The Twinkie Diet

I am going on the Twinkie diet. No, I'm not going to start eating Twinkies, something I have never done. Nor Hostess HoHo's either, even someone dear to me confesses it has been her occasional junk food fix since childhood.

Yesterday I was perusing one of my favorite online news sources, which is 75% serious news and 25% supermarket tabloid items. My eye catches man loses 27 pounds in two months  on a self-designed Twinkie diet. Not quite ready to get to work on a writing project, I checked out what I thought must be either a joke or a gimmick.

No gimmick. A nutrition professor from Kansas State was seriously conducting an experiment with himself as the subject. BHE (before his experiment), he ate a healthy diet of whole grains, vegetables - you know, the whole healthy food routine.  His intent was to create a tool to use with his students.

He restricted his caloric intake to 1800 calories and ate junk food such as Twinkies, a daily protein shake and a can of green beans. He added a multivitamin to the mix. The results were unexpected. His weight dropped quickly (always knew there was no food value in snack food). But the biggest surprise came as he monitored his vitals over the two months. His cholesterol dropped. His good cholesterol went up and the bad stuff went down. His BMI decreased and put him in the normal zone.

The end result? On all counts, he was healthier at the end of his experiment than when he started. The conclusion - it's the calories stupid. We are all eat too much - and weigh too much.

So I said to myself: this is the diet for me. The Twinkie diet (minus the Twinkies). Eat less food. Stop trying to always eat healthy foods and guilting myself when something is not. The multivitamin is easy. I am already one of the superstitious, who take multivitamins under the belief that a pill a day keeps the doctor away. The green beans do have to go - a can of green beans has enough salt in it to make me gain 27 pounds due to water retention.

Going on a diet just before the holiday season starts is a good strategy. This way I will be ready in January for the new Congress to assemble and do their own attack on consumption by cutting taxes and big government (just don't mess with my entitlements). Who knows, I may be bikini shopping by spring!