The Real Truth About the Twinkie Diet

November 9, 2010 admin 2 comments

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Hi,

I just saw this headline and had to write this now. The headline was: Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds. Here is the link: twinkie diet

There are a few points that this article brings up.

One is the point that -as I have said many times – it doesn’t matter what you eat for weight loss. The bottom line is if you take in less calories than you burn you will lose weight.

Now there are variations of how this works based on macro nutrients, but that is a different story.

So even if you eat nothing but junk fook you can lose weight on it.

But, this professor wasn’t eating just junk food. Although if you only read the headline and the first couple of paragraphs that is what you would belive.

He was eating: Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts. Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos.

The above was 2/3 of his diet.

And he lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks. He did this by dropping 800 calories per day. That is a pretty good weight loss over that time period.

This article also stated that his LDL or what is called bad cholesterol was reduced by 20%. the HDL (increased) increased by 20 percent and his triglycerides were reduced by 39%.

So why did a diet of 2/3 junk food help reduce the bad fats and increase the good cholesterol.

Two reasons.

One is that the other 1/3 of his diet was pretty good. He had a multivitamin pill and protein shake every day. He also ate vegetables every day. Even though they were canned vegetables mixed with regular vegetables.

The good stuff he was eating possibly counter acted the junk food he was eating.

The other point is that this experiment only lasted 10 weeks. It can take months and years before problems become apparent.

The body is very adaptable. It will keep functioning for a long time with no apparant consequences.

But, once it reaches a certain point then the problems become very apparent.

I’ll give you an example from my own family. My dad smoked pretty much all his life and he smoked unfiltered Pell Mells.

My mom smoked filtered Benson and Hedges before she was married and after the kids were all in school.

My mom died at 53 years old of lung cancer. My dad lived to 81. So whether it is smoking or eating junk food the consequences will catch up with you.

Sometimes it will be sooner and sometimes later. And before you think my dad was in good health up to 81 you would be mistaken. His last 20 years were not so great and he suffered a lot even though he finally stopped smoking around 65.

So what is the bottom line here. Yes, you can eat junk food all your life.

If you only eat a little bit and counter it with good nutritious food then you can probably postpone the consequences.

However, maybe you will be like my mom and die young because of your choices.

You don’t know.

The choices are always yours. My choice is to eat nutritious foods as much as I can. And yes, there is room for some junk food.

Not much, but it does taste good.

And I exercise every day. Sometimes it is only stretching, sometimes, cardio, sometimes weight lifting, sometimes fat burning workouts.

Combine exercise with an overall good nutrition program and you have the best of both worlds.

So stay off the twinkie diet, but if you like them don’t cut them entirely out of your diet.

Thanks

Mike Val