Low fat vs. Regular stuff

Mangoaddict

I have a question. What "low fat" stuff is a good choice? I mean, I don't even know what they put in this stuff. Is it better to go full fat and consume less quantity or just buy low fat stuff? I am so confused. Also, I feel diet coke is a farce. I mean it tastes wrong. Anyone else with me on this one?

What low fat items do you buy?

Mangoaddict

I have a question. What "low fat" stuff is a good choice? I mean, I don't even know what they put in this stuff. Is it better to go full fat and consume less quantity or just buy low fat stuff? I am so confused. Also, I feel diet coke is a farce. I mean it tastes wrong. Anyone else with me on this one?

What low fat items do you buy?

Tiddle

For pretty much everything, except cheese, if there is a low fat option, I get it. and I dont like diet coke either....I think coke zero tastes much better. The Cherry Coke Zero is fabulous!

laine23

Diet sodas are great!
But for the lowfat stuff I don't know, if u talk about desert or cheese or cookies well, it is supposed to be with fat sooooooo I would indulge myself with some and try not to eat to much while trying to lowfat (and expensive) version, one has tendency to eat more of it cuz it's less satisfying.
For yogurts it depends.
I'm not so much found of low fat. I used to though but thank it over and felt like it wasn't the best choice.

iftcheiaf

What I have found in my experience with "low fat" is that often times to make up for the missing taste it is supplemented with more sugar, so the calories at times can even end up being more, so just be very careful when reading the labels. Sometimes comparing labels of the "low fat" version versus the "regular", and you'll see that it isn't that significantly different and you may find that it's not worth sacrificing the taste. On other things, sometimes it means you can have a half of a portion more in calories. I am trying to just choose things with the good fats in them and watching my portions. Not blowing it on the high saturated fat items. But if I ever splurge on a oatmeal raising cookie (my weakness), I want all the fat baby. Hey, I have to still enjoy myself a little in life too. And I find that if I satisfy the taste I'm looking for, I won't overeat in other areas trying to "fill the hole".

Happy eating...

Wynnie

For me, the question is more about "natural" verses "processed". I try to eat a lot of fruits, veggies, nuts, organic dairy and lean meats. And as much as I can, I try to avoid processed foods with addatives, preservatives, and other 47 syllable ingrediants that none of knows what it is! Pre-made meals, sauces, etc have a lot of those mystery ingredients.

When busy schedules (or just plain cravings) mean buying something that isn't "au natural", then I just use that old rule of thumb that no more than 30% of the calories should come from fat. I also don't buy a food if it has more than 10% of a day's cholesterol or more than 350mg of sodium. With those rules, I find myself putting back a LOT of stuff that looks really yummy, but it helps keep me in line when I'm shopping.

amymeenieminymo

Some things I really cannot taste a difference in low fat or light in some foods, like light mayonaisse or miracle whip taste the same as regular, light cool whip is just as good....some salad dressings are good as light, I like wishbone light ranch. Light and fit dannon yogurt is good, low fat cottage cheese....growing up I always drank 1/2 % milk so I was used to it.....lately I have switched to fat free skim. It tasted a tad bit different at first but now I don't taste any difference and love it. It's really a trial and error thing.

Diet coke is nasty, all diets pops are nasty in my opinion. Well, the clear ones aren't bad like diet dew and sprite, but cola is my favorite and I think diet pepsi and diet coke is equally disgusting. I would rather cut out pop alotgether and just splurge on it every once in a while than to drink diet all the time. Everyone tells me I will get used to the diet but I never have. Besides, who knows what the chemicals in diet pops do to your body anyway, yuck.

lessertess

I seldom use the fat-free products, especially desserts unless they are naturally fat-free. If I'm going to have dessert, than I'll indulge in a smaller portion of the real thing. I won't buy any of the fat-free products that use a manufactured or man-made substitutue for fat like Olestra. That stuff makes me extremely sick. I can't wander more than 5 minutes away from a bathroom for days after eating it.

For cheese and dairy products I prefer the reduced fat products for most recipes. Fat free just has no taste but the reduced fat still tastes good and is lower in calories. Butter is the only exception. I prefer to use whipped butter (the real stuff) rather than the reduced calorie margarines or spreads. The calories are pretty close to the same and using the whipped means that you use less. Butter tastes much better and at least it's natural rather than a processed fat.

I do like cooking sprays for light sautes. However, I've been considering just putting a olive oil in a spray bottle.

For me, most of the choice depends on how it tastes and on the recipe. If it's one of many ingredients I might use the reduced fat, but if it's the main or only ingredient I'll probably use the real thing.

I enjoy diet sodas. I personally think they taste better than the regular drinks. Regular sodas taste too syrupy to my. They are just too sweet. However, I've been trying to reduce the amount of sodas I drink and usually only allow myself one a day.