I am interested in hearing the opinions of others on the idea of eating "real food", meaning full fat, full calories, full-flavor if you will... vs eating reduced fat, reduced calorie, reduced sugar varieties.
Personally I've found myself far more satisfied by eating a strictly measured serving of the real deal... like a strongly flavored full fat cheese, some really amazing full fat, full sugar ice cream, creamy salad dressing and the like. I've tried doing the reduced fat and lower calorie versions, but I find them to be so unsatisfying that I end up reaching for more or eating something else to give my brain the good feeling it was expecting from the diet food but didn't get!
I am the same way, for the most part. However, I will also buy full fat foods and "water them down." For example, the salad dressings I buy and make are usually oil-based, but are lower in calories because they have water added to them. I buy whole milk, but when I make something like macaroni and cheese, sometimes I'll add a little water to the milk. I cook with oil, but I'll also saute veggies in chicken broth instead of oil.
For me, it's about a balance. But I much prefer my method over buying reduced fat products!
I switch back and forth. I love full fat cheeses, but if I just want something to stick together/melt, I go for a 2%. I buy skim milk because my daughter won't drink others - she said they taste weird and thick. We buy low fat yogurt and sour cream, but I buy the 2% Greek yogurt from the Greek deli even though they sell a nonfat. I use evaporated milk instead of cream in soup.
It really depends on what I'm doing and the flavor I want to achieve.
I do a mix of things depending on recipes I've planned out and calories in them. For me the full fat stuff just doesn't seem to make me feel anymore full, though it does taste better. If adding full fat to a recipe will push me over my calorie goal, I'll opt for the lower calorie option (provided it doesn't taste bad). Some things I've grown a taste for over time, and now the full fat version tastes odd to me, like with milk and yogurt (if I'm drinking/eating them plain).
I tend to stay away from low-fat/diet items as I find the synthetic replacements make me crave carbohydrate food (specifically with aspartame AKA Amino Sweet) I would be on my diet and my mum and I would have 1 glass of DIET coke as a treat ONCE a week and BAM like an addict crave high carbohydrate foods (breads pasta and so on).
I do however have low fat milk because I grew up with it and I find regular milk a little sweet for my tastes.
Well, that depends. Usually, products with "no added sugar" tend to add conservatives and other awful things, so if I am buying something, I'd rather have it with regular sugar.
No fat/low fat/reduced fat labels are at least regulated, so if there is a version of a product like that, I'll prefer it. Same for low calorie and low fat. When a product is "light" I find it questionable since it's not really regulated and can mean nothing, and usually just means they want to advertise an unhealthy product as a healthy one if they can't use the regulated labels.
However, I usually don't have that problem. Most of the things I consume are natural and don't have these variations (fruits, veggies, meat), are whole wheat (rice, oats, granola) or are low calorie per portion/offer tons of other benefits anyway (acai, granola, yogurt). I feel like my best bet is always sticking to the natural.
For ice cream, do try nice cream! It's basically frozen bananas in the blender, and you can add strawberries or a little cacao powder (without added sugar) and, since the banana is so sweet, you don't need to add anything else. Even my dad (who hates all my "natural" foods haha) loved it and ate a whole plate! And in the end, all he had was a couple of 'nanas and a teaspoon of cacao powder. And, for proper sweets, there tons of awesome healthy variations - banana chocolate oats for mornings, 2 ingredient cookies (they are delicious, trust me), baked oatmeal...amongst other "unhealthy" foods like cauliflower tots, zucchini fries, cauliflower pizza, etc.
I like my salad dressings, too. In small amounts, they're probably not so bad. (Of course, this depends on the dressing and the "small amount" :P)
I think there must be something wrong with my tastebuds, but I actually prefer the diet version of a lot of things. I either can't tell the difference or the lesser version taste better to me for some reason.
I absolutely love the things most people find vile, like Walden Farms dressings and no fat mayo.
Hummm....."Real Food" to me VS "Diet Food". Well, after some consideration, I think Diet Foods are those things which come packaged and freeze dried or frozen. Real Food is fresh things which are low in fat, sugar, sodium and are good for us and taste good.
Full Fat Foods are simply not so good in large quantities. A little bit of high fat things like peanut butter, oils and whole milk dairy products are okay in small amounts.
I tend to stay away from low-fat/diet items as I find the synthetic replacements make me crave carbohydrate food (specifically with aspartame AKA Amino Sweet) I would be on my diet and my mum and I would have 1 glass of DIET coke as a treat ONCE a week and BAM like an addict crave high carbohydrate foods (breads pasta and so on).
I do however have low fat milk because I grew up with it and I find regular milk a little sweet for my tastes.
I totally agree with you on this!! I drink the low fat or non fat and I also find the whole milk too sweet and thick.
But, I have enough room to grow most of my own, veggies. And a small amount of fruit, climate considered.
Ranch dressing, a bit of light butter milk, I do buy this, but grow all my own herbs.
I also grow a huge garden, I can, freeze, dehydrate, and so on and so forth, and try to stay as natural as possible.
We do also get our beef/pork/chicken from local farmers. And we get at least one deer a year, that we process ourselves. I buy my eggs from trusted local people.
I use real butter, for "most" things, that call for butter or margarine.
I try to stay true to natural, whole foods, most of the time. However, I also understand, that some things, and there are some things, I choose, to buy, be it fat free, sugar free, or whatever.
Thing is, I've found the balance, I do more whole and natural, than store bought, but now and then, It's ok, to get what ever!
I definitely prefer real foods. For one thing, my husband will not touch the diet stuff (he's never had a weight problem), and I don't feel like devoting the refrigerator space or the money to buying two versions of everything. The one exception is that I buy 1% milk, mainly because I normally don't drink milk straight; I just use it to make yogurt, and for some reason, when I make Greek yogurt w/ 1% milk, it doesn't taste as tart as when I use whole milk.
Overall, I make many of my own foods (bread, pita, yogurt, etc.), so I'm sort of obsessed with "natural" and generally won't touch frankenfood (although I've been known to eat Cheetos---I know, I know---it's a hold-out from my teenage years!)
I use real food. Well we use smart blend for butter because my grammie likes it but other than that we have real cheese and I make grilled cheese sandwiches with them and white bread that I eat (oh no) that is less calories for two slices than the whole grain kind one slice. I eat barbecue sauce with it. I eat frozen yogurt fruit bars for a snack. Tonight I'm having a McDonalds salad with crispy chicken and two packets of dressing. Because I can, and its tasty. It's ok to eat real food as long as you count your calories and don't go overboard.
I think there must be something wrong with my tastebuds, but I actually prefer the diet version of a lot of things. I either can't tell the difference or the lesser version taste better to me for some reason.
I absolutely love the things most people find vile, like Walden Farms dressings and no fat mayo.
Wow, it takes dedication to eat this stuff long enough to acquire an appreciation for it taste-wise. Fat free mayo does not even qualify as a food substance in my world lol.
Real food vs diet food?
I totally agree with you on this!! I drink the low fat or non fat and I also find the whole milk too sweet and thick. 
