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We all know that salads are ideal meals for weight loss. However, you should definitely be wary before you go adding lots of ingredients to your base of leafy greens. Some of your go-to ingredients are for sure healthier than others.
It’s no secret that most people love to add dressings to their salads to give them some extra flavor–but did you know just how unhealthy some of those dressings are?
A variety of salad dressings actually contain a high amount of unwanted calories and fat. To help you out, let’s dive into the top four salad dressings that are bad for you and your gut health. These dressings can lead you to both extra stomach fat and uncomfortable bloating–yikes!
Simply put, one tablespoon of ranch dressing has more calories and fat than a chocolate chip cookie, Delish says-- how crazy is that?! Delish further explains that there are 63.2 calories and 6.7 grams total fat in just one tablespoon of ranch, while one chocolate chip cookie would cost you about 54.2 calories and 2.4 grams of total fat. That is definitely convincing enough to get us to rethink our favorite salad dressing.
Another creamy and delicious dressing you should avoid, or go super light on if you just can’t live without it, is Caesar dressing. We’re all guilty of ordering a classic chicken Caesar salad when we think we’re ordering a “healthy” option off of any given menu. However, Food Network reveals the truth behind Caesar salad. According to Food Network, a traditional Caesar salad has 470 calories, 40 grams of fat (9 grams of which are saturated), and 1070 milligrams of sodium.
Yet another popular salad dressing isn't so ideal for your waistline. Thousand Island dressing, while delicious, doesn’t have the healthiest ingredients at its base. Think about it, the base of thousand island dressings have mayonnaise, ketchup or tomato puree, and egg. Ketchup and mayonnaise alone aren’t the healthiest of condiments, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when we say you should avoid a salad dressing that is largely made up of those same ingredients.
Last but not least is probably one of the most controversial salad dressings: blue cheese. People who love it really love it, and those who are against adding the creamy dressing to their meals are very against it. Luckily for you, we’ve made the executive decision to tell you to stop adding blue cheese dressing to your salads and we’ll explain why. According to personal trainer Jillian Michaels’ website, creamy dressings like blue cheese are loaded with fat and have high levels of sodium-- duly noted!
What’s your go-to salad dressing? Let us know your favorite in the comments below!
