Fat is beautiful

My stroll through the electronic press this morning yielded an irresistible link: How To ... Make salad dressings. The Associated Press, in an effort to educate us all, writes that it’s much healthier and tastier to make our own salad dressings. No argument from me on that, but they tell me it’s healthier because (drum roll) I can reduce the fat when I make my own.

Now, I understand as well as anyone the importance of keeping calories under control (remember how I lost weight?), but categorically deeming all fats bad isn’t the answer. You see, we need fats, especially essential fatty acids (there’s a reason they’re called essential!). There is mounting evidence that our obsession with cutting all fats and our economically-driven industrialization of the food chain is throwing our fat intake out of whack, and contributing to things like heart disease. The healthy 1:1 or even 2:1 balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fats has been replaced by a whopping 20:1 or 30:1, largely due to consumption of grain-fed meats and highly-processed foods.

In this light, the AP’s technique of using reduced fat ingredients such as nonfat buttermilk and nonfat sour cream give me pause. Originally, buttermilk was the naturally low-fat product that remained after churning butter; now it’s made by culturing nonfat milk from grain fed cows. Sour cream used to be cream from these same happy cows, with enzymes added to sour it, but the current nonfat version from one commercial dairy has a far more involved ingredients list: Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Skim Milk, Modified Food Starch, Cream, Sugar, Pea Starch, Natural Flavor and Vitamin A Palmitate. In both cases, the traditional product came from a cow that grazed on grass, which contributed to the omega-3 side of the equation; our current grain feeding practices tilt the balance greatly toward the omega 6 side.

And for most bottled dressings, we can’t blame fat alone. A glance at the ingredients list for a “healthy” popular fat-free salad dressing should frighten any thinking person: Water, Vinegar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Salt, Contains less than 2% of Parmesan Cheese, Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes, Garlic, Onion Juice, Whey, Phosphoric Acid, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Disodium EDTA as preservatives, Yeast Extract, Spice and Red Peppers, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Garlic, Buttermilk, Caramel Color, Sodium Phosphate, Enzymes, Oleoresin Paprika.

Compare this to a traditional homemade salad dressing: one part Dijon mustard, one part vinegar, six parts oil, salt & pepper. I first learned this standing in a Frenchwoman’s modest kitchen. She made this most basic vinaigrette at the bottom of the salad bowl while the freshly-washed lettuce was draining in the spinner. Since all the ingredients are shelf-stable (real Dijon mustard needs no refrigeration), they sat right there on the counter, handy for every meal. I went home and tried it, and was sold; with time, I have learned to vary it with my mood: substituting different oils and vinegars, of course, but also using things like lemon juice and soy sauce or maple syrup, and adding different herbs and spices. Oh, and real, organic cream when the whim strikes me.