New diet discoveries

jdavidb on 2002-12-16T17:55:49

I remembered a long-forgotten snack from my childhood this morning: rice cakes! My grandmother discovered these before I knew what health food was and was feeding them to us for snacks because we liked them, not because they were good for us. Two changes since then:

• Many rice cakes are corn cakes. Still include rice, but primarily made of corn. Not a problem for me as long as fat and cholesterol remain constant, but might affect some people.
• All rice cakes are flavored now. There's no such thing as "plain" or "original." There is "unsalted," but I don't want that. The white chedder seems to be good (and low fat), and later I'll try the buttered popcorn I also bought (which is no fat).

These seem like a reasonable way to replace chips, popcorn, and other snacks in my diet. Bags of 14 cakes were on sale US$1.50 at Albertson's.

Other discovery, and I sort of already knew this: I can get fat-free salad dressing: Italian, ranch, Caesar, or just about any other. Fat free mayo and miracle whip exists, too. From experience I can say that while I notice a difference, the fat doesn't add much to the flavor. Given that I can get enough salad in a bag to last me a week for a reasonable price (or make it myself for an even more reasonable price), I think a salad at every dinner is in order. (Related note: croutons will be 2% of my fat per serving.)

It's starting to seem like I could make a real revolution in my eating.