Move over Jared, there’s a new face on the fast food weight-loss scene.
Meet Christine Dougherty, a pretty Floridian who lost an impressive 54 pounds eating … wait for it … Taco Bell Drive-Thru food. Seriously.
(We do have to admit that their former pitch person — the Taco Bell Chihuahua — was always slim and trim, so it seems like Dougherty is legitimately on to something.)
“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,” Dougherty said on Taco Bell’s Drive-Thru Diet Web site (likely with some help from Taco Bell corporate shills). “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!”
In a seeming effort to keep up with other fast-food chains that offer healthier menu items, Taco Bell — whose unofficial slogan among college kids has long been “run for the toilet” — is trying to show that it too has a health-conscious side. It is heavily promoting its “Drive-Thru Diet Menu,” which features seven “Fresco” drive-thru items that have less than nine grams of fat.
Choose from selections including the relatively yummy-sounding Fresco Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco (just four grams of fat and 170 calories) or the Fresco Crunchy Taco (with 7 grams of fat and 150 calories). What’s more, each Fresco menu item features a full serving of vegetables.
Dougherty made her first media appearance today in Manhattan at a media briefing event to show off her slim physique and tout the new Drive-Thru Diet Menu. Ironically, the appearance comes just three days after Taco Bell’s founder, Glen Bell, died at age 86. The Associated Press points out that Bell grew his business from a single drive-in restaurant to the largest Mexican fast-food chain in the country, which serves more than 36.8 million consumers each week in more than 5,600 US locations.
We gotta admit that we don’t exactly think of Taco Bell when we think about health food. But if it worked for Dougherty, it might not hurt to give them a try.
Photo courtesy of qnr via Flickr.