The Twinkie Diet

Posted By elissa on Nov 14, 2010 | 5 comments

I suppose I’m probably the last health/fitness blogger to write about KSU Professor Mark Haub’s little weight loss experiment. The coverage has been practically nonstop, after all.

So why didn’t I discuss it last week, when it first hit the news?

To be honest, my initial thoughts were “so what?” From where I sit, there’s nothing the least bit radical about what he did. People have been losing weight on diets filled with highly refined/high sugar foods for a long time. Take the “Special K Challenge,” for example – how eating fortified, sugary bars and cereal differs from eating Twinkies + a protein shake + a multi is anyone’s guess. And Slim Fast… helloo?  Sugar accounts for a substantial number of the cals in those shakes and bars.

So in principle, Haub’s diet was no different from any number of other sub-optimal, low-cal plans that work perfectly well, provided that simple weight loss (vs. physique optimization or improved long-term health) is the goal. Even with better-balanced diets, “calories in/calories out” still holds.

Even worse, it wasn’t even good science. Props to Dr. Haub for being more methodical than most dieters, but that’s about as much credit as I can give him. For my money, his story is a lot less interesting than Dr. Peggy Polaneczky’s… at least she was part of a controlled study that – from where I sit – appears far more newsworthy than Dr. Haub’s little, “n=1” experiment.

So tell me again… why is Haub’s story headline news???

Ok… on one level, it’s kinda catchy, ’cause Haub is a nutrition professor. Get it? That a nutrition professor lost weight eating junk food – of all things – has a contrarian feel to it… and the media loves contrarian stories.

But I can’t help but make a connection between the extraordinary popularity of Haub’s story and where I first saw it.

And no, it wasn’t on CNN, either.

Y’see, I’m a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) – THE premier professional society for members of the food industry. Haub’s story – which was posted on IFT’s “ePerspective” blog – first appeared in my inbox on October 27… well before it hit the mainstream news cycle. And I can’t help but notice that – while it may be a non-story from a weight loss or scientific perspective – it’s a GREAT story from an industry POV.

So seriously, is it just a coincidence that – at a time when the food industry is facing widespread criticism over its role in promoting obesity – a catchy, IFT-sourced “you can eat a junk food diet and still lose weight” story is all over the news?

Ok, maybe it is… but let’s just say I’m skeptical. It fits just a little too neatly into the industry agenda, IMHO.