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With dining room restrictions lifted in most states, many of us are resuming eating out at restaurants again. Thank goodness! And if you’re trying to eat healthfully when dining out, ordering the salad is a great idea. But health experts warn that you *shouldn’t* order fat-free dressing to go on top of it. Why? Because the low healthy fat content and high sugar content is not a good nutrition combo.
“Fat-free salad dressing often contains more sugar in order to make up for the lack of fat,” Joy Dixon, MPH, CHC of Order Up Vegan explains. Yikes! Here’s everything you need to know about these deceptively healthy dressings:
To start, “Fat-free dressings are usually high in sugar, which is the real enemy–NOT fat,” nutritionist Heather Hanks, MS, of Life Insurance Star tells us. “Refined sugar has been linked to numerous health problems, including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, and even cancer.”
But that’s not all. Sugar also induces inflammation in the body, which can lead to numerous adverse health effects, including acne, gut discomfort and pain, mood disorders, cravings, and more, she warns.
Secondly, the removal of fat from the dressing can cause issues with your body absorbing the ingredients.
“If the rest of your salad is lacking healthy fat ingredients like nuts or avocado, this could lead to your body not absorbing many of the beneficial nutrients found in salads,” nutritionist Lisa Richards, CNC, of The Candida Diet explains.
This is because of the solubility of vitamins and minerals, she explains. Vitamins are either fat soluble or water soluble, meaning what they are paired with helps them to be absorbed more easily by the body. Vitamins A, D, E, and K must be paired with at least a minimal amount of fat to be adequately absorbed.
“Therefore, adding a little dressing that contains fat could help you get more benefits from your salad.”
So, if not fat free dressing, what should you eat instead? “As an alternative, try using olive oil and pesto or olive oil and balsamic vinegar to top your next salad,” Dixon advises.
