Low-Fat

As I've mentioned earlier, I rarely check food labels.  When I started rethinking my relationship with food this summer, I  neglected to pay attention to two important types of food: condiments and coffee creamer. (Condiments are still a work in progress).
For the past year or two, I've purchased Garelick Farms Non-Fat Half and Half.  I briefly questioned how half and half could be non-fat, but I never paid much attention to it.  I simply poured it in my morning cup of coffee and assumed non-fat = healthier for me, especially since it only had 20 calories per serving, where other creamers I saw had close to double.  And if I wanted to lose weight, my old mentality said I had to cut calories.  That's what nutritionists and magazines said, right?  Fat was the fad enemy of the day.
In my new quest to figure out how to eat well, I've realized that low-fat translates to higher amounts of additives in my food.  I'm also learning to love fats, and make sure I have olive oil and other healthy fats every day.  But for some reason, I kept on buying the non-fat half and half.  Old habits die hard, and I never thought much of it.
After picking up Food Rules, I saw that Rule #9 warns us to avoid foods that are low-fat or non-fat in nature.  Why?  It comes as no surprise, but these foods are chock-full of carbs, sugars, and salt to make sure these foods still taste good without fat.  And that means we consume more and gain weight.
But would lite half and half have sugar and salt?  Last week, I would have proclaimed, "no!"  But as a new saavy food consumer, I had a lightbulb moment: I went to my fridge to read the label of one of my staple products.

Corn syrup?  Artificial color?  Words I can't pronounce?  What was I putting in my body?  Garelick advertises the non-fat half and half as "delightfully delicious and good for your waistline, too."  How?  Disappointed, I ran back out to the grocery store and bought this instead:

And the most important part:

No sugar.  And ingredients I know and love.  And that I can pronounce (Pollan's Rule #7).  And it tastes great in my morning brew.  A win-win situation.

It's all about making small changes that are right for me, and I like Pollan's rules as guidelines for eating. Much of what he says seems like it should be common sense, but when you're used to eating a certain way for years, it's not always intuitive.

Have you swapped out any foods lately?