How do you balance eating fewer calories with eating artificial sh*t?

I’ve always been of the belief that eating “low-fat” or “reduced calorie” foods does more harm than good. For instance, if you eat a small amount of whole-fat cheese, it’s better for you than eating more low-fat cheese because of the artificial shit that they pump into those kinds of foods to make them lower calorie, while keeping taste.

However, I recently switched to “light” ranch dressing for my salads and I’m kind of struggling with it.

So … serious question – how do you balance eating fewer calories with still trying to eliminate eating artificial shit?