Example of 1 Day Meal: Special K Diet
It’s that time of year where we get hammered with new dieting fad’s and weight loss ‘miracles’. Aside from the “Smart Bite” – which is a mouth retainer that prevents you from chewing large bites (Why not just have your mouth wired shut or buy a tapeworm?) – I think that one of the most unhealthy and misleading ‘diets’ out there is the Special K diet. When I saw the commercial, I felt I had to go check out their recommended meal plans and analyze it (nerd alert!). The image at the top is the nutritional value of one of the day’s meal plans. What you can see is pretty disheartening – it’s a low-fat / high-carb diet full of refined carbohydrates, sugar, corn syrup and other processed foods (mostly from the cereal and bar) with little green veggies and protein. The worst part is that it meets Canada’s recommended food guide requirements – that’s a whole other big issue that I won’t get into today. Back to Special K… If you go to their website you can choose from a few different meal plans – here is 1 example:
You can see that it includes 2 bowls of cereal and 1 of bar, along with some other food. The only thing that I would consider eating in this entire meal plan are a couple of the lunches and dinners. The rest is basically garbage that will make you hungry, tired, less active and potentially sick if you continue to eat this way. Check out the nutritional information on the cereal and bars:
Is there any mention of a real food ingredient?? Oh wait, there are almonds in the cereal…i stand corrected. Seriously, when the first few ingredients are gluten and sugar, you cannot honestly promote this as a healthy diet.
So what happens to your body when you eat like this? I’m breaking this down into the most simplified explanation that I could come up with:
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You’re eating carbs for breakfast and lunch so your insulin will spike (especially after that PB and Banana sandwich)
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Insulin causes cells to stopping using fat as an energy source
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Insulin levels from excess carbs stimulate your liver to create Triglycerides which turns to Fat – They are made in the liver from any excess sugars which have not been used for energy
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Insulin sensitivity will be impaired and you’ll require more insulin (carb cravings) to get the reaction your body is craving – therefore you will likely be starving and have little energy.
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There is no ‘good’ protien and therefore you are not balancing out the insulin with Glucagon and therefore preventing your body from using fat for energy
And we wonder why people keep getting fatter and unhealthier despite all the ‘healthy options’ being pumped into the grocery stores. Low-fat / High-Carb diets are obviously not working.
January 6, 2010 at 7:43 pm
LOL… just saw the smartbite ad on the telly and was going to look it up… thanks for saving me from the trouble…..
January 6, 2010 at 7:53 pm
kick ass post once again miss cosmo! i have seen these ads and products in the grocery store but never delved any deeper! i am APPALLED at that being considered a healthy mealplan. although, in my weightwatcher days of low fat/high fiber…this was very much considered a good plan.
it’s amazing they can cram all that garbage in one little bar…and come up with a low fat content…and therefore be allowed to call it healthy.
keep it up…i heart your primal brain!
January 6, 2010 at 8:53 pm
my mom emailed me about the smart bite last night (must have been an add on the biggest loser) and I told her I’d probably end up swallowing it by accident. what a stupid product!
January 6, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Wow, 87g of protein, enough for an adult of about 60lbs.
Sounds like a great plan.
January 6, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Ooops, bad math.
125lbs adult.
Nevertheless.
January 7, 2010 at 8:33 am
It’s the source of protien that is not so good either….it’s coming from dairy and in my example, peanut butter which won’t do the same thing for your body as meat or fish.
January 7, 2010 at 6:22 pm
So glad Ty is reading your blogs. Great info sweetie, and keep up the good investigative work.
Most people believe TV commercials, and if they use the product, end up looking like the actors. A total “snow job”. Wake up people!
Cosmo/Primal girl’s Mom
January 8, 2010 at 4:22 am
I used to work with a girl whose ideal body image was Thin Spice [Posh Spice, ah you know, the one married to David Beckham] and she was on a Special K diet type of affair. She was always hungry – refused my stash of almonds and walnuts [too fattening] but ate bananas.
Tired, stressed and miserable. And gaining weight. Well done Kellogs! Idiots.