What's in Your Dressing?

Making scratch made dressing and vinaigrette is super easy to do at home especially thanks to websites like Pinterest or television networks like the Food Network or Cooking Channel which give you all the inspiration you could need. There are a billion ways to whip up scratch made salad dressings but sometimes we all still find ourselves reaching for a bottle of the pre-made stuff.

While there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of a bottle of dressing from the shelf at the market, all dressings and vinaigrettes are NOT created equal. This post is inspired by my sudden realization at work last night that I wanted to whip up a bean salad when I got home but had no vinegar and no fresh herbs which are scare here in Dublin. Knowing this, I went on the hunt for a bottle of vinaigrette and as someone who religiously reads ingredient labels, it was quickly apparent that no two vinaigrettes are the same.

In the case of bottled vinaigrette, the ingredients list should typically be short and sweet. Oil of course, vinegar, seasonings, herbs, maple syrup or honey, and occasionally citrus, other than this, you shouldn't see anything else in there but that is definitely not always the case. Here's a few things you should watch out for when shopping for vinaigrette!

GLUCOSE FRUCTOSE SYRUP /
GLUCOSE SYRUP

In 2/3 of the bottles I saw at the market, glucose fructose syrup was the third or fourth ingredient in the vinaigrette. First of all, it's quite processed and doesn't do much for us in the health department. On top of that, it's easily converted to fat in our bodies which leads to inflammation, obesity, and other disease not to mention that over consumption can lead to diabetes. 

SUGAR

A little sugar goes a long way but in almost all of the bottles of vinaigrette that contained glucose fructose, they also listed sugar two or three ingredients down. In some cases, 2 Tbsp. of vinaigrette had 5 g of sugar which is over a teaspoon. There's nothing wrong with a pinch of sugar but in moderation of course and especially so when gluciose finds itself on the ingredient list as well. Way too much unnecessary sugar!

CORN SYRUP

Another sugary substance hiding out in your dressings and vinagrettes. I can guarantee you that when you see one of these syrups, you'll also see sugar in the list as well which is just a nutritional disaster. There's no room in a vinaigrette for teaspoons upon teaspoons of sugar.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

If your ingredient list is a short story and half of those ingredients sound like something straight out of an experimental laboratory, stay as far away from that vinaigrette as possible.

LOW FAT / LOW CAL

These are dangerous and misleading when it comes to bottle vinaigrettes because it almost every case of something being low in one thing, they've added more other bad things to compensate and keep things tasty. Just stick to full fat vinaigrettes and suggested serving sizes and you'll be fine.

If you're going to reach for that bottle of pre-made vinaigrette, just watch out for the things I mentioned above and you can be sure you're getting the best quality vinaigrette you can get from the market. Also, I strongly suggest avoiding creamy dressings because they're usually high in sodium, calories, and fat, and contain so many ingredients that you want to avoid. Stick to store bought vinaigrettes and making your creamy dressings at home so you know exactly what's in them.

HAPPY VEG