The other day I was watching some TV and a strange commercial came on. You may have seen this one before; it is a Taco Bell commercial that is advertising their food as a healthy alternative to other fast foods. Watching this commercial I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Taco Bell was introducing their own version of Subway’s Jerad, only instead of an average looking guy they had a good looking girl in a bikini. Taco Bell, the restaurant where I have personally seen everything from beans, cheese, and even ground beef being put onto a taco with a caulking gun was advertising themselves as healthy. Naturally, I was a little skeptical so I decided to do a little bit of research on their “Drive Thru Diet.”
The first thing I noticed was the fine print in the ad. Give Taco Bell’s lawyers some credit because they were working hard to cover their own ass. First, their spokeswoman (hereby to be referred to as Female Jerad) mention that “these results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic.” They also add in the fine print that their Drive Thru Diet “is not a weight loss program” and that these items are “not a low-calorie food.” So despite the commercial’s obvious intention of have Female Jerad convince us that we can also lose weight by choosing healthy Taco Bell options, all of the fine print and legalese put into the ad makes sure to tell us that this probably won’t work. Oh yeah, Female Jerad also mentions that she started making “other sensible choices.” Could these “other sensible choices” involve exercising more and eating healthier food when not gorging herself on Taco Bell? It also doesn’t tell us how often Female Jerad was eating at Taco Bell. If you generally have a healthy diet, making the occasional (1 per week or less) trip through the fast food drive-thru will not kill your diet (ed note: not that I approve of fast food, but realistically it is OK to have it once in awhile). Clearly, Taco Bell’s ad executives and lawyers are trying to pull a fast one on us by making Taco Bell appear healthy without actually telling us that it is healthy (because the lawyers know that they would eventually get sued for that).
With this commercial Taco Bell is advertising their new Fresco line of foods which all have less than 9 grams of fat. However despite having less fat than their other offerings, these Fresco products do not have significantly fewer calories than their more fat filled brethren (remember they have already told us that they are not a low-calorie food). The Crunchy Taco Supreme is 200 calories; the Fresco version cuts that to 150. The Fresco burrito supreme with steak keeps it at 330 calories, while the normal version hits 380. That is a mere 50 calorie difference between Fresco and full fat Taco Bell. Now obviously that can add up, especially given that my experience is that no one goes to Taco Bell for one burrito or one taco. If you were to go to Taco Bell (and again, I don’t recommend this), I would recommend looking at the Fresco menu first, but that doesn’t mean that it is healthy. Just because something is less bad for you doesn’t mean that it is good for you. If you want to lose weight then you do need to start watching what you eat and making “sensible choices.” The most sensible choice you could make? Give up your fast food and eat something real!
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