Taco Bell Half Heartedly Preys on Weight Loss Resolutions (VIDEO)

By Kelly Turner on January 4th, 2010

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You may have seen the recent commercials, shockingly, just in time for New Year’s resolutions, with a slim, svelte woman showing off her new, smaller curves while shaking her head at her “before” picture. Who brings us yet another miraculous new diet? Taco Bell.

The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet is the newest “lose weight fast with fast food” gimmick on the market. Taco Bell has even launched a website, and has an official spokesperson, Christine, who has lost 54 pounds in two years after reducing her calorie intake to 1250 calories.

The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet encouraged dieters to choose from their Fresco menu items, to reduce 20 to 100 calories per regular menu item.

I don’t know where to begin. First of all, 1250 calories, no matter what the source, be it Taco Bell or bunny food, is entirely too low. It will result in weight loss in the beginning, until your body gets mad at you for starving it and refuses to lose any more weight. Then, your stomach gets mad at you for depriving it of the things you want, and you end up eating yourself out of house and home. This is my main gripe with most diets, however, the Taco Bell diet holds a special place on my crap diet list.

Let’s take a look-see at exactly what the TBDTD entails. If you can find it, please let me know. At the website, there is actually no specifics to what the diet is. For a program that has its own website and spokesperson, you would think they would take the time to lay out how to actually use the diet. Basically, the whole gist is that if you order lower calorie menu options, like the seven Fresco items on the website, than you normally would when you eat fast food, you can lose weight. Brilliant.

Unlike Subway’s ever-popular diet, which includes tons of fresh veggies, whole grains and fruit options, Taco Bell Fresco items, while lower in calories, still aren’t particularly healthy. The fresco options omit cheese, which omits calories, but the tortillas are still white flour, which offers no nutritional value and can spike blood sugar, and the vegetable portions of lettuce and tomatoes aren’t in big enough portions to even count as a single servings. Each menu item ranges from 150 to 340 calories, which could be used toward a well-rounded meal of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins while giving you WAY more to sink your teeth into.

Don’t give into the hype: Taco Bell is Taco Bell. If you eat it, the Fresco menu items will cut calories, but following it as a diet, as it is marketed, will only leave you hungry and devoid of nutrients.