Hope you like salsa!

I’ll be honest, this one makes me laugh. Taco Bell has launched an infomercial for their Fresco line of reduced-fat meal options. They call it the Drive Thru Diet, but they are quick to point out that “Drive-Thru-Diet is not a weight-loss program.” Uh-huh. Okay.

Their main spokesperson is a woman named Christine, who lost 54 pounds over the course of two years eating the Fresco line. And just how did she do that? I’ll let Christine explain it:

As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet menu is not a weight-loss program. It’s about making different choices. For me, I didn’t want to cut out my fast food so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic!

Okay then… Christine’s testimonial sounds an awful lot like legal terms and vague generalizations to me, but I guess that’s what one expects from a testimonial posted on the website of one of the nations most popular fast-food joints. Now that we know this isn’t a weight-loss program, despite the marketing approach, I guess we’re all good.

So, what is the Drive Thru Diet? Essentially, it’s a lifestyle that regularly includes items from the Fresco line. Items in which they’ve taken a number of their most popular menu items, removed the cheese and flavorful sauce, and added heaping portions of “fiesta salsa”, also known as diced tomato chunks with liquid. According to the Los Angeles Times, it saves about 50 calories an item. Yay…

Don’t get me wrong… I love me some Taco Bell. It may not be real Mexican food, but it’s quick, easy, and tasty. And admittedly, eating it too often is one of the reasons I got fat in the first place. But the truth is that eating Taco Bell in moderation, just like anything else, will result in you being absolutely fine. It’s all about calories and fat (which, admittedly, are cut marginally by the Fresco line). However, if you eat the 10 Taco meal, regardless of whether it’s original or Fresco style, you’ll blow up bigger than the Goodyear Blimp in no time. It’s not rocket science!

I’ll ask again: What is the Drive Thru Diet? Essentially it’s a marketing gimmick. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I think this is nothing more than Taco Bell emulating Subway’s ad campaign based on Jared Fogle, who lost 245 pounds in a year eating their sandwiches, and kept it off for the past 11 or 12 years. Jared is the man, and Taco Bell thinks Christine may be their woman. Will it pay off?

I guess we’ll wait and see… I know I printed my coupon for that free taco! And I’ll be counting it in my daily food log when I eat it, too.