Where food is concerned, I’ve never been one of those ‘take it or leave it’ people. I do put a lot of thought into what I eat, and try to eat food that either tastes good or is good for me. Over the last few years, my emphasis on food has shifted from being purely based on ‘getting my calories worth’ to also embracing foods which benefit my health. That being said, I do still pay attention to calories.
It’s important to have a balanced approach to food i.e. you have to decide which foods are worth opting for the higher calorie, real version. For me, there will always be those foods which I’d rather save on the calories, and instead satisfy my appetite with other yummy, nutritious foods. Here are a few of my ‘worth it’ and ‘not-so-worth it’ foods
Worth it
•Peanut butter. The calorie difference between the low fat and regular is so minimal that I rather eat the regular. The lack of fat in low fat peanut butter is replaced with huge amounts of sugars and hydrogenated oils. And who said that MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids) were a bad thing??
•Dessert. This is a biggie for me. It’s not something I eat all the time so when I do, you better believe it’s gonna be the real thing. My taste buds know better than to be fooled by “dessert” made up of margarine and Splenda.
•Bread. A slice of cardboard low-calorie bread is between 40-60 calories whereas a hearty slice of seeded bread ranges from 100-120 calories. The latter is definitely worth it!
•Oreos. I’d rather have 2 normal Oreos than a packet of the ‘100-calorie Oreos’. Half the pleasure of eating Oreos is separating it, then licking the cream, and then tackling the biscuit component :D.
Not so worth it
•Ice cream when fro yo is available. I do love ice cream but I enjoy fro yo equally as much. By opting for fro yo, I can then splurge on decadent toppings.
•Cooking with oil. When I am at home, a majority of my meals are cooked with 0-calorie spray oil. I am aware of the health benefits of oil but for me, use of it doesn’t enhance my meals in any way. As the rest of my diet is filled with other sources of healthy fats, I am not too worried about the missing nutrients.
•Full-fat dairy. Cheese, milk, yogurt: fortunately I prefer the low-fat variety as I find it’s a good medium between being too thick and too watered down. If I only had a taste for the full-fat variety, I probably wouldn’t include it as frequently in my diet.
Fizzy drinks. If the diet version isn’t available, I won’t drink it at all. Regular fizzy drinks, for me, are just empty calories.