Monday, July 12, 2010

Wish-Bone Salad Dressing Mistakes Consumers for Chumps

If the FDA sees this they will shot WishBone down!  I'd NEVER buy their salad dressings anyway...




Wish-Bone Salad Dressing Mistakes Consumers for Chumps

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 05:19 AM PDT

Wish-Bone salad dressing is upping the ante with an ad campaign and a new label on the bottles. The label includes the following bold statement:

Naturally helps
BETTER ABSORB vitamins A & E
from salad with the oils in Wish-Bone

Wow, that sounds great. Absorb more vitamins, from the oils in Wish-Bone, how did they manage that? What kind of special oil does Wish-Bone use? What a scientific breakthrough!! How come we didn't hear anything about this in the news?

Folks, sorry to be the party pooper – no news here. All and any fats help the body more readily absorb certain vitamins. Wish-Bone is not special in any which way, aside from a creative marketing department. Vitamins A,D,E, and K are known as fat soluble (vs. water soluble B vitamins). This means that consuming foods rich in these vitamins, together with a small amount of fat, can help more be absorbed by our body.

That's why it makes sense, aside from the flavor added, to have some oil in your salad, or to have some source of fat in whatever main dish you are having. Even the small amounts of fat from a serving of chicken or lean beef should suffice.

But if you do go ahead and purchase Wish-Bone salad dressing here's what else you'll get – lots of unnecessary and some potentially harmful ingredients. From Robusto Italiano's ingredient label:

Water, Soybean and Canola Oils, Distilled Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Garlic (Dehydrated), Onion (Dehydrated), Red Bell Peppers (Dehydrated), Maltodextrin (Corn), Spices, Xanthan Gum, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Natural Flavor, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Calcium Disodium EDTA (Used to Protect Quality), Caramel Color, Annatto Extract (Color)

Just for fun, let's imagine the marketing messages Wish-Bone could come up with for these prime ingredients:

made with  Water
to help drive manufacturing cost down
and Wish-Bone revenue Up!

or

made with  Soybean Oil
because olive oil is too expensive
even if that's the true Italian recipe

or

Sugar and salt
in amounts you wouldn't dare add at home!

or

made with stuff from laboratories
like Maltodextrin, Xanthan Gum, Autolyzed Yeast Extract

or

Now with Calcium Disodium EDTA*
On the FDA priority list to be studied for mutagenic & reproductive effects!
*May cause intestinal upsets, muscle cramps, kidney damage, and blood in urine.

You get the drift. Salad dressing is a huge business where there probably shouldn't be one, not if this is the stuff that's pushed to consumers.

Our friend Jennifer Huget at the Washington Post looks at the bright side – if using a favorite dressing encourages you to eat more vegetables, that's a good thing.

What to do at the supermarket:

How about making you own Italian Dressing – it's really  easy! Mix olive oil with some lemon juice, add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and presto – you're ready. Invest in a good olive oil and some lemons, not a bottle of chemicals.

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