Don't Get Fat Eating Salads! Here's the #1 Tip to Slim Down Your Salad

Did you know that young women get half their daily calories from salad dressing?  Half!

At least that what Dr. Oz (love him!) claimed on The Today Show Monday morning when I was channel surfing.  That means you're wasting a ton of empty calories on a condiment!  A condiment, that in many cases, is loaded with saturated fats and high fructose corn syrup.  And that gross, fat-free salad dressing?  Forget it.  It has a ton of sugar, preservatives and other crap that make you fat, as well.

When I was fat, I lived on fat-free salad dressing.  When I made the commitment eat to real food, all of that fake garbage went right out the window, including the bottled dressing.

In lieu of salad dressing, I normally top my salads with a good balsamic vinegar.  It adds a wonderful flavor and might also help you burn fat.  A Japanese study done in the mid-2000's found that subjects who ate a high-fat diet but included vinegar, ultimately lost 10% more body fat than those who did not consume it.  Sweet!

Other great options are a balsamic reduction, salsa, homemade dressing or just a bit of lemon and olive oil.  These are fresh, easy and taste so much better than a bottled dressing that has been sitting on a store shelf for six months.

Two flavorful, affordable vinegars

In some restaurants, when I specify I would like plain, balsamic vinegar along with my salad, servers sometime make a mistake and bring balsamic dressing instead.  They are usually happy to correct the error.  In Mexican restaurants, I always top my salad with salsa, except at Mi Cocina.  I do splurge and request their spicy blue cheese dressing on the side for their Rico Salad.  I LOVE it but only eat it once in a while and don't eat all of it.  Just a few bites.

Crazily, some places don't have vinegar.  I stopped eating meals at Panera because the sandwich shop doesn't make its dressings on-site.  Meaning, it's shipped in and full of preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup.  Subsequently, they don't have any vinegar in their stores.  At least that's been the case at the three across DFW I've visited.

Try eliminating bottled salad dressing from your diet.  It's another way you can rock your 2013 weight loss resolution and easily cut empty calories from your diet.