Good god, how do people eat and drink fat free food?

[Mooseketeer]

I think it is a question of balance personally. I see nothing wrong with butter in moderation. If you drench your food in it and cook with cream every single day then the likelihood is that your health will suffer and your weight will go up.

Even exercise is not going to undo the damage of living on purely fatty foods and processed crap.

I gained a lot of weight because of spending over 10 years on high doses of steroid as cancer treatment and despite what I consider a healthy diet I am still finding it impossible to shift the weight.


I had managed to lose almost 40 pounds and it had taken me over two years of blood and sweat then the Doctors prescribed me with some new drugs and back on it went. I have always tried to eat sensibly and heathily ( though people looking at me think I live on cream buns and fast foods which drives me nuts) and it is the best I can do.

I think unless you have specific medical conditions nothing in itself is dangerous or bad for you though. A little of anything is fine.

I eat a lot less meat than most omnivores I know because I prefer to spend more for better quality and more humane animal husbandry, I love fish and grill rather than fry, I love fruits and veggies ( pretty much all of them) and eat them every day and I steam a lot. I use Olive Oil rather than butter for most dishes, use little cream except for very special recipes ( I have found a really nice low fat yoghurt which does the job of cream in curries for example , does not work in French food though !) . I love Salads and in summer will have one probably every couple of days.


I don't feel deprived because if I really feel like it then will treat myself to a bowl of dark chocolate and rosemary ice cream ( which is relatively low fat compared to other ice creams). I can have one square of chocolate ( dark and bitter) every day and know I will not feel the desire to eat the whole bar. I avoid cheeses because I know I find it addictive ! So I will treat myself to the best once in a blue moon instead and ignore the craving the rest of the time.

Not all low fat products are awful tasting. My lovely local supermarket makes really nice tasting low calorie/fat ready meals and they are not full of additives, colourings etc.. and not super processed ( I always read the label very carefully). They have minimal ingredients and simply use little fat adding more taste with spices and herbs for example.

Some dishes can never be as nice being cooked using low fat ingredients but on the whole I think it is pretty easy to have a nice, balanced and healthy diet of fresh and tasty foods.

You don't have to live on raw celery, low fat cottage cheese and iceberg lettuce to eat well. A Mediterranean diet for example is not a bad way to eat.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I think it is a question of balance personally. I see nothing wrong with butter in moderation. If you drench your food in it and cook with cream every single day then the likelihood is that your health will suffer and your weight will go up.

Even exercise is not going to undo the damage of living on purely fatty foods and processed crap.

I gained a lot of weight because of spending over 10 years on high doses of steroid as cancer treatment and despite what I consider a healthy diet I am still finding it impossible to shift the weight.


I had managed to lose almost 40 pounds and it had taken me over two years of blood and sweat then the Doctors prescribed me with some new drugs and back on it went. I have always tried to eat sensibly and heathily ( though people looking at me think I live on cream buns and fast foods which drives me nuts) and it is the best I can do.

I think unless you have specific medical conditions nothing in itself is dangerous or bad for you though. A little of anything is fine.

I eat a lot less meat than most omnivores I know because I prefer to spend more for better quality and more humane animal husbandry, I love fish and grill rather than fry, I love fruits and veggies ( pretty much all of them) and eat them every day and I steam a lot. I use Olive Oil rather than butter for most dishes, use little cream except for very special recipes ( I have found a really nice low fat yoghurt which does the job of cream in curries for example , does not work in French food though !) . I love Salads and in summer will have one probably every couple of days.


I don't feel deprived because if I really feel like it then will treat myself to a bowl of dark chocolate and rosemary ice cream ( which is relatively low fat compared to other ice creams). I can have one square of chocolate ( dark and bitter) every day and know I will not feel the desire to eat the whole bar. I avoid cheeses because I know I find it addictive ! So I will treat myself to the best once in a blue moon instead and ignore the craving the rest of the time.

Not all low fat products are awful tasting. My lovely local supermarket makes really nice tasting low calorie/fat ready meals and they are not full of additives, colourings etc.. and not super processed ( I always read the label very carefully). They have minimal ingredients and simply use little fat adding more taste with spices and herbs for example.

Some dishes can never be as nice being cooked using low fat ingredients but on the whole I think it is pretty easy to have a nice, balanced and healthy diet of fresh and tasty foods.

You don't have to live on raw celery, low fat cottage cheese and iceberg lettuce to eat well. A Mediterranean diet for example is not a bad way to eat.

and Mediterranean diets are pretty darn tasty. I think the secret always is moderation, whether we are talking meats, butter, cream, alcohol, and even veggies...It is more the amount we eat than the foods we eat that affects our weight and health.

[SCGranny]

My mother during the Depression used to get "bluejohn" - the milk after all of the fat, cream, etc had been strained from it. It is now called "1%" milk in the stores. I can't believe people actually BUY that stuff. Why not just put water on your cereal?

I've said it before - DH and I moved to the farm and started raising our own. We eat butter, cook with lard (rendered down from pig fat), eat our own chickens and eggs, have our own fresh produce and can it, make our own bread, eat our own beef with the fat attached. We are healthier now than we have ever been. 2 years ago we had a scare - DH started having swelling (pitting edema) in his legs, and was taken to a cardiologist. The cardiologist insisted that it was all of the fatty foods we were eating, and that DH needed a stint. He opened him up - and closed him back up. He came into the waiting room shaking his head. "Those veins and arteries are clean as a whistle! I can't put a stint in - he has the heart and circulatory system of a 20-year-old!" Turned out it was all a reaction to his medication...

I don't know where he got the 20-year-old heart from, but he won't give it back. Stubborn old goat.

Sorry, kids - but what will kill you is the overprocessed and prechewed foods, not the wholesome and natural stuff, with all of its eeevil cholesterol and fat. Now, of course raising your own food takes a lot of physical effort, develops muscle, not fat, and keeps you from being sedentary.

[CAVA1990]

Cut out sugar and other simple carbs as much as possible and it won't really matter what else you eat. Eating more fat will actually cause you to eat fewer calories. Low fat is a major reason people are eating too many calories.

[football45013]

Look, if I'm going to eat something unhealthy, I'm going to enjoy it dammit. I'm not going to be half-assing it. I go all out or nothing, lol.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

If you look at many "fat free" products, you will find that they are filled with sugar in an effort to make them taste palatable.

I saw some fat free chocolate cookies one time that had more calories than the Chips Ahoy! they were sitting next to.