"Diet" Foods in Australia

katenmills

Are there many Aussies on here? I just wanted to bring up the fact that since starting to eat better and browsing on MFP/the web, i've noticed America seems to have way more sugarfree, diet etc options of foods in their supermarkets than Australia? For example in Aus, to my knowledge and after looking in supermarkets, we have no Arctic Zero icecream @ 150cal a pint, Egg Beaters, shirataki noodles, no added sugar jams, no added sugar pie filling, light whipped topping, low cal peanut butter (our light version has only 20cal less per serving than regular and tastes gross ). Doing the shop today, I also only found 1 brand (with 2 flavours available) of sugarfree pudding mix and discovered that one small jar of almond or cashew butter is $8.99 at my local Coles

Anyone else noticed this? If I'm wrong, what are some great foods, similar to those above, you've found in Aus supermarkets to help you with your new way of eating?

stayxtrue

I dont really eat a whole lot of stuff... Most of that stuff is way to processed for me so I try and stick to whole foods where ever possible.. But us Aussies do have it hard sometimes

katenmills

Yeah I agree there about being overly processed. I also don't want to regularly consume a lot of artificial sweeteners but having an occassional easy dessert option would be good lol, ah well

stayxtrue

For my deserts I just have some skinny cow icecream

Nikkin00

I am in NZ and during my time at WW we used to curse the great products in Austalia that we could not access here. I understand neither country has the options they do in other countries but we have greater access to fresh and natural produce. Sometimes the additives in sugarfree and fat free products make their nutritional value and health benefits questionalbe but with that said there are some lighter options available here, so there must be there too? The weight watchers range is expensive but accessible and often more generic brands offer lighter options. NZ Countdowns have signature range ice cream for example, which has some lower cal options... perhaps Australian Countdowns do to? Nestle has some great low cal chocolate treats and so on

katenmills

Yeah i'd say Weight Watchers are the main low cal brand we have here, but like you said expensive. The cost of some of the products I've found was part of what made me start this thread, was shocked to see how expensive nut butter is. No idea what Countdowns is, but I'll look into Nestle brand things thanks!

BrianSharpe

We look across the border to the US with the same envy at times from Canada, the difference being that I can hop in my car and be in Ogdensburg NY in an hour or so......

Having said that, many of the so-called diet products often contain other undesirable ingredients - the flavour has to come from somewhere and IMO most "fat free" yogurts are verging on inedible from both a taste and texture point of view.

SkyPixie

Its the same in the UK .. the variety of low cal , low fat foods in the US is amazing compared to what we have here I usually try and stack my suitcase when I go over with things like low sugar oatmeal, crystal light, low cal cereal bars etc the customs guys must look inmy case and think I am crazy :laugh:

The biggest difference I find is that the stuff from the US tastes nice ..so much of the diet stuff we have here tastes vile not like real food !

ElisaRazz

instead of shirataki noodles i bought Miracle noodles online. They don't taste great and have a weird smell

http://www.miraclenoodle.com/

i bought some biggest loser bars but i have yet to try them and if im craving something sweet i have a low cal jelly

aniiinaz

If you are still wondering, shirataki noodles are sold in Sydney in a few asian grocers for $2-$3 each. They come in a liquid (I'm hoping water) in bundles. They smell strange if you keep them for ages and taste disgusting if you overcook them or don't add seasoning

TheVimFuego

We have steak, eggs, butter ... what's the big deal?

Are these not 'diet foods'?

Did I miss a memo?

Low fat? What dat?

TheVimFuego

Yeah i'd say Weight Watchers are the main low cal brand we have here, but like you said expensive. The cost of some of the products I've found was part of what made me start this thread, was shocked to see how expensive nut butter is. No idea what Countdowns is, but I'll look into Nestle brand things thanks!

Real food doesn't have a brand.

I don't want to sound like some food Nazi elitist but if it needs the backing of a brand it probably isn't good food.