News: Are Twinkies the new fad diet?

Can you lose weight eating Twinkies and Doritos? A nutrition professor at Kansas State University has proven that yes, indeed you can. According to CNN, professor Mark Haub ate a snack cake every hour for 10 weeks instead of eating regular meals. He also tossed in some Oreos, Doritos and sugary cereals for variety.

Why would a nutrition professor do such a thing? Well, he wanted to prove that when it comes to weight loss, calorie restriction counts more than than the nutritional value of food. Even though he ate a steady diet of the junkiest junk, he restricted himself to 1,800 calories a day’800 calories less than he ate before the diet.

Mission accomplished for Haub: he lost 27 pounds and his body mass index dropped from the overweight range to being normal. What’s more, Haub’s LDL cholesterol (considered the bad cholesterol) dropped 20 percent while his HDL, or good cholesterol, increased by 20 percent.

What the heck is going on here? Can I scrap my salad in favour of a Twinkie buffet? Are all my chocolate-dipped wishes and cream-filled dreams really coming true? Not exactly, this dietitian told CNN.

"How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can’t measure how diet changes affect our health."

Of course, good nutrition is about much more than just losing weight. Even Haub himself doesn’t recommend replicating his diet. But he does point out that, for people who can’t afford or don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, advocating portion control over eliminating these junk foods completely might be a more realistic diet solution. It’s also a good reminder that portion control is an important part of weight loss.

Check out Haub’s Facebook page for details about his experiment.

Are you surprised that this professor was able to lose weight on a junk-food diet?

Related:
‘ 5 surprising ways to cut portion sizes
‘ 5 diets that don’t work
‘ 6 reasons why you’re overweight