Low-fat zero nutrition Angel-food cake
Spoiler! Food Rant Ahead!
Seriously, it’s not my intention to insult anyone, really. But what’s up with Angel-Food Cake? Back in the day, when my dad considered going on a low-cholesterol diet because it was all the rage, my mom began baking Angel-Food Cakes. Ewwwww. Us kids tore the cake into pieces, squished the pieces into little balls, and fed them to the fish in the nearby pond. The cake tasted like sugary egg whites, you know, like merengue, another sugary egg white food-type substance I hate. Oooh, it reminded me of cotton candy, which I also hate. Has about as much nutrition as cotton candy too.
Spun sugar, otherwise known as cotton candy.
(I’m not much for dislike. When it comes to food I’m more into love and hate.)
Give me chocolate cake any day. At least banana bread or an apple cake - something with flavor and substance.
Okay so here’s the thing - you don’t want to get fat, right? So you think you should watch your calories and fat intake, right? So instead of eating a piece of what you really want, you bake or buy something you hate and force yourself to eat that and then you feel totally dissatisfied and you binge on what you think you shouldn’t be eating. Follow me?
I think you should eat what you want in moderation as part of a balanced diet, a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and quality protein. Look, most of us want to reserve a certain number of calories for sweets, so let’s make ‘em good sweets. Let’s make those sweets count - if we’re gonna eat fat and sugar calories then by god those calories should be satisfying. Trying to substitute something unsatisfying for what we really want never ever works. It’s a recipe for failure.
I’m targeting Angel-Food Cake for a reason. I recently watched a program on diet and weight control - because nutrition is one of my interests. Among other things, the ‘expert’ explained that instead of eating the gooey chocolate brownie we really want, we should eat Angel-Food Cake.
Uh-huh, like the two are equivalent.
She said, instead of the delicious high fat burrito we really want — as in a chili relleno burrito from Via Corona here in Napa — we could eat a whole bunch of other stuff, like fat-free broccoli salad with low carb pasta and baked whole grain tortilla chips with fat-free humus (which is a crock because talk about your empty calories… low-carb pasta and baked whole grain tortilla chips- bah humbug) and carrot and celery sticks…
Hey, I’m big on carrot and celery sticks. Really, I am. I like to dip them in my full-fat humus. I’m a big fan of celery because I love crunchy stuff. But on the days I want a burrito, I want a burrito. If I try to substitute some low-fat shit I’m still gonna crave the burrito on top of the low-fat shit. The trick is not to eat a chili relleno burrito every damn day. I might eat one 3-4 times a year. Even if I ate a chili relleno burrito from Via Corona once a month it wouldn’t kill me.
So back to the Angel-Food Cake. If you like Angel-Food Cake, by all means dig in. But if you think substituting Angel-Food Cake for the dessert you really want is a good idea- you’re doing the worst thing possible - eating a dessert that is high in sugar and high in processed carbs (white flour) and nothing else. You might as well shove a half-cup of sugar into your mouth for all benefit you’ll get from that Angel-Food Cake. It’s very high on the glycemic index.
Food science has moved beyond low fat. Low-fat does not equal good health and a lean body.
