Fast food chains and weight loss companies are not supposed to get along, let alone collaborate. This week in New Zealand and Australia, Weight Watchers and McDonald’s have announced they are teaming up to offer weighted meals based on the Weight Watchers point system. Talk about a marketing ploy! In the past, Weight Watchers always offered their members a point system for typical fast food meals such as KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, etc…

Now, the diet company will put their logo on three different McDonald’s meals that each add up to 6.5 Weight Watchers’ points. One of those meals are those greasy little chunks referred to as Chicken Nuggets.

Obviously, nutritionists are up in arms criticizing the diet company for encouraging the eating of fast food and criticizing McDonald’s for trying to pass their food off as a healthy eating option. What a shame.

If you’re on Weight Watchers or any other diet and you get a craving for some deep fried chicken buy some chicken breast and make your own. It may be fattening but at least it’s real chicken meat and not pumped with preservatives, chemicals and who knows what.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Nice marketing strategy. McD is hoping the Weight Watchers affiliation will have their customers feeling better about their purchases.. but that’s all it is. An insincere attempt to window dress their muffin top expanding, thunder thigh packing menu. Obviously don’t go to McDonalds if you are even half serious about losing weight. nuff said!

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Venus and Serena Williams are definitely the divas of tennis but now the sisters are endorsing the new Nabisco 100 Calorie Pack snacks and so they are now the divas of diet. The Nabisco 100 Calorie Pack snacks come in various flavors and varieties, they have cookie bonbons, snack cakes, thin crisps, sweet and salty kettle mix and many more. Venus said,

“We have fun and add some flair to snacking….My favorite Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs are the Oreo mini cakesters.”

As for Serena, she prefers the yogurt flavored pretzels. Serena mentioned that she feels as if she’s never going to get to the bottom of the bag because it’s a rather big portion. But at the same time she knows the portion is controlled so doesn’t have to worry about finishing the pack. She said,

“It’s a perfect way to control your portion and you feel good after you eat it.”

Currently Nabisco is offering sweepstakes and contests where winners will get a photo shoot with the Williams sisters and win bags from the Serena Williams collection.

Celeb Diet Doc Says….
Junk food is still junk food.. and something all diet divas should avoid. Half a cigarette is still a cigarette. I will give the marketing folks props though for clever marketing.. but these diet divas need rehab:)

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With the United States facing its biggest obesity crisis ever, slimming the nation has never been more important. Whole Foods Market CEO, John Mackey, has found a way he can help the government in its crusade, even if it only affects his employees. Mackey has launched a new rewards initiative, the Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive Program, where healthier employees receive bigger store discounts.

Employees regularly (and voluntarily) have their body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol levels screened, and those in tip-top shape receive an additional 10% discount off their goods. A scheme was designed with the help of the company’s medical advisory board where employees who rank highest are platinum employees and receive 30% discount. Those who are less fit are ranked into gold, silver and bronze categories. Employees who wish to not participate still receive their regular 20% discount though.

“I encourage all of our Team Members to make healthy lifestyle choices and to take advantage of some of these new opportunities Whole Foods Market is offering,” Mackey said in an email communication to employees.

Part of Mackey’s reason for introducing the new program is to reduce the company’s $150 million health care cost.

“We believe this is a win-win program that will help both our Team Members and our shareholders.”

Celeb Diet Doctor
Hmmm…. Let’s see how this works. You’re a slim Whole Foods Employee and you get more of a discount so you buy more food. Most of the food products at Whole Foods are not in fact “whole” at all, but highly processed and calorie rich. So these slim employees eventually fatten up and lose their discounts!

We all know what it’s like to get home at the end of a tough day and just want to curl up on the sofa with a jumbo sized Pepsi and super-sized Big Mac. We all think that junk food makes us feel a little self-indulgent and a little better about ourselves, but it might actually be fueling the bad mood you’re in and making feel worse – even to the point of increasing your risk of depression.

Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers found that eating too much processed food like fried foods, refined grains and dairy high in fat, increased your risk of depression. Researchers studied food intake and the corresponding mood data of 3 486 male and female participants with an average age of 55 for five years, and found that a high consumption of processed food was associated with increased chances of depression.

Junk food was a strong predictor of depressive symptoms even when controlling for healthy behaviors…

Lead author of the study, Tasnime Akbaraly PhD, told MSNBC: “The effect of diet on depressive symptoms didn’t go down after we adjusted for other indicators of a healthy lifestyle, such as smoking, physical activity, and body mass.”

Those who ate the most whole foods (fruits, veggies and fish) had the lowest risk of depressive symptoms.

Celeb Diet Doc..
There you have it, whole foods will put a smile on your face as well as trim your waistline.

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He may still have a lucrative contract with Subway sandwiches, but Jared Fogel the ‘Subway Guy’ gained a whopping 40 pounds last year. He famously lost 245 pounds by eating only Subway sandwiches but he dropped the ball this year when he quit working out and didn’t pay attention to what he was eating. He told People Magazine,

“I look at it as a little bit of a hiccup, not exercising as much as I should have and not paying attention to what I was eating.”

But he’s turning over a new leaf for 2010 as he proposed to his girlfriend, Katie McLaughlin, in November and he wants to get in shape for the wedding. He said,

“I’m going to look darn good in those wedding pictures!”

Jared will be following a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet that will still include some of his favorite low-cal snacks such as pretzels and will also be training for a marathon to be held this fall.

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If you can’t trust the calorie labels on foods and in restaurants then what can you trust these days? A small study has revealed that restaurant and ready-made frozen meals at times contain more calories than stated on the labels – in extreme cases, twice as many calories.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association by researchers from Tufts University in Washington, was focused on foods that any individual on a low-calorie diet would be drawn to. More specifically, the foods were typically American in origin and had less than 500kcal per serving. The restaurant foods tested had the lowest energy contents claimed on the menus while the frozen foods were complete meals as well as alternatives to eating out.

Of the 29 restaurant meals, researchers found 18% contained more calories than stated and of the 10 frozen ready-made meals, researchers found an 8% surplus.

“If widespread, this phenomenon could hamper efforts to self-monitor energy intake to control weight, and could also reduce the potential benefit of recent policy initiatives to disseminate information on food energy content at the point of purchase,” the study said.

Celeb Diet Doc..
Counting calories is always going to have it’s pitfalls and this is yet another example of that. The key is to eat as many whole foods as possible and practice portion control with processed foods.

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One fast food restaurant capitalizing on weight-watchers’ New Year’s resolutions to get in shape is Mexican chain Taco Bell, with their new “Drive-Thru Diet”. And their new spokesperson? Christine, a beautiful brunette who claims to have lost 54 pounds in 2 years all because of the new, healthier options now available on the menu.

The Drive-Thru Diet menu offers diners 7 new Fresco items all containing less than 9 grams of fat. According to the menu, the Burrito Supreme Chicken has 8g fat and 340 calories, Grilled Steak Soft Taco 4.5g fat and 160 calories, Soft Taco 7g fat and 180 calories, Burrito Supreme Steak 8g fat and 330 calories, Chunky Taco 7g fat and 150 calories, Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco 4g fat and 170 calories, and the Bean Burrito 8g fat and 340 calories.

Now Christine never claims that Taco Bell’s new menu is the reason for her weight-loss. On the official website, she admits that she lost the weight by making healthier choices like cutting her daily calorie intake from 1 250 to 500, and yes, choosing Fresco items from the fast food menu.

Registered dieticians aren’t quite sure what to make of the new “diet” though, with some saying it’s great to see healthier options on fast food menus and others calling Taco Bell a hypocrite.

“This is preposterous,” Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, told ABC News. “This is the same Taco Bell that has the Volcano Nachos (almost 1 000 calories), that boasts about the 1/2 pound cheesy potato burrito, that has systematically encouraged people to eat between meals with their 4th meal campaign.”

Celeb Diet Doc…
Jared at Subway and Christine at Taco Bell…  As I said before trying to lose weight on junk food is like trying to cure lung cancer by smoking cigarettes.

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Did Jared Fogle the Subway guy have too much Christmas pudding over the holiday season? He was spotted last week at Miami International Airport looking very top heavy with a double chin and burly chest.

Back in 2000 Jared became a celebrity after losing over 200 pounds by eating only low-fat Subway sandwiches for lunch and dinner. He’s still their spokesperson and he travels to schools through out the nation to encourage kids to lead a healthy lifestyle. But by the looks of this last photo (photo above on the right) it appears he may need to rethink his eating habits. According to Subway’s website,

“Jared still enjoys his favorite Subway sandwich, but has eased himself into eating other foods. He always chooses foods low in fat and limits the amount of alcoholic beverages. He still drinks only ‘diet’ beverages and continues his walking regimen.”

Perhaps it’s just holiday cheer and Jared has put on some winter weight or maybe he needs to re-calibrate his pedometer!

Is it possible the Subway guy Jared has met his match? Taco Bell’s new spokesperson, Christine Dougherty, says she lost 54 pounds over a two-year time period by eating the ‘Fresco’ menu items offered at the fast food chain restaurant. According to the company the Fresco items,

“can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu.”

However, when you read the fine print the company explains that Christine followed a 1,250 calorie a day diet which is only 50 calories more than the doctor recommended amount for women dieters. Therefore, she wasn’t pigging out on the 1,000 calorie Volcano Nachos for example, but instead she was most likely eating grilled chicken tacos sans the cheese and sour cream. So of course, one could easily lose weight by strictly following the 1,200 calorie a day rule.

It’s evident that Taco Bell is trying to rebrand itself as a healthy fast food alternative but the fact of the matter is that it’s still fast food laden with preservatives, chemicals, processed meats and fats. As for Christine, may she enjoy her new body and her new lucrative role in the diet industry.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Sounds like someone is trying to be the new “Jared”??  I smell a marketing ploy by Taco Bell.

When it comes to losing weight with fast food the key is always going to be portion control, portion control, portion control. Overall I don’t think it’s a viable strategy for most people… meaning that you’ll most likely gain weight on these foods despite the hype.

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If you’ve purposefully ignored our advice on how not to fall off the diet wagon this holiday season, then let this blog entry serve as a few words of warning – you’ll consume some of the fattiest food over Christmas lunch. The authors of This Is Why You’re Fat have compiled their list of the craziest foods they’ve come across that’ll practically obliterate the hard work you’ve put in throughout 2009.

Triflebetes: A version of the traditional trifle that is layered top to bottom with cotton candy, melted caramels, Twinkies, peanut butter mousse, chocolate syrup, peppermint cookies and melted butterscotch amongst other sinfully sweet ingredients.
Meat Tree: Like a Christmas tree, this miniature is made up of different kinds of cold meat to serve as a “snack” for guests.
Sweet Peep-tato Pie: If you’ve ever melted marshmallows over sweet potato pie, try melting holiday Peeps.
Cadbury Eggnog: Substituting chocolate eggs instead of real eggs surprisingly doesn’t alter the taste of eggnog.
Snickers Pie: Who would’ve thought you’d actually be able to bake a pie made completely of Snickers bars…

Other insane culinary concoctions include Yule Log Cake, Pecanless Pie (who needs pecans when you can go straight for all that other sugary stuff around it), Mac N’ Cheese Bites and Hot Beef Sundae. Just reading about these gastronomic abominations makes me want to go for a run.

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