Weight Watchers Foods: Contain Trans Fat?
Weight Watchers Australia has come under criticism for using hydrogenated vegetable oils in its branded dessert foods. Please note that this applies to mousse and custard products only in Australia and New Zealand.
This issue of "diet" food is an interesting one. The Weight Watchers plan (which is arguably one of the most respected weight loss programs) does not require any "special" foods.
So why the need for branded foods?
Weight Watchers relies on the "Points" system - whereby certain nutritional components of a food are aggregated into a single value: the number of points. Ready-made branded foods have the points value listed on the box - so presumably this makes shopping slightly easier.
The desserts in question claim a "Health Benefit: 98% fat free and suitable for diabetics" (src) - and a points value of 1½.
One outspoken nutritionist - Rosemary Stanton - made these comments:
"Much of the world's population starves because they don't have the resources to feed themselves, whereas we produce these foods that have little or no nutritional value just so we can eat more. I really find it quite offensive.'' (src)
This is one of the most thought provoking comments I've read in a while... The things we do in order to stimulate our taste buds and yet still try to save a calorie here and there.
Stanton believes we are "better off making real chocolate mousse from eggs, chocolate, sugar and cream and sharing it with friends than eating 'fake' mousse from hydrogenated fat."
Do "diet foods" help us eat less?
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Of course "diet foods" help us eat less...calories and fat. Unfortunately what we should be striving for is to eat smaller portions of healthy foods like vegetables, fruits and lean proteins. And "diet foods" do nothing to help us in that regard.
ReplyI agree with Steve. I started getting my best weight loss results when I began to avoid processed food...anything that came in a box, bag or wrapper.
Brian
ReplyVery good Info and nice looking blog. Are you located in AU?
ReplyI think diet foods are great at what they are designed to do, which is making money for their manufacturers.
I've gone the route of avoiding "diet" foods and just eating smaller portions of what I like and getting a lot of exercise. It's working for me.
Replyexactly why I said portionpals was a great idea. Eat your own food - portionpal.com
ReplyActually, I'm quite of Stanton's advice. I will make sure to eat lean meats, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, the whole healthy way as much as I can, because there's no use fooling myself, and I very well know that I must be careful with what and how much I eat. For the rest of my life. But, on the other hand, on those occasions when I allow myself a treat, I've taken the decision that this treat might as well be *darn* good. No aspartame, no ersatz, no whatever to make it 'diet-like'. I WILL make sure to not bake/cook too much of it from the start, so that I'm not tempted to overeat (you can't overeat when there's nothing left of it, after all!), but I want it to be good. I want the luxury Belgian chocolate prepared one gram at a time that will cause ten chain-orgasms in my mouth. I want the homemade mousse that a whole group of friends will remember for a decade.
Keeping control and remembering to eat 'normal' portions is NOT easy, I'll be the first one to admit it. It's just that I know I can't allow myself to go more than the 90/10 road (or the 80/20, I tend to hover in-between), anyway... So when I get into my 10%, I want to enjoy them as much as possible, and cook my treats myself so that I know what's in them. Not jump on processed, not-even-that-good foods. I used to do it, but meh. Why not make it really worthy?
Though as a sidenote, I also agree that when you think of it, yes, it's a shame that we're able to find any kind of tricks to eat more and more of those unhealthy, empty calories-laden foods, when other people in other parts of the world may want to kill to lay their hands on something remotely nutritious. As a society, well, we kinda suck in that regard, don't we?
Replywhen i did first did weight watchers (about 7 years ago), i distinctly remember going to the meetings and the meeting leader stating over and over again that if you don't know the point value of a portion, don't eat it. it's good advice for their plan, but even better advice for WW's bottom line which is getting their followers to spend money on their pre-packaged foods with the points listed on them, which is exactly what i did. at work they had a blood pressure screening and my blood pressure was borderline high. i had never had high blood pressure like that in my life...and i was doing WW! when i looked back at my diary, sure enough, it was all of the pre-packaged WW meals i was eating. tons of sodium in those things. i stopped doing WW, my weight went up, and presto...my blood pressure went down. i know they have the sliding scale so you can find the point value of any food, and i know many people who lost an amazing amount of weight on WW, but i don't think it's the thing for me.
ReplyYou don't need cloyingly named expensive products like "Portion pals" to figure out the proper serving sizes of foods either. I think that's just another way for a company to make money off people trying to lose weight.
ReplyI agree with other posters. I have been making an effort to eat as many whole foods as possible. If I want a muffin, I make it from scratch with wholesome ingredients (i.e. whole grains, fruit etc.). If I want chocolate, I get a dark chocolate bar with high % of cocoa. I have found that my taste buds have changed to like these things much better than the junk I used to eat-I think diet foods just train us to like the odd sweetness and saltiness which then makes natural foods taste bland. This just leads us to eat more of the junk, which pads our backsides the junk food producers' coffers!
ReplySo I agree generally that "real" food is better than processed. And I hate when diet food includes particularly unhealthy ingredients like transfats or lots of sodium or whatever.
But just to be contrary, I do think there's a place for lower-calorie products. There are times when busy people need more options, and sure, ideally we'd eat home-cooked meals all the time, but sometimes, that's not the reality.
It's really a subjective thing, but sometimes a fakey processed diet product will actually taste fine to me. I'll eat a Skinny Cow dessert sometimes or microwave a lean cuisine for lunch (Spa brand, with whole grains & double veggies). I don't do it every day, but it's better than substituting another fake processed product with twice the calories, or an even junkier fast-food meal.
To each her own, I guess!
ReplyFrom Weight Watchers perspective? Money. To make food in large quantities is extremely cheap. A $4.99 meal probably costs $1 if that.
From the dieters perspective I think it relates to your previous post on how to feel about one-self. If I "talk myself" into feeling full with a serving of the meal, I think it is easier not to over eat.
Of course, but not because they are better made, have healthier ingredients, or contain less [put your negative food here]...I think it is all in our head. And, Weight Watchers, a business, knows this.
ReplyIn general, no.
But those Smart Ones desserts sure help me eat less. My problem with dessert has always been that I can't moderate myself. The little serving sizes those come in mean I eat only 140 Calories worth, instead of 4 times that much if I had made it by myself.
ReplyWell, at least Rosemary Stanton is no longer focusing on the metric system as the main cause of obesity in Australia!
ReplyActually, I saw some weight watchers right at my store, and they did contain partially hydrogenated oils.
Weight watcher dieters need to take aim at trans fats, cause they are bad for you no matter what amount you consume.
Instead, chose monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, along with a moderate amount of saturated fats, and some naturally occuring trans fats. Artificial hydrogenated trans fats = 100 percent poison.
ReplyWW are not alone. Lighter Life has put transfats into their products and you will find it in numerous other minor diet products. Infact the real paradox is that we know that man made trans fats are partly to blame for the obesity problem.
Actually this is really a case of clear negligence by the food industry..makes you think about tobacco wars all over again.
ReplyI once made waffles with unrefined wheat flour, skim milk, olive oil and fructose. So, they were still waffles, and everybody thought me crazy for my ingredients choice anyway, but those were the best waffles I've ever eaten--and they were so filling that you seriously could not eat many of them.
ReplyWeight Watchers (US) products have high fructose corn syrup and other nasties hidden in their "low-calorie" products. Their Just 2 Points! bars list as their first three ingredients sugar, corn syrup, and fructose. This is the same company that advises you to limit your sugar intake. So I'm supposed to put Splenda (evil!) in my coffee, but eat a sugar-laden 2 points bar? That makes sense.
Despite the fact that I'm a paying member of WW, I find their (food) products and the means by which they sell them to be disgusting.
ReplyI make a pancake with egg, oats, whole-wheat flour, and either a mashed banana or cottage cheese for making it creamy and one of those is a delicious, satisfying meal.
ReplyIn defense of Weight Watchers, they have added their "Core" program here in the U.S., wherein the member can choose to eat "whole" (unprocessed) foods and not even count points (you do have to know how big a serving is though). So those following the Core plan don't even eat the WW products. I feel the WW products do have a place - for instance, I tend to crave ice cream in the summer, and their 1-point fudgsicle bars are darn good and a lot fewer points than Haagen Dasz or Ben & Jerry's. But overall I skip their products because their health credentials are often seriously lacking. Things like Lean Cuisine are just as tasty and you can figure out the points values using the scale tool WW gives you.
ReplyI recently dropped my membership at Weight Watchers because our leader told us WW stopped using trans fats in their products two years ago. That is absolutely false. They use hydrogenated oils in many of their frozen entres including their desserts. I think it's a much wiser choice to make your own muffins and desserts than to risk heart disease from these products.
ReplyI have been doing the weight watcher program for about 30 weeks. I have lost 68 pounds. I only eat the smart ones meal every once in awhile and I enjoy a skinny cow everynight. I cook dinner nightly and I cook foods that I like. It sure beats the heck out of hitting Jack-in-the-box 2-3 times a weeks for dinner. Using the point system from Weight Watchers works. Just put together your own meals and stay away from their box stuff.
ReplyThis seems to be a lot of hot air about nothing. I've rejoined Weight Watchers lately and am on the Core Plan - which is fantastic - and I think the program is just as great as last time. I love the snacks and keep a good stock in the cupboard. Because if I'm not eating those - I'd be eating the school chocolates at work or goodness knows what else. Anyway, I've only got 21 points a week to spend on chocolate, chips and alcohol so, in my book, that's not a bad ration. Let's face it, people who are eating diet snacks are eating them instead of ordinary snacks - and that's got to be better. It's all very well for the perfect people out there to be advocating a snack free life or whipping up your own nutritional mousse's and desserts but we who live in the not perfect world are more than happy to grab a packet of something at the supermarket if it's going to help us stay on track.
Reply