I started seeing commercials on Hulu for the Special K cereal diet that activated my eyeroll reflex. The commercials explain that we’re more than a number and then suggest that we should choose another word to be our motivation to go on the Special K diet. They suggest confidence, self-esteem, beautiful. They end every commercial with the phrase “What will you gain when you lose?”
I checked on the website and they say that they commissioned a study by Edelman Berland that “a positive attitude toward weight management might actually help you succeed.”
Fascinating. First of all, who the hell is Edelman Berland. I looked it up – they are not involved in scientific research, but in branding and communications research. From their site:
Edelman Berland’s primary research offering allows clients to benchmark attitudes and opinions of an industry, company, product, brand or organization before launching a communications campaign.
Right. According to the Kellogs website (not linking you’ll have to Google) 9 out of 10 women who think positively about weight management reported either losing weight or maintaining weight in the past year compared to “only about half” of women with a negative approach.
How is this study highly suspect? Let me count the ways. There’s the aforementioned choice of research firms. Then there’s the methodology – they interviewed “more than 1,000″ women who described themselves as “weight conscious” to find out just what they think about their success or failure. Ok dude, self-reported information on dieting by people who describe themselves as weight conscious talking about what they think led them to succeed or fail at dieting does not a strong study make. Then there is the fact that they are looking at only a year – we know that most people can lose weight in the short term, but most gain it back within 2-5 years so using a 1 year period doesn’t really tell us anything about long term weight loss. Finally I find the wording on the website quite suspect – they report 9 out of 10 women vs. about half. Why not make a parallel comparison? What constitutes “about half?” 6 out of 10, 7 out of 10?
So, says Special K, all you need is a positive attitude. Well, a positive attitude and two special K meals and 2 special K snacks each and every day. Plus a “sensible meal” that you choose. They say that the average weight loss is a measly 4-8 pounds but they don’t say over what time period, or how long people keep it off. And remember the study they commissioned wasn’t about people who did the special K diet, just women who describe themselves as “weight conscious.” They have absolutely no proof that this plan will lead to long term weight loss, nor that it will lead to health. They do seem pretty certain that it will lead to profits.
I have a positive attitude – I’m positive that the evidence we have suggests that the vast majority of people who lose weight on this program, or any diet/lifestyle change/etc. will gain it back. I’m positive that it is sheer jackassery to try to set people up to blame themselves if they fail for not being “positive” enough. I’m positive that I’m never going back to a dieting lifestyle and the willful suspension of disbelief it would require.
So what will I gain when I lose? I had to lose my addiction to the pursuit of thin, but I gained a lot. Like the ability to see through the emotional manipulation and pseudo-science bullshit of this campaign and know that I can have confidence, self-esteem, happiness, and feel beautiful without eating 1,460 highly processed Special K Products this year.
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Interesting. I have friends who are not fat and use Special K diet to lose a few pounds after Christmas, or before a special event or holiday – over here so far as I know the diet says “any Kellogs cereal”. Most folk do lose the few pounds for a short while, and end up using it a tool for their yoyo dieting.
I hate those commercials almost as much as the Cheerios one where the woman is putting on her daughter’s jeans and fantasizes about getting an award then it says something about people who eat whole grains tend to weigh less. I eat whole grains and I am a giant fatass. What about that, Cheerios?
I hate that they also put on there “more grains, less you.” Dafuq?
Outstanding.
I think the same thing. Plus, my very thin mother, who abused me about my weight my whole life eats Cheerios every day, so I already had some hatred toward Cheerios.
Eat Special K, be starving again an hour later. It’s about as nutritious as the cardboard box it comes in.
I eat whole grains as well, lots of them. and a really healthy diet, and do a mile in the pool several times a week, plus the gym several times a week. And I am a fatass too. Dont eat special K, am coeliac so cant have them. But I have porridge and muesli and seeded bread.
Truly amazing when you think about it, how many businesses make their fortune by exploiting people’s insecurities.
I think you said amazing when you really meant disgusting, sickening, appalling, predatory…. It’s vulturism and it’s vile. If it were individuals, we’d call it a scam, but it’s companies, so we call it an industry. Reprehensible.
This Kelloggs study reminds me of The Secret. It’s hard to test, because if you think it’s not working, that’s a negative thought and you’re not thinking properly!
I loathe those commercials. Diet commercials are one of the top reasons we got rid of satellite tv. I got sick of paying to have advertisers pump that BS into my house. My biggest issue with Special K is that it is all, as you said, highly processed!! There is nothing REAL about any of that food. All of it is loaded with trans fat (hydrogenated oils) and from a health perspective, that stuff is one of the worst things you can consume. The message becomes that it is ok to eat crap that is not nutritious for your body because it potentially leads to thinness. If Betty Sue is at lunch eating Special K and is seeing results everyone will commend her. If I’m at lunch eating whole foods that are not processed or full of crap but I’m my usual fat self, I will STILL be told I could do better.
There is nothing REAL about any of that food.
I do not recall having hallucinated the existence of Special K for the last few decades.
I generally do not eat it for my own reasons, but none of those reasons make the cereal imaginary.
Additionally, in a space where a lot of the commenters likely receive a lot of judgement and policing for their food choices, I’m pretty concerned about the hurtful impact of further food judgement here.
I’m not judging anyone for their food choice. The food is highly processed and that is simply fact. I’m not making that up. If people want to eat it, fine. I have no issue with that. I’d rather they are making an educated choice. If they KNOW what they are eating and they still choose to eat that, I seriously do not care. That all goes back to the underpants rule. My issue with Special K is that it touts itself as healthy and it isn’t. But because it is a DIET food, people assume it is. And that was simply the point I was trying to make. I just read through my original response and cannot find anything that is making a judgement specifically on what someone chooses to eat. My judgement is aimed at Special K and how it is marketed. So, if my my response is hurtful because people here might actually eat Special K, then I’m not sure that the blog post itself isn’t doing the same thing.
I didn’t have a concern about you mentioning that Special K is highly processed; that is fact. I did, however, have a concern about your assertion that there is “nothing REAL” about Special K. That is not fact and is very much a judgment.
My issue with Special K is that it touts itself as healthy and it isn’t.
Again, this is a judgment and at times untrue, particularly when you don’t know the nutritional and other eating needs of people commenting. (I mean, not that Special K touts itself as healthy; again, that is fact.)
For example, as someone who’s been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a number of medical experts have made some (standard) dietary recommendations that I avoid a number of whole foods, in particular raw fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and other foods high in fiber — in order to avoid flare ups, nutrient malabsorption, and copious amounts of projectile diarrhea.
Similarly, for people coping with nausea (I’m familiar with the type from chronic pain, though I’m sure there are other causes) or patterns of restrictive disordered eating, there are plenty of times when any food is better than no food. In cases like this, foods similar to Special K — relatively bland, relatively light, can be eaten in small bites (I’m thinking dry, one flake at a time) — can be among a fairly small category of “safe” foods.
These things are real. These nutritional and health needs are real. There is something real about foods like Special K.
As for Ragen’s initial post, it read to me as though it focused on solely on the faulty study regarding “positive attitudes” toward weight loss and actual weight loss. I’m not seeing any particular judgment of Special K as real, unreal, healthy, or unhealthy in it.
Thanks for the info about fiber and Crohn’s. My brother has Crohn’s, and needed part of his colon removed plus remicade treatments, and he initially avoided fiber. However, he recently told me (when I asked if he was supposed to be eating pumpkin seeds) that new research indicates that eating fiber does not CAUSE a flare up, but might worsen one that already in progress. I was skeptical about this, but dropped it. I guess I was doing a bit of food policing by asking him if he should eat the seeds, but it was so hard to see him 80 lbs and (in my estimation) near death when his illness was at its worse.
But anyhow, I like that you brought Crohn’s up, because diseases like Crohn’s or fatty acid oxidation disorders or diabetes really help to illustrate that everyone has unique needs when it comes to nutrition. Something that’s “bad” for someone with one disorder might be “good” or “neutral” for someone who has a different disorder or lifestyle. My brother has sometimes used very processed nutrition (enteral nutrition, such as Boost or Ensure) to help calm a flare up. And of course, while hospitalized, he has had the most processed form of nutrition of all: Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN, aka IV nutrition). So a high intake of processed foods can definitely be healthy for some people.
That said, I haven’t heard of a case where trans fat (the artificial kind*) is helpful for people, and many researchers think it is so harmful that it should be banned (and have argued for a ban for decades).
*Real butter and animal fats actually contains trans fat, which food companies love to point out whenever there is a discussion about banning trans fat, but artificial trans fat has a different structure and is believed to have worse effects, and some research even suggests that natural trans fat might be beneficial. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/dining/07tran.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Thanks for talking about this AmeliaJade and Tori,
As I said in a comment on a different thread, on my blog I am cool with people stating facts about food and talking about their own choices. I am not cool with people suggesting what others should do with that information (it’s the worst stuff you could put in your body) I would ask that you contain the comment to yourself and use “i think,” “I believe” etc. So maybe “I understand that there is a ton of trans fat in Special K and I think that’s the worst thing I could put in my body.” That way the conversation is confined to you, you aren’t breaking the underpants rule, and it’s clear that you’re stating your opinion (in my opinion there are worse things to put in your body than transfat, like large amounts of arsenic or bleach, or nothing – if cereal like Special K is the only choice for any reason.) Discussing things in this way isn’t natural communication, at least not to me, but I’ve found it to be really useful in spaces where I want to be certain that nobody feels that I’m shaming them. That said, I certainly still make mistakes and I think , regardless of how good our intentions are, most of us do. Hope that makes sense.
~Ragen
I am not a big John Mayer fan (but I digress) I feel a quote from his song “Waiting on the World to Change” applies to this situation . “When they own the information they can bend it all they want.” and its true , the diet industry in a way owns its information. They present it in a way to the public which makes it easy to sell a lie. It seems easy for most people around me to hear “study says that elephants will run rampant if you don’t cut your grass” Then the next day there are a whole bunch of people on their neighbors about lawn care. I just feel like yelling “does this pass the sniff test? or even basic fact checks?”
I have a couple of friends who are in the 100-110 lb range. If they put on a few lbs, they diet and lose it. So what? But they think they are so great because they ‘lost’ weight. Hell, I can breath in and ourt5 lbs a day. That is their mind set. Their bodies are different. They will never weigh 200 lbs no matter how much they eat. They come off with the ‘holier than thou’ attitude. I ignore them. When they say they need to lose 5 lbs, I agree with them and let them know that it is only 5 lbs and they can do it and no reason for them not to lose 5 lbs. (sarcasm of course). They usually give me a funny look and shut up about it. I think they expect me to say they look good and dont worry about it. Nope, I dig in and agree with them to the point I give them advice…..hahahahaha laughing inside all the time.
I secretly kind of love you for that.
Wow. Five pounds? They’re so jazzed about losing five pounds? I can lose five pounds in a day, reliably. All I need to do is go out and pedal my recumbent trike fifty miles or more, and I’ll sweat out five pounds worth of water weight that day. Sure, I’ll put it back on within a day or so, as my body replaces the lost fluids, but, hey, I lost five pounds! The scale says so!
I’d be more interested in knowing what their actual health and fitness is, rather than their “100-110 Lb. range” weight. They can brag all they want about their “ideal” size, but if they’re out of shape, what’s the point?
I lost about 30 pounds when I started taking thyroid medication. Thankfully nobody said anything, because I wear baggy clothes so they probably didn’t notice. Apologies for the Beavis and Butthead humor, but I figure if I cut a big fart I’d probably lose five pounds. Whoopie freaking doo. I remember those days of stressing out about gaining a pound or two. It was pure misery. Wouldn’t go back to it for anything.
Well it is a lot easier to lose five lbs as a fat person than a thin one; it’s a larger proportion of their body weight, and i presume theyre not content with losing only water or fart if this is about their shape. And to argue that it’s not hard for them because it’s not hard for you is like me claiming it’s easy for all fat people to lose a lot of weight because I did it and it wasn’t hard, which I doubt would be acceptable here. There is a lot of venom in these comments today and judgement of other people that I find really at odds with the message of this blog. If your friends maintain their weight because they want to and they put effort into doing that, why shouldn’t they be proud of that? Just because it’s not something you value doesn’t mean you should put them down for deriving some esteem from it. And to the commenter below who said ‘if they’re out of shape then what’s the point?’ Well maybe they value different things to you. You sound a lot like you’re judging people for not following your definition of health, which again seems to me very at odds with the spirit of this blog. I have to say I am a bit disappointed. I’ve been a lurker here for a long time and recently the comments to a few articles have really taken on a very different tone…
Those commercials crack me up. I feel like the projected audience response to them must have been “Yes Omniscient For Profit Diet company! You do have the secrets to make my life perfect!” And I say no. Because my life is awesome at whatever size I happen to be and will continue to be awesome.
What would I gain if I lost my mind and fell for that nonsense? Neuroses, anxiety, the foul attitude that comes with eating bland stuff I dislike most of the time and only having one real meal a day, gut-wrenching fear when the effects begin to plateau, a boring inability to communicate about anything other than losing weight, and probably nausea within the week at the sight of another goddamn bowl of Special K.
Funnily enough, I don’t think that’s worth it at all.
I’m picturing a parody of these commercials, with happy, cheery sounding people talking about the awful things they gained from weight-loss dieting.
“I got gallstones!” “I got an eating disorder!” “I gained the ability to make every conversation about my diet!” “I got stress fractures from overexercise!” I got a permanently slowed metabolism!”
That comment is full of win!
What I really hate are the commercials that either say or imply that a woman will regain her husband’s desire if she loses the weight, as if the moment a woman gains a few extra pounds, the man in her life loses interest in her. Contrary to what the popular media would like us to believe, not all men are hung up on the Victoria’s Secret models.
Ya know, if the man is so shallow and superficial, that his love and interest is based solely on her fitting a certain ideal of beauty, he’s probably not worth having interested in her anyway.
Someone tell me where I can find the men who aren’t interested in VS models. I have fun and funny dating profiles out there and have had exactly one hit in a year. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong other than not looking like what they think they want. #frustrated
I think online dating has a higher percentage of superficial jerks than the general population, unfortunately.
Perhaps, but I can’t seem to find them IRL, either. I don’t know where to go, maybe. I’m not looking for the one-nighters or the casual things. I want a relationship with a grownup who doesn’t love me either in spite of or because of my fat. *sigh*
For what it’s worth, I met my hubby on Match.com. They exist, but boy do you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince!
I met my husband through World of Warcraft, and we knew we wanted to be together long before he’d ever met me in person (and yes, he knew I was fat.) He has never known me when I wasn’t fat (back before the three kids and the anorexia recovery.) The difference is, we were friends and guildmates first. JUST friends and guildmates, who spent years talking to each other every single day, before we grew closer. There’s a lot to be said for the friendship-becomes-courtship approach, even if it did take us more than five years and an international move…
Totally with you on that. That’s where I met my current roommate. We started out as guildies and then became friends and then more, but it was short-lived once he moved down here. He’s like family now, but there’s just no more romance there. I do love WoW for all that.
Actually, to remind myself what I would “gain” if I somehow became thin rather than living and loving through the body I’m in already is an interesting little thought experiment too… namely, the approval of people whose approval is based on my physical appearance and who are willing to bully me if I don’t look the way they want me to. In other words, the good graces of people whose opinions are worth precisely crap.
It cracks me up how much people want to berate fat folks until they’re thin. Even if I became thin, what makes you think I’d have a single thing to do with you after you treated me in such a way?
Special K is so full of sugar that it never satisfies for very long. A better approach would at least be a bowl of oatmeal with fruit. But that wouldn’t sell would it
What will I gain when I lose? A 10+ year battle with anorexia. What I lost…my ability to function like a normal human being, my personality, a lot of friends and almost my life. I want to change it to “What did I gain when I gained?” to which I would respond “my life back”.
In addition to what Ragen posted, here’s some information I found about cereal:
ALL boxed cereal from the store, even if organic, goes through heavy processing. Called extrusion, this process liquifies the cereal grains into a slurry using very high temperatures and pressures to manufacture the desired shapes, puffs, and flakes. This violent processing denatures the proteins in the cereal grains which may leave them toxic and/or more allergenic.
This is from: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/homemade-cold-breakfast-cereal-grain-free/
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the comment. Just to clarify, I have no problem with telling facts about food or each of us making personal choices around food on this blog. I do have an issue with trying to tell other people what do to when it comes to food. So the informational parts of your comment are great but saying “here’s why YOU don’t want to eat…” (emphasis mine) is breaking the underpants rule.
~Ragen
Sorry Ragen, just meant to share info not tell anyone how they should eat, should have worded it differently. Please remove the comment so it doesn’t trigger or bother anyone. Again, my apologies.
Thanks Elizabeth, that’s really awesome of you. I didn’t want to lose the good information so I edited the comment – if you don’t like it let me know and I’ll delete it. Thanks for being so great about this.
~Ragen
________________________________
That’s fine, Ragen, my point was to get some goof info out there and this does that. XO
Elizabeth, thanks for the info. As I mentioned in a comment above, my brother has Crohn’s, and his doctor mentioned that a lot of patients notice flare ups after eating dry cereals (but not with bread or other grain products). He speculated that the dry cereals contained rat fecal matter, which would trigger an immune response in the bowel in susceptible people. I wonder if the extrusion process, and the increase in phytic acid, changes in protein, etc., is a better explanation, especially since one would expect anything made with commercial flour (including bread) to contain a small amount of rodent waste.
–A. Elizabeth
From near the top: “but most gain it back within 2-5 years so using a 1 year period does really tell us anything about long term weight loss.”
I think you want to say “doesn’t really tell us”, otherwise you’re saying that dieting is ok. I had to re-read the sentence 5 times before I figured it was a typo.
I don’t think Ragen’s said anywhere that she doesn’t think dieting is ‘ok’….
Thanks for letting me know about the typo, it is fixed. Just to clarify, while I do not choose dieting, I would not say that others can’t choose dieting – I just think people should have access to true and correct information about typical outcomes and success rates etc. before they make their own choices.
~Ragen
That is the takeaway message from your blog, which I appreciate immensely. I was merely saying that the typo made it seem the opposite. It was a harmless thing though, and we shouldn’t make too much out of it.