Cutting Fat and Calories by Using Cooking Sprays

by Shereen Jegtvig

With obesity becoming a major health problem, it’s good to look for ways to cut calories – every little bit counts.  One way to reduce the calories and total fat in your diet is to use cooking sprays instead of oil or butter when you cook.  These cooking sprays work great for coating pans and bakeware without adding extra calories because you’re able to use just a thin layer of the product on your cookware.

How Cooking Sprays Work
Cooking sprays combine a small amount of oil with an emulsifier (usually soy lecithin) and a propellant.  You simply spray the product onto your cookware.  Some brands contain small amounts of silicone-based materials that appear to be harmless when ingested in these small amounts; however I don’t think they have the greatest flavor.  Many also contain preservatives and even some artificial flavorings.  The best cooking sprays keep the ingredients list short – only an oil, lecithin and a propellant. 

You can take a look at many different cook sprays on our FoodEssentials list and compare for presence of preservatives and flavor enhancers, and other ingredients. For example:

You see that Pam and other brands contain various preservatives you may not want.  By using our FoodEssentials tool, you can sort out the good from the not-so-good and make better choices at the grocery store.

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