secret, I believe. Truth in advertising (or who ever sets the standards) says that you can call something calorie free if it has less than 1.9 cals per serving (I'm guessing, too lazy to go find the reference). So if a serving is 1 tsp and only has .75 cals, you can call it calorie free. However if you have a substantial amount, the calories do add up.
Thanks for looking that up, Susan, I was too tired to try something like that last night... I still don't find any info about serving sizes, so bells are definitely ringing for me on this one.
Linda, thanks for posting that article. I often eat carrots with no dip and alone, but get enough fat in my diet generally. I wonder how close together in time you have to eat the fat and the veggies to get the value.
It also makes me feel better about putting cheese on my salads! I often whip up my own "dressing" with balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and pepper, so it's pretty fat free, but I almost always have feta cheese (don't know about 6 grams... will have to check). However, I might go back to adding just a touch of olive oil to that.
Linda, thanks for posting that article. I often eat carrots with no dip and alone, but get enough fat in my diet generally. I wonder how close together in time you have to eat the fat and the veggies to get the value.
Good question. But they do say that having some fats (preferably poly's and mono's, not saturates) on your salads allows you to absorb the nutrients from the rest of the ingredients.
And there's plenty of polyunsaturates in most salad dressings because of the soybean oil.
Linda? what happened to Peg? Is that her? She's quite sweetlooking.
We lost her last Tuesday. She was an older dog and had some health problems and her health just deteriorated in the last month, she went down pretty fast.
I still use fat-free dressings because they tend to have fewer calories than the low-fat, but I add fat to my salad in other ways. I sometimes add chees,e sometimes hard-boiled egg, sometime chopped nuts or almond slivers, etc. The fat doesn't have to come from the dressing
I have tried the Walden Farms fat-free, calorie-free, everything-free dressings, and to me, they are pretty much taste-free as well They aren't usually with the other dressings--I have only ever found them in the produce section in the refrigerated cases with the prepared veggies and fruits (like the bags of salad mix and containers of pre-cut fruit and such). I have tried the thousand island and the honey mustard (or honey dijon? something like that), and both leave much to be desired (in addition to leaving a nasty aftertaste!) Just my opinion...
NO CAL - Dressings !!!!
They aren't usually with the other dressings--I have only ever found them in the produce section in the refrigerated cases with the prepared veggies and fruits (like the bags of salad mix and containers of pre-cut fruit and such). I have tried the thousand island and the honey mustard (or honey dijon? something like that), and both leave much to be desired (in addition to leaving a nasty aftertaste!) 
Just my opinion...