Healthy food or comfort food? That's often the choice at this time of year when the New Year, New You diet has worn thin (worn fat, actually) and yet, as the dreary weather continues, we yearn for a bit of comforting stodge.

We all know the answer is healthy home-cooked food with lots of fruit and veg but supermarkets are tempting us.

They all have their so-called Healthy Eating ranges - Count On Us, Good For You, Be Good To Yourself. The idea is, not only will they do the cooking for you, but count the calories and the grams of fat as well.

The other recent revolution is the sudden spate of low calorie/fat versions of our favourite comfort foods. How can you maintain a diet of cottage cheese when the weather's so miserable or the boss has been rotten to you?

Your body yearns for the comfort of calories.

But now there are even low cal versions of sausage and mash, Yorkshire puddings - even suet dumplings.

Too good to be true? We put them to the test.

GOOD NEWS

* Portions have got bigger. In the past, low calorie foods were only less fattening than other versions because they were much smaller. This was counter productive - after your slimline curry or whatever, you were still so hungry that you needed a great chunk of bread and butter to fill up.

* Meals are much more varied. All sorts of interesting things are on offer, often with more choice than in the main ready-meal section.

* They've allowed for your weaknesses - there are puddings, cakes and biscuits in the ranges too. There's a limit to how often a girl can finish a meal with just a nice healthy apple.

BAD NEWS

* There are other ways of being unhealthy and many ranges have a high salt content.

* Low fat is not the same as low calorie. A tiny little sponge pudding may be less than four per cent fat but can be full of sugar and be nearly 300 calories.

* All things are comparative. Asda's Good For You! Peppercorn Beef, for instance, while boasting that it has 'less than five per cent fat', still has 19 grams of fat and more than 1,000 calories, which seems a lot in a 400g pack.

LABELLING

* In some ways this was very good. As well as the ingredients, fat content, and so on, most highlighted quite clearly whether the pack contained wheat, gluten or dairy products - useful for those increasing numbers of people with food intolerances.

All the packs gave all the information you need. The difference was in how this was presented. Marks & Spencer and Tesco gave large clear details on the front - amount of fat, number of calories, whether it was for one or two.

BEST RANGE

* Marks & Spencer Count On Us was the clear winner - terrific range, clearly labelled, markedly lower in fat and calories than other ranges, and yet it tasted like proper food.

Our special favourites were the Vegetable Casserole and Dumplings (two reasonably generous portions per pack, 170 calories, two per cent fat per portion)at £1.99 and their Steak and Vegetable Yorkshire Puddings (£2.49 for two, less than three per cent fat, 185 calories per pudding) because when you've come in, soaked to the skin, there's only stodge that will sort it out.

WORTH TRYING

* Tesco's Cajun Chicken and Potato Hash, Asda's Liver and Bacon with Mash, Sainsbury's Vegetable Chilli and Rice, Safeways Beef Stew and Dumplings, most of the sausage and mash offerings and the little sponge puddings, which are a sweet treat - but forget the custard.

Remember, ready meals are just meant to make life easier, and they can do that. But they are not the complete solution. If you want to eat more healthily, you should also be relying much more on simple things like lots of fresh fruit and veg, grilled fish and lean meat.

Researchers have found that dieters often consume more calories when they're eating ready prepared "healthy" meals. Because the meals have less fat or fewer calories, they feel that it's alright to eat more of them... so be careful.

Published: 15/02/02