After I wrote about reclaiming Diet Coke last week, we had a fun chat on my Instagram about diet foods that turned into comfort foods, either because you were raised to love the taste of aspartame (like me!), or once you stopped dieting, and gave yourself permission to eat all foods, it turned out you actually do just really like green juice. So I thought that would be a good conversation to bring over here, as well, for my inaugural Thread post.
To be honest, I’ve been really nervous to try out a Thread: I write about diet culture and parenting, and I’m pretty sure those are the two most divisive topics to discuss on the Internet? So this is an experiment. I’m going to set a few ground rules and see how we do… and if it’s fun and community-building and troll-free, then Friday Discussion Threads will become another regular perk available to paid subscribers!
But just for today, I’m sending it out to the whole list, so we can all try this out together.
Ground rules to keep things friendly:
No fatphobia: Avoid the use of “o words” and other stigmatizing language. (“Fat” is fine if you identify that way or use it as a neutral body descriptor.)
Avoid numbers: No calorie counts, pounds gained or lost, or other details that could be triggering to folks in eating disorder recovery.
This is an anti-diet space: No body shaming, and no promoting of diets or intentional weight loss in any way, please.
Virginia has the right to delete or block anyone for general troll nonsense.
OK! So now, I’d love to know: What diet food have you reclaimed for yourself? Or, if that sounds impossible, what diet food did you used to love…but it turned out the non-diet version IS legit so much better?
(My answer to the second question is smoothies I DON’T put kale into.)
I have always loved cottage cheese, even before I joined the world of dieting. Even dieting couldn’t kill my enjoyment of it. But do not ever try to put fruit in my cottage cheese…it must be eaten with salt and pepper only. Thank-you.
Butter. We used to do "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." Since we now have a toddler who eats solids, we moved back to real butter (Kerrygold to be specific). I will never go back to fake tub butter again.
My diet food that I still love now is salads! I genuinely enjoy the taste of lettuce (even plain sometimes), and appreciate the blank slate that a big bowl of lettuce is. Am I feeling like blueberries in my salad today with some almonds? Or am I feeling like black beans and avocado? WHO KNOWS?!
The "diet food" I almost never choose anymore is brown rice. Why would I want to eat the rice that takes 3 times as long to cook and doesn't taste as good???
Seltzer with a splash of juice. I find most sodas too be overly sweet for my liking and artificial sweeteners give me headaches. It has nothing to do with calories, just what is more refreshing and tasty to drink!
I am here to speak up for kale. I got into it as a diet health food but...I really do prefer it to lettuce it's got more flavor and texture. I've got a kale, chickpea and avocado salad that is *chef's kiss.*
Also when you're driving a long distance, a big ol' ice cold diet dr. pepper is the nectar of the gods.
Count me in as a Diet Coke devotee. And Diet Dr Pepper. And sometimes Diet Pepsi. Just give me all the bubbles but only if they are fake sweet AF :)
I grew pretty fond of the “skinny” or “thin” buns that I used to use for their low-calorie-ness but now like because I’m more about the meat in my burger and less about fluffy buns.
Whole Grain Cheerios were also a low-cal pal but I genuinely like them better than the other flavors. And any kind of snack pack—I used them for portion control to stave off the binging (and still do tbh) but I also just like having a little bag of teddy grahams I can hold on to or take with me somewhere.
I love rice cakes as a hummus or peanut butter delivery system. Few other things have that very distinct crunch. As for the second question? We only ever had low-fat (namely Healthy Choice) ice cream growing up. My mom would jokingly refer to it as "ice milk." I loved it, until I had actual hard ice cream and felt deeply betrayed. I tried frozen yogurt recently and still just tasted cold disappointment water.
I'm back to enjoying one CokeZero a day. Diet soda is so stigmatized by so many diets that it feels like a wonderful middle finger to some of the eating plans that tortured me (that I allowed to torture me) over the years. I also sincerely adore Starbucks' sous vide eggs and was offended when Ronan Farrow, in his Grub Street eating chronicle, said they were for sad people who had given up bread, or words to that effect. However, over the weekend I made asparagus frittata muffins for my daughter and me, which had far more vegetables and were even better than the sous vide ones.
Diet food for me is pb2 and I know how reviled it is, but when I make sesame noodles (note actual pasta being used) the taste and mixing is better than peanut butter. For pb&j though? Skippy all the way! As for non diet, I had been convinced that I had to be dairy free - was eating all non dairy frozen desserts. Turns out ice cream & I get along fine and at least in my book real ice cream wins over all!
oh jeez, I have a funky relationship to a lot of "healthy" (F**K FOOD SHAMING) substitute dairy foods because of a dairy allergy I've had since childhood. in the last ~5 years I found out (through the allergist!! and a food challenge!! don't try this at home!!) that I can eat baked dairy. the proteins denature enough that my shitty immune system is ok with it. and friends -- holy shit butter and buttermilk and cream are LIFE-CHANGING in baked goods. I really enjoy how different the texture is! it's so much easier to get chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (my favorite) when you use butter.
I also really enjoy vegan protein powder because 1) as above, no dairy=no whey and 2) I like lifting heavy stuff and getting strong, but the people who generally associate themselves with vegan protein powder are kinda ... scary & mean, for lack of better/nicer words. So I think that making my sludgy smoothies with vegan protein powder while laughing at toxic fitness culture and using my sludge to nourish my body is a nice way to push back.
I am absolutely wild for Quaker Oats mini cheese rice cakes (I think they call them rice crisps and used to call them Quakes). I used to eat when they first came out because, naturally, it felt like an acceptable snack for a fat teenager. But I could never get enough of them. I always felt out of control and guilty eating them and still being hungry.
During my intuitive eating honeymoon when I realized that I’m an adult with my own disposable income and that I could buy these rice cakes in bulk and eat as much as I wanted. So I did. I think I ate six to ten bags at a time and they don’t really fill me up or satisfy me. They’re pricey so I couldn’t really keep this up but just having a week where I had unconditional permission to eat these was so helpful in making me decide if I actually like them or if I liked them for a diet food.
Turns out I love the texture, the crunch, the cheese dust! But I also eat them knowing that if I’m hungry then I will need something more filling at the same time.
This is the approach I’ve taken to all foods more or less (my poor mouth the couple months it took me to allow myself to eat the sour candy I denied myself for years!), but the rice cakes are the only “diet food” that I think it’s turned out that I actually like.
Unsweetened chocolate almond milk! I first started using it because its low in carbs and calories and really does taste like chocolate, but now that all foods fit I find I really DO love it on cereals hot and cold and as an occasional between-meals snack.
How about a food that used to "off limits" that I thought I loved and now think maybe not so much? Full-fat ranch dressing! Like, the low fat versions are universally icky and I would only use the "real" version on days when I was being indulgent. Once all foods fit I went crazy over it and used it on everything. . .for a while. . .
My "diet" food that I like anyway is brown rice. I never liked white rice growing up (I think it was a sticky texture thing?) and brown rice is sort of crunchy in a nice way. Now when I order it in my Chipotle bowls, my husband scoffs. But it's good! (I do like white rice now too, but when I have an option for brown, I take it.
Here's my caffiene themed contribution! :) Started drinking my daily coffee black & still love it. Re: non-diet version is legit much better - ordering full milk instead of skim milk lattes/cappucinos.
I simply like sugarfree sodas better. I can't seem to get away from it - regular sugary sodas feel weird in my mouth. (The only exception here is Irn Bru, which tastes okay sugarfree but truly magical in its original.)
For a long time, I "swapped" (such a diet culture word!) almond butter for peanut butter, and I briefly convinced myself I liked it better. I've been having PB more lately, and it's so freaking delicious and has a much better texture for me! I also recently discovered chicken thighs--I was stuck in an "only chicken breast" diet/wellness trap for decades. Chicken thighs are way more forgiving in terms of cooking (IMHO), cheaper, delicious (especially after marinating), and much easier for kids to cut themselves!
I’ve just started working with an intuitive eating nutritionist and I’m trying to figure out the answers to these questions right now (like, maybe I don’t love chicken?), so I don’t have anything to add except that I love skimming this whole thread.
It took me forever to switch to Diet Coke from regular but now I eat whatever and how much I want, I am hooked on Diet Coke. And I’m comfortable with myself and my pants zip, my only way I care what I weigh. I wish I had done this at 15 or whatever too young age I worried about my weight.
Old-fashioned oatmeal with raisins, peanut butter, soy milk, and Splenda. Splenda isn't exactly a comfort food, and I don't use it much in other contexts, but dang it, the oatmeal needs to be 4-year-old level of sweet, and using that much brown sugar makes me feel sluggish and headachy. So Splenda it is.
Yasso froyo bars are legit good and don’t taste like diet food. A food that’s completely reclaimed and is not replaceable in any way is a proper NY/NJ bagel with lox and cream cheese.
Hard boiled eggs are a thing I ate a LOT of during the low-carb years but I still love as a breakfast or snack, as in yes I will eat them on vacation at the Hampton Inn breakfast bar.
Low-fat peanut butter! I love the texture--it's almost like a paste? I know that doesn't sound appetizing but I love it. A spoonful of low-fat peanut butter and a Diet Coke is an amazing snack.
Fiber One cereal, topped with blueberries and skim milk. I used it to game the Weight Watchers system so many times (the fiber basically made it a ‘free’ food), and it has artificial sweetener which I don’t use at any other time. But I really do love it as an evening snack and it has become a comfort food for sure.
I listened to the talk against butter and I switched away from butter to olive oil “butter”. We got used to the taste but the comfort of toast and butter wasn’t there. I finally switched back to real butter and now eat salted butter on my toast every morning. The day just starts better
I had precocious puberty growing up which caused me to be pretty curvy at the age of 10. My family doctor made the decision the determination that I was getting “fat” and sent me to a dietitian. I was placed on an extremely restrictive diet, under 1000 cals a day. The only snack I was allowed to have was a singular pickle. I didn’t like pickles before that, but I came to love them and I still do to this day.
I never really ate these when I was actively dieting, but I sincerely love Grapenuts cereal. It’s so crunchy and not too sweet, so it’s a perfect complement to yogurt with fresh fruit and honey (frequent summer lunch).
I also had a similar experience to your Diet Coke one with Diet Snapple iced tea. I started drinking it when I was on Weight Watchers after high school because it has no calories, but the regular Snapple is too sweet for me now and I just prefer the taste of the Diet. (Now if they would put it back in the old glass bottles, that would be great...)
I could write a whole novel about my love of Diet Coke. I never drank it as a diet food per se, but because I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child I was put on a pretty restrictive portion controlled diet, and regular soda was off limits. I didn’t even like it at first, but I wanted to be a regular kid and have soda at restaurants or the movies. Eventually I started to drink it in the mornings for caffeine and by the end of high school I was a full-on addict. I don’t even think of it as a diet food even though diet is right there in the name.
Like you, I really love & need my smoothies! I deal with a lot of jaw & dental issues that sometimes prevent me from chewing, so my blender is essential for the post-op recovery time to be flavorful and filling.
I adore sparkling water. I didn't grow up drinking soda, bc I only like Dr. Pepper and it's hard to find there, but I occasionally drank Pepsi bc my mother did and it was around. Only in the last 5 years have I discovered that what I really like about soda is the carbonation---it instantly makes me feel cooler and more refreshed. I get a case of Italian Sparkling mineral water at Costco and go through it in ... maybe ... 10 days in the summer, longer when it's not hot.
Love this thread! Unsweetened almond milk, either regular or vanilla flavor - I don't know that it's necessarily "diet" but I love it in coffee, chai, Earl Grey tea. I add my own stevia for sweetness, which is a diet food/item that I really love. (Trader Joe's liquid stevia is my favorite.) While I have a love-hate relationship with dairy, eating real gelato is sooo much better than any dairy-free or low-carb/low-fat frozen dessert thing. Miss me with those frozen desserts that have low calories-per-pint listing but require special handling in order to eat them (ie., leave out for 10-20 minutes before eating).
Frozen, unroasted, unsalted almonds. There’s something really satisfying about the texture when they’re cold and snappier, and they have a lot of sweetness that is too hard to taste when they’re salty.
Hot-air popcorn, spayed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and sugar substitute. I realized that I disliked every version of microwave popcorn that I tried. I don't like movie-style popcorn, either. So controlling what goes on my popcorn makes me happy. Also, diet soda. I dislike the syrupy mouthfeel of the sugary kind.
omg, Cool Whip Lite! i’m not sure that even counts as food, it’s just straight chemicals, but i prefer the taste and texture to real whipped cream! somewhat horrifying, hahaha.
Kale is too strongly flavored for most smoothies IMO, but I love spinach in smoothies. Whenever I add spinach to a smoothie I stick with light colored fruit (pineapple, mango, apple - definitely no blueberries) so that it stays bright bright green, which makes me happy.
My daughter and I have recently crowned Cape Cod Waves as the best potato chip, as they are SO CRUNCHY. My husband accidentally bought some reduced-fat Waves over Christmas, and after I recovered from my disappointment, I realized that . . . they're even better?! They're the crunchiest potato chip I've ever crunched. I feel weird recommending them to people, but they're just so good.
I actually love Dreyer's Slow Churned ice cream!! My stepmom used to get it when she was on diets when I was a kid, so I bought in college when I was trying to lose weight. Then I rediscovered, like, actual ice cream (and started questioning my anti-fat bias, etc) and never looked back.
Buuut I got it again recently because it was the only thing the store had... and the texture is so good! Creamy and almost fluffy? I'll still get Tillamook and Ben and Jerry's for their flavors, but Slow Churned going in the permanent rotation as a genuinely joyful option, especially for topping fruit cobblers and pies.
PS - I really love this kind of discussion thread, I hope it goes well so you/we can do more!
I love green smoothies! I always drank them after a run or as a quick breakfast on the go. They still hit the spot and I constantly change up the flavors so it never gets boring.
Another one is salads now that I allow myself to use romaine instead of kale/spinach and choose the dressing I think tastes best instead of “healthiest”.
Our family's "diets" were not weight-loss ones but medically restrictive elimination diets my daughter had to follow through a series of health challenges. We actually discovered a ton of foods we would never have tried otherwise! Now that she's totally healthy and unrestricted, we still eat a lot of them. Virginia, please delete if this isn't ok, but I've written about the breakfast foods we ended up keeping in our world after the six-food-elimination diet just because they're great: http://swallowmysunshine.com/accidentally-safe-six-food-elimination-diet-breakfasts-i-accidentally-love/
Original Special K. Even though I now know it is not even healthy for you, it still tastes good. I do eat some of the healthier variety on occasion (or sale) but original is my go-to sweet morning cereal.
sugar free cream soda. sugary soda makes my teeth feel weird, but having a really good sugarless cream soda, root beer, or ginger beer feels like a decadent treat. I used to make sure any bread I bought had ALL the fiber, minimal or no sugar, and was thin-sliced. With lots of butter (or lots of peanut butter and jelly) it was edible, but I'm back to baguettes and brioche.
I absolutely love Reduced Fat Jiff peanut butter. It has the best texture! For a while I felt like buying it was going against my anti-diet values. But this post/article made me realize it’s ok because I actually like it more than regular peanut butter!
I can’t stand most spiralized/noodle-ized vegetables, but I still love spaghetti squash with a good hearty meat sauce. If I had access to good fresh pasta all the time, I may feel differently, but there’s something about the sweet squash with a bolognese that I like more than store-bought dried pasta.
I also learned that chicken breasts can be moist and delicious, I just never had them that way growing up (and actually became vegetarian for a while as a teen so I wouldn’t have to eat dry chicken).
I’m completely burnt out on hummus and likely will never go back… now if I want a dip for veggies, i just make ranch dip with hidden valley packets and sour cream.
I love smoothies! I started making them a few years after I read a book by Harley Pasternak claiming that one should have two smoothie meals a day, how awful! I love chewing my food. Anyway, I enjoy making them now but mostly as a snack or as a complement to my meal. With tons of peanut butter, chia seeds, Greek yogurt and banana.
I have always loved cottage cheese, even before I joined the world of dieting. Even dieting couldn’t kill my enjoyment of it. But do not ever try to put fruit in my cottage cheese…it must be eaten with salt and pepper only. Thank-you.
Butter. We used to do "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." Since we now have a toddler who eats solids, we moved back to real butter (Kerrygold to be specific). I will never go back to fake tub butter again.
My diet food that I still love now is salads! I genuinely enjoy the taste of lettuce (even plain sometimes), and appreciate the blank slate that a big bowl of lettuce is. Am I feeling like blueberries in my salad today with some almonds? Or am I feeling like black beans and avocado? WHO KNOWS?!
The "diet food" I almost never choose anymore is brown rice. Why would I want to eat the rice that takes 3 times as long to cook and doesn't taste as good???
Seltzer with a splash of juice. I find most sodas too be overly sweet for my liking and artificial sweeteners give me headaches. It has nothing to do with calories, just what is more refreshing and tasty to drink!
I am here to speak up for kale. I got into it as a diet health food but...I really do prefer it to lettuce it's got more flavor and texture. I've got a kale, chickpea and avocado salad that is *chef's kiss.*
Also when you're driving a long distance, a big ol' ice cold diet dr. pepper is the nectar of the gods.
Turns out I really do like grapefruit. And there is no substitute for real butter!
Count me in as a Diet Coke devotee. And Diet Dr Pepper. And sometimes Diet Pepsi. Just give me all the bubbles but only if they are fake sweet AF :)
I grew pretty fond of the “skinny” or “thin” buns that I used to use for their low-calorie-ness but now like because I’m more about the meat in my burger and less about fluffy buns.
Whole Grain Cheerios were also a low-cal pal but I genuinely like them better than the other flavors. And any kind of snack pack—I used them for portion control to stave off the binging (and still do tbh) but I also just like having a little bag of teddy grahams I can hold on to or take with me somewhere.
I love rice cakes as a hummus or peanut butter delivery system. Few other things have that very distinct crunch. As for the second question? We only ever had low-fat (namely Healthy Choice) ice cream growing up. My mom would jokingly refer to it as "ice milk." I loved it, until I had actual hard ice cream and felt deeply betrayed. I tried frozen yogurt recently and still just tasted cold disappointment water.
I'm back to enjoying one CokeZero a day. Diet soda is so stigmatized by so many diets that it feels like a wonderful middle finger to some of the eating plans that tortured me (that I allowed to torture me) over the years. I also sincerely adore Starbucks' sous vide eggs and was offended when Ronan Farrow, in his Grub Street eating chronicle, said they were for sad people who had given up bread, or words to that effect. However, over the weekend I made asparagus frittata muffins for my daughter and me, which had far more vegetables and were even better than the sous vide ones.
Diet food for me is pb2 and I know how reviled it is, but when I make sesame noodles (note actual pasta being used) the taste and mixing is better than peanut butter. For pb&j though? Skippy all the way! As for non diet, I had been convinced that I had to be dairy free - was eating all non dairy frozen desserts. Turns out ice cream & I get along fine and at least in my book real ice cream wins over all!
oh jeez, I have a funky relationship to a lot of "healthy" (F**K FOOD SHAMING) substitute dairy foods because of a dairy allergy I've had since childhood. in the last ~5 years I found out (through the allergist!! and a food challenge!! don't try this at home!!) that I can eat baked dairy. the proteins denature enough that my shitty immune system is ok with it. and friends -- holy shit butter and buttermilk and cream are LIFE-CHANGING in baked goods. I really enjoy how different the texture is! it's so much easier to get chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (my favorite) when you use butter.
I also really enjoy vegan protein powder because 1) as above, no dairy=no whey and 2) I like lifting heavy stuff and getting strong, but the people who generally associate themselves with vegan protein powder are kinda ... scary & mean, for lack of better/nicer words. So I think that making my sludgy smoothies with vegan protein powder while laughing at toxic fitness culture and using my sludge to nourish my body is a nice way to push back.
I am absolutely wild for Quaker Oats mini cheese rice cakes (I think they call them rice crisps and used to call them Quakes). I used to eat when they first came out because, naturally, it felt like an acceptable snack for a fat teenager. But I could never get enough of them. I always felt out of control and guilty eating them and still being hungry.
During my intuitive eating honeymoon when I realized that I’m an adult with my own disposable income and that I could buy these rice cakes in bulk and eat as much as I wanted. So I did. I think I ate six to ten bags at a time and they don’t really fill me up or satisfy me. They’re pricey so I couldn’t really keep this up but just having a week where I had unconditional permission to eat these was so helpful in making me decide if I actually like them or if I liked them for a diet food.
Turns out I love the texture, the crunch, the cheese dust! But I also eat them knowing that if I’m hungry then I will need something more filling at the same time.
This is the approach I’ve taken to all foods more or less (my poor mouth the couple months it took me to allow myself to eat the sour candy I denied myself for years!), but the rice cakes are the only “diet food” that I think it’s turned out that I actually like.
Unsweetened chocolate almond milk! I first started using it because its low in carbs and calories and really does taste like chocolate, but now that all foods fit I find I really DO love it on cereals hot and cold and as an occasional between-meals snack.
How about a food that used to "off limits" that I thought I loved and now think maybe not so much? Full-fat ranch dressing! Like, the low fat versions are universally icky and I would only use the "real" version on days when I was being indulgent. Once all foods fit I went crazy over it and used it on everything. . .for a while. . .
Virginia - this thread is a hit! Please, please consider making it a regular thing.
My "diet" food that I like anyway is brown rice. I never liked white rice growing up (I think it was a sticky texture thing?) and brown rice is sort of crunchy in a nice way. Now when I order it in my Chipotle bowls, my husband scoffs. But it's good! (I do like white rice now too, but when I have an option for brown, I take it.
Here's my caffiene themed contribution! :) Started drinking my daily coffee black & still love it. Re: non-diet version is legit much better - ordering full milk instead of skim milk lattes/cappucinos.
I simply like sugarfree sodas better. I can't seem to get away from it - regular sugary sodas feel weird in my mouth. (The only exception here is Irn Bru, which tastes okay sugarfree but truly magical in its original.)
For a long time, I "swapped" (such a diet culture word!) almond butter for peanut butter, and I briefly convinced myself I liked it better. I've been having PB more lately, and it's so freaking delicious and has a much better texture for me! I also recently discovered chicken thighs--I was stuck in an "only chicken breast" diet/wellness trap for decades. Chicken thighs are way more forgiving in terms of cooking (IMHO), cheaper, delicious (especially after marinating), and much easier for kids to cut themselves!
I’ve just started working with an intuitive eating nutritionist and I’m trying to figure out the answers to these questions right now (like, maybe I don’t love chicken?), so I don’t have anything to add except that I love skimming this whole thread.
It took me forever to switch to Diet Coke from regular but now I eat whatever and how much I want, I am hooked on Diet Coke. And I’m comfortable with myself and my pants zip, my only way I care what I weigh. I wish I had done this at 15 or whatever too young age I worried about my weight.
Old-fashioned oatmeal with raisins, peanut butter, soy milk, and Splenda. Splenda isn't exactly a comfort food, and I don't use it much in other contexts, but dang it, the oatmeal needs to be 4-year-old level of sweet, and using that much brown sugar makes me feel sluggish and headachy. So Splenda it is.
I really do like rice cakes. But no thank you for fat free dairy products.
Yasso froyo bars are legit good and don’t taste like diet food. A food that’s completely reclaimed and is not replaceable in any way is a proper NY/NJ bagel with lox and cream cheese.
Hard boiled eggs are a thing I ate a LOT of during the low-carb years but I still love as a breakfast or snack, as in yes I will eat them on vacation at the Hampton Inn breakfast bar.
Low-fat peanut butter! I love the texture--it's almost like a paste? I know that doesn't sound appetizing but I love it. A spoonful of low-fat peanut butter and a Diet Coke is an amazing snack.
Fiber One cereal, topped with blueberries and skim milk. I used it to game the Weight Watchers system so many times (the fiber basically made it a ‘free’ food), and it has artificial sweetener which I don’t use at any other time. But I really do love it as an evening snack and it has become a comfort food for sure.
I listened to the talk against butter and I switched away from butter to olive oil “butter”. We got used to the taste but the comfort of toast and butter wasn’t there. I finally switched back to real butter and now eat salted butter on my toast every morning. The day just starts better
Pickles.
I had precocious puberty growing up which caused me to be pretty curvy at the age of 10. My family doctor made the decision the determination that I was getting “fat” and sent me to a dietitian. I was placed on an extremely restrictive diet, under 1000 cals a day. The only snack I was allowed to have was a singular pickle. I didn’t like pickles before that, but I came to love them and I still do to this day.
I never really ate these when I was actively dieting, but I sincerely love Grapenuts cereal. It’s so crunchy and not too sweet, so it’s a perfect complement to yogurt with fresh fruit and honey (frequent summer lunch).
I also had a similar experience to your Diet Coke one with Diet Snapple iced tea. I started drinking it when I was on Weight Watchers after high school because it has no calories, but the regular Snapple is too sweet for me now and I just prefer the taste of the Diet. (Now if they would put it back in the old glass bottles, that would be great...)
I could write a whole novel about my love of Diet Coke. I never drank it as a diet food per se, but because I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child I was put on a pretty restrictive portion controlled diet, and regular soda was off limits. I didn’t even like it at first, but I wanted to be a regular kid and have soda at restaurants or the movies. Eventually I started to drink it in the mornings for caffeine and by the end of high school I was a full-on addict. I don’t even think of it as a diet food even though diet is right there in the name.
Like you, I really love & need my smoothies! I deal with a lot of jaw & dental issues that sometimes prevent me from chewing, so my blender is essential for the post-op recovery time to be flavorful and filling.
I adore sparkling water. I didn't grow up drinking soda, bc I only like Dr. Pepper and it's hard to find there, but I occasionally drank Pepsi bc my mother did and it was around. Only in the last 5 years have I discovered that what I really like about soda is the carbonation---it instantly makes me feel cooler and more refreshed. I get a case of Italian Sparkling mineral water at Costco and go through it in ... maybe ... 10 days in the summer, longer when it's not hot.
I had to reduce sodium for medical reasons a few years ago and now I prefer unsalted tortilla chips and low sodium products in general.
Love this thread! Unsweetened almond milk, either regular or vanilla flavor - I don't know that it's necessarily "diet" but I love it in coffee, chai, Earl Grey tea. I add my own stevia for sweetness, which is a diet food/item that I really love. (Trader Joe's liquid stevia is my favorite.) While I have a love-hate relationship with dairy, eating real gelato is sooo much better than any dairy-free or low-carb/low-fat frozen dessert thing. Miss me with those frozen desserts that have low calories-per-pint listing but require special handling in order to eat them (ie., leave out for 10-20 minutes before eating).
I tried Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi when I was "low carb," but they are legit delicious and I still eat them all the time now.
Frozen, unroasted, unsalted almonds. There’s something really satisfying about the texture when they’re cold and snappier, and they have a lot of sweetness that is too hard to taste when they’re salty.
Hot-air popcorn, spayed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and sugar substitute. I realized that I disliked every version of microwave popcorn that I tried. I don't like movie-style popcorn, either. So controlling what goes on my popcorn makes me happy. Also, diet soda. I dislike the syrupy mouthfeel of the sugary kind.
omg, Cool Whip Lite! i’m not sure that even counts as food, it’s just straight chemicals, but i prefer the taste and texture to real whipped cream! somewhat horrifying, hahaha.
The non-diet version that is so much better: A big-a$$ bagel with cream cheese. As much cream cheese as I want. The whole thing.
The "diet" food that I just enjoy because it makes me happy: sugar-free sweet cream coffee creamer. I just like it, man.
Kale is too strongly flavored for most smoothies IMO, but I love spinach in smoothies. Whenever I add spinach to a smoothie I stick with light colored fruit (pineapple, mango, apple - definitely no blueberries) so that it stays bright bright green, which makes me happy.
Reduced fat wheat thins! I genuinely find the regular ones greasy and unappetizing.
My daughter and I have recently crowned Cape Cod Waves as the best potato chip, as they are SO CRUNCHY. My husband accidentally bought some reduced-fat Waves over Christmas, and after I recovered from my disappointment, I realized that . . . they're even better?! They're the crunchiest potato chip I've ever crunched. I feel weird recommending them to people, but they're just so good.
I actually love Dreyer's Slow Churned ice cream!! My stepmom used to get it when she was on diets when I was a kid, so I bought in college when I was trying to lose weight. Then I rediscovered, like, actual ice cream (and started questioning my anti-fat bias, etc) and never looked back.
Buuut I got it again recently because it was the only thing the store had... and the texture is so good! Creamy and almost fluffy? I'll still get Tillamook and Ben and Jerry's for their flavors, but Slow Churned going in the permanent rotation as a genuinely joyful option, especially for topping fruit cobblers and pies.
PS - I really love this kind of discussion thread, I hope it goes well so you/we can do more!
I love green smoothies! I always drank them after a run or as a quick breakfast on the go. They still hit the spot and I constantly change up the flavors so it never gets boring.
Another one is salads now that I allow myself to use romaine instead of kale/spinach and choose the dressing I think tastes best instead of “healthiest”.
Our family's "diets" were not weight-loss ones but medically restrictive elimination diets my daughter had to follow through a series of health challenges. We actually discovered a ton of foods we would never have tried otherwise! Now that she's totally healthy and unrestricted, we still eat a lot of them. Virginia, please delete if this isn't ok, but I've written about the breakfast foods we ended up keeping in our world after the six-food-elimination diet just because they're great: http://swallowmysunshine.com/accidentally-safe-six-food-elimination-diet-breakfasts-i-accidentally-love/
Original Special K. Even though I now know it is not even healthy for you, it still tastes good. I do eat some of the healthier variety on occasion (or sale) but original is my go-to sweet morning cereal.
sugar free cream soda. sugary soda makes my teeth feel weird, but having a really good sugarless cream soda, root beer, or ginger beer feels like a decadent treat. I used to make sure any bread I bought had ALL the fiber, minimal or no sugar, and was thin-sliced. With lots of butter (or lots of peanut butter and jelly) it was edible, but I'm back to baguettes and brioche.
I absolutely love Reduced Fat Jiff peanut butter. It has the best texture! For a while I felt like buying it was going against my anti-diet values. But this post/article made me realize it’s ok because I actually like it more than regular peanut butter!
I can’t stand most spiralized/noodle-ized vegetables, but I still love spaghetti squash with a good hearty meat sauce. If I had access to good fresh pasta all the time, I may feel differently, but there’s something about the sweet squash with a bolognese that I like more than store-bought dried pasta.
I also learned that chicken breasts can be moist and delicious, I just never had them that way growing up (and actually became vegetarian for a while as a teen so I wouldn’t have to eat dry chicken).
I’m completely burnt out on hummus and likely will never go back… now if I want a dip for veggies, i just make ranch dip with hidden valley packets and sour cream.
I love smoothies! I started making them a few years after I read a book by Harley Pasternak claiming that one should have two smoothie meals a day, how awful! I love chewing my food. Anyway, I enjoy making them now but mostly as a snack or as a complement to my meal. With tons of peanut butter, chia seeds, Greek yogurt and banana.