Weight Watcher's True Colors

Happy Belated International No Dieting Day!

I've been on multiple diets, but the one I did the most was Weight Watchers. I started when I was 16 and was off and on until I was 24. For eight years I did exchanges, then points. I lost weight then gained it back. No matter what I did, no matter the program, the team leader, my age, or location, I lost weight then gained it back plus more.

I believe it was my third time doing it when I (actually my parents) bought into the program where you can only buy their food. For breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, I could only eat the highly processed Weight Watcher's food and unlimited vegetables (I don't remember if the fruit was unlimited yet.) It didn't work and I weight cycled yet again. Using their foods only DID NOT change anything. I was strict on the program, lost weight, stopped, got hungry all the time, and then went on a massive binge. It was no different from when I did the program using my own foods.

When I stopped dieting, I tried to move to healthy foods which increased my interest in eating non-processed and organic food. Before I stopped dieting, I lived off of canned and boxed foods, even when I wasn't on a diet. (I should still eat Healthy Choice dinners because they were healthy, weren't they?)

Weight Watchers recently made a push to sell more of their frozen processed foods. I haven't eaten a Smart One meal in 15 years. (I don't eat any frozen foods except Amy's Gluten/dairy free burritos which I call emergency burritos because I eat them when my husband is home late and I don't want to cook.)

Unfortunately this push is more than just a "Buy our foods" deal. Katie Lowe of The Huffington Post refers to it as And for your 2014 U.S. marketing efforts, you've come up with a new campaign that -- without a hint of irony -- shames women for eating, and encourages them to adopt a healthier lifestyle by buying the range of processed, chemically formed patties you call "food."

Weight Watchers, Atkins, and genetic diet foods are often processed. (Even Atkins had these awful protein bars that tasted like cardboard) When I first started dieting, I ate diet foods not thinking about their content. It could come in a box, a can, a bag (thanks Nutrisystem) but if it was "Diet food" to me it was healthy.

Smart Ones aren't really healthy. They are high in sodium and low in fiber. To be honest, while my emergency burritos have natural (mostly) organic ingredients, they are also  heavily processed. But they don't have things like this list (taken from Smart Ones Egg and Cheese Wrap):

Tortilla (Water, Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Modified Wheat Starch, Canola Oil, Wheat Gluten, Glycerine, Baking Powder [Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Bicarbonate Soda, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate], Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Sugar, Salt, Granulated Garlic, Citric Acid), Scrambled Eggs (Egg Whites, Whole Eggs, Corn Starch, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Annatto [Coloring]), Cheese Sauce (Water, Pasteurized Process Cheese Spread (American Cheese [Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Water, Whey, Sodium Phosphate, Milkfat, Salt, Sodium-Alginate, Lactic Acid, Apocarotenal (Color, Contains Soybean Oil)], Nonfat Milk, Cheese Flavor [Cheddar Cheese Flavor (Milk, Salt, Enzymes, Cultures), Flavors (Contains Autolyzed Yeast), Maltodextrin (Corn), Salt, Whey Powder (Milk, Modified Cornstarch, Garlic, Modified Cellulose, Annatto (Vegetable Color, Soy), Yeast Extract, Salt), Cooked Pork Sausage (Pork, Water, Salt, Spices, Sugar, Caramel Color],Tomatoes (Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Calcium Chloride, Citric Acid), Green Chili Peppers, Mild Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes, Annatto (Color), Modified Cornstarch.

We can eat this or we can go to the farmer's market for fresh eggs, uncured bacon, and bread. None of which contain Monocalcium Phosphate.

Bon Appetit

Remember May 6th is International No Dieting Day, but we don't have to diet any day.

Comments

[Living 400lbs]

I'm not entirely sure that ALL processed food is bad for ALL people at all times ;) But I do think it says something that Weight Watchers pushes Health and Fruits and Veggies ... and then sells the exact opposite.

[Jennifer Hansen]

When I quit counting points and started listening to my body's hunger and satiety cues, I noticed that it took two Smart Ones meals to quell my hunger, and then I was jittery an hour and a half later. If I make my own breakfast of porridge, hard-cooked eggs, and fruit, it's just as fast (I precook eggs in batches every few days), costs a hell of a lot less, and keeps me going for four or more hours. How many calories are in my breakfast now? No frickin' idea.

[Carol Gwenn]

Great column!

It's no accident that some of us have always tried to eat what I think of as "clean" foods. As a kid, I went shopping with my mother who always read labels on cans & packaged products.
She said that if you needed a degree in chemistry to understand the labels, that was a product you did NOT want to put in your body.

It's amazing that companies purportedly SO interested in fat folks' health would market these chemical nightmares that surely can't be good for ANY body, regardless of size.

Thanks for putting the ingredient list out there in all its poisonous glory.

[Michelle2549]

You're right about the Amy's burritoes: I bought one to try (it was on sale) and it was boring as hell. And very dry.

We used to buy those diet bars, and my mom bought some of those diabetic chocolate bars when they first came out in the 90s (they were called Choice). They were very disgusting. I've heard that alot of people get really sick on those fake fats and fake sugars, like what WW sells. I've never eaten their bread or anything so I don't know, but it seems like they're playing God with us, to make a buck.