All American foods get sort-of healthy makeovers

Summertime makes me crave some of those all-American foods we all love: apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, potato salad and root beer floats, just to name a few.

If your cookouts aren't complete without these classics, check out WebMD before you cook. They have tips on how to lighten up chocolate chip cookies, apple pie and cornbread, just to name a few.

They also have recipes for baked potato chips, potato salad, Waldorf salad and others you may like.

Would I eat any of these "lightened" versions? Personally, not a chance.Low fat to me does not mean healthy, and I would never use margarine in my cooking, transfats or not. And low fat cheese is not a food, honestly. Now, if they had substituted butter with virgin palm or coconut oil, or organic cultured butter, you'd have me. Or even replaced part of the fat in the recipe with a whole food, like applesauce or banana. And how about raw cheese from grass-fed cows? That'd get my vote.

They do have one good idea, though, and that is cutting the amount of sugar in the recipes for baked goods. I do that in all of my recipes and they actually taste better.

They still may not be the healthiest foods you can eat, but if you have a hankering for some of these foods that say "America" to most of us, these versions are probably better than the traditional recipe you may be using.