12 Steps to Whole Foods

Dressing Up Your Salads
Dangerous Ingredients in Commercial Salad Dressings
Bottled salad dressings are a danger to your health. Virtually all of them, including the expensive refrigerated
kinds, contain one or more of the following dangerous ingredients that your fresh, homemade salad dressings
will not contain.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG). This chemical is purchased under the
brand name “Accent.” It is also hiding in hydrolyzed vegetable protein
and dozens of other food additives, so you may not recognize that it’s in
your bottled dressings, especially nonrefrigerated types. MSG makes you
crave more of the foods it is in and thus has been linked to the obesity
epidemic. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a neurotoxin that has been
linked to brain damage, central nervous system damage, and dozens of
other major health problems.
Chemical additives and preservatives. These include propylene glycol,
sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), and other chemicals whose names you
cannot pronounce. Although PG and SLS are known by the FDA to cause
liver and kidney damage, the FDA approves these chemicals and many
others if they are “food grade,” which means that the rodents and
droppings are strained out.
Refined oils. These are oils such as soy, safflower, canola, and other vegetable oils which are heated above
400° and made rancid and, therefore, carcinogenic. Everyone knows trans fatty acids (TFAs) are deadly, but
even refined oils that are not manufactured and bombarded with hydrogen atoms like TFAs are very harmful to
our health, damaging every cell they come into contact with. Despite the claims of soy product manufacturers,
who have been very successful at promoting soy in the past two decades, soy oil and other refined soy products
are thyroid suppressants. Since millions of American women are walking around with undiagnosed lowthyroid
(hypothyroid) problems, we would be wise to stay away from all refined soy products, which are in
many foods.
High-fructose corn syrup. The very worst of all the refined sugars, it is
linked to diabetes, tooth decay, and obesity, among dozens of other health
risks. This is what dietitians call “added sugar,” because it is totally
unnecessary topping a salad. Craving a treat and eating a piece of chocolate
is one thing. But no one will miss cheap, refined sugars in their salad!
You should recognize most of your favorite dressing types in this chapter’s
recipes, but none have chemicals or ingredients that will damage your
health. All feature lipase-rich, antioxidant-packed ingredients that will
make a dramatic difference in the longevity and health of every cell in your
body.
76 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw