PIECEACAKE.

Navigating the Pastry Aisle

Entenmann's Fat Free Pies? Gone. SnackWell's Reduced Fat Pies? Adios. Sara Lee Free & Light Pound Cake? Finito.

There's been a shakeout in the cake and pie aisles at your local supermarket. In the mid-'90s, the shelves and freezer bins were brimming with "lite," "low-fat," and "fat-free" sweet baked goods. This year, we found only a dozen. What gives?

* No Free Lunch. Fat-free sweets were oversold. Ads implied that you could have your cake and eat it, too, as long as the cake was fat-free. Consumers loved the concept. Instead of nibbling on a modest slice of fatty cake or pie, they carved out a generous chunk (or two or three) of the fat-free variety.

Then reality hit. Fat-free on the label doesn't mean fat-free on your thighs, warned the media and the bathroom scale. Some people even got the impression that fat-free cakes had more sugar and more calories than their fatty counterparts. Wrong.

* Taste. Fat-free or low-fat cakes may taste extra sweet because fat masks the taste of sugar. In fact, most low-fat sweets have no more sugar or calories than their fat-filled cousins. But the sometimes-cloying sweetness didn't help sales.

* Indulgence is in. To hear the popular press tell it, the mid-'80s to mid-'90s was a decade of denial, when people rigidly adhered to low-fat diets. In fact, sales of low-fat foods may have soared, but fat intake didn't budge. Instead, calories climbed ... along with obesity rates.

Nevertheless, after what seemed like years of nutritional frugality, a backlash led consumers to crave indulgence. They might eat skinless chicken breast for dinner, but dessert is time to splurge.

The bottom line: You have to search high and low to find cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and ice cream cakes that won't deliver a big-burger's-worth of saturated or trans fat to your blood vessels. And that's for a portion you're more likely to see on an airline tray than at The Cheesecake Factory.

Arterial Assault

Most people think of dessert as a threat to their hips and waistline. It's often also an assault on their arteries. Cakes, cookies, pies, and other sweet baked goods are one of the largest sources of saturated fat in the average American's diet.

Take the imported panet-tones that show up in supermarkets this time of year. Most flavors may taste like a variation on raisin bread--not overly sweet or rich. But the butter and eggs give a typical serving about ten grams--half a day's--sat fat.

And sat fat is only part of the story. Sweets made with shortening, margarine, or partially hydrogenated oils--especially double-crust pies--are likely to have a load of trans fat.

We estimate that the trans could magnify the trouble these delicacies cause your blood vessels by anywhere from a quarter to more than double.

And then there's the sugar. Only soft drinks contribute more sugar to our diets than cakes, pies, cookies, etc. A typical sweet has anywhere from four to 12 teaspoons of total sugar. Some comes from fruit and milk, but most of it is sugar and corn syrup.

Between the sugars, white flour, and (sometimes) fat, you're left with several hundred largely empty calories that most Americans can't afford. That's why even fat-flee and low-fat sweets don't get a Best Bite.

What's Left?

A modest slice of our Better Bites had no more than 20 grams of sugar (five teaspoons) and eight grams of fat (no more than two of them saturated).

Here's a rundown of the best of the bunch ... and how they compare to the worst.

* Cakes. Most of Entenmann's Light line is fat-free, even though "light" usually means half the fat. It's easy to see how Entenmann's Lights survived: they taste awfully good. Our favorites were the Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake and the Cheese Filled Crumb Coffee Cake. Both have non-fat baker's cheese, which supplies some calcium and cuts the sweetness.

* Cheesecakes, etc. Regular cheesecake may taste divine, but it comes at a price: half a day's sat fat for a deck-of-cards-sized slice of most brands. That's why you may want to check out David Glass Incredible Reduced Fat Chocolate Truffle Cake.

A four-ounce slice has four grams of saturated fat--twice our limit for a Better Bite. But if you're looking for something with a luscious, gourmet flavor, you could do a lot worse. (David's Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake, for example, has 12 grams of sat fat.)

* Ice Cream Cakes. A diminutive two-ounce slice of Breyers Triple Chocolate Viennetta, which you can conveniently buy at the supermarket, will deposit nine grams of saturated fat in the arteries that nourish your heart. Most Carvel ice cream cakes aren't far behind.

No Better Bites here ... unless you make your own. At Baskin-Robbins and Carvel, you can get your cake made with low-fat ice cream. That will save you up to nine grams of fat--five of them saturated--at least at Carvel (Baskin-Robbins has no numbers).

To its credit, Dairy Queen starts with reduced-fat ice cream for all of its cakes. Just watch out for the fatty candy that most chains are happy to sprinkle over each item (as if an inch of frosting weren't enough).

* Pies. To your heart, a slice of Mrs. Smith's Restaurant Classics Peanut Butter Silk Pie or French Silk Chocolate Pie looks like a 12-ounce New York strip steak. "Restaurant Classics" must mean "extra hydrogenated palm kernel oil," since it's listed several times in the ingredient list. Palm kernel oil, even non-hydrogenated, is more than twice as saturated as lard.

Solution: Natural Feast's fantastic frozen pies are made with only non-hydrogenated oils and an abundance of flavorful fruit. You can get them mail order (508-785-1466) if your local stores don't carry them.

Other winners: Mrs. Smith's Hearty Pumpkin and Pumpkin Custard Pies have less fat than most pies, and each scrumptious serving supplies a day's worth of vitamin A from the carotenoids in pumpkin.

The information for this article was compiled by Jackie Adriano.