Why are rice cakes considered a "diet food"?

Strawblackcat
Strawblackcat Posts: 944 Member
in Food and Nutrition
They're not particularly filling. They're nutritionally void. They taste pretty yummy (not like typical cardboard-y diet food). They aren't that low-calorie. So why do people consider them "diet food"? If I was on a diet, I would eat pudding, or yogurt, or some eggs or something instead. Something more nutritious and filling. The only reason I eat rice cakes now is because they're really yummy as a treat with some warmed almond butter on top.

Thoughts and explanations?
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Replies

  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
    My mom used to give them to me as a kid with cottage cheese and frozen puréed blueberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It was from some diet she was on in the '80's and we loved it!
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,585 Member
    I was actually gonna say they're low in calories. :)
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    That idea is from the "low fat" era. Rice cakes have almost no fat.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Rice cakes are substitute foods. I don't get their appeal either.
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
    I found these great corn cakes on Amazon. I buy them cause I can eat the entire package and they taste really good and satisfies the crunch need.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    They are low in calories. That's about it.

    Our idea of how to lose weight has changed a lot in the last 40 years or so. It used to be that being on a diet meant eating grapefruit, cottage cheese, plain chicken breast and... rice cakes. Weight Watchers meals were horrific (my mom had some of their recipe cards that would make you scream with laughter if you didn't gag) and there was no concept of eating fewer calories.
  • echmainfit619
    echmainfit619 Posts: 333 Member
    Marketing.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    I don't know. I have always liked them and continue to like them. I think it's because so many people don't like them - they assume everyone else is lying about liking them and eating them just because they're low-cal.

    In any event, they aren't very nutritious, for sure, but they are a nice, low-cal treat. :)
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    They taste ok if you mix them with an equal volume of butter.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    People like the crunch sometimes
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I need crunch. I have some caramel coated ones right now, and I had one before supper so I wouldn't spoil my dinner.

    It's eating air. Sometimes I need air.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
    SueInAz wrote: »
    They are low in calories. That's about it.

    Our idea of how to lose weight has changed a lot in the last 40 years or so. It used to be that being on a diet meant eating grapefruit, cottage cheese, plain chicken breast and... rice cakes. Weight Watchers meals were horrific (my mom had some of their recipe cards that would make you scream with laughter if you didn't gag) and there was no concept of eating fewer calories.

    Before that, the 1940's, it included delights like mineral oil salad dressings and mayo.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    That idea is from the "low fat" era. Rice cakes have almost no fat.

    My dad is stuck in the low fat era. Never mind that he doesn't eat that way, but if he sees you eating something he deems "fat" he will give a lecture. Avocados are his enemy.

    It's amazing I don't have an eating disorder after growing up with him.
  • cmtigger
    cmtigger Posts: 1,450 Member
    vinegar_husbands wrote: »
    But how about these?

    mochi-rice-cake-ja_3154110b.jpg

    MOCHI!!!!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,964 Member
    Because I *don't* like them (taste like styrofoam to me, sorry folks - you can have my share), I always assumed they were considered diet food because people feel bad & down on themselves about being overweight, so feel the need to punish themselves by eating tasteless foods. ;) Since many of you like them, I guess that's not the case.

    Seriously, I think one reason is that they make a reasonable neutral substrate for more nutritionally useful things like peanut butter or cottage cheese - a sort of lower calorie bread substitute. Has the visual effect of eating an actual food, as compared with just eating (say) a spoonful of peanut butter on its own, which is calorie-dense but tiny.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
    They taste like punishment, and that's how people think dieting should be.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »
    They taste like punishment, and that's how people think dieting should be.
    58017069.jpg

  • irenehb
    irenehb Posts: 236 Member
    I like them for the crunch, put some cottage cheese and they make a nice low calorie snack. But if you don't like them, don't eat them.

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