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Kate and I were sitting through a L&O:SVU marathon while I was down for the count with the flu and we were aghast of the desperate moxie of fast food chain Taco Hell Bell for hawking something it’s calling the Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet (“7 incredible Taco Bell tastes under 9 grams of fat.”).
Shilling for the questionable diet plan is one Christine Dougherty, who claims she lost 54 pounds on the gut-churning regimen. We were laughing out loud as the commercial showed her before and after photos, as brief, hilarious subtitle disclaimers flashed on the screen.
You know, how the Drive-Thru Diet selections are “not a low-calorie food,” and that she substituted her “regular fast food choices” with TB’s “Alfresco Menu.” Oh, and by the way, she reduced her calorie intake to 1250/day.
The executive brainiacs at Taco Bell who thought this Drive-Thru Diet idea would be believable instead of laughable need to lose their jobs. I know they think the average American consumer is a dingbat, but come on — processed, fatty meat, cheese…9 grams of fat in one of its “diet” selections is not going to slim anyone down — unless they don’t eat much else the rest of the day.
Clearly they are trying to emulate and target Subway’s successful “6 grams of fat or less” sandwiches campaign. Take a look at Subway’s nutritional menu — its sandwiches and salads do have lean and healthy choices, and there are plenty of healthy topping choices available. The chain also answers many questions about the origin and composition of its offerings. Its disclaimer?
Subs with 6 grams of fat or less include 9-Grain Wheat bread, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. All other sandwich values include cheese unless otherwise noted. Salads contain meat/poultry, standard vegetables and do not include salad-dressing or croutons.
Addition of other condiments and fixings will alter nutrition values.
Surfing over to Taco Bell’s nutritional guide, it’s pretty clear its marketing peeps know they have a challenge to make its menu appear healthy and filling. One certainly couldn’t eat regular meals at TB and get anywhere close to a balanced diet. That’s why there’s this disclaimer at its site:
Drive-Thru-Diet® is not a weight-loss program. For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Taco Bell’s Fresco Menu can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food. For complete nutritional information please visit TacoBell.com.
But aside from the numbers game, it’s the naked appeal to those who added a couple of pounds over the holidays and are also jumping into the gym to work them off. When you’re heading home after a workout, is the first thing on your mind “I want drive to a Taco Bell?” — and get that little bean burrito?
10 Comments
The actually discourage exercise by intiviting you to drive to the t/o window.Heaven forbid that a “diet” would suggest that you park your car and walk 10 paces into the place, let alone walk to the restaurant.
I was actually in a Taco Smell today (to buy a carton of milk – I’m clean!), and was met by a slender life-size cardboard cutout of their spokesmodel. I wonder if TB should join forces with that snotty big=ugly dating service Pam was talking about earlier today. I’m sure the new drive-thru diet will be swelling their ranks imminently.
Hate to admit it, but…Every once in a while I have a craving for a Taco Bell crunchy taco.
But I don’t fool myself that it’s good for my diet. :-)
I was pretty amazed when I saw this just a few hours agoSitting to watch the Biggest Loser and this very interesting commercial comes on and I could not help but laugh out loud at the insanity. I really want to know the thought process that went into this commercial and if it actually fooled people in the test groups.
HA!My wife & I were laughing today on the plane about this insidious attempt to roll out TB as health food – making note that it’s definitely that industry “diet” time of the year.
Know how to lose weight? Stop denying yourself what you want (moderation, of course) – as soon as you say you can’t have something, it will be exactly what you will crave!, stop limiting yourself (I’ll eat this “bad” food now but just won’t eat dinner later), remember that no food is bad food, give yourself a break (“I look fat,” “my thighs are big” etc.etc.etc.), exercise (of course), and for god’s sake – STOP DIETING!
Big feelings about companies making billions of dollars off of men & women and “diets” – can you tell?
Ever since the CEO of Taco Bell had a heart attackTheir food has literally gone to shit. I used to work at a Taco Bell back in the ’80′s, and their food was passable. Not as good as REAL Mexican food made by actual Mexicans, but passable. Now? They suck. Hard. I wouldn’t even think of darkening their door.
I wish these idiots would realize that diets don’t work. All diets do is make you GAIN more weight than lose it.
…After that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see every fast food chain come up with their own lose weight diet with their food.
My BFF and I (22+ years as BFFs)Always had a running joke about “Taco Hell.” When she flew down from Chicago to Florida for a visit right before Christmas, we decided to go for a ride over to Sarasota (about 60 miles) to sightsee. While there, we started to get hungry, so we stopped at, you guessed it, Taco Bell.
Back in Chicago, we’d go there for lunch, go back to the office, and then I’d wait until she’d get the panicked look about two hours later, and make a run for the ladies room. Then she’d wait for me to get the “panicked look” and run for the mens room about 30 minutes after that.
Then we’d laugh and vow never to go there again (at least until next month). This is what happens when you work side by side for 15 years, grousing about husband issues, etc. (I won’t get into the monthly craving for chocolate she’d get – I just knew to tread lightly.)
This last time, I pointed out to her that in the 60 miles to get home, there was ONE town with a gas station, so she’d better make sure she was OK before we left civilization on our trek home.
Ah for the good old days and the indigestion that Taco Bell causes!
I saw that commercial and thought the same thing.Sequentially, “Are they kidding?” and “Who thinks Taco Bell is healthy food?”
I admit that my sweetie and I passed a Taco Bell recently and realized we both had a previously-undiscovered craving, a vestige of late nights long ago. (Don’t tell me my friends were the only ones who had to stop at 2:30 am after the bars closed!) We saw the new topping, which seemed to replace cheese sauce with a tomato-onion salsa. Not necessarily a bad idea, as lots of days I’d prefer raw veggies to processed cheese sauce, though that night we decided if we were going to eat at Taco Bell, we might as well go all out. I realize there is a dearth of quick, inexpensive, healthy food available when that second-shift job ends at midnight. Subway is rarely open. McDonald’s and Taco Bell are the late night fast food outlets for the most part. So perhaps the alfresco menu is slightly better for you than the original menu if you have limited food choices because of time of day, neighborhood, or amount of cash you have. Taco Bell is one of the cheapest around too. – you can get a burrito for a dollar. But suggesting it is a diet food? Pretty silly.
Anyone else think Christine looks good in the before picture? I like a little belly on a woman if that’s her natural body state, rather than one who severely restricts her diet to fit into a size 2.
I think you discovered the original Taco Bell diet.
Eat and the weight loss kicks in a few hours later…
Dena
Subway might have lean choices,they ARE NOT necessarily healthy.
Dietary fat is NOT necessarily unhealthy. Anything that contains low amounts of dietary fat is NOT necessarily healthy.
As for slimming down, one thing to keep in mind with fatty food, cheese, is that these foods are “heavy”, they digest slowly. Cheese, because of the fat AND the casein protein, is an especially slow digesting food. Slow digesting foods provide a sense of satiety, of contentment, for a longer period than foods that derives most of their caloric value from quick digesting carbohydrates, such as Subway’s low fat subs, where most of the caloric value comes from the bread.
For most people, controlling the hunger is a major part of sticking to a weight loss diet. And getting to eat the foods one likes, that is assuming one likes fast food, makes a calorie reduction diet more tolerable.
I actually respect Taco Bell far more than I do Subway. At least they included the disclaimer that she was on 1250 calories a day, AND more importantly the key part: average reduction of 500 calories per day (a sane amount, anything more would be unreasonable) over 2 years. That is FAR more sane, far more respectable, and far healthier, than diets that promise miracles.