Is Ranch Dressing Good for Kids? A Dietitian-Mom Says Yes. Here’s Why.
Inside: A dietitian mom makes the case for keeping ranch dressing in your fridge, especially if you have a picky eater.
There’s a bottle of ranch dressing in my refrigerator.
It’s not homemade. It’s not organic. It has preservatives and added sweetener and artificial flavor.
But because of this dressing, my ten year old eats baby carrots and bell peppers in his lunchbox and digs into green salads several nights a week. Read: How to Teach Your Kids to Love Salad
I have mixed feelings about this dressing. There are a lot of ingredients in it, and I tend to look for simpler lists. And I make the vinaigrette dressing my husband and I eat on our own salads.
But my kid loves ranch. Homemade ranch was rebuffed, and he didn’t like the various brands of natural and organic I bought.
My son is hardly alone in this. A lot of kids are more willing to eat foods like veggies when there’s a familiar sauce or dip involved. And there’s actually research to back this up.
Ranch isn’t the enemy
Trust me when I say that sauces and dips like ranch dressing and ketchup are your friends. They can make an unfamiliar food seem a little friendlier. They can make bland or even bitter vegetables more flavorful and appealing, which means your kids may eat more of them. Read: Your Kid Hates Vegetables. Now What?
Sauces and dips should be embraced at your table if your kids like them. They allow kids to feel safer exploring foods and can actually serve as a “bridge” that brings your child to accept lots of new things, including veggies.
In one study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, preschoolers who were especially sensitive to bitter flavors ate 80 percent more broccoli at snack time when it was served alongside ranch dressing.
And keep in mind that they’re often short-term tools (at least in the quantities kids tend to use them). In other words, your child probably won’t be drowning his salad in ranch dressing when he’s a grown-up.
What about the ingredients?
Yes, bottled condiments like ranch, ketchup, and barbecue sauce contain ingredients like added sugar and sodium. It’s not uncommon for added sugar to be one of the top three ingredients listed.
I’d rather see parents trimming those ingredients elsewhere, like cutting back on sugary drinks, and keeping these condiments on the table. Because frankly, I worry that talk about added sugar, sodium, and fat may actually cause parents to under-season foods—then wonder why their kids don’t like them.
After all, roasted cauliflower is so much better with a sprinkle of kosher salt. Sauteed carrots are transformed with a little dab of butter and pinch of brown sugar. And asparagus might taste better to some little eaters when it’s dipped in ketchup, something my youngest used to do.
Dips for picky eaters
Here are dips and dressings to consider adding to your table:
- Honey mustard: A sweet intro to mustard for kids.
- Peanut butter or almond butter: Great with celery and apples.
- Hummus: Serve with carrot sticks and cucumbers.
- Guacamole: Add some raw veggies alongside chips.
- Barbecue sauce: Works surprisingly well with roasted veggies.
- Ketchup: A classic. Goes with everything. As least that’s what my kids tell me.
My advice as a dietitian-mom
Serve a small squirt of ranch or ketchup on the plate or in a small bowl if you want to control the portion. Seek out condiments with ingredients you feel good about. There are natural and organic versions that don’t contain synthetic colors and preservatives.
But know this: My older son rejected every version of ranch dressing except the kind with preservatives and added sugar. I was okay with it because it meant he was eating salads and taking carrots and ranch in his lunchbox!
Consider it a useful tool—and know that a ranch or ketchup obsession will probably be, like so many things, another phase of childhood.
Where are we now?
More than ten years later, I’m happy to report that my ranch-loving kid still eats salads and other veggies. He still likes his favorite bottled dressing from childhood, but he also likes other kinds of dressings and sauces too.
The ranch dressing was a bridge, not a destination. And that’s exactly how I think about condiments and kids.
