Garlic and onion powder – I use both all the time and find they work just fine for many uses. Of course, they are made from real garlic and onion, but they are a lazy man’s substitute in general.
Splenda – I use for rare occasions when I need something sweet for a recipe (not diabetic, I just don’t care for sweets in general and find it’s a perfect substitute for my limited uses).
Last time I looked for it in 12-pack form, it had a blue bit in the swoosh under the Coke logo - maybe that’ll help you find it?
I prefer the fake butter spray. The fact that there are ZERO calories and that it really tastes pretty good are more than enough reason for me. There are other ways I’d rather spend my calories than on some butter!
I think it’s largely what you’re used to.
I grew up mostly with the artificial stuff, and would turn my nose up on anything real. Real butter? Ech. Real cheese? Double ech.
It took me awhile, as a young adult, to develop a taste for the real stuff. Now, I can’t handle the artificial crap.
Except for syrup. One taste of the real stuff, and I never looked back. Log Cabin tastes like thick sugar water. Triple ech!!
Thank you both so much! I’m going to hunt for it on Friday; Snickers, I’m pretty sure it’s not in 2-liter form, so the can suggestion is good. If I can’t find it, I’ll take Student Driver’s word for it and try to find it at Wal-Mart (out of the way, but hey, it’s COKE WITH SPLENDA, PEOPLE!)
When my sister and I were kids, Mom would always serve us powdered milk, because it was cheaper. When we started going to the babysitter’s house, we would come home and say “Mom, Mrs. A’s milk tastes funny”. For about a week, at least. Then we started coming home and saying “Mom, our milk tastes funny”.
I eliminated HFCS and hydrogenated (partially or not) oils from my diet a while ago. I still use a couple non-“real” things, though. I have real Irish butter, but also I really like the Smart Balance Omega-3 in tubs. It’s not hydrogenated, I think of it as another option rather than a substitute for butter. It’s totally useable for whatever cooking, just like butter but unlike other “spreads” that separate and are disgusting. I figure I cut my cholesterol and sat.fat intake that way.
Diet soda if I drink any. Maybe one can a week at work, I don’t keep the stuff at home, much to my mother’s dismay when she visits.
I found that the half&half that’s pasteurized lasts weeks - it costs a teeny bit more than the regular half&half, but since that’s all I take in my coffee it’s worth it, plus it lasts at least a month!
Hmm. What else. Mashed potatoes - the regular ones that come in a big box are just dried potato flakes. Nothing fake in there, they’re just dried potatoes, so those are in my cupboard. They have their place and time, they’re their own thing and I use them to satisfy a craving now and then. I would never serve them to guests! They also are a great soup thickener.
Real Maple syrup - goes with the no HFCS thing. And I do have powdered milk, too. I would never just drink it, but I really like it better to make hot chocolate with. My refrigerated milk is vanilla soy - so I guess you might call that “fake”.
I don’t think Miracle Whip should be viewed as an artificial mayo. It’s intentionally different stuff.
That being said, I don’t like mayo as a condiment ever, but Miracle Whip’s good on a BLT or tenderloin sandwich (Hoosier style).
Most buttery-flavored substances are fine. The low-fat ones have too much water in them and aren’t good on popcorn- they “melt down” the puffy kernels.
Agreed. I don’t like Miracle Whip, but it’s not ‘fake mayonnaise’ any more than Pringles are ‘fake potato chips’. It’s a whole 'nother animal.
Agreed on the low-fat ones having too much water content. The few times I’ve put it on toast or something, it ended up making the bread taste soggy! Yuck. If I had to watch my fat/calories that carefully, I’d rather put apple butter or All-Fruit spread on my toast and skip the ‘buttery spread’ altogether.
As one who likes to eat, but also tries to be calorie conscious, I prefer the maxim “real, but light”. I’ll use real butter for my bread, but sparingly, and get the “lower fat” cream cheese (Neufchatel) and the 1% or 2% milkfat cheeses in my own shopping, but not the 100% fat free ones. I get Hellman’s Mayonnaise, but the “Light” variety. And Reduced Fat Chips Ahoy! and Oreos (of which I only eat at most 2 at a time). And I have never, ever found any maple syrup substitute that can actually substitute for maple syrup. They’re just thickened sugar water, no real maple texture to it at all.
BTW, I have to say that until I looked more closely at who the OP was, I thought this was a poll about breast implants and puzzled over the ENTIRE first sentence assuming it was chock full of euphemisms:
I envy you healthy folks. As a guy with epic level cholesterol problems and type 2 diabetes, most of the real stuff pretty much is poison to me.
Thankfully, the fake stuff keeps getting better and better all the time.
I can’t at present think of any foodstuffs which aren’t natural which I prefer to natural food. Sometimes I wonder if a large part of the increase in health problems isn’t due to all the artificial substances we are exposed to. The key is learning how much of what kinds of food and how to substitute natural flavorings for excessive fatty, sweet or salty things. It’s all about balance.
A lot involves retraining your taste buds to appreciate simple flavors. After a near miss with diabetes about twenty years ago I changed the way I eat and now most foods with additives are repugnant to me both in taste and smell.
The growing problem for me is how much more difficult it is becoming to find natural food.
I don’t mind margarine on toast, but I use butter in my baking. It’s a cost thing. My kids can go through a loaf of bread in an afternoon making toast, and I can’t afford that much butter. I’d go through at least a 1/4 lb a day at that rate.
For pancake syrup I’ve never really had the real thing enough to develop a taste for it. Again it’s a cost thing. I grew up using a home made pancake syrup that was made with sugar, water, and Mapleline (an artificial maple flavoring.) It’s much thinner than standard pancake syrup and has a maple flavor without the heaviness and overwhelming preservative flavor of Aunt Jemima and their ilk. I tend to not eat pancakes anywhere except at home because I want my thin syrup. Syrup should sink into the pancake, not sit on top like an oil spill. Oh, and it and the pancake must both be steaming hot.
I do real whipped cream, however. There’s no excuse for cool whip. I’m surprised though at the above poster who didn’t go through cream before it went bad. You can buy it in containers as small as 1/2 a cup and I’ve had cream last over six weeks once it’s been opened. Cream is pretty stable for a dairy product.
I don’t know that it’s necessarily a simple vs. complex thing. A lot of times-- probably most of the time-- the real flavor is a lot more complex than the artificial version.
IMO real maple syrup is quite a bit more complex than artificial; along with birch beer and root beer flavors, a natural maple syrup has a distinctive woody taste that (understandably) a lot of people find disgusting. Artificial maples seem to concentrate more on the sweet and caramelized-sugar aspects, to the point where I’ve known folks who have switched to using Karo corn syrup on pancakes since it’s cheaper than the fake maples but similar in taste.
In my experience, the preference of real over artificial means learning to appreciate nuances (whether tastes or textures); those who prefer real whatever are probably better able to appreciate the complexity of the tasting experience. I don’t doubt that I’m missing some subtlety in the experience of real watermelons or blueberries, while I’m responding more favorably to basic things like sweetness or sourness in the artificial versions that I prefer.
I’m curious where you are. In the last year, I’ve started buying a lot more natural and organic products because stores like Jewel and Dominicks have made them much more affordable and easy to get in their stores. Once I started looking, I also found out how easy it is to buy into local CSA produce farmers so I can get local, organic fruit and veg weekly. I was even surprised when I visited my folks in a rural Missouri area where the main grocery store is a Meijer - and there was a HUGE organic foods section where I could get organic soy milk that I was certain I was going to have to go without during my stay!
My hubby’s favorite pancake topping is Karo syrup. I don’t l like it because it’s too damned thick, and tears the pancakes apart!