Have you heard of the “Twinkie diet”?
I hadn’t until I posted a blog about my young daughter’s obsession with HoHos and the potential demise of Hostess’ popular pre-packaged snacks.
A few days ago the company filed for bankruptcy protection and like millions of Americans I felt the need to voice my exasperation about the unfathomable thought that Hostess’ creme-filled treats may no longer be a staple in my kid’s lunch box.
A short time later I received an email from a reader sharing his own Hostess memories. Apparently, his mom tucked a Twinkie in his lunch box each day for nearly a decade, and now every time he sees the spongy log-shaped sweet it takes him back to his childhood.
In addition to sharing his sweet tale, the reader also provided me a link to a story about a Kansas State University nutritional science professor, who lost 27 pounds in two months, by eating a steady stream of Twinkies and other Hostess treats.
In 2010, Mark Haub took on a class project whereby he ate one Hostess treat every three hours in lieu of traditional meals. His goal was to prove that weight loss can be achieved solely by reducing the amount of calories you intake and not by increasing the nutritional value of the food you consume.
During the course of the diet, Haub reportedly limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day; though all of the calories were from sugary snacks, save for a daily multivitamin pill, a protein shake, and some celery and green beans. Prior to starting his “Twinkie diet” Haub typically consumed about 2,600 calories per day.
Surprisingly, while on his Twinkie diet, Haub’s “bad” cholesterol dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol increased by 20 percent. In addition, the husband and father’s body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent.
Interestingly, because Haub didn’t want to set a bad example for his kids, he refused to eat his supply of junk food in their presence. Rather, he ate vegetables and drank his protein shake at the dinner table and downed the Twinkies, HoHos and Ding Dongs out of his kids’ sight.
Clearly, this is not a diet you’d want to encourage your kids to adopt. In fact, Haub was quite adamant in telling news reporters that gorging on Twinkies every day for two months is not as ideal as one might think.
When you go on a diet, do you get your kids involved?
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