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Low calorie
This is the original term for diet foods, also called "diet" or "light". It indicates that a food has lower number of calories than the regular version of the same food.
For example, low calorie potato chips, when compared to regular potato chips, have lower calories per unit.
The "per unit" is a very important fact to consider because you have to compare apples to apples. If the regular food has, for example, 100 calories per every 4 ounces and the diet or low calorie version has 70 calories per every 3 ounces you can not just look at the numbers and say that the diet version is really great because it has 30% less calories. Manufactures sometimes play these tricks and make it confusing for those of us who are arithmetically challenged. In the previous example we can do the following calculations:
100 calories per 4 ounces = 25 calories per ounce
70 calories per 3 ounces = 23.33 calories per ounce
If you are going to eat 3 ounces, the difference in total calories is in reality very small. Some people think that if the food is low calorie they can eat a lot of it. This, as shown in the example, is not the case.
Low fat
and Fat free
Foods
Low carb or low carbohydrates
and net carbs
Which is better?
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