In trying to eat healthy, I have started to buy “fat-free” or “light” versions of the real thing, whatever it may be. But I started to wonder: how do they get it to be fat free? Is it chock-full of chemicals that will slowly fester in my body until it explodes? Is fat-free food really safe to eat? –Cautious Health Nut, Madison, Wisconsin
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Don’t be such a stiff. Being chock-full of chemicals has resulted in some of the most entertaining moments of my life. Granted, the stuff in SnackWells doesn’t work on the same pharmacological principle. There’s no single method of making a food fat free, but generally what you try to do is substitute some ingredient (e.g., milk and egg protein, enzyme-treated oat bran, or that old favorite, seaweed extract) that approximates the bulk and “mouth feel” of fat without fat’s calories.
Food scientists haven’t given up though. There’s no question some fat-free products ain’t bad, and a lotta folks figure that ain’t good. Many dieticians fear that weight watchers will consume fat-free products so obsessively that they won’t eat a balanced diet–neglecting their daily fiber quota, for example. Equally worrisome, people may figure eating a fat-free food is an excuse to heavy up on some other artery clogger, the rationale for such breakfasts of champions as Ho-Hos and diet Coke.
