"diet" food....

rainydays5

agreed…cauliflower should never be eaten as pizza…unless said person has a carb or gluten sensitivity and then I get it ..but you can make your own "healthy pizza" using real ingredients and it will come in at about 220 calories a slice...

I have to agree. I make these wonderful grilled pizza's that come in less than 400 calories for a small personal pizza. Pizza is my favorite food...why ruin it?!?!

I personally do not mind alot of the lower cal stuff. I am willing to try anything but don't mess with my pizza!

81Katz

FAT-FREE cream cheese is in fact NASTY! There is something terribly off about it.

I use the whipped (Philadelphia) cream cheese, less calories than regular. Tastes the same to me.

TavistockToad

I'm not talking about natural healthy food like fruit and veggies, quality mean, nuts etc... I'm talking about
1. calorie lowered packaged processed foods you buy in a box/can at a grocery store
2. "healthy" versions of yummy food that you find recipes for on facebook or pinterest..pic looks great..you make it and it tasts like *kitten*.

Not sure about anyone else..but I'd rather have one tablespoon of full fat yummy mayo....than a cup full of plastic bastardized "fat free" mayo that tastes like..well..white plastic.

I'd rather have a REAL chocolate chip cookie made with butter/sugar/chocolate...than the "diet" verson sweetened with stevia, and karo. sorry..but that version is absolutely disgusting...and I hate it when people pretend it's "Just as good". It's not!!! Stop lying to me!!!!

So here is my diet "plan". Eat the damn real cookie. Stop at one. If you don't..and you eat 5....forgive yourself, and do an extra cardio session with in 24 hours.

Seems to have worked for me. Yay real food!

Ok.

cebreisch

Agreed. I realized a long time ago that if all I was putting on my baked potato was "fake butter", and "real" butter taste's better, then I'm going to use "real" butter.

Every dietician will tell you that your body does better with "natural" foods because it knows what to do with them. Throw things like stevia, truvia, and whatever other "fake" stuff, and it just isn't pretty. Natural is always the better choice. I'd rather have 5 delicious chocolate chip cookies than something that was made to be "diet", "fat free", etc.

susannamarie

It depends, I think. For example, I love full-fat cottage cheese, I found 1% was quite edible, but non-fat tasted like spoiled milk. I love full-fat milk, but found that 2% was quite edible. So I only eat/drink the full-fat versions when I'm doing a lot of physical labor.

I made the recent mistake of eating a lot of the sugar-free life savers and OH GOD NO. They were actually yummy, but OH GOD MY STOMACH.

KaleeCat

I agree! I may be trying to lose weight now, but someday I'm going to be maintaining my weight and I'm not going to maintain it using special low fat or zero calorie foods, I'm going to be eating real world food with all the good stuff in it! So why not learn portion control now instead of creating an inevitable stumbling block later for myself?!

Oh and cauliflower pizza is nasty! I tried making it and it turned out soooo gross, I had to go out and buy some real garlic fries to cleanse the palate!

Sabine_Stroehm

This is what's great about dieting. We each get to decide how to approach it.

I don't eat the cookie,the candy bar, the soda... (a choice I made years ago, they just aren't that important to me).

I skip potato chips, bread at restaurants, and usually the french fries except a few sweet potato fries from time to time.

I do eat full fat cheese (lots) and low fat, but not fat free. (I don't eat modified "fat free" foods, by and large, in fact. So many of them have a bunch of added crap, and often a ton of added sugar)

By and large I don't eat heavily processed convenience foods. To me, they aren't worth it the calories.

I DO tweak recipes to make them healthier. I make them more nutrient dense wherever possible. A hearty pizza crust, lots of vegetables.

I DO eat cauliflower PIZZA. We love it. We eat it because we enjoy it.

I consciously chose to try to find more nutrient dense foods that I liked. In the end I found so many foods that I now love. My tastes have changed. Literally changed. And MAN does that make it easier to stay within my calories.

I drink wine WHENEVER I want.

It seems to have worked for me as well.
Glad you found what works for you! cheers!

ItsCasey

Look, I am not a person who enjoys "diet" foods, but just because I have no interest in fat-free cheese doesn't mean it doesn't help some people stay on track.

Now, if someone wants to tell me fat-free cheese is better for me than real cheese, they can FOAD because they're wrong and stupid. But I don't really get to tell someone else what is disgusting and what isn't. That's their call to make.

ahamm002

I couldn't agree more. People who try and make dessert foods "healthier" by creating lower fat ice-cream, low sugar cake, lower calorie cookies, etc., just make me want to scream. The food is still basically junk food. What's the point of ruining its great taste? It's still not good for you! You're better off just enjoying the full fat/sugar versions of dessert foods and budgeting them into your calories.

One of my friends made a sugar free cake for her daughter's first birthday party . . . WTF? It's still just a bunch of simple carbs, but now it tastes bad too!

Holly_Roman_Empire

I think it depends on how you want to hit your macros. I get low-fat coffee creamer and milk because I have no problem meeting my fat requirement in peanut butter. And since low-fat is lower calories, that means I usually get to have my peanut butter in the form of a Reese's cup or something yummy like that.

ETA: But yeah, I'd rather go over my calories and have a real cookie than a sugar-free one and stay under.

Elsie_Brownraisin

I find the idea of low fat cream (yes, theyhave Weightwatchers cream here) or trifle a bit sad I suppose.

But I've no problem eating fat free greek yogurt and using it in place of mayo or sour cream or trying things like bean brownies. I don't like most ready meals or shop bought cakes and biscuits, so it's ok.

I do eat treats etc, but my goal is weight loss and I am not able to exercise 3 hours a day. Even though I eat 1900 a day, my budget is almost blown on a McDonalds or roast dinner - one single meal and it's easy (for me, anyway) to let them creep in more often.

Like today, I am eating veggie sausages with mashed carrots and swede and onion gravy. My husband and son are having mashed spuds and meat sausages. I detest mashed potato anyway, so it's no great loss. And I have had cut my cals down because I can't exercise at all at the moment - seriously, I can eat frig all. I don't understand how people work in half a deep fried cow into their calories if they have the same goal as me.

geebusuk

Natural does not mean 'healthy'.

I would much rather have a decent amount of the extra-extra-low fat mayo with my potatoes that the tiniest smidgen which I'd end up with using the full fat version when on restricted calories.

Having drunk coke zero for some time, I've grown to like it.
Just as I've grown to like eating eating onions.
Still don't like wine, but very rare that I drink it.

4 cookies extra is around 1000 calories or so.
So an hour and a half to three hours cardio, depending on the activity.

I haven't had lower calorie cookies, but overall, lower calorie stuff means I can enjoy food I like regularly, rather than it being an occasional treat.
I like eating food I like and lower calorie food means I can have the entire tub of icecream, say.

I couldn't agree more. People who try and make dessert foods "healthier" by creating lower fat ice-cream, low sugar cake, lower calorie cookies, etc., just make me want to scream. The food is still basically junk food. What's the point of ruining its great taste? It's still not good for you! You're better off just enjoying the full fat/sugar versions of dessert foods and budgeting them into your calories.

What makes a food 'junk'? Why is not 'good for me'?
I'd approach it the same as any food and work it out a tastiness per calorie value. On that basis I do often avoid things like bread which I DO like, but just doesn't seem worth it when, say, I could have low calorie ice cream instead .
Having tried both options, for me I'm definitely better off with the lower calorie ones. In some cases this is because I will then get a cheap swiss roll and mix it in the the icecream - I enjoy that more than having a full-calorie ice cream on it's own.

Oh, and sugar is the current boogey monster, which is why a lot of the people like to label foods as 'unhealthy' are scared of it .

Slacker16

I don't label food as "diet" or "regular", I just see it as food...

And I really don't get people who say they can tell between sugar and artificial sweeteners because I have yet to see any difference. Have there been any double-blind taste tests?

Look, I am not a person who enjoys "diet" foods, but just because I have no interest in fat-free cheese doesn't mean it doesn't help some people stay on track.

Now, if someone wants to tell me fat-free cheese is better for me than real cheese, they can FOAD because they're wrong and stupid. But I don't really get to tell someone else what is disgusting and what isn't. That's their call to make.

You I like.

geebusuk

I'd say most people can tell the difference between sugar and aspartame etc when used in foods.

I certainly can.

I thought the bottle of Fanta zero I had was particularly tasty - turned out it was actually the full fat version when I thought to check,
The supermarket brand sugar-free fizzy drinks aren't near the standard of stuff like Fanta/Sprite Zero either, I'd say.

Now, if someone wants to tell me fat-free cheese is better for me than real cheese, they can FOAD because they're wrong and stupid. But I don't really get to tell someone else what is disgusting and what isn't. That's their call to make.

Well, yes, if it's "fat free" cheese, it's basically protein powder.

If it's low-fat cheese, well it's better for ME as far as achieving my health and fitness goals.

daw0518

I think it just depends. Of course I PREFER the full-fat option for most things, but I decided I was okay with compromising on some things. I make almost a game out of finding lower calorie options that I actually like for the things I enjoy but that are just too high calorie to justify. Mayo & peanut butter are a couple of examples for me. These are things I don't eat often, but when I do I still think 200+ calories for 2 tbsp is too much. So now I use PB2 for my peanut butter & Best Foods low fat mayo, which is the lowest calorie mayo option I could find, but also the best tasting in my opinion. I also found a lower calorie, greek yogurt ranch that I actually like WAY MORE than I ever did the usual Kraft/Hidden Valley varieties. So I think it can be done & you don't have to give up the flavors you like - you just have to be willing to try a few different things until you find the ones you like. I promise, they're out there.

I won't budge on my milk, my half & half, or my coffee creamer. I also get full-fat, full-sugar ice cream because the difference in calories isn't usually significant, but the difference in flavor is. Honestly, most things I eat are full-fat, full-sugar, but I've found a few "diet" options that I liked more and that fit into my goals better, so I just roll with it!

Slacker16

I'd say most people can tell the difference between sugar and aspartame etc when used in foods.

I certainly can.
(...)
If it's low-fat cheese, well it's better for ME as far as achieving my health and fitness goals.

I sweeten my tea with, essentially, saccharin and if anything I like it better than sugar. It's the same sweetness but somehow using sugar always turns out either too sweet or not sweet enough...

None of our experiences are blind though, and googling anything related to artificial sweeteners is a pain.

I was pleasantly surprised by part-skim mozzarella and I use it sometimes as a meat substitute (its fat-to-protein ratio is pretty close to that of ground beef) but I'm generally not a fan of reduced fat cheese.

maillemaker

Ultimately, you gotta do what you gotta do to get the calorie deficit. If you can do that by eating one Oreo cookie instead of 10 low-calorie cookies, more power to you.

I think everyone agrees that for the most part, low-calorie versions of high-calorie foods almost never taste as good as the real thing. If they did, everyone would eat the low-cal foods.

There are exceptions. For example, I really do prefer the taste of Diet Coke over real Coke, or even Coke Zero. Both of those have a very coppery taste to me. I'm quite happy to drink diet versions of soda and have zero calories as opposed to another 30 minutes of bicycle riding.

GBrady43068

I agree with you in general, although I think you have to do what works for you. I eat some reduced fat and/or sugar products because I actually prefer them (eg. skimmed milk) and I eat some because I don't enjoy the higher calorie versions enough to use up my calorie allowance on them (eg. mayo, coke - both things I eat rarely anyway.) I mostly use real butter (love the taste) but if it's somewhere I'm not going to taste it much, and it's more to add a bit of moisture/texture, then I'm happy to use a lower fat alternative. Sometimes I tweak recipes to use less fat, and am completely happy with the result, so why not? But yeah - on the whole I agree. I'm all for enjoying your food, getting a good nutritional balance, not being afraid of foods, and doing what you can to not feel like you're "on a diet". Also, fat is good.

+1

This...I'm all about "Do I love this enough to spend valuable calories and/or workout time on it?" If I do, I eat it full-fat. full-sugar and all. If not, I skip it or sub it.

Confuzzled4ever

Sorry..If I say something is good, then I think it is good. I make a lot of modified recipes. If they don't taste like the real thing, I'm not going to pretend they do, but that does not mean they are bad. I love my mock pizza. I use eggplant as the crust. I won't tell you it tastes like pizza, because it' doesn't. But it certainly is good. I love my 2 ingredient cookies (oats and banana) but they do not in anyway taste like cookies from a bakery. That does not make them bad. But if you don't like them, it just means they are not for you.

I eat some fat free foods and a lot of sugar free foods and some low fat foods and some full fat foods. it works for me. you do what works for you. Everyone is happy

redversustheblue

Meh, I eat several reduced-fat foods. It's not cause I'm scared of fat, just simply because it's easier for me to fit in my calories for the day and I don't care enough about the thing to waste way more calories for a small amount (looking at you mayo, cream cheese, milk).

I must have dense tastebuds or something because I really don't see a lot of difference in reduced-fat and full-fat products a lot of the time, nor can I taste any aftertastes on artificial sweeteners. The only thing I ever actually threw away was sugar-free pudding, that was bad. It's nice not being particularly picky, it works for me.