Regular Creamy Salad Dressing

1. Health: 70 calories per tablespoon, 60 calories from fat, 1 gram saturated fat per serving
2. Versatility: use anywhere mayonnaise is used: sandwiches, salads, casseroles
3. Price: $2.49 to $4.19 for an 18-ounce bottle = $.14 to $.23 per ounce
4. Taste: eggy, tangy, vinegar, fluffy

Light Creamy Salad Dressing

1. Health: 20 calories per tablespoon, 15 calories from fat, 0 grams saturated fat per serving
2. Versatility: use anywhere mayonnaise is used: sandwiches, salads, casseroles
3. Price: $2.49 to $3.35 for an 18-ounce bottle = $.13 to $.19 per ounce
4. Taste: slightly stronger vinegar taste than regular

And the winner is Light Creamy Salad Dressing! I realize some people have a huge preference for mayonnaise over creamy salad dressing, but I'm not one of those people that notices a huge taste difference between the two. Probably because I use it sparingly and, usually, as a binding agent rather than a flavor on its own. Chris likes to use creamy salad dressing as a tangy topping for his sandwiches, so we never really have mayonnaise in the house. With that said, I will always choose the light version of creamy salad dressing over the regular. The taste and price differences are not huge, but the calories saved per serving make it an easy decision. As far as I can tell, the only real difference in ingredients is that the light version uses less than 2% egg yolks. The ingredient list, by the way, is not very impressive: oil, high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, egg yolks, starch, salt, sugar, spices, cellulose gel, and sucralose. After all, mayonnaise and creamy salad dressing are just another form of fat. Real mayonnaise does not contain corn syrup, starch, or cellulose gum, but is much higher in calories and fat. There are light and reduced-fat versions of mayonnaise that are comparable to light creamy salad dressing in calories and ingredients.

As a side note, if you're a mayo fan and you want to make your own, check out Nicole's post about it here.