{"id":146,"date":"2008-05-22T02:11:49","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T00:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/dysfunctional-foods\/"},"modified":"2015-02-22T14:49:56","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T19:49:56","slug":"dysfunctional-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/dysfunctional-foods\/","title":{"rendered":"Dysfunctional Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"

I took the Special K Challenge<\/a> this morning…the link\u00a0caught my eye\u00a0during a Google search, and I couldn’t resist.\u00a0 Special K is\u00a0a real blast from the past: I recall\u00a0the old “pinch an inch” ads from\u00a0daze gone by.\u00a0 Can’t say I ever ate the stuff much, however.\u00a0 Didn’t\u00a0really care\u00a0for the taste, to be honest, plus, I had a hard time figuring out what was really “special” about it from a weight loss perspective…it had roughly the same calories and nutrients as other packaged cereals\u00a0did.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the “Challenge” is to lose 1 inch off your waist in 2 weeks\u00a0by following a\u00a0“personalized” nutrition plan devised by the Marketing Department at<\/del> Kellogg’s.\u00a0\u00a0To create my\u00a0plan, I had to answer\u00a0three multiple choice questions,\u00a0none of which concerned\u00a0my height\/weight, age, activity, amount of (hypothetical) excess weight I wanted to lose…or any other info\u00a0that you’d think would be important.\u00a0\u00a0The questions were\u00a0all subjective, like “What’s the worst part of a diet?”\u00a0 I thought that was a bit odd, so I\u00a0submitted the questionnaire\u00a0several times,\u00a0using different answers.\u00a0 Sure enough, each\u00a0submission resulted in\u00a0a “personalized” plan that was\u00a0structurally identical to the first one.\u00a0 And what a plan it was, too!\u00a0 Here’s a sample day:<\/p>\n

Monday
\n<\/strong>Breakfast: Chocolatey Delight Cereal
\nSnack: Special K20 Tropical Blend Protein Water
\nLunch: Strawberry Protein Meal Bar
\nSnack: Chocolate Peanut Protein Snack Bar
\nDinner: Your Choice<\/p>\n

Tuesday – Sunday varied from this\u00a0only in the sequence of the snacks (sometimes the Snack Bar came first and the Protein Water second), and the flavors of the products used.\u00a0 For example,\u00a0in addition to\u00a0the original\u00a0Special K cereal of my youth, I could now choose from “Cinnamon Pecan,” “Red Berries,” “Vanilla Almond,” “Fruit and Yogurt,” “Protein Plus” or the afore-mentioned “Chocolately Delight” for breakfast.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0Kellogg’s has a cereal flavor for each day of the week.\u00a0\u00a0This may be a coincidence, but looking at my “diet” plan, I tend to doubt it…they didn’t miss a one.\u00a0\u00a0My two week plan featured pretty much every\u00a0flavor\u00a0of\u00a0each Special K product.<\/p>\n

This isn’t a “diet”\u00a0– it’s\u00a0a marketing ploy.\u00a0\u00a0It’s\u00a0a perfect example of what Paul calls “crapitilism.”<\/a> Just like\u00a0the “Slim Fast<\/a>” plan, the whole thing revolves around the consumption of unnecessary, highly processed,\u00a0“functional food” products for most of the meals, with\u00a0token amounts of\u00a0real foods thrown in for the fiber and variety…and also to keep you from going completely\u00a0insane from hunger, I guess.<\/p>\n

Functional foods are a big deal in the food industry these days.\u00a0 The Institute of Food Technologists<\/a> defines functional foods as foods\/products that:<\/p>\n

“…provide essential nutrients beyond quantities necessary for normal maintenance, growth, and development, and\/or provide other biologically active components that impart health benefits or desirable physiological effects.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Some new ones on the market include\u00a0items like\u00a0omega-3 eggs<\/a>, and “heart healthy”\u00a0nutrient-enriched orange juice<\/a>.\u00a0 Products like these are useful, generally nutritious,\u00a0and\u00a0may offer some health benefits above and beyond the regular versions.\u00a0 But what can we say about a product like this???<\/p>\n

Special K “Double Chocolate” Meal Bar:<\/strong>
\nCoating (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali), whey, nonfat milk, soy lecithin, sorbitan monostearate, salt, polysorbate 60, artificial flavor, soy protein isolate, corn syrup, inulin, fructose, rice starch, polydextrose, sugar, chocolate flavored chips, (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa, cocoa processed with alkali, sorbitan monostearate, polysorbate 60, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavor), chocolate, cereal (rice, wheat gluten, sugar, defatted wheat germ, salt, high fructose corn syrup, whey, malt flavoring, pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], folic acid), dextrose, contains 2% or less of calcium carbonate, butter (cream, salt), glycerin, sorbitol, natural and artificial flavor, salt, soy lecithin, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), alpha tocopherol (vitamin E), xanthan gum, niacinamide, zinc oxide, reduced iron, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin A palmitate, riboflavin (vitamin B2), thiamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), BHT (preservative), egg whites, pecans, almonds, wheat flour, peanuts, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin D.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like the above examples, this is a “value added” functional food.\u00a0 But instead of being an enriched version of an already\u00a0fairly nutritious\u00a0product (i.e., eggs, orange juice), it’s enriched junk food.\u00a0 In essence it’s a “value added” candy bar: you get a paltry 10g of protein, some fiber, and anywhere from 4% to 20% of the RDA for\u00a0basic vitamins and minerals.\u00a0\u00a0The only other difference is that it’s smaller\u00a0than a standard candy bar (1.59 oz. vs. 2.1 oz)\u00a0– you could eat one in\u00a0three\u00a0bites.\u00a0\u00a0Not too satisfying, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Products like this belong in\u00a0a new\u00a0category: “dysfunctional foods.”\u00a0 They may be an improvement on junk food, but are no replacement for real food – which is what a healthy weight\/fat loss program should be based on.<\/p>\n

Could\u00a0you lose weight on\u00a0a program like this?\u00a0 I imagine so…I toted up all the cals and macronutrients in my “personalized” meal plan above (minus dinner), including 2\/3 c. skim milk, a medium banana, an orange, 4 oz. baby carrots and a large apple – as\u00a0encouraged\u00a0in the plan.\u00a0 It came to a\u00a0meager 862 calories, 31 g protein, 173 g carbohydrates and 13 g fat.\u00a0 Even worse,\u00a0108 g\u00a0of those carbs\u00a0(62%)\u00a0come from sugar (added and naturally occurring from the milk, fruits and carrots).<\/p>\n

I dunno about you, but I’d be dying <\/strong>on a plan like this.\u00a0 I eat about 31 g protein in a single meal…I can’t imagine eating so little over the main part of the day – when I’m expending\u00a0a maximum amount of energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you have some excess weight\/fat to lose, this isn’t the way to go about it.\u00a0 It may seem simple and convenient, but it’s far from optimal.\u00a0\u00a0You’ll be\u00a0much better off\u00a0if you skip\u00a0the dysfunctional foods – and the “diets” based on them – and eat real food instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I took the Special K Challenge this morning…the link\u00a0caught my eye\u00a0during a Google search, and I couldn’t resist.\u00a0 Special K is\u00a0a real blast from the past: I recall\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,9,13,24],"tags":[642,726,1081,1488,1515,1867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9975,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/9975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}