Recently

Make Me Proud – Bikini Body Rep Challenge Workout Feb 2nd 2012
Lisa-Marie Answers Your FAQ’s :) Feb 1st 2012
Bikini Body & Beach Ready – Total Body Rep Challenge Workout Jan 31st 2012
Day 5 Week 4 of The 30 Day Challenge – Do It Now Fit Test Workout Jan 27th 2012
Day 4 Week 4 The 30 Day Challenge – Stronger Workout Jan 26th 2012
Feb 20 2010

Is There Really a Fast Food Diet?

No.

Simple as that, really — there is not.

At the end of our article on Domino’s Pizza, we asked you to talk about some of the things you hate when it comes to food marketing, and one thing that got mentioned a whole lot was this new campaign from Taco Bell — the drive-through diet.

Yes, the Drive-Through Diet.

We wanted to point out one of the main, crazy marketing ideas that they’re using with this campaign — the idea that there is anything diet-related about eating fast food (to be fair, Taco Ball insists that the word ‘diet’ is being used in the general sense, as in what you eat every day, but we all know that’s not how the marketing intends it to be interpreted).

You already know where we stand on diets in general — the way they’re sold to us nowadays, a ‘diet’ just doesn’t really work — take a look at our article on ‘easing’ yourself into eating ‘real food’ on a regular basis for some of our reasons why.

What Are The Fundamentals of Fast Food?

But beyond that, it’s the notion of how fast food restaurants can offer any kind of ‘diet’ products and still make people want to come back for more. Remember, fast food is:

  • Cheap
  • Full of things that make you want to eat it again
  • Fast

All these things are (mostly) incompatible with good eating, at least on the scale the fast food restaurants operate on.

First, It’s not very easy to make healthy food for an extremely cheap, centralized price. Second, it also takes a bit of work (more than the average fast food employee is ever paid to do) in order to make food enjoyable. Fast food replaces that with chemicals, salt, and fat. And finally, it’s fast as anything, meaning you barely notice yourself eating it, often not even at a table, until suddenly it’s all gone.

How Can These Be Made ‘Diet‘?

So how do the companies sell anything, using this model, that might be considered ‘healthy’ for you?

It’s easy — increase the sodium. Crank up the salt, to hide the fact that you removed all the carbs/fat/whatever, and trumpet the lack of fat. Don’t talk about the salt, though. Oh Lord, whatever you do, don’t mention the salt.

Here’s a choice quotation from Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, who did some research on fast food companies’ more ‘healthy’ offerings:

“When we take these other things out of food we often add back salt, and the salt is so far in excess of what would be considered a healthy quantity that it definitely counteracts any healthy benefits.”

And from the same useful New York Times article, we’ve got a spokesman for Taco Bell, talking specifically about this drive-thru diet. What does he say? Well: he said “his company was hoping to reduce the sodium in its main ingredients without sacrificing taste.”

Notice the word choice there — was hoping. They’re still working on it. And they’ll be working on it for a while, because there’s just no feasible way for these guys to offer healthy, cheap, ultra-centralized food that doesn’t have some serious, serious caveat.

Should We Trust Fast Food Companies?

And finally, a good piece of advice from Elizabeth Somer, a dietitian quoted in the same article:

“The fast-food restaurants have not led the troops in healthy eating yet, so there’s no reason to believe they’re going to change their colors now.”

That’s a key point right there — why trust a business that made all its money selling fat, salty, unhealthy products in gargantuan proportions in the first place?

  • Korie

    So here is a question… Does eating fast food really cost less??
    I watched “Super Size Me” the other day and Morgan the lead character would eat one of their meals and still be hungry. That fast food meal is about 500 or more calories more than what he would normally eat. Since his body is not full is he going to buy more, spend more, eat more? In the long run is it really cheaper? He also felt sick after eating fast food. Hearing and seeing it in the movie and experiencing it for myself, you know that fast food is not chemically compatible with the human body. The ingredients are not natural, or organic and therefor do not do the body good. It leaves the body malnourished.
    I no longer eat fast food, because of the way it makes me feel. Eeeew.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-UnioN/345055365073 Cris Far

    Fast food restaurants are SATANISTS!!!!!!! :D Period. Stop being lazy and cook your own food! Good luck to everyone ;)

  • SM

    I don’t know if you have seen the documentary “Super Size Me”, but it is a great documentary to watch! You’ll never want to step foot in a fast food chain ever!!!

    -S

  • Yvonne

    Fast food companies are just like drug dealers. They rely on the fat to sugar ratio that increases dopamine levels in the brain which in turn leaves you craving more. Pretty sad…..

  • http://kebab-beysan.pl/object/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos/ Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … | Kebab Beysan

    [...] Here is the original post:  Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … [...]

  • Liz

    It would be nice if there were a place out there, fast and cheap like McDonald’s, that only sold food that was good for you. I’d eat there all the time!

  • P

    I remember when I first saw that ad for taco bells drive thru ‘diet’. It was a big life sized poster of a woman holding a before picture of herself 75 pounds heavier and in big letters on top it said ‘drive thru diet’. My boyfriend and I laughed out loud, we couldn’t help ourselves.. It just sounds ridiculous! We can’t believe they are able to get away with that and trick consumers like that. You can’t hide a wolf in sheep’s clothing!!

  • http://www.dr-atkins-diet-livetoday.co.cc/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos/ Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos …

    [...] more here: Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … Posted in Diet | Tags: article, article-on-domino, asked-you, domino, our-article, pizza, [...]

  • http://www.internetcafesolution.com/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos/ Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … « Internet Cafe Solution

    [...] See the original post here: Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … [...]

  • http://trevoro.com/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos/ Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos …

    [...] the rest here:  Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … Categories: Fitness Tags: article-on-domino, department, Fitness, Health, means-the-state, [...]

  • http://www.projecthalo.co.uk Gareth Dix

    Fast food never works out cheaper anyway… in the UK Mcdonalds were suffering badly so they introduced a range of healthy salads… after a few weeks people started realising that there were more calories in the salad than a Big Mac because of the ceasar dressing!

    is there a place for fast food? I think there is… i will only ever eat it if i’m in a rush, haven’t prepared any food, and don’t have access to any protein, the reason being I’d rather eat something bad once, than start to starve my body and slow down my metabolism (i’ll never do it on a rest day though)

  • http://www.6255.info/?p=2644 Good Food Spy Blog » Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos …

    [...] posted here:  Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … By admin in Uncategorized  .::. You can follow any responses to this entry [...]

  • http://pointwriting.info/2010/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos.htm » Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos …

    [...] See the rest here: Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … [...]

  • http://usbusin.com/html/y2010/3618.html Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … | Health Blog

    [...] the rest here: Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … Tags: article, article-on-domino, asked-you, domino, our-article, pizza, the-end, the-things, [...]

  • Ian W

    Another excellent article guys thank you so much! I have been watching these Taco Bell commercials and laughing for a while, I’m glad that somebody called them on it!

  • Randall

    Great article like always!

  • Erin

    Is there a “lesser evil” when looking at the true fast food? Like salads? And is Subway truely sort of healthy, or is it just as bad as McDonalds?

  • http://facebook.com Todd

    Hello !!! some people would call it GREED, aaa ya I would call it GREEEEED too. Why is there Taco Bell anyway? I would say like any other business someone started it to make money. I can only hope it will get better someday and I think it will, with people like you and me and others learning to make better choices. I hope I would have the integrate to make better choices if I were in the shoes of the executives of one of these companies(but could I really I wonder?). How could they do better? Grind meat fresh, get local veggies ,pay better attention to inventory so they didn’t need so many preservatives and salts, make people work harder, care more about their work, maybe the companies that sell fast food could stop being so shallow and have career employees instead of 16 yr. olds run their stores.

    : ).

  • Angelina

    My husband and I have had this same conversation about the new Taco Bell and Dominoes campaign. Even McDonald’s trying to jump on the healthy band wagon by making the Big Mac (we call it the Fat Back Mac) into a wrap!
    Our theory is that these companies are starting to take notice that more people are questioning where their food is coming from and what the hell is in it. They are trying to hurry as fast as they can to put the wool back over their eyes so they don’t lose any money.
    These companies also know they can cater to the lazy by sending the message, “Hey, changing the way you eat is too hard and expensive, let us do it for you.” The marketing campaign by these companies caters to the American ideal of wanting to change, but without sacrifice. I know not all of us Americans are like that, but there are many with this mindset.

  • Bella

    A lot of times, when things are packaged as low fat, they’re higher in carbs than the regular version on that item – usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup or some other form of sugar being added.

  • http://FairWeightLoss.com/is-there-really-a-fast-food-diet-fitness-advice-workout-videos/ Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … | Fair Weight Loss

    [...] Excerpt from: Is There Really a Fast Food Diet? | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos … [...]

  • Scottie

    You can get salads at most fast food places. You can get grilled chicken instead of deep fried patties and not eat the bun… things like that work.

    Scottie in Alaska

  • josh

    here’s some interesting breakthrough empirical evidence!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

    this one is only one minute long, lol and its only sugar, let alone all the other corporate companies around the globe doing the same thing!!!!!! enjoy all, and lets make the world a better place today!! (throws up a peace sign) ((( d*_*b )))
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXBeBaDkgiE

  • Ceddas

    I notice just buying Natural food from grocery store is much more cheaper then buying food from fast food restaurant. I notice I spend like 20 dollars for food at taco bell in one day, and when I buy food at the grocery store I spend like 50 dollars or 60 dollar per week on food. so way I figure it’s cheaper to buy health food from grocery store like fruit and vegetable, plus some type of meat like chicken or steak or fish, Plus you feel good after eating health.

  • Eve

    If I want a hamburger from the Golden Arches, I get it. They key for me is moderation and discipline. Fast food is not an everyday meal. Probably once a week if that but I do eat it. I love to cook but I also appreciate going out to eat and picking up something quick.

    I’ve come to love preparing my own food but dangit every now and then I enjoy good juicy,greasy hamburger and chase it down with a root beer.

    I will never say you shouldn’t eat this or that. Everybodys’ body is different. I will say however to eat in moderation. Have some discipline!

    Peace!

  • Sarah

    Why isnt there a “HEALTHY” fast food joint?

    I eat fast food every day for dinner. I really want to stop but its really hard when its in walking distance.. and Im in college so there is just a closet for me to live in..aka no kitchen. Im 5’4″ and only 117 lbs so I guess I have a high metabolism. So being overweight isnt really a motivator for me to stop eating Mickey D’s.

    Got any motivational tips?

  • matty d

    I am a fit and healthy guy. I used to compete at sport to a international representative level and ive been lucky enough to eat whatever i wanted. Infact I used to have to eat a shit load of food due to my schedule and I loved it. I could still eat the fridge empty now , however, I learnt as i got older you are what you eat and as I have quit the pro sport I’ve taken up general exercise instead of the sport specific stuff. One main reason I dont eat alot of fast food is the fact that when I eat a whopper meal (which I love) I get a tight chest and lungs directly after, and the only two times I’ve had a nose bleed in the last year was after eating a large pizza hut pizza (which I also love). and I have had my blood pressure and stuff checked and it’s fine – it obviously goes through the roof straight after eatin ga bucket load of salt. My body was and still is to some extent a machine and I can only liken it to putting sand in your engine it’s gonna knack it up man!!

  • Simon

    Subway is considered to be fast food and although it’s a little bit pricey, you can get a decently low total calorie intake from one of their meals… I’m surprised nobody mentioned this. There are other alternatives too. For instance, schwarma’s are delicious and usually aren’t too fatty either, depending on where you get them of course. Then again I live in Montreal, QC in Canada, so the food here in general isn’t too bad fat-wise. And above all, avoid going to buffets because those are killers when it comes to calorie intake not only because of the food served, but because people tend to over-indulge when they go from the low price they pay to get in.

  • http://www.coqdor.ch/ kochen tv

    I really don’t like any diet products, usually they just don’t taste the same. Especially with all the drinks for example Coke.

  • Jason

    Today I got big mac from mcdonalds but without beef. So I just ate 350 calofiers and I want to ask you, was that bad?

  • http://HIGH-INTENSITY-MUSCLE-BUILDING.INFO High Intensity Muscle Building

    Cooking your own food is much cheaper than eating from fast foods. As well as they are more healthier especially veges.Nice post.

blog comments powered by Disqus