What are two words which should never preface “diet?” Fast food. Yet that is exactly what Taco Bell has recently created. They call it the “Drive-thru Diet.”
It’s really funny they’re even calling it a diet, at least in the sense of popular usage. Any sort of meal plan one has is a “diet,” but of course when we hear that word in America, we instantly equate it with weight loss.
Taco Bell’s infomercials tell you how much better their “fresco” items are for you than regular fast food items. They also tell the story of Christine Dougherty, who lost 54 pounds by eating these items. However, the fine print at the bottom of the ad uses phrases such as “Not a low calorie food” and “This is not a weight loss program.”
It even says that Christine’s success is due to reducing her caloric intake to 1250 calories per day (remember that 2000 calories per day is considered “normal”). It took her two years to lose this weight! In the commercial she says she lost two pounds a month, that’s not much at all. If she had exercised in any way she could have lost it much more quickly.
It’s highly unlikely Taco Bell food caused Dougherty to lose weight. Robert Keith, professor of nutrition and food science at Auburn University, said in a CNN article, “The idea is, you eat less calories. [The Taco Bell ads] don’t dwell on the fact she didn’t eat many calories. The bottom line is, she lost weight because she didn’t eat a whole lot.”
The registered dietitian in the Taco Bell commercials, Ruth Carey, goes on and on about the little things – reducing caloric intake, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, skim milk instead of whole, etc. Yet these ads encourage people to drive instead of exercising, which is where a real difference will come.
Joan Blake, nutrition professor at Boston University, had a great comment in the CNN article, and I thought the same thing as I watched the Taco Bell ads.
“It’s the Drive-Thru Diet. That’s what I think is funny . One of the issues perpetuating weight problems is that we’re more sedentary than ever. We shouldn’t be going to the drive-through. At least park the car and walk in and get it,” Blake said.
In fact, the commercial states if you don’t have a car you should hire a chauffeur with all the money you’re saving by buying cheap fast food. Seriously? What is our culture coming to? Sure, they mention exercise in the ad, but it seems as if that’s to prevent getting sued and not because they are actually encouraging Americans to get healthy.
The ad “hits the streets” to ask people what they think of the new fresco items. But underneath each new person they ask, it says “paid actor.” I’m pretty sure I would say the food was delicious if I was getting paid! What does that tell me about what real people think about it?
The items may have fewer calories and fat grams than normal Taco Bell food, but that does NOT mean they are healthy. The items are loaded with saturated fat (between 30 and 40 percent of the total fat grams) and some of them have as much as 60 percent of the daily recommended amount of sodium in one item!
So despite whether they are tasty or not, or have less calories, I think I’ll continue limiting the amount of times I eat fast food every month instead of indulging in this new-fangled fast food diet. Don’t buy advertising lies: Living off fast food, low-cal or not, is not good for the body, even if it makes you happy.
Hannah Kaase is a senior majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected].