| Diet foods (8) | Thursday, Jun 8, 2006 4:35 pm |
Prompted by Shara's comment, I'd like to catalog my thoughts on diet foods.
Diet soda is the work of the devil. I hate it. I can't understand how anyone can possibly like it. It's disgusting, degrading, has a terrible aftertaste, and is healthy in no way, shape, or form. Everyone laughs at the jokes about fat people ordering a Supersized Big Mac combo meal and a Diet Coke. But it's not just fat people who are mislead by this vile substance. It's skinny people too. Smart people. Health-conscious people. People treat it like a sports drink; like they're doing themselves a favor by not drinking regular soda. I don't know too much about artificial sweeteners, but I can't imagine they're any healthier than regular sugar. And for that matter, I would imagine that regular soda isn't exactly healthy to begin with. So if you're gonna put some artificially-flavored, black-colored, cocaine-derived solvent into your body, you might as well go with the Real Thing™.
As for other diet foods, I usually stay away from things that try to be healthy. There's no such thing as a good-tasting fat-free snack food. Fat is what makes food taste good in the first place. And most times when something is fat-free, it means the fat was replaced by something else, and it's usually sugar. So which would I rather put in my body: Fat or sugar? It depends on how much of each. And it depends if the fat is good fat (unsaturated) or bad fat (saturated). What real health problem am I saving myself from when I eat Lite Cool Whip instead of regular? A half a gram of fat? That's not worth it. But when it comes to something like potato chips, I'll go with Baked Lay's instead of regular Lay's any day. But that's because they're baked instead of fried, not made with less fat.
Linked: Sweet tea, Sweet tea (comment)
Excellent post. I couldn't agree with you more. Not only do lite/diet/fat free foods taste like crap, I think those foods are definitely worse for you than the real thing and if you're trying to be healthy, than you should cut out both the regular and the diet versions! This whole topic really makes me angry because people actually think they are eating heathier, but they aren't.
I especially hate splenda. Splenda made me realize that artificial sweetners are going to end up causing all kinds of heath related problems. I make sweet tea a lot. I use sugar, plain old delicious sugar. My mom will not drink my sweet tea because of the cup of sugar I put in it, so when I was home once she had me make her a quart of it with splenda. And let me tell you....I put that Splenda in there and I almost shat myself. I put it in the boiling water and it started fizzing! I felt like I was doing a chemistry experiment. Sugar = natural = no fizz. Splenda = unnatural (eventhough they say it's made from sugar) = fizz!
That is my little rant about that. I could go on, but I won't. I'd only be repeating what you wrote above. :)
I feel the same way about Splenda. It just doesn't taste right. I think it actually tastes sweeter than regular sugar (Wikipedia says it's 500-600 times sweeter). But it doesn't taste quite as bad as Sweet'N Low or Equal. Still, I try to keep my distance.
I'm going to agree with Shara and Dave. I don't like artificial sweetners. It really comes down to this: do you want natural sugar in your body or a chemical?
btw - Shara, I need a good sweet tea recipe : )
Exactly!!
As for the sweet tea - I put 8 tea bags in a pot of water. Not a big pot that you'd boil a pound of pasta in, one that you'd make rice in (if that makes any sense! I don't know how big they are exactly). The medium pot, not the small or large one. Anyway, just fill that up with water and 8 tea bags until it boils. Then add a cup of sugar. Good old natural sugar! Stir it until the sugar dissolves and turn off the stove. Then I take the tea bags out, you can squeeze them if you like your tea stronger. You need a 2 quart container - which to me is just one of those regular sized ones...put a tray or two of ice cubs in the container and then pour the tea over the ice. Stir until the ice is melted and then refrigerate until cold! Sorry for the long explaination of my tea making. I want to try and make sun tea some time...so when I figure that out, I'll let you know how it goes :).
awesome, thanks!
No problem. Let me know how it goes!
Not to undermine your position that artificial sweeteners are less healthy than real sugar, but the only reason Splenda fizzes is that they add air to the mixture to make it measure like real sugar. Real sucralose (what Splenda is made of) doesn't do that.
Oh, and you guys do realize that sweeteners are generally considered healthier because they contain little to no calories. The general public is obsessed with losing weight--many don't care whether they are healthy or not.
Finally, please don't make sun tea--it can be very unhealthful, as non-boiled tea can contain live bacteria. If you insist, don't drink it after an hour or if it ever seems "ropy" as those ropes are strains of bacteria.
Good point: "Healthy" means "less calories/fat" for most people.
At first, I didn't believe your spiel about sun tea, but then I found a few references that agreed with you. Wow! Who knew sun tea was so deadly?!