Salad with your Oil, Sir?

Fresh olive oil on counter
Originally uploaded by madmaxx

One of the things that has saved me so far on the Atkins diet is being able to put some sort of dressing on my salad. Normally, salad dressings are forbidden or limited to the meager two tablespoon serving. I'm one of those people who regularly is asked "Would you like some salad with your dressing?" Thankfully, vegetable oil mixed with vingegar is carb free. A number of oils have health benefits aside from being non-carb calories!

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil Full of antioxidants and helps promote heart health.
• Canola Oil Enriched with omega-3 fatty acid, this type of oil can help raise HDL, the good type of cholesterol.
• Grapeseed Oil A good source of vitamins A & E.
• Walnut Oil While a rich source of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, this oil was apparently a popular snake oil in the past!

Throughout the ages, walnut oil has been thought to be a cure for many ailments, including stomach & skin problems, tuberculosis, hairloss, diabetes and various sexual afflictions.

So enjoy your oil and vinegar dressing! My current favorite recipe is equal parts of red wine vinegar, extra light olive oil and yellow mustard. I prefer the extra light olive oil to the extra virgin variety for purely taste reasons. Despite its health benefits, I can't stomach the extra virgin flavor.