Ingredients in Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

Hidden Valley sells a wide variety of ranch-dressing products. Hidden Valley Ranch isn't only sold as a dressing or dip; premade mix packets are also available. If you prefer making homemade ranch dip, these flavoring packets can help you prepare healthy alternatives to store-bought products.

Hidden Valley sells many different ranch sauces and seasonings. These include dips like Classic Ranch, dressings like Original Ranch, Original Ranch Light and Greek Yogurt Ranch, and ranch seasonings and dips mix packets.

While Hidden Valley's ranch seasonings can be added to any food, the dips and dressings mix packets are even more versatile. You can add a ranch dressing mix packet to sour cream to instantly create a thick dip or to Greek yogurt if you'd rather make a salad dressing; you can even mix it into a soup as a flavoring.

Hidden Valley Original Ranch Seasoning, Salad Dressing and Recipe Mix Packets and Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dips Mix contain lactose — specifically, buttermilk powder. Other ingredients include garlic powder, onion powder and other spices.

Hidden Valley ranch ingredients also include monosodium glutamate, a controversial food additive that has been thought to trigger symptoms like headache, nausea and palpitations. However, the Food and Drug Administration says that MSG is "generally recognized as safe." People are only likely to have an adverse response when consuming excessive amounts of MSG.

Read more: 20 Scary-Sounding Food Additives that Are Actually Harmless

Hidden Valley's ranch dressing mix packets come in 1-ounce containers, which should yield 16 ounces of your favorite variation of ranch dressing or dip. Each serving of these ranch dressing mix packets is about 1/2 tablespoon (1.8 grams) and has about 5 calories. Each 1/2 tablespoon should yield about 2 tablespoons of dressing or dip once the seasoning has been mixed with sour cream, yogurt or mayonnaise.

Sodium is the only essential nutrient in Hidden Valley's ranch dressing mix packets. This means that all of the nutritional value will come from the other ingredients you use to make your dips or dressings.

However, you should also keep in mind that most Americans consume too much sodium on a daily basis. The American Heart Association recommends consuming a maximum of 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day.

Each 1/2 tablespoon of a Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix packet contains between 135 and 240 milligrams of sodium, which means you might be consuming as much as 10 percent of your daily value for sodium from a single serving of dip or dressing.

Read more: 10 Weird Signs You're Not Getting Enough Nutrients

Generally, ranch dressing and dips are not considered to be particularly healthy. They typically contain a large amount of fat and not enough essential nutrients.

For example, Hidden Valley's Classic Ranch Dip is mainly made of water, vegetable oil, starch, buttermilk, egg yolk and natural flavorings. A serving of 2 tablespoons has 100 calories, 11 grams of fat (1.5 grams of which come from saturated fat), 2 grams of carbohydrates and no essential micronutrients.

Hidden Valley's ranch dressing mix packets can help you make healthier homemade ranch dips by simply allowing you to integrate healthier ingredients. Although it might sound complicated, this is an easy ranch dressing recipe, because all you need to do is mix a ranch dressing mix packet into your choice of cream or yogurt.

For example, you can make healthy homemade ranch dip by adding a seasoning packet to Greek yogurt, low-fat buttermilk or any other fermented milk product. This means that homemade ranch dip can even help you increase your probiotic consumption, which is good for your gastrointestinal health.

Read more: Which Type of Yogurt Is Best? The Pros & Cons of 13 Different Kinds

If you prefer consuming plant-based products, you can mix your ranch dressing mix packet with plant-based alternatives like oat cream or soy yogurt. Plant-based milk alternatives are often healthier as they tend to have less fat compared to animal milk products.

Plant-based alternatives also tend to have more healthy fats and less saturated fats compared to animal products. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your saturated fat intake to 13 grams per day. Consuming too much saturated fat can be bad for your cardiovascular health.