Be the Best Dressed!

The sun is out and the season for salads is here! After washing, chopping, slicing and sprinkling together your deliciously nutritious salad ingredients, next up, the squeeze...

Just what is in that squeeze? Do you really know what you are dressing your salads with? Just because it is on the shelf for sale does not automatically mean it is good for you. As a consumer, it is up to you to find the facts and make informed decisions on the things you consume. Hello ingredients lists!

Putting the fat debate aside for a moment, there are other things to watch out for in processed packaged food products. Packaged salad dressings on the shelf for sale are likely to contain food additives. Food additives are substances which are added to food products to enhance the “quality”. Food additives are not necessarily bad. For example, vinegar is a food additive which has been used for a long time to help preserve food through pickling.

The numbers in ingredients lists are a system for identifying food additives. You can check what the numbers mean by searching them in Google. You’ll quickly get a general impression of whether the product is a nice fit. Thought to ponder: Why do we need a numbering system to identify what is in our food? If the name is that long, should it really be in there?

I discovered a dressing containing colour 150d and didn’t find what Google had to say about it even a little bit inviting. Why on earth is there even colouring in a salad dressing?

The more you read labels, the faster and quicker you’ll get to know what’s really in your food, all while equipping yourself with the information you need to make informed decisions.

A great option is to get dressy in the kitchen and make your own! There are loads of awesome recipes out there for delicious and healthful home-made salad dressings which are likely to have far fewer food additives than salad dressings from the shelf. There are even easy salad dressings you can make that use raspberries!

Be the best dressed! Get creative and healthy and decide what fits nicely on your salad!