Jared over at The Lose Weight Diet is with us on the inherent bullshittiness (yes, we invented that word) of “The Special K Challenge,” from his post:

Special K cereal does not cause weight loss in any way whatsoever. It’s just calories. There are no weight loss vitamins, minerals, ingredients or magic fairy dust in it that makes it any different than any other calories. Sure, it’s low fat, and that’s always nice. Sure, it’s low in calories too, but so is everything else that’s low in fat. It is calories and nothing more.

Do you know what that means? It means that if someone is going to claim Special K makes you lose weight, or even just slightly helps you lose weight, you can equally claim that it makes you gain weight. Why? BECAUSE IT’S CALORIES.

Readers of this blog may harangue us for writing about something so obvious, but Special K is Kellogg’s best selling product because of this campaign, and blog searches reveal scores of women who are taken in by the “drop a jeans size” claim. Here’s a podcast from Advertising Age explaining “how Special K has evolved from a simple breakfast cereal to a megabrand dieting program that competes with Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.” —MEGHANN MARCO

Special K Cereal: The Miracle Diet Food [The Lose Weight Diet]

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