All Health’s Breaking Loose:

In the fifties, owners of a dude ranch in Southern California came up with a new salad dressing to serve their guests. They named it “Ranch dressing” and you know the rest of the story. Today it’s an empire, and pretty much anything that’s not nailed down has been dipped in it and consumed. I recently saw teenagers eating ranch-dipped pizza. Having just written that, you may be expecting an article about the fat content of the aforementioned snack, but I have bigger ranch-dipped fish to fry.

Let’s say the average Joe will put about four tablespoons of ranch dressing on a salad—the specially-designed wide mouth bottle allows it to pour out fast, but we’ll assume it stops at 4 tablespoons and quantify that serving. That’s 280 calories, 260 of them from fat and about 520 grams of sodium—enough to drive up your bad cholesterol and blood pressure. But here are some other ingredients from the list of the 21 in the most popular brand that concern me even more:

Soy bean oil — not my first choice for a healthy oil, but not too bad.

Water — reduces costs and then needs to be “thickened” with other additives.

Egg yolk — but are they raw, cooked, pasteurized— (hmmm, doesn’t say.) Pregnant women, children and elderly: be very careful here.

Sugar — you may not want it on your salad, but it’s needed to round out the acidic tartness of the other ingredients.

Cultured nonfat buttermilk — more saturated fat.

Natural flavors — in the MSG family (though they aren’t telling us which ones.)

A substance used in soft drinks which lowers bone density, provides a tangy taste and is cheaper to use than lemons.

Xanthan gum — increases the viscosity of a liquid.

Modified food starch — a thickening agent, and emulsifier that prevents oil and water from separating.

Monosodium glutamate — an addictive neurotoxin that stimulates hunger and increases appetite by acting on the hypothalamus. Exacerbates high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s and many other illnesses treated with a glutamate blocker. Promotes tumor and cancer growth.

Artificial flavors — more MSG

Disodium phosphate — an emulsifier which increases shelf life.

Sorbic acid—a preservative which prevents the growth of mold, fungi and yeast.

Calcium disodium EDTA — a preservative, known to cause blood in urine and kidney damage.

Sodium guanyilate and Disodium Inosinate — flavor enhancers akin to MSG which amp up the flavor so you taste it in your whole mouth. Not safe for babies under 12 weeks and people with gout and other illnesses.

I wonder if that nice couple from the dude ranch intended for it to get this toxic. Here’s a recipe that just might be pretty close to the one they came up with in the first place. If you are a “ranch lover” you could avoid the damaging health risks by making this at home. I recommend limiting dairy products, so have this in small amounts.

I’ll see you in two weeks.

Love & health, Loa

LOA BLASUCCI can be reached at heyloa@gmail.com