Healthy Diet Recipe #1
Diet recipe books are a profitable side dish in the weight loss biz. They’re popular because dieters want to “save” calories and avoid “ bad” ingredients. Millions of cook books are sold, even though home cooks prepare the same dishes over and over, relying on a few trusted recipes. Dieters even believe that these recipes themselves have a special magic which will help them in their battle ! They willingly shop for extra, unfamiliar ingredients. Then they attempt to make tasty food without salt, sugar, butter, cream — a challenge for professional chefs. They must taste a lot during preparation since these are new, untried recipes ( the tastes don’t count in their daily allotment). All of these steps because saving calories means one can eat much more and still lose.
Diet Recipe
Traditional Recipe for Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
¼ cup butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt
1 garlic clove, mashed
Recipe yields 4 servings of sauce
“Skinny” Version for Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
8 ounces low-fat cream cheese
8 ounces fat-free half-and-half
¼ cup Parmesan, grated
½ teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, mashed
Recipe yields 4 servings of sauce
Nutritional Analysis
Calories Protein (g) Fat (g) Carbs (g) Sodium (mg) Chol(mg)
Traditional Recipe 439 13 42 3 565 138
Skinny Version 329 7.7 30 9.25 847 45
Analysis note: In “saving” 110 calories, the skinny version has triple the carbs, an additional 280mg of sodium and half the protein. Fat-free Half-and-half is corn syrup followed by two thickening agents (carrageenan and guar gum)!
Is this an improvement, then? Obviously the taste of this special dish has been compromised by these substitutions. The eater/dieter loses on satisfaction, Usually this leads to eating another food with a more desirable taste experience to make them feel better. More eating is always the answer while fewer bites is the sensible and scientific solution so as not to stretch the stomach container.