It’s been dubbed “the Twinkie diet” by the media: Mark Haub, a professor in Kansas State University’s Department of Human Nutrition, has been surviving on junk food for the past month.
And, he’s lost weight.This might seem to fly in the face of conventional nutritional wisdom. After all, junk food results in weight gain, right?
Haub started the “Twinkie Diet” on 25th August. Since then, he’s been eating mostly swiss cake rolls, blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, Peanut Butter Oreos, and hot dogs.
As well as the junk food, Haub has milk (for protein), and vegetables (for vitamins) with dinner.
By sticking to 1,800 calories a day – around 600-800 fewer than he’d need to maintain weight – Haub lost 10lbs in the first three weeks of his “diet”.
It shouldn’t come as such as surprise. After all, you could lose weight eating two candy bars a day: it’s the calories-in verses calories-out which matter.
Haub isn’t doing this because he’s a junk-food addict – he admits missing salads and blue cheese. He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily (on the diet, his food costs have dropped to around $5/day):
It’s unrealistic in some areas of society to expect that you can find fresh broccoli, tomatoes at a price that is affordable. If somebody can get their nutrients from a supplement and then they get their fuel from whatever is available, does it matter that they’re not getting fruits and vegetables and whole grains? Is that okay?
Of course, there are big nutritional questions to be asked about a diet which relies so heavily on sugary, salty, processed products. Nutrition is about a lot more than calories. Plus, most folks on a junk food diet would find themselves so hungry (due to sugar crashes and lack of fiber) that they’d be hard-pressed to stick to a calorie restriction.
What do you think? Is Haub’s experiment an important one in a world where processed, packaged foods are often much cheaper than fresh ones? Or is this a dangerous way to diet?
Eating fast food and junk food is more expensive than buying basic groceries and cooking it up yourself. That is economic fact. You pay more for the slice of tomato in the hamburger than whole fresh one at the store. This is the dumbest experiment based on false premises. It’s junk science!
Maimonides 700 years ago recommended an ideal diet, with ascending levels based on self-control. He ends up by saying that a little bad food is better than too much good food, and that, if you stay active, you can get away with much.
HE STATED HIS GOAL PURE AND SIMPLE! He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily… It was not to prove you can lose weight eating Twinkies and other garbage, it was not even to prove you could lose weight period! I work with low income families, some of them literally would starve if the purchased only fresh vegetables and fruits. Right now the cheapest apples in our local grocery store are $2.39/lb grapes are $2.99/lb oranges are on sale this week! Only $2.19/lb THANKFULLY Potatoes have now plummeted in price! Many of our low income seniors could not even afford potatoes until the recent decline in price. So yes it is easy to sit at home or work and make all kinds of guesses about what this guy is doing but I carefully read it and thank god he is doing so. If only the media and 90% of the readers could get away from the Twinkie part of it and realize the cost of Healthy Food, it would serve a better purpose.
That is what the previous commenter said… Again lack of comprehension. You are a master of lack of comprehension. Lana stated:No doubt the person not eating 1500 calories of McDonald’s will have a much better functioning healthy body and will generally FEEL much better.
Lana is stating the person eating 1500 calories of fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, whole grains etc. will have a much better functioning healthy body and will generally FEEL much better. We all know why McDonald’s food is not healthy.. It has only been in all the newspapers, on TV and taught in school ad nauseum for the past 10 years.
What are you talking about? What part of the following sentence did you NOT comprehend? “He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily” Let me try to help you…
“He is trying to open up debate” this means by his actions and this diet he wants people to discuss the issue.
“about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily”
Where in this sentence does it say Twinkies are healthy? Where in the entire article did he say this was a healthy diet? The full article is not that long, try to read it.
Apparently you failed to read the article. Flat out everyone of your statements is false. On top of this, this guy is a nutritionist, if you had even bothered to read other comments let alone the article, you would understand he did this mainly to stir up discussion about low-income dieting. “Haub isn’t doing this because he’s a junk-food addict – he admits missing salads and blue cheese. He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily (on the diet, his food costs have dropped to around $5/day)” Is it ok to disagree with his methods? Absolutely, but to flat out make up lies whether you think it is funny or not, is just wrong.
You will also have noted had you bothered to read before commenting, his point of reduction in caloric content is why his diet was successful, and he is NOT recommending his diet.
and his blood glucose went down. Interesting.
People all have their opinions. I am overweight and read zillion different theories on weight loss, health and longevity.
I am not convinced that there is any solid info out there that commonsense wouldn’t tell you.
On one hand you have the strict vegans who claim to stop diabetes, lower blood pressure and cholesterol. The claim meat as the enemy of all – China Study, Okinawan Study. Then you have the Primal Blueprint Basically doing the same thing. They embrace meat and consider breads, grains and other bad carbs as the devil. They get their carbs primarily from vegetables and fruit.
The common thread is this – Natural foods high in vitamins and mineral…and low amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. By doing this you have better cell function, feel better and generally have a lower calorie intake.
I think what this guy was getting at is that there is no need for the birth of food nazis, food czars and government telling us how to eat. If you can lose weight on this junk while saving money, there is no excuse for poor people in America to be fat and unhealthy. Look at dirt poor people in parts of the word. Modest simple diet, no government BS…and they live vibrantly into their 90s.
Here’s my take. Eat what you want and live with the consequences.
Nonsense! I’ve been to America, food is everywhere and the portions are enormous (as are the people)! You guys just shovel in any old crap, what happened to eating less but stuff that tastes a bit better? truly shocking
as most others have said, eating less calories is mostly what it’s about
Well, you control your calorie intake (regardless of source),burn an equal or greater amount of cal’s you ingest (avoid watching Oprah, Maury and Jerry, and take a walk instead) and PRESTO!, you dont become a whale. Downside? Teeth will be gone in a few years. Upside? You’re so loaded up with preservatives you can survive a nuclear attack! Kind of like a poor man’s Atkins
Now, we definitely don’t know everything about this from just this synopsis. So maybe he’s taking all this into account – BUT if he’s really only looking at weight loss, he’s really not making a contribution to that particular debate. If he really wants to think critically about poor nutrition and socioeconomic status, he needs to be tracking a lot more health markers than weight – his cholesterol levels and blood pressure, his dental health, his physical fitness (is he exercising as part of this?), not to mention his mood and just how he’s feeling every day. I feel crappy just when I drink soda every day for a week on top of my other healthy foods – I can’t imagine he’s feeling awesome on this diet.
“By sticking to 1,800 calories a day – around 600-800 fewer than he’d need to maintain weight – Haub lost 10lbs in the first three weeks of his “diet”.”
And that is why he lost weight, pure and simple. He counted calories–it’s not rocket science. But that doesn’t make it healthy by any means. You don’t get a whole lot of junk food for 1800 calories. That stuff is remarkably calorie-dense. If you stick with REAL food, aka non-processed food, you can get a lot more food for your calorie bucks. Like he said, most people would eat more than he did if they ate that kind of food. Whereas if you ate mostly veggies, fruits, eggs, legumes, lean meat, etc., you’d almost have to try pretty hard to get to 1800 calories.
the problem with fast food:
* fried meat patty, causes inflammation
* all the artificial ingredients in things like “egg mix” instead of using whole natural eggs
so bottom line is don’t eat fast food. It’s bad for your waistline and your organs.
You guys should all read “Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health” by Gary Taubes. Mark Haub should definitely read it too.
You can eat 1500 calories of McDonalds and be the same weight as someone who eats 1500 calories of fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, whole grains etc. No doubt the person not eating 1500 calories of McDonalds will have a much better functioning healthy body and will generally FEEL much better.
This is just gross and unhealthy. Give me a pork roast with vegetables and hummus thank you very much. I eat REAL food.
Junk food didn’t make him lose weight, diarrhea did…
The diabetes AND obesity crisis was created by food chemicals NOT lifestyle!
Please awaken to this !
The food manufactuers use chemicals that make BILLIONS$$$ for them but caused diabetes and obesity in the people.
This has been proven scientifically!!
It is all for money$$$
Diabetes drugs also make BILLIONS$$$ for the drug makers and cause heart failure.
A Filmmaker has been reversing diabetes and obesity in now 10 countries WITHOUT MEDICATION and the drug makers do not promote the story
just google SPIRIT HAPPY DIET
“He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily (on the diet, his food costs have dropped to around $5/day).”
If that’s his debate, then it won’t hold. People on a low income can follow this Twinkie diet (and others that are similar) and reach a healthy weight simply because they would be consuming fewer calories than normal. However, they wouldn’t be eating “healthy”; for weight loss, a calorie is a calorie, and as long as you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. However, for health, the quality of calories starts to matter. 1,800 calories of Twinkies may make a person lose weight yet remain unhealthy, but 1,800 quality calories is where health actually exists.
Weight loss and health are two different animals, although they don’t have to be — it’s up the individuals themselves to decide where they cross.
“Haub isn’t doing this because he’s a junk-food addict – he admits missing salads and blue cheese. He’s trying to open up debate about how people on a low income can’t eat healthily (on the diet, his food costs have dropped to around $5/day)”
How can he call living on junk food eating “healthily”?? Just because you’re losing weight on a diet doesn’t mean it’s a healthy one. Stupid. Just stupid.
i love me a brownie once in a while, but this is just gross.
In other news Mark Haub is diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease, possible cancer (still waiting on test results), and high blood pressure.
It’s not about how many calories he eats, it’s about what those calories do to the body. It’s easy for a person to get enough calories through eating junk, it’s tough to get the proper nutrients without ingesting a bunch of crap that’s also bad for you.
I believe you can eat anything in the world that you want to eat and still lose weight, as long as your calories or being cut down less than you normally eat.
…but the question here that you have to ask yourself is, “Does this diet really make my body healthier?”
and “What type of weight am I losing? Is it fat loss or water and muscle tissue loss?”
From the linked article:
“Most people would not be able to lose on a diet like that, they would eat more,” he says.
thanks for the helpful tip…