What the heck is that? Just eat MAYO
This week as I was walking down the aisle of a major department store, something caught my eye and I had to pick it up and read the ingredients. It said "Mayonnaise Type Dressing". What the heck is that, I thought??? Of course at the bottom it said "55% less fat than our regular mayonnaise". And that's supposed to be a good thing, right? In this society it is.
So let me translate this for you: Mayo-type dressing means it is FAKE and processed. That's the first problem. If it was Mayo, of some sort, low-fat or not, hopefully it would be made with REAL ingredients (even though I checked out the ingredients in the famous REAL Mayonnaise label, and surprise surprise, not REAL ingredients). The second problem is exactly the thing they so proudly brag about: the "low-fat" that people are always looking for but don't realize is making them sick, and yes... FAT.
So let's look at the above ingredients of this "Mayonnaise-Type Dressing". I don't know how many of you have ever made mayo (which is super easy and I'm giving you the recipe below), but water is not one of the ingredients. Anyway, the next one is a processed polyunsaturated vegetable oil, I've talked about this in a previous post, but focus on the "processed" part here. Liquid egg yolk to me spells out something modified, because how and why would it be liquid? Why not just say egg yolk?? Corn starch does say MODIFIED right in front of it, so this one we don't have to guess (and modified means big trouble as you probably know), not to mention the corn starch part...why add a Carb to the dip? Oh it's to bind it. But egg yolk binds things?!? Then a whole bunch of other ingredients, some of which we don't know how to spell or pronounce or even what they are (this alone is trouble). "Flavour" most of the time means artificial, (REAL food doesn't need added flavour). Lastly, anytime you have a list of ingredients this long, put the thing back on the shelve!
The interesting part here is when we start analyzing the nutritional info. So in fact, the "fake" guys do have less fat than the "real" guys. Exactly half as they claim. But I will tell you now, it has A LOT less than the homemade stuff, and if you know LCHF then you know that's bad news. The funny thing is that the "fake" guys and the "real" guys have the exact same amount of saturated fat, but isn't saturated fat the "bad guy"? So which part of the fat are they reducing? The "good fat'?? Well for sure if they are using processed polyunsaturated vegetable oil instead of OLIVE OIL, that right there is a clue. And now wait, the fake one right here actually admits to a certain amount of TRANS FATS, I know you all know that ANY AMOUNT of trans fats is bad and means this comes from PROCESSED, FAKE and HARMFUL sources. Their fake egg yolk also comes into play here. As you can see from the table above, this "mayo-type dressing" has ZERO vitamins and minerals. So when I tell you these "fake" things are empty calories, I am not just saying that to be malicious. We know eggs have tons of vitamins and minerals, so what's the deal? What kind of "alien" chickens are they getting these "liquid egg yolks" from? And what do they feed them? Never mind, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. The homemade stuff has so many vitamins and minerals that I thought it worth sharing in the 2 HUGE diagrams below (1).
I think I will leave it at that. Here's the recipe for the super easy HOMEMADE MAYO and I will also add that LCHF people basically add this to almost every meal. Who wouldn't want to add taste, REAL fat and dozens of vitamins and minerals to their plate? This recipe is straight from DietDoctor.com. (I make a modified version with just egg yolk, both the vinegar and lemon and sometimes substitute the olive oil for avocado oil just for variety, and salt).
Mayonnaise
Your own mayonnaise is guaranteed to be free of additives, cheap and far better than any industrial mayonnaise. It also keeps well, at least 5 days when refrigerated. The ingredients – egg, mustard and a good neutral oil – you’re likely to have at home already.
Strict low carb Easy 5min (prep) + 5 m (cooking)
Ingredients
4 servings
1 egg
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 cup (240 ml) good neutral oil, a light olive oil
1 – 2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar or 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions
Bring the egg and mustard to room temperature in advance.
Mix egg and mustard with a stick blender (or mixer) and add the oil slowly in a thin stream. The mayonnaise should set promptly. Continue to mix until all the oil has been added and the mayonnaise has thickened.
Add vinegar/lemon juice. Mix some more and season with salt and pepper and perhaps more vinegar or lemon juice.
Let the mayonnaise rest in the fridge for a while before serving. The flavor develops further after a-while and the mayonnaise thickens further.
TIP! Use lemon juice or white wine vinegar if you’re going to serve the mayonnaise with seafood. Use red-wine vinegar for roast beef and other cold cuts, but not balsamic vinegar. It’s commonly sweetened and colored and will discolor the mayonnaise.
Extra! As a child I was taught by my grandmother that one egg yolk can bind as much as a whole quart (liter) of oil. In other words: if you want to make a bigger batch, just increase the amount of oil to 2, 3 or more cups. But don’t forget to increase the amount of mustard, spices and acid.
References:
1. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/recipe/2956349/2
2. http://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/mayonnaise
