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We all know that salad is one of the best meals you can pick from a menu or make for your lunch when trying to stay healthy and in shape. On its own, salads can be a source of vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs to lose weight. But salads are always served with dressing, which give extra flavor and better texture but may also give some unwanted calories.
Some salad dressings are better than others, and if you pick the wrong dressing you can be adding a lot of carbs, sugar, fat and sodium to your salad - making a once healthy meal into something bad for you. And unfortunately, one of the most popular dressings is actually one of the worst.
We’re talking about ranch dressing - a popular favorite for everything from salads to dips. But nutritionists agree that ranch is the first dressing you should boot from your diet, because it is loaded with unhealthy ingredients.
While many salad dressings contain high amounts of fat, ranch is particularly bad because it has a lot of saturated fat - the type responsible for raising cholesterol levels and increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association recommends you limit your saturated fat intake to 6% of your daily calories, but ranch dressing contains about 20% of your recommended intake.
Next time, swap the ranch for a healthier alternative. You can even try to make your own healthy ranch-inspired dressing using Greek yogurt. Get the full recipe from Ambitious Kitchen.
