How Did The Teacher in Iowa Lose Weight Just Eating McDonalds

I am sure that you all have seen the news this week, but here's a quick recap if you haven't.  A science teacher in Iowa gave his students an assignment to change his diet.  He challenged them to plan three meals a day, that totaled 2000 calories.  The tricky part was that all these meals had to come from McDonald's.  They also were to keep the macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) somewhat balanced.  He followed this diet for 90 days while adding in 45 minutes of walking every day.  He ended the 90 days losing 37 pounds and having a significant improvement in his total cholesterol, dropping it from 249 to 170.  I have to admit I was a bit shocked by these numbers, so let's look in detail to see how this could happen.

A science teacher in Iowa gave his students an assignment to change his diet.  He challenged them to plan three meals a day, that totaled 2000 calories.  The tricky part was that all these meals had to come from McDonald's.  They also were to keep the macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) somewhat balanced.  He followed this diet for 90 days while adding in 45 minutes of walking every day.  He ended the 90 days losing 37 pounds and having a significant improvement in his total cholesterol, dropping it from 249 to 170.  I have to admit I was a bit shocked by these numbers, so let's look in detail to see how this could happen.

Let's start with his diet.  No one knows what Mr. Cisna's diet was like before this 90-day diet.  My bet is that he ate significantly more than 2000 calories a day.  I would also guess that he was drinking a significant amount of empty calories in the form of soda or other sugary beverages.  It has been clinically shown that just by reducing your caloric intake, you will reduce your cholesterol and more than likely reduce your weight.   So that one simple step, no matter what the food, could cause someone to drop weight.

The second thing that Mr. Cisna did was walked 45 minutes every day.  This was more than likely the cause of his dramatic changes in his weight and cholesterol.  There are numerous studies that show just increasing your activity level with simple walking will cause weight loss and a decrease in cholesterol.  If you happen to connect that with his reduction in caloric intake, his impressive results start to make more sense.

Although his results were positive, I have a few overall issues with this whole 'diet.'

First McDonald's serves cheaply processed low-quality food.    They use feedlot corn-fed beef, which is raised on a fraction of the acreage a cow needs to be healthy.  This creates extremely toxic bacteria ridden land.  In fact, the mud is so toxic that if you visit these fields, you have to “decontaminate yourself” when you leave.  Personally, I don't want to eat something that was forced to live in an environment that requires decontamination.   So not only does this beef start out a suspect, but they also add LFTB (Lean Fine Textured Beef) or pink slime to it.   I've searched high and low for studies, and have yet to find one which shows pink slime being great or anywhere close to good for your health.

Now let's look at 'chicken,' and yes, I'm using this term very loosely.  The chicken farming industry is pretty brutal.   Most of those chickens don’t see the light of day.   When it comes time for butchering, it's difficult for them to take the five steps required to reach the food dispensary.  So it's suspect to start, and then if you eat a chicken nugget, that whole nugget is only around 50% of actual meat.  Your other 50% could include things like pure fat, blood vessels, pieces of bone, nerves, and cartilage.  So yes, you're eating 'chicken.'

I dislike that Mr. Cisna is justifying to the youth of America that eating this toxic, nutrient devoid food can lead to health.  It's not even real food!   Yes, I do agree with him in the fact that it's all about the choices we make about the food we eat.  However, those foods he chose to eat will not equate to long-term health.   I still profess that removing grains, corn, soy and sometimes dairy, and adding REAL food will have an even bigger impact on your overall health than eating whatever 2000 calories you can conjure up from McDonald's.

So just curious, who's heading to McDonald's tomorrow to start that great diet plan?