Special K diet ad riles nutritionists

By T. Shawn Taylor
Tribune staff reporter

In its newest advertising campaign for Special K cereal brands, Kellogg Co. suggests that women take the Special K Challenge, which essentially is this: Eat two meals of cereal, snack on fruits and vegetables, and eat one normal meal every day for two weeks.

The potential result: Lose one jean size, or up to 6 pounds, in two weeks.

But the ads don't sit well with nutritionists and diet experts such as Elaine Wilkes of Santa Monica, Calif.

"When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke," said Wilkes, a nutritionist who came up with a slogan of her own: "With this diet, don't get rid of your big jeans."

"It's empty calories with no nutritional value," Wilkes said. "When my clients just have cereal and nothing else for breakfast, they end up eating more [later in the day]. In the long term, you get more depressed because you're gaining the weight back.

"I call this charge-card eating: You eat now and pay later with interest."

Kellogg spokeswoman Jenny Taylor-Enochson defended the cereal diet, saying it is based on research by nutrition experts at Purdue University that was published in the October 2001 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. The "challenge," first introduced in 2001, has been used on and off through the years.

The cereal diet is intended to be followed for one two-week period only, the idea being that fast results will motivate people to adopt healthier eating habits, Taylor-Enochson said.

Kellogg isn't the only company to promote its products as meal substitutes. The makers of diet drink Slim Fast and the producers of Snicker candy bars have employed similar tactics.

But critics of the Special K Challenge, which targets women and is being promoted during popular television shows such as "Desperate Housewives," say that quick-fix diets have been so widely denounced by health experts that the campaign makes Kellogg appear out of touch.

Studies of high fiber and dairy diets have shown inconsistent results for years, said Dr. Steven Aldana, professor of lifestyle medicine at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. He said Kellogg took one favorable study and ran with it.

"Time will tell, for sure," Aldana said. "Such a one-sided approach to dieting is great for business but completely contrary to established nutrition research."

Stacy Piket, 28, of San Francisco, took the challenge a year ago when the hook was to lose a dress size in two weeks. "It wasn't hard to follow, but I was hungry," Piket said. "As soon as I ate real food, I'd gain a pound."

Eating smaller portions and exercising helped her drop to a size 6 from a size 10, Piket said.