Why I Don’t Bother with Fat-Free Baked Goods

December 10th, 2007 · 4 Comments

This weekend I made Fat-Free Chocolate Orange Cake from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Fat Free Vegan, which has a zillion tested-and-true vegan recipes and gorgeous photographs. (No, I’m not vegan, I just occasionally swing that way.) Fortunately most of her recipes aren’t actually fat-free. This one was, but it sounded so good I made it anyway, to serve with family while we “decked the halls” with Christmas decorations.

The cake was eh. It reached about the level of a Starbuck’s low-fat baked good; better flavor, but that similar, gummy texture. Zero crumb-factor.

Worse: The cake was half-rate, so I wanted to eat twice as much to be “satisfied.” Not good! The effect is part psychological: It’s not that great, so I think I deserve more for making a punishing “skinny” choice. But on top of that, taking out the fat decreases physical satiation and increases the glycemic index. And since I end up eating more, the blood sugar spike potential is even worse. No good!

While at the tree trimming I also had a Mrs. Fields cookie, which was so rich and delicious it took me several hours to eat the whole thing, with many intermissions to hang ornaments and wrap garlands. I knew that with all that fat (that is, calories) I couldn’t have more than one, so I savored every bite.

Tags: Desserts · Food · Health Tips

4 responses so far ↓

1 amanda // Dec 10, 2007 at 7:33 pm

ugh I hate that gummy texture. Why they want to ruin a perfectly baked good by adding applesauce instead of oil in some products is beyond me. I once made chocolate chip cookies with margarine (no trans fat) and they were just eh too. Might as well have a delicious mrs. fields cookie and be done with it, you know?
2 Round Up of Good Posts » Piercing and Tattoo News // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:46 pm

[…] The Flying Trapeze, Sara Grace explains «www.theflyingtrapeze.org» In a nutshell: they don’t taste as good and are not as satisfying. I agree with Sara: […]
3 Melissa H. // Dec 11, 2007 at 12:20 am

I agree, some things don’t belong being made so low-fat that they have no taste. If I want a brownie, I’ll eat half a REAL brownie… but I have made some delicious lemon-blueberry muffins made with FF buttermilk, for example.

Like you, Sara, I’d have probably ended up ODing on the RF version…when a small taste of the real deal would have been milleniums more satisfying.
4 Cathy // Dec 11, 2007 at 3:25 pm

this is precisely why I have given up fake sugars.
I used to buy that crap and never eat just one (skinny cows, sf/ff fudgesicles, sf/ff candies or gum). I figured if the sugar was zero calories or nearly why not satisfy my ever increasing cravings. it’s been 1.5 months now and I’ve rediscovered what it means to have a treat, what it means to have real sugar in your body and how it affects you and why processed foods really mess with your natural sense of things.