If you’re trying to lose weight or keep from getting fat, salads are helpful. I recommend them in my Advanced Mediterranean Diet, Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet, Paleobetic Diet, and Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet.
My favorite salad dressings are vinaigrettes. They can be as simple as olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. The problem with most commercial vinaigrettes is the label says “_____ Vinaigrette with olive oil,” but the first listed ingredient is soybean oil (or some other industrial seed oil) and olive oil is somewhere down the line. My current favorite commercial salad dressing has water as the first ingredient!
Get around that by making your own. Here’s a recipe and a salad to try it on. Also, if you’re watching your carb consumption, the commercial dressings may sneak in more than you want. Again, avoid that by making your own.
You can make a vinaigrette in a jar with a lid. Add the ingredients then shake to create an emulsion. Or do it in a bowl with a whisk. My wife found us a cruet at the supermarket that I was hoping would allow mixing, storing, and pouring all from the same attractive container. Unfortunately, it leaks when I shake it.
Steve Parker, M.D.