From my first WW meeting in 1974 (I was 8), I associate weight loss clubs with talking about "fake" foods. Even in my TOPS meeting, a good part of the meeting is on "food finds," some of them diet "frankenfoods," but, at least it seems that in recent years, the balance has been shifting from 95% "imitation" diet products to more of a balance between manmade and natural foods being discussed.
I'm not a whole foods purist by any definition, but I do favor quality over quantity, and have a "more often than not," progress over perfection, philosophy. I do have some "barely" foods that I do keep on hand, and eat occasionally, but I'm not going to pretend that sugar free jello or mayo/salad dressings are "health foods," (regardless of any one particular ingredient).
If I ate a lot of mayo, I'd probably be more concerned with some preservative and filler ingredients, but at a tablespoon or two a week, I'm not too worried about it. I do know how to make homemade "real" mayonaise from egg yolk and heart-healthy oil, but for two tablespoons a week, I'll sacrifice nutrion/quality for convenience/shelf-life.
When I was growing up, my mom and dad were Miracle Whip fanatics. But they always called it mayonnaise, and I detested it. I thought Miracle Whip was the brand name of mayonnaise, like Jello is for gelatin. Anyway, so I hated this mayonnaise/miracle whip stuff, Just, blech. Seriously. a deal breaker for me. Put a smidge of Miracle Whip on the most beautiful sandwich ever, I will toss it in the trash and not even think twice.
So I was always convinced I hated mayo until I went to Burger King and got a chicken sandwich once and was raving about this white sauce they mixed. A girlfriend said, All I ever get is mayonnaise. What are you ordering??? So I checked and sure enough, it was mayonnaise. I was about 19! I felt so stupid.
But now I LOVE it and buy it, althouugh I'm like luvja, it has to be on toasted hamburger buns, bread, (toasted BLTs especially) I don't care for it much on regular bread. Since I'm low carb, regular fat mayo is encouraged. I've tried the olive oil, but I always end up going back to Hellman's. Can't beat it!
Miracle Whip is way too sweet for me. I don't "hate it" with the passion that my mother does, but I much prefer Hellman's/Best Foods mayonaise. I know that Kroger mayonaise, at least at one time, was Hellman's (the label said made by Best Foods for Kroger, or something like that), and I wonder if Aldi's brand isn't (if not, it's pretty close).
Grew up with Miracle Whip. Never could tell the difference. Except that Mayo always looks yellow. As far as I'm concerned they're the same thing.
OMG! Mom? is that you? My mom swears they are the exact same thing, but to me, Miracle Whip is waaaay too sweet and I don't understand how she can't taste the difference. It's white, and sort of the same texture, and that's about it. Even a hint of Miracle whip on a sandwich, or in devilled egs, or tuna salad will end up with the food in the garbage. It is only fit for that one time when you get your ring stuck on your finger and the butter isn't soft enough to smear all over your hand and you're starting to panic so you get into your husband's Miracle Whip and just stick your entire hand in the jar and HALLELUJAH it works!! It works!! And you feel a little teeny bit guilty about hating miracle whip when it obviously performed a miracle but not enough to, you know, EAT it on anything.
But I will lick the mayo off the wrapper of a burger or chicken sandwich. Yes, I admitted to that.
mmm- mayo. i try to limit it to one little squirt out of the bottle. less then a tablespoon. my fave for sandwiches of any kind is smashed up avocado mixed w/ about a teaspoon or so of mayo to make it more spreadable. yum!!
I was at the store the other day and ran across something unusual that I'd never heard of before. I don't know if it is new or what. Heinz Salad Cream. It claims to have half the fat of mayo and be pourable (due to the water, I'm sure). Has anyone tried this?
I've seen it in import shops before. I think it's common in other countries.
I was thinking it looked "English." Perhaps because it wasn't with the regular stuff, and was with some other canned and bottled things that were quite unusual, but not unheard of.
Anglophile that I am, I tried the Heinz Salad Cream once myself (some of the big supermarkets around here have it in the import sections: now if they'd only get curry sauce again ...): AFAICT it's just the Brit equivalent of Miracle Whip, I didn't notice any difference between the two in consistency (I didn't think it was more pourable than MW, even though it comes in a squeezy bottle rather than a wide-mouth jar) or taste. My mom used to get MW when I was a kid, and still mostly does, so I grew up with it and when I had mayo on a sandwich I didn't like the mayo; later on I did develop more of a taste for real mayo and lost the taste for MW. Now I guess I don't care either way, but I don't put either one on sandwiches, just use them as a filler for pasta salad or tuna salad. I should take the advice of some of you and throw in a little plain fat-free yogurt: darn, our local supermarket was getting Greek-style 'gurt for a while, I like that, but they didn't have it last time I was there
(Never liked mayo, still don't 
)
I felt so stupid. 
