Low-fat foods

There are some foods that taste just fine in their low-fat versions, and some that should just not exist.

Good: Low-fat Strawberry Pop-Tarts & Reduced Fat JIF Peanut Butter are both pretty tasty. So are Hebrew National Reduced Fat Hot Dogs.

Bad: Any Reduced Fat (or Lo-Carb) bread.

Next?

I’ve had a bread here called ‘Ezekial Bread’ which is low fat, high fiber, and actually pretty good.

Non-fat mayo = dog puke
Non-fat Daisy sour cream = not bad
Non-fat cream cheese: see ‘non-fat mayo’ above
Non-fat saltine crackers = styrofoam

Breyer’s 98% fat free vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Like heaven in a box. Get some el cheapo cake ice cream cones (you know, the puffy type that aren’t waffle cones) and you have something that tastes like a full desert but’s only 130 calories or so per cone.

There are a number of good low/non fat sour creams out now. I usually buy Alta Dena or Horizon. An unfortunate exception is Trader Joe’s version, which is an uncharacteristic dud.

I also think Best Food’s lowfat mayonnaise is fine.

There is a brand of chicken and turkey sausage here (Cantina?) that has some tasty versions made with apple, pepper and onion, etc.

Ben and Jerry’s makes low fat versions of several flavors which are almost as good as the originals.

Bad:

Just about any lowfat salad dressing. They taste like oversweetened chemicals.

Any type of fake bacon, including turkey.

Marzetti’s non-fat Italian dressing is the only one I like and I like it a lot. The others replace the oil with sugar, which is just nasty. The Marzetti still has some zing, and I like it not having the oil in it to separate. Separated salad dressing is (to quote my niece) a pain in the behive.