Conscientious Hosts, Dieters Get Caterer’s Recipe for Guilt-Free Parties : Low-fat: Washington woman serves lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and baked pita chips for dipping. She never uses processed meats and everything is high in complex carbohydrates.

When you’re dieting, there’s nothing fun about going to a party only to spend the evening denying yourself the fattening goodies at the table.

Potato chips, wieners wrapped in pastry, cheese and cracker trays.

Caterer Robyn Webb is here to change all that.

Of the more than 200 caterers in the party-intensive Washington area, she seems to be the only one serving exclusively low-fat foods.

“We’re going to give you the energy you need without the fat,” said Webb who operates Pinch of Thyme catering in Alexandria, Va.

She serves lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and baked pita chips for dipping. The only fat in her chicken specialties is that in the chicken itself. She limits the cheese on her pizza squares to a sprinkling of Parmesan.

She never uses processed meats. Everything is high in complex carbohydrates.

The food is much more satisfying than ordinary party food, she said. “These things are going to fill you up. Potato chips do not.”

A recent party for 1,100 catered by Webb featured four large buffet tables of cold and hot hors d’oeuvres from which guests could spend an entire evening grazing and consume less than 30 grams of fat.

Nutritionists say someone on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, should consume no more than 67 grams of fat a day. You can easily gobble up 66 grams of fat with just one large handful of peanuts.

“Two hot dogs in a blanket, that’s 13 grams,” said Webb. “A handful of potato chips that’s another 10 grams.”

Just one little cube of cheese from the typical party platter contains about 9 grams of fat.

“This is one good example that more and more help is coming along the way and you don’t have to feel uncomfortable” when you’re dieting, said Mary Melnyk, a nutritionist for Weight Watchers International Inc.

Webb’s fascination with nutrition began young when she was in Upstate New York and a “health food” craze was sweeping the country.

“I was intrigued by the idea,” she said. “I started baking. I got into healthy breads.”

She said she’d always struggled with weight, “even in college when I was studying nutrition, I was going up and down.”

About a year and a half ago, she began nutritional counseling and opened a low-fat cooking school in Alexandria. The classes filled up quickly. Many others told her that they wouldn’t use the classes because they didn’t cook, but they did give parties.

That’s when she added catering.