Smart Swap Saturday: Ranch

ByMacy Michelle

Starting today, I am rolling out a new blog series that will appear every Saturday! This series is called Smart Swap Saturday!

When starting a healthier lifestyle, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by all the products and food on the market. I am a firm believer that simple swaps add up and make a difference over time. Each Saturday I will feature a Smart Swap! These Smart Swaps will be healthier choices and recommendations for your favorite not-so-healthy foods.

Today’s Smart Swap: Ranch dressing

Growing up in the Midwest, ranch dressing was a staple in our household. We ate ranch on everything. mac and cheese, pizza, leftovers… You name it, we ate it with ranch!

When I started to switch to healthier choices, I knew ranch needed to go. I tried switching to light ranch, but it just didn’t taste as good.

Let’s break it down!

There are about 16 grams of fat and 148 calories in a single serving of ranch dressing. These numbers can vary slightly depending on the brand of ranch.

While those numbers don’t sound too horrible, most of us are not using just one serving of dressing. A single serving of ranch dressing is just two tablespoons. How often do you take the time to measure out two tablespoons of ranch?! When pouring dressing right from the bottle, it’s really easy to add more than a serving size.

Veggies or a healthy salad can quickly turn into a calorie-laden choice if you add too much high-fat salad dressing.

Healthy Swap: Bolthouse Ranch

ranch swap

I finally found Bolthouse Ranch! Hallelujah! This Ranch tastes just like normal Ranch, but is made with Greek Yogurt and is much healthier.

Bolthouse Ranch comes in at 3 grams of fat and 45 calories per serving. The serving size for Bolthouse Ranch is also two tablespoons. Because Bolthouse Ranch is much healthier- it’s not as big of a deal if you don’t measure and over-do it on this dressing!

The Bolthouse brand also has many other dressing flavors to provide healthier alternatives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Bolthouse Ranch can be found in the refrigerated section of stores, usually near veggie dip
  • Typical Ranch is more than DOUBLE the calories of Bolthouse Ranch
  • Bolthouse Ranch tastes almost exactly the same as regular Ranch!
  • In my opinion, the key to long-term weight-management is finding healthier swaps for the foods you love!

Do you have a substitute for ranch that you use? Share your best ranch swap in the comments!