Choosing a low-fat dressing for your salad might help with keeping the calories down but a recent study suggests that you could be missing out on other health benefits. The study, undertaken by Iowa State University, involved feeding 29 people salads dressed with butter, high in saturated fat, canola oil for monounsaturated fat, and corn oil for polyunsaturated fat. Each salad had 3g, 8g or 20g of fat.

They found that higher-fat dressings helped the body to absorb more carotenoids; compounds found in vegetables that are linked with a reduced risk of ill health, particularly degenerative diseases and heart conditions. Carotenoids are fabulous antioxidants but they are fat soluble like vitamins D, E and K –as such, it makes sense that they require fat in order to be absorbed by the body.

With the exception of canola oil, the more fat that was used the more carotenoids that were absorbed by the body and therefore, it follows, the healthier the salad. The study’s professor, Mario Ferruzzi said “If you want to utilise more from your vegetables, you have to pair them correctly with fat-based dressings.”

“If you have a salad with a fat-free dressing, there is a reduction in calories, but you lose some of the benefits of the vegetables.  You can absorb significant amounts of carotenoids with saturated or polyunsaturated fats at low levels, but you would see more carotenoid absorption as you increase the amounts of those fats on a salad.”


Where do I find polyunsaturated fats?

Polyunsaturated fats like omega 3, 6 and 9 are found in foods including:

Nuts: such as walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, and peanuts

Seeds: such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds and sesame seeds

Oils: such as flax seed, grape seed, hemp seed, sunflower seed, evening primrose, sesame and olive oil all contain either omega-3, 6 or 9 fatty acids. No single oil contains all three types of fat which is why we recommend using a product like Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend as it provides an easy and convenient way of getting all three fatty acids into the diet, it really is a wonderful product.

Why not try making our Lemon Chicken Salad with Udo’s Salad Dressing? Ultimate Oil Blend is also delicious in smoothies, drizzled over steamed vegetables or mixed into porridge topped with Manuka Health’s Manuka Honey and a handful of fresh berries- heavenly!

Bon appetit!