It was a hot day and I found myself grocery shopping. When I am with my girls, even when they are behaving themselves, I employ the "get in, get out" strategy: Take a grocery list, shop the perimeter, placate with a bagel when necessary, pay for the food and get out of the store. It was a hot day, so the three of us lingered, a little too long, in the frozen food section. We needed waffles, and I noticed some Cool Whip Free. Imagining I could use it to concoct some kind of healthy, low fat frozen dessert, I tossed some into my shopping cart.
When I got home and read the ingredients, I had to ask the question "Cool Whip Free? Free of what?" Cool Whip Free may be low in carbs and low in calories, but it is not free of a few things I try to avoid. The top four ingredients are: water, corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable (coconut and palm kernel oils), and high fructose corn syrup.
The first ingredient is water. Fine. I have no problem with water. It only makes sense that a "lite" dessert topping would be made from something with no calories, but let us not forget that water really has no flavor. It is the next three ingredients added to the water that make me shudder. I love the fact that regular corn syrup is not enough to sweeten this dessert topping, that high fructose corn syrup was needed as well.
My favorite touch, however, is the asterisks Kraft added to the right of the ingredient "partially hydrogenated oil." The asterisk leads me to a little informational gem of a footnote that reads, "Adds a negligible amount of fat." Thanks, Kraft I feel so much better about the fact that you can use partially hydrogenated oil, keep the amount per serving to below 0.5 gram, and still claim your product is trans fat free.
Needless to say, once I read the ingredients of Cool Whip Free, I made myself free of it. I tossed it without even opening it. That night, for dessert we had fresh berries for dessert. Just berries, free of any high fructose corn syrup and trans fats. They were delicious!!!!
Minnetonka
J Taylor
Gambini
I'd have done the same thing.
1Some things should be forbidden to use in food. Or should be labelled with a big warning sign.
*sigh*
ugh! I noticed the same thing not too long ago also! I'd been eating it with fruits to satisfy my sweet tooth...but then I happened to take a look at the nutrition label one day and saw the "partially hydrogenated oil" part. No trans fats for me! Plus, I've been making an effort to not eat anything with high fructose corn syrup (do you know how HARD it is to find bread without HFCS? it's insane!).
2I had to throw it out (sadly) and am now having my fruit with some plain yogurt that I mix with a little sweetener and vanilla extract. It's yummier anyway.
I'm vaguely curious about why anyone would want to eat CoolWhip at all, "Free" or not. Horrible stuff.
I figure if you're gonna do something wrong, do it right, since most of these "healthy" substitutes (CoolWhip, MiracleWhip, margarine, sucralose, etc.) are worse for you than the original. ~licks whipped cream off fingers~
3The artificial sweeteners in products like this are terrible for you! Yuck!
4I love cool whip.
5Interesting. Someone once told me never to buy anything 'totally free' (like fat free), that those foods have something in them bad for your heart, even worse than the full fat kinds. So I either buy reduced or the real version. Thanks for bringing this to our attention though!
6I agree, CamillaCat! All these super modified products that have no sugar but are still sweet or 'no fat' but have some other thing in it to help with the texture. Its all just chemicals, and that's not very healthy either.
Also, Fit, I'm surprised!! You should have just returned it!
7Yes stardelice, I was a bit rash. I guess I thought I was really making a symbolic statement - in my own kitchen that no one really saw.
8Fit, your so funny. Make your statement, girl! That's why we're here, so that someone can "see" what you did.
And thanks for sharing cuz I never check those things and I'm surely not going to purchase Cool Whip Free anytime soon.
9Ooh!
10I'd be pissed off too!
mmm sounds good
11Thank God someone finally noticed!! I am so sick of going on websites that claim to be "healthy" when all the people on them are concerned about is fat free this and low calorie that. They dont even realize or dont care that half of the low calorie things they are eating are ten times worse for them than if they ate the higher calorie stuff in moderation. Take skinny cow icecream novelties for instance. Everyone is raving about these things and how good they are for such little calories and fat, but like cool whip free, if you take a look at the ingredients you will find that they contain partially hydrogenated oil which is practically top on the list of the worst things you can put into your body!! So thank you again for pointing this out!!
12i didn't know cool whip free had those things in it! and it is really ridiculous how a food can be "fat free" if it has under 0.5g per serving. eat a few servings, and you've got some lovely trans fats. i did a speech on this (trans fats) last semester, actually.
13That stuff is vile. Bad!
14UGH! I've had this in my fridge for awhile- I occasionally use a dollop on top of yogurt as a dessert. Now I'll just have to toss mine, too!
15I am not very excited after reading the information about Cool Whip Free. I have been consuming enormous amounts of Cool Whip Free with my sugar free Jello, thinking that I would be losing pounds while having a delicious almost calorie-free dessert. After reading your information about "my habit" I have decided to give up the delicious topping for a week to see if I shed any pounds. If your comments about the Kraft product are accurate, and I notice a slight weight loss, I will know the information is indeed true and will have to give it up for good "much to my dismay" I will let you know what happens in about one week.
16lets boycott Cook Whip.
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