Lettuce be your guide.Finding a low-fat dressing to perk up perk 1 v. perked, perk·ing, perks v.intr. 1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk. 2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. a bed greens or vegetables--without the aid of too much salt or gelatinous gelatinous /ge·lat·i·nous/ (je-lat´i-nus) like jelly or softened gelatin. ge·lat·i·nous adj. 1. Of, relating to, or containing gelatin. 2. Resembling gelatin; viscous. goo--isn't easy. "Lighten up. It's just a few tablespoons here and there," you may be thinking. "Why should I switch from regular?" Because that modest two-tablespoon dollop you just plopped over your crunchy crunchy - floppy disk romaine is likely to have 10 to 20 grams of fat. Look at it this way: The average woman aged 19 to 50 gets more fat from salad dressing than from any other food. Granted, almost all of it is unsaturated unsaturated /un·sat·u·rat·ed/ (un-sach´ur-at?ed) 1. not holding all of a solute which can be held in solution by the solvent. 2. denoting compounds in which two or more atoms are united by double or triple bonds. fat--so it poses no threat to your arteries. But each tablespoon of regular dressing still deposits about 75 calories on your hips, waist, or whatever--extra calories that most of us could do without. We limited our "Best Bites" to no more than three grams of fat per two-tablespoon serving and our "Honorable Mentions" to no more than six grams. Our sodium limits: no more than 200 milligrams for Best Bites and no more than 300 mg for Honorable Mentions. That knocked scores of low-fat contenders out of the running. Dressing for Taste To some people, fat-free or low-fat dressings taste just fine. And some flavors--like honey mustard and vinaigrette--work better without fat than others. But for other flavors (or tastebuds) a salad with fat-free dressing isn't worth eating. If you've been disappointed by fat-free or low-fat dressings, try our picks. (You may have to hunt for some of them in health food or gourmet stores.) If our Best Bites don't thrill you, try the Honorable Mentions. We only tasted about a fifth of the 100+ that met our cut-offs. Of those, Ken's Lites were standouts. They'll cost you more fat and calories than our Best Bites, but they'll deliver remarkably full-bodied salad dressing flavor...if you can find them. Our Picks Blue Cheese & Caesar: Cheese and fat-free don't mix...except perhaps in Walden Farms Fat Free Bleu Cheese bleu cheese n. See blue cheese. [French, blue, from Old French; see blue.] . Johnny's Great Caesar Lite, at just two grams of fat, was as tasty as any full-fat. Too bad it had a bit too much sodium for an Honorable Mention. French: Weight Watchers Fat Free French Style tasted just like the high-fat stuff ladled out at salad bars. If you're not a fan of fat-free, try Ken's Steak House steak house or steak·house n. A restaurant that specializes in beefsteak dishes. Lite Country French. Honey Mustard: Most of the 15 brands we sampled, like Ken's Steak House and Henri's Fat Free, will please those with a sweet tooth. If you're more a mustard than a honey fan, try Tres Classique's Oil Free Honey Dijon or Safeway Select Enlighten Honey Mustard. Italian: Blanchard & Blanchard Low Fat Balsamic balsamic (bäl·sämˑ·ik), n a substance that can soften and reduce mucus. Italian was delicious. And if you cover the label, nobody will believe that tangy Ken's Steak House Fat Free Italian is really fat-free. Vinaigrette: Paula's No-Fat Roasted Garlic, Paula's No-Fat Toasted Onion, and Safeway Select Enlighten Roasted Garlic were clear winners. So was Ken's Steak House Lite Olive Oil olive oil, pale yellow to greenish oil obtained from the pulp of olives by separating the liquids from solids. Olive oil was used in the ancient world for lighting, in the preparation of food, and as an anointing oil for both ritual and cosmetic purposes. Vinaigrette. And Paula scored again with her No-Oil Tangerine tangerine: see orange. tangerine Small, thin-skinned variety of the mandarin orange species (Citrus reticulata deliciosa) of the rue family (citrus family). & Mint and her Lime & Cilantro. And if you've never tried a raspberry vinaigrette, fan some sliced ripe peaches or sprinkle a handful of berries over a bed of baby greens and top with a drizzle of Annie's Low Fat Raspberry Vinaigrette, Rising Sun Farm Oil Free Raspberry and Balsamic, or Ken's Steak House Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette. Instant summer. Other: Both Thousand Islands that we tasted (Kraft Free and Naturally Fresh Fat Free) passed muster. And San-J's Thai Peanut is perfect for sliced chicken breast over crisp greens or cold noodles noo·dle 1 n. A narrow, ribbonlike strip of dried dough, usually made of flour, eggs, and water. [German Nudel. . The information for this article was compiled by Trish Treanor. RELATED ARTICLE: Getting Dressed * "Best Bites" have no more than three grams of fat and 200 milligrams of sodium in two-tablespoon serving. [check] "Honorable Mentions" have no more than six grams of fat and 300 mg of sodium. Within each category, dressings are ranked from least to most total fat, after rounding. [TABULAR DATA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, a few symbols, and control characters. Originally designed for teletype operations, it has found wide application in computers. ] |
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