[skyyler]

So, first off, commercial salad dressing almost always has sugar in it. Look at the nutritional facts label next time you're shopping for it. There's a few brands that offer "simple vinegar and oil" style dressings that don't have any sugar in them, but MOST salad dressings Americans come in contact with are full of sugar.

Even low GI foods still cause blood sugar to raise by some amount.

All of the vegetables in the salad have carbohydrates that will raise blood sugar. Carrots, onions, tomatoes, all of that will raise blood sugar. Croutons? Blood sugar.

Obviously selecting a garden salad with no dressing is a healthier choice than "sweet ribs". Most diabetics (that are managing their condition) are not going to be ordering things with refined sugar in them.

Where things get tricky is asking questions like "what's healthier, a honey-miso glazed salmon with brown rice or a salad with croutons and a honey and berry dressing?" or "What's better for you, grilled chicken with a sugary barbeque sauce or fried chicken with no sauce?"

[ryan-richt]

Also watch out for "sugar by another name" ... pineapple puree, white grape juice/concentrate, apple juice/concentrate are very common commercial dressing ingredients to load up on sugar.

Sure always ask for the vinaigrette eating out, but at home make your own salad dressing:

* get a mixing bowl big enough to toss salad in, and a whisk * add 1T dijon mustard, 1T not-balsamic vinegar (balsamic is high sugar! I like sherry or beer vinegar), salt & pepper * drizzle in 1T olive oil while rapidly whisking. * Add 3 oz or more salad, toss, done for 2 servings

[Scoundreller]

I just use old dijon bottles with a bit left in it to get the rest out and shake the heck out of it but I go through a lot of mustard.

The lengths I’ve seen brands go To avoid having sugar as their 1st or 2nd ingredient…

after that you have invert sugar, corn syrup, molasses, brown rice syrup etc. as following ingredients…

[sgerenser]

A few years ago organic/natural products were marketed as containing "Evaporated Cane Juice" (aka Cane Sugar) but my understanding is the FDA put an end to that one.

[reubenswartz]

Making your own salad dressing is really easy and let's you have a salad you really like in a couple of minutes.

My recipe is basically what you have here, although I usually mix some balsamic and other vinegars, and add a bit lemon juice.

I went from feeling sorry for people who were "forced" to eat salads to craving them. (Side benefit of not having the afternoon urge to sleep.)

[barbazoo]

> commercial salad dressing almost always has sugar in it. Look at the nutritional facts label next time you're shopping for it. There's a few brands that offer "simple vinegar and oil" style dressings that don't have any sugar in them, but MOST salad dressings Americans come in contact with are full of sugar.

Making salad dressing is really easy btw in case anyone wants to try. Often all you need is olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and you're set for most salads. Even a restaurant should be able to whip that up.

[skyyler]

If you have an immersion blender, making mayonnaise without sugar in it is very easy:

https://www.seriouseats.com/two-minute-mayonnaise

(And it tastes way better than commercial mayo!)

I love this author's recipes; it's the opposite of the normal recipe-preamble-slop. All of the stuff before the actual recipe is relevant information. In more complex recipes, he goes over the testing and process that led to the finished recipe. It's a wonderful view into the world of recipe creation.

[barbazoo]

Awesome, I'll give that a try. What I like about it is that you can use whatever high quality eggs you normally use instead of the cage eggs that mass producers will use. Until now I had to resort to vegan mayo.

[glandium]

"If you have an immersion blender"

You can also make mayonnaise with a whisk.

[skyyler]

Yes, you can make mayonnaise with a whisk.

It's so much easier to do it with a hand blender though. It takes longer to clean up afterwards than it takes to make. And no maintaining a steady thin stream of oil, you just put it all into a container and blitz it.

You can make meringues and cakes with a whisk, too, but most people I know have electric mixers for that.

Mechanical eggbeaters with little flywheels were popular before the electric ones, too!

[nottorp]

> Often all you need is olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and you're set for most salads.

Why do you need a "dressing"? In my corner of Europe they put the above by default on every restaurant table and the salad has nothing in it (or maybe a tiny bit of oil and vinegar), you adjust it to taste.

The only places that offer salad "dressings" are american inspired and even those mostly serve it separately so you can ignore it.

[BobaFloutist]

For the same reason you add some spices before cooking, and salt multiple times throughout a recipe.

Plus, it's a little hard to emulsify or even suspend the oil and vinegar right there at the table.

[barbazoo]

> or maybe a tiny bit of oil and vinegar

That's what I mean by "dressing". We're talking about the same thing.

[nottorp]

Ah well, above us they seem to call mayonnaise and other fat and high calorie stuff "dressing"?

[skyyler]

Mayonnaise alone is used to dress salads, and mayonnaise is used as the base for many more elaborate salad dressings. The famous American "ranch" dressing is basically mayonnaise with buttermilk and allium and herbs added.

[stretchwithme]

I buy a salad kit at Trader Joe's. It has sugar in it. And I buy arugula and make 4 salads out of that one salad. I add a dash of olive oil and pecans. And end up throwing out 1/3 of dressing that came with the salad.

So I get some of the sugar sources in the kit. Just smaller amounts.

Otherwise, I just use olive oil and balsamic vinegar with arugula, pecans.

Arugula is a good source of nitrates, which are good for nitric acid.