Cooking Spray- REALLY???

I must confess that I used cooking spray for all of my cooking until I read about it in one of my nutrition books! I thought I was getting zero calories. WRONG. I thought it was better for me than straight olive oil.

This is a GREAT form of trickery. We are all aware that we have to be extra careful to look at “Serving Sizes”when we pick out foods and read food labels. It’s all good to look at a protein bar and see it has 150 calories and then eat the whole thing and realize that the whole bar was 2.5 servings??!! What??!!

Did you know that companies can lower the portion size to be small enough that one serving can show a trace amount of something (trans fats, for example) and show up as 0g on the label. My point? 0g does not always ACTUALLY mean 0g!

Here's my point- take a look at the label for your cooking spray. The first ingredient is probably Canola Oil. We know that Canola Oil has more than 0g of calories and fat. In fact, it’s pretty high in fat and calories, because, well…it’s a fat! (It’s a good fat, but it’s still a fat and thus high in calories and …fat!) So, how can the first ingredient be canola oil and the calories and fat be 0g?

Check out the amount of servings per container! 1812!!! If I used only one serving every morning for breakfast, this can would last me approximately 4.96 YEARS! Let’s say I used it for 3 meals a day at only one serving size…then, the can would last me 1.65 YEARS! Seriously?! How long does a can of non-stick spray last in your kitchen? Years? I think not.

Check out a serving size…1/4 second spray. Is it even humanly possible to hold down the sprayer for only a quarter of a second??!! Fun experiment, but no thanks. How do you cover an entire skillet, baking dish or cookie sheet with 1/4 second spray?! I personally timed myself this morning, (using the container I'm pulling this info from) measuring in whole seconds of course (I mean, really!) and was at least at 3 seconds for my pan....

Next point, take a look at some other ingredients in your spray…. (again I'm using mine as an example....)

• Capric/Caprylic Triglycerides
• Phosphated Mono & Diglycerides
• Calcium Stearate
• Silicon Dioxide
• Propellant

YUMMY!!! Can I have some……calcium stearate with a side of propellant, please? EW. Food additives = bad. I mean do you HONESTLY even know what all that stuff is? I sure as hell DO NOT.

What do we do then? Are we destined to have our food stick to our pans?

I use these Kitchen Spritzers from Pampered Chef. I have two. One for olive oil and water mixture. I dilute my olive oil with water. You just give it a quick shake and spray it on the pan! Vwalah! No food additives. No sticky food. No false sense of 0 calories or buying foods that are tricking you! (I hate that….must be a pride or principal thing.)And to boot you get a LOWER calorie serving of a fat you KNOW is natural and HEALTHY and digestible by your body...

Scary huh? Trust me, the more you know about what goes into your food the more scared you'll be- I'm beginning to think the age old saying "ignorance is bliss" MAY have truth to it!