The Best Gluten-Free Asian Salad Dressings
by Shereen Jegtvig for foodessentials
An Asian dressing is a tasty way to top a healthy salad. There are so many possible flavors — sesame, sweet and sour, and ginger dressings are all distinctly different and delicious. Adding flavor to your diet is important, especially if you have to follow a strict diet to eliminate gluten, which seems to be everywhere.
Gluten is a protein in wheat, spelt and a few other grains that normally is digested in the body just like any other protein, but people who have celiac sprue or are sensitive to gluten, have to avoid it. Many products contain gluten as an ingredient or tiny amounts of wheat and unless you do a little investigation, you may not realize you’re eating gluten, and you’re left wondering why you’re not feeling well.
In my last post, I explained how to choose salad dressings, and this time, I’d like to use the Foodessentials Widget to look for the best gluten-free Asian salad dressings.
Gluten-Free Asian Salad Dressings:
If you’re sensitive to gluten, you have to be so careful to choose products that are free from wheat and grains that contain gluten. It isn’t always easy. Who would expect to find wheat in a salad dressing? Our FoodEssentials widget sifts through the dressings to find the Asian salad dressings that are gluten-free:
Out of 18 products, only three are free of gluten. So let’s look at some other ingredients to see if we can pick out the best gluten-free dressing.
Sweeteners:
If you’re looking to reduce your intake of sugar and other sweeteners, you’ll want to choose an Asian dressing that doesn’t contain any added sugar. Here’s what the FoodEssentials Widget shows for sweetener-free Asian dressings.
The widget shows ten Asian salad dressings that are sweetener-free, including Annie’s Naturals Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette w/ Chamomile, which we know from our first list is also gluten-free.
Preservative Free:
Packaged foods frequently contain preservatives to keep foods tasting and looking fresh longer. However, if you’re sensitive to preservatives, you’ll want to choose Asian salad dressings that are preservative-free.
Both Annie’s Naturals Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette w/ Chamomile and the Maple Grove Farms Vermont Sweet and Sour dressings from our first list are also preservative free.
Added Coloring:
Many companies add colors to their dressings, which can be OK if something healthy and natural is used, but sometimes you’ll find artificial colorings – and that is something you don’t need.
Looks like none of our dressings are color-free, but two of them are in the maybe category. A closer look at the ingredients list of each dressing shows Maple Grove Farms and Annie’s Naturals use salt, while the T. Marzetti’s Sweet and Sour uses an artificial coloring.
And the Best Is…
Annie’s Naturals Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette w/ Chamomile is my choice for the best gluten-free Asian dressing because it doesn’t use artificial colorings and doesn’t have any additional sweeteners.
Learn More About Other Foods
Use our Foodessentials database to explore other types of dressings:
High Fructose Corn Syrup-Free Greek Dressing
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