Sometimes the mayonnaise haters love mayonnaise-based salads – so it’s either a “head thing,” being put off by the mouth feel of mayonnaise, or being turned off  by the custardy baby food look of plain mayo.

Mayonnaise, a thick and creamy emulsion of oil, egg yolk, and either vinegar or lemon juice, is loaded with calories.  Regardless of where you stand on the love it or hate it meter, it’s still the go-to dressing/binder for the staples of summer picnics, barbecues, and parties: potato, egg, tuna, and macaroni salads.

What Is Mayonnaise?

US law requires that commercial mayonnaise contain at least 65% oil by weight (of course reduced-fat and fat-free mayonnaise don’t have to meet the same requirement).

Reduced fat mayonnaise, with a fat content of less than 65%, isn’t actually considered real mayonnaise and usually contains modified food starch, cellulose gel, and other thickeners and emulsifiers. Regular Hellmann’s contains:  soybean oil, water, whole eggs, egg yolks,vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA and natural flavors.

With such a high fat content, it stands to reason that mayonnaise isn’t a low calorie food.  One tablespoon (considered a serving) of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has about 90 calories.  A tablespoon of Hellmann’s light mayo has 40 calories. A mayonnaise packet (14g) – like you get in fast food places and delis has about 100 calories and 14g of fat.

Mayonnaise-Based Salads:

Add a lot of fat to other ingredients and you have something with a lot of calories.  Recipes vary so calorie counts will, too – but here are the estimated calories for one cup of each salad.

Home prepared potato salad:  358 calories

Deli chicken salad:  500-600 calories

Deli tuna salad:  around 400 calories

Macaroni salad:  400-500 calories

Calorie Savers:

You could always take just a small potion, but if you’re making the salad you have other options:

• Use reduced fat mayo or fat-free mayo instead of the full fat version.

• Use half mayo half non-or low fat yogurt for the dressing.

• Use oil (sparingly) and vinegar instead of mayo.

• Use yogurt-based dressings like Greek tzatziki (a mixture of yogurt, cucumbers, garlic).

• Add mustard to lighten up and flavor the mayo or yogurt dressings.  Herbs and spices can be used for flavor, too.

• Smooth out the curds in cottage cheese (you can use reduced fat cottage cheese) in the blender and add herbs and spices for a lighter dressing.

• Mix chopped avocado into the tuna, potatoes, or pasta for some healthy and delicious flavor.  Sprinkle the avocado with lemon or lime to keep it from darkening. Adding other vegetables, too, will add volume without a lot of calories.

• If you like the flavor and the ingredients use a salad dressing like Miracle Whip which doesn’t contain egg yolks and is generally sweeter than mayonnaise. While a tablespoon of full fat Hellmann’s has 90 calories, a tablespoon of full fat Miracle Whip has 40 calories and comes in “lite” and fat-free versions, too. The ingredients in Miracle Whip are:  water, soybean oil, vinegar, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), modified cornstarch, sugar, eggs, salt, natural flavor, mustard flavor, potassium sorbate, paprika, spice and dried garlic.

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Lunchtime.  What will it be?  Maybe a sandwich

Lots of choices for the sandwich filling:  ham, turkey, roast beef, cheese, tuna, grilled veggies . . .

Lots of choices to wrap around the protein:  rye, wheat, white, roll, wrap . . .

Lots of stuff to put inside along with the protein: lettuce, tomato, onion, sprouts, olives . . .

What’s going to give your sandwich a pop of flavor and hold it all together  . . . mayo, mustard, ketchup, oil and vinegar???

Here’s where you can save close to 100 calories – without sacrificing flavor. My math is not fuzzy.  Note that all calorie counts are for a tablespoon.  In my experience, it’s awfully easy to use at least a tablespoon, if not more, of mayonnaise on a sandwich – and pretty tough to use that amount of mustard (you’re far more likely to use closer to a teaspoon).

Calories per tablespoon:

• Dijon mustard:                                                     12
• Yellow mustard:                                                   9  (1 packet, 3 calories)
• Deli mustard (Grey Poupon):                           15
• Honey mustard:                                                   around 30 (check brand)
• Spicy brown mustard (Gulden’s):                   18
• Classic yellow mustard (French’s):                  0  (yep!, it’s water and spices)
• Dijonnaise (Hellman’s):                                       15
• Ketchup:                                                                  15  (1 packet, 6 calories)
• Russian dressing:                                                 54
• Mayonnaise:                                                          99 (1 packet, 86 calories)
• Light mayonnaise:                                               49
• Fat free mayonnaise:                                           13
• Tartar sauce:                                                          74
• Relish, sweet:                                                         20  (1 packet, 13 calories)
• Horseradish:                                                           6
• Vinaigrette:                                                            43
• Olive oil:                                                                  119
• Butter:                                                                     102

To save calories:

• Experiment with different kinds of mustard and relish
• Swap the mayo for mustard
• Swap the mayo for ketchup
• Swap the Russian dressing for ketchup or relish

These are some small swap-outs that you can learn to do routinely – they become a mindless way to save calories.  Of course you could also walk or run a mile in the park instead of sitting on a bench eating your slimmed down sandwich.  The mile will burn off around 75 to 100 calories (depending on your weight and speed)– the same amount you might save with some of the swap-outs suggested above.

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