Ranch Dressing – High Protein Low Fat Alternative… Say What??

A client and good friend of mine recently referred me to a recipe he has been eating using Fat Free Greek Yogurt and Ranch Seasoning mix to make ranch dressing. Ranch dip and salad dressing is one of those comfort foods which the majority of the western world loves and probably over consumes. Give a child a bowl of broccoli or carrots and watch how fast they gobble it up. Now place a bowl of Ranch Dip next to it and compare their consumption now. (I think in most cases you’ll find quite the difference in rabbit mode).

Unfortunately ranch dip/dressing contains A LOT of calories with only 1Tbs being a whopping 140 calories, most of which is coming from fats (15 grams) and NO PROTEIN. Not that ranch cannot be consumed in moderation as part of an overall healthy diet, BUT it isn’t exactly a fat loss friendly food when dieting down to lean levels.

So what if you could remove the FAT calories and add 300% more PROTEIN?

There were two kinds of Ranch Seasoning mixes to choose from. Hidden Valley (Left) and Uncle Dans (Right). I decided to test out both and give you my subjective review.

Here are the ingredients for each one:

As you can see, Hidden Valley’s ingredients list is a lot longer than Uncle Dan’s AND it does contain MSG. The majority of research on humans has shown NO harmful effects of moderate MSG consumption short term, unless injected. [1] Mild side effects have been reported like fatigue, muscle tightness or cramping, and headaches in higher doses but these results have been inconsistent. [2,3] I personally have used and cooked with MSG before and have only had good things to say about its moderate use.

Recipe:

– 200g Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt
– 7-10g Hidden Valley Ranch Mix OR Uncle Dan’s Ranch Mix (depending on your taste and salt tolerance)

Conclusion

I was AMAZED how good these dips tasted even though they contained ~21g protein and ZERO grams of fat! Out of the two kinds I tried, I liked Uncle Dan’s Ranch Mix more and it contains LESS ingredients so thats a bonus.

I’m sure if a dressing was what you were looking for then adding in some milk/butter milk or even water may help achieving a more liquid consistency.

The sodium intake in these mixes is quite high (hence the amazing taste) so tracking sodium intake near a show would be a wise idea.

Macronutrient Breakdown:

Serving Size: 210g (Uncle Dan’s)
Calories: 144 kcal
Carbs: 14g
Fat: 0g
Protein: 20.6g

UPDATE:

Here is a homemade ranch recipe you can use instead of the prepackaged:

Recipe (Per 500g Greek Yogurt)

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley, crushed
• 2 teaspoons dried dill
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

• ½ cup dried buttermilk powder **optional

Macros (Excluding Buttermilk powder):
Calories: 38 kcal
Protein: 1.9g
Carbs: 8.3g
Fats: 0.3g

References:

1. Zhang WM, Kuchár S, Mozes S. Body fat and RNA content of the VMH cells in rats neonatally treated with monosodium glutamate. Brain Res Bull. (1994)
2. Geha RS, et al. Multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-challenge evaluation of reported reactions to monosodium glutamate. J Allergy Clin Immunol. (2000)
3. Yang WH, et al. The monosodium glutamate symptom complex: assessment in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. (1997)

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