Since yesterday’s “Twinkie Diet” post attracted so much attention, today comes a follow-up post of sorts that I thought you might all find equally interesting…
Coincidentally, I happened to by reading my November issue of Glamour magazine yesterday, when I came across an article that quickly caught my eye:
“The Big Junk Food Test”
In the article, 31-year old Beth Shapouri agrees to follow 1 week of a very unique “diet” –
**Eat only the foods she sees on TV for one week.**
Staying within a limit of 2,000 calories a day, Shapouri began filling her meals with anything she found on TV:
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- Dulce de leche doughnuts
- Wendy’s Apple Pecan Chicken Salad
- Subway Steak & Bacon Melt
- Cheetos
- Jimmy Dean Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuits
- Totino’s Pizza Rolls
- Nutrigrain Bars
- V8 Juice
- Arby’s Jr. Deluxe Sandwiches
- Olive Garden’s Parmesan-Polenta Crusted Chicken
- Frosted Mini Wheats
- KFC fried-chicken meal
- Starbursts & KitKats
The main premise of the article was to show the negative effects of a diet that consists mainly of foods that are advertised on TV. While many of these foods were packaged and processed, some of the foods also came from chain restaurants.
However, what I found most interesting in this article, which was missing from the Twinkie Diet article, is a timeline of how Shapouri felt from the beginning of Day 1, until the end of the week.
This seemed to be a common question that was brought up by many yesterday who read the Twinkie Diet article:
“Even though he lost weight, he couldn’t have been feeling well??”
So here are some recaps from Shapouri as to how she felt each day of her week-long “Junk Food TV Diet”:
Day 1 – A morning doughnut gave instant energy, but left her “ravenous and headachy” by 11:30 that morning. After consuming the Wendy’s salad seen above (which has 39 grams of sugar!!), she became too tired to complete her afternoon workout.
Day 2 – She added protein to her morning meal to try to head off an energy crash which worked better. After eating the pizza rolls (seen above) for lunch, another headache sets in. After consulting a doctor, she finds out that the chemicals in the food, combined with a lack of vitamins and nutrients, are the culprit of her headaches and exhaustion. Her afternoon workout “felt like an eternity.”
Day 3 – Her depression from the lack of fruits & veggies in her diet causes her to sneak bites of her friend’s fresh sandwich. After consuming a heavy meal at the Olive Garden that evening, laden with cheese, she found herself in “a fat-and-cream-induced coma” just minutes later.
Day 4 – She can’t get enough water at this point…all of the salt in the foods is leaving her parched. She also determined that she had 2 hunger modes: (1) desperately starving, and (2) uncomfortably stuffed. Another phone call to a doctor helped her understand that the excess fat was making her feel fuller, but since she was consuming more sweets, her blood sugar was spiking & crashing…usually around the time the full feeling wore off.
Day 5 – Shapouri woke up “foggy” and soon begins to notice that “easy” tasks were making her overly anxious. Not only that, but she became a self-proclaimed “klutz” (i.e., increase in typos, motor skills were uncoordinated, tripping over her own feet in Zumba class…) A third phone call to the doctor informed her that all the fat, sugar, and salt in her diet were overstimulating the release of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. When the levels dropped, she became “anxious, unfocused, and uncoordinated.” The doctor followed up with saying that experiencing changes like these can happen after just one meal. ALSO by Day 5, some added fiber was needed…a Fiber One bar + Activia yogurt did the trick.
Day 6 – She gained 1.5 pounds and had incredibly swollen hands, feet, and belly. Her mood was starting to take a turn for the worse, and her typos were not improving.
Day 7 – Very interesting. Shapouri ate the same doughnut as on Day 1, but this time, it was not as sugary tasting. Apparently we get used to sweet flavors (and salty flavors) fast. This is why so many food companies now make “super-flavor-blasted” products…they need to keep the customers coming back for more. By day 7, she now has no problem finishing big portions, her headaches are gone, and she isn’t as thirsty. Unfortunately, this meant that her body was beginning to adjust to the TV diet. Scary indeed.
Talk about interesting, right??
Shapouri said it took her three days to lose the extra bloat, and at least a week to get back to feeling satisfied by her pre- TV diet portions.
So while these findings may have been different from those of the Twinkie Diet, at least here we can see just how quickly the side effects of eating poor food choices can wreak havoc on the body. I can’t say I’m very surprised; I can only imagine how she must have felt after a week of eating all of this food, and I would think that Haub had to have felt the same way. I know how I feel after eating just one meal of these foods, let alone a whole week! 😯
Question for the Morning:
What are your thoughts on THIS article??
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