Raise your hand if you’ve ever been on any type of restrictive eating plan (aka, diet) where sugar free, fat free pudding or flavored gelatin was your main source of dessert.
Yes, my hand is up.
Not recently though. Over the past couple years whenever eating this lackluster sweet, I could immediately tell I’d eaten the chemicals.
Speaking of chemicals, is there any actual food in this stuff?
For those who may not know gelatin is made from collagen which is in animal connective tissue. I remember the day I learned this in one of my nutrition classes. I was a bit grossed out.
Connective tissue? Yum, bring on dessert!
I guess one could stretch that technically this is a natural ingredient despite the face that it is processed. It is just all the other stuff in there. Flavors, colors, and in the fat and sugar free versions, aspartame or similar sweeteners. The fat and sugar free pudding is similar as far as chemical sweeteners go.
A dessert filled with this stuff usually leaves me with a headache and feelings of sluggishness. I think it is mainly from the over consumption of aspartame.
If you think about all the desserts boxed pudding and gelatin are used for, it is usually an excess amount of the stuff. Not only do you use the pudding mix, but sugar free, fat free whipped topping as well. Too much!
I continue to be amazed how as a society we’ve accepted these foods as healthy or diet friendly. I am a believer that you are better off eating a homemade cookie or piece cake with real ingredients than a spoonful of chemicals.
No doubt this stuff has some staying power. Although in the beginning it wasn’t there to be diet food, it was more there for convenience. I learned when I read Something From the Oven that cookbooks throughout history are filled with gelatin desserts from boxed mixes.
Then the non-fat, non-sugar versions came out and it was instant low calorie, health food.
I’m guilty of indulging in a gelatin dessert and a pudding cup in the past. Speaking of this did you see the Sex and the City movie? I was just able to see it on the flight back from Ireland. I loved the part where Charlotte would only eat pudding cups in Mexico. Too funny!
Anyway, this is one of those foods that was relatively easy for me to give up. Not nearly as difficult as diet soda! However, I do think I’ve kicked the diet soda habit except for my occasional cocktail. I’m having a hard time parting with it as a mixer.
Photo by Seemann, www.morguefile.com
Painful admission time – I LOVE jello! But we have it very, very rarely. I like to take unflavored gelatin and add fruit juice and berries for dessert, but I also still love the nasty Jello. What can I say? I’m a work in progress.
I learned all about gelatin when I was just a kid. Since then, I just can’t eat it. Animal collagen?!?
Oh, I have to jump on that bit at the end about diet soda as a mixer. I struggle with that one, too.
laura at eatingwellanywhere.com
I love jello and instant pudding. Despite the chemicals and additives and nasty stuff. Sigh. I used to have sugar-free jello or pudding almost every night. These days it’s a rarity (thank goodness!), but I still have a weak spot for them. lol.
cathy – It is okay, as long as you aren’t eating because you are on a diet. Ha, ha! Oh, I have plenty ‘can’t seem to give up’ foods too. 😉
ashley – I had a hard time with marshmallows when I found out they were made from gelatin. I really freaked my 15 year old niece and her friends out with that one when we were having smores this summer!
laura – There just isn’t much else rum goes well with. Well, maybe a pina colada, but at that point you’ve really blown any concern for a healthy drink. Ha!
jenn – I have to admit the jello pudding cups are really tasty. There are actually quite a few desserts I do like with the pudding, just not the aspartame. Well, at least it isn’t high in calorie. 🙂
I don’t like jello….yay! Great post! I like your site!
Hi Mark, Found yours through cathy’s. Enjoyed the links today!