I’m not a fan of the reduced-fat peanut butters that I’ve tried. They just don’t spread as well and get melty like the real thing. I also think the reduced-fat stuff tastes too sweet (weird?) and the texture is kind of grainy or something. Reduced-fat cream cheese is okay for recipes, but I don’t like to eat it spread on a bagel. I don’t like the baked potato chips and would rather eat a smaller portion of the full-fat ones than eat chips that taste like cardboard to me.
I do buy reduced-fat crescent rolls and can’t see a difference. I also love turkey dogs and often substitute ground turkey for hamburger in foods like tacos (I’m not a fan of ground meats in general—too fatty!—but I love the 99% fat-free ground turkey breast). I buy reduced-fat salad dressings and also like those Quaker Quakes mini rice cakes (the cheddar and ranch ones are both quite good).
Skim milk greek style yoghurt. Fage is good but it’s so expensive! I generally go for the Trader Joe’s brand, which I like just as much.
Skim milk as long as it’s from a reasonably nice brand-I get Clover Farms from the Whole Paycheck (the only thing I routinely buy from there).
I will also use a splenda/sugar mix while baking (less than a quarter cup for an entire muffin pan of my high fibre muffins) though with the new studies on how sugar subs mess up metabolic rates I’m wary. Still, I intake so little of this stuff that I can’t really see it affecting me (don’t drink diet soda or any soda at all, except when I go to a restaurant etc.).
In general I don’t eat diet foods because I think they are gross. I just keep my diet naturally low in saturated fats, I think a bit easier because for the most part I detest things that include lots of cheese, butter and dairy to begin with.
The two times of year I’ll eat something like chips, I’ll just eat the chips.
Perhaps this is psychosomatic but I will swear on the stack of papers next to my desk that since eliminating most, if not all, processed foods from my diet, I can feel the moment they hit my bloodstream and it makes me feel crazy and gross. It has made me sort of a control freak in terms of making almost everything I eat from scratch, by myself. Mainly because I can’t stand the sensation.
Yeah, I like just plain old natural peanut butter. “Regular” peanut butter tastes waxy to me now and reduced-fat peanut butter tastes too sweet. I like to get enough healthy fats in my diet and the “oily” part of natural peanut butter is the good, heart-healthy kind of fat. I just have to measure it and not get carried away with it (since peanut butter is so good, I could get a spoon and just eat it right out of the jar).
For the most part, I will avoid light/lite versions. Some, however, are actually pretty good.
I actually prefer Hall’s sugar-free cough drops to the kind with sugar in them. They don’t taste sugar free, and they don’t leave a nasty coating in my mouth. I also use sugar-free Metamucil, and can’t tell the difference from regular. I drink high protein/lowered fat milk, and I think it tastes about the same as regular milk.
For the most part, though, I’ll just not eat the item (potato chips, snack cakes, whatever) rather than eat a light version.