Mexican grilled corn aka elote is a fun snack with a lot of nutrition, mostly from the corn. This health organization decided to modify the typical recipe for elote to be "healthier."
This reminds me sadly of Junk Food Flip, the Food Network show where Bobby Deen and Nikki Dinki try to match recipes of successful fast food dishes. They basically look for ways to cut fat and somehow compete with those dishes.
The original dishes were too much everything; the modified dishes removed a lot of flavor (fat). Some of the moves were clever but most were lame.
This "healthier" recipe doesn't try to replace the flavor lost in the low-fat mayonnaise and the no-fat yogurt. The 4 tablespoons of those products are matched up with 4 tablespoons of (presumably) full-fat cheese. Parmesan cheese is naturally lower in fat but doesn't have the flavor profile the dish actually needs.
You could lose the cheese and use some of that fat and flavor to use real mayonnaise and full-fat yogurt. You could keep the cheese, the real mayonnaise, the full-fat yogurt and only eat the elote every so often.
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People ate elote with real mayonnaise and full-fat yogurt until the anti-fat craze kicked into focus. Then we were supposed to cut fat because that made us fat. How well did that work out? Exactly.
You could reduce some fat naturally: in this recipe, you could reduce the total of mayo/yogurt from 12 teaspoons (4 tablespoons) to 10-11 teaspoons with a bit of water in the mixture. That would be sad, very sad. At least you wouldn't have to buy a separate mayonnaise and separate yogurt in your refrigerator.
Quality, full-fat products keep you satiated, fuller longer. Fat means flavor. We need fat to live.
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There are ways to reduce fat and be smarter about fat, like in those extreme fast food dishes. Adding spices is a way to add flavor without adding fat. Adding roasted red pepper to full-fat mayo gives a flavor boost so you don't need to add beyond what is called for in a recipe. Sandwiches with a thin layer of mayo: make sure that layer is truly thin.
Using low-fat or no-fat products is the lazy way, the "safe" way to be "healthier," whether that be a health organization or the adult son of a woman who specialized in obnoxiously high-fat dishes.
The better way is to teach people about the use of fat, the difference between olive oil and butter, why lard has advantages over shortening. Alton Brown does a better job of explaining that than the health "experts."
A health organization offering classes on how to treat fats is harder to do than to mention low-fat mayonnaise in a recipe. The classes would make more of an impact.
photo credits: Advocate Aurora Health; Good Eats/Food Network
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