I don't eat either the real or the *watered down* version of many foods. I don't eat real or fake butter. I don't eat real or fake sour cream. I don't eat real or fake cheese. I don't eat real or fake mayonnaise.

Ahh, wait there are a couple of exceptions. I do eat a tsp of parmesean cheese. I haven't in ages, but I every now and then make cole slow, using a dollop or two of low fat mayo.

I do eat fake sugar though. Daily. Several times a day in fact.

I don't eat low fat or altered foods at all. The more they alter an original food product, the more they use fillers and substitutes are are less healthy and frankly, taste bad. Real food, as is, is the only food I will eat. I agree, the calorie difference is often minimal. I also disagree with the concept of eating more because we "think" it contains less.

Real food has a satiety and satisfaction component that altered food does not. Something to consider. Learning to eat less overall is more important in my book for permanent weight control.

Why shame? It's a chemical that happen to be very sweet. It is a combination of two amino acids that are both extremely common in all kinds of food. I think a lot of people have all this guilt/shame about being fat, and that being fat is some how a punishment for the sin of liking food. If that's the logic, aspartame or splenda are "bad" because they are cheating--getting sweet without paying the cost. But nothing is good or bad, it's ALL just chemicals and biology.

So yeah, I think it's AWESOME that I can have sweet, calorie-free coffee. Nothing to be ashamed of.

The shame is not in the drinking of the diet soda. I figure we all have to have at least that one thing, and diet soda is mine. NO guilt in drinking it. The shame is that I was the original poster of the "I don't like the fake stuff" thread, and had to qualify it. LOL

Man Robin, more power to ya, lady! I won't say I can't do without cheese, butter, and sour cream, but I do very much enjoy the stuff, and I would absolutely not give it up completely unless I had to. If I can make it fit, its goin in!