In every store or supermarket you can see literally hundreds of products marked as “low fat” – meaning that they have less fat than the original product. However, products marked as “low fat” can often have more fat, calories or sugar than you think they are. Why is that? There is something you need to now – when fat is removed from products, manufacturers have to use salt, sugar or artificial additives to make that product taste better. But, this is not the only problem – recent studies have shown that people tend to eat more of products that are marked as “low fat”.
Don’t worry, though, there are much better, tastier and healthier alternatives. We have created a short list of most common products that are labeled as “low fat” and their healthier alternatives.
We should all eat salad, every day. However, you should avoid fat-free salad covered with fat-free dressing. This kind of salad will not satisfy your hunger and you could be even more hungry in just an hour. Most of the fat-free, low fat dressing have lots of sugar in it, which means that it will make you more hungry and you will end up overeating. The healthier alternative is to eat salad with regular dressing (in smaller amount), add some seeds, nuts or even avocado.
2. Potato chips
Everyone loves potato chips! Unfortunately, they can have so many calories and we tend to eat the whole bag, since we can’t stop. There are low fat alternatives, that have just 20 or 30 calories less, but are not healthier than the original. The best thing to do is to eat other, healthier snacks, like roasted edamame or roasted chickpeas. The good thing about these snacks is that they have lots of protein and different vitamins.
3. Fat-free yogurt
There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t eat fat-free yogurt. These yogurts contain stabilizers, sugar, artificial colors and often have added flavors, so they could taste better. Most of the nutritionist suggest that you eat a smaller amount of full-fat yogurt – it is better for you and it will satisfy your hunger.
4. Frozen yogurt and low-fat ice cream
The biggest problem with low-fat ice cream and frozen yogurt is that they trick you to think that you can eat a lot of them, guilt-free. You end up eating a lot more than you really should. In this case, there is no alternative, but there is something you can do – you can eat frozen yogurt or low-fat ice cream from time to time, but not every day.
5. Substitutes for eggs
Yolk is the part of the egg where all goods are. Substitutes do not have that. The best alternative for eggs substitutes are the real eggs. You can boil them and eat couple for breakfast – they have lots of protein and are really good for your body.
6. Low-fat peanut butter
The interesting thing with low-fat peanut butter is that it has less than 20 calories than the really thing. Why? Because the companies add sugar to the low-fat version, to make it taste better. The alternative to low-fat peanut butter is the original peanut butter, but in a reasonable amount.