Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Well, well, well, what do we have here?















For years I have been complaining about Weight Watchers not allowing their members to eat as much fruit as they want.

In my "What is a diet" post, I talk about how my mother-in-law used to eat only a half a banana because it was "too many points" to eat the whole thing and how absurd that seemed to me.

That's not a diet. That's The Idiot's Guide to Eating.

Under the old Weight Watchers' point system, “You could be holding an apple in one hand, which was two points, and you could be holding a 100-calorie snack pack of Oreos in the other hand, which was also two points."*, meaning eating an apple was seen as the same as eating a small bag of Oreos.

I'm sorry, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Not to mention unhealthy.

Well, it looks like somebody was listening to my complaints because now—finally!—Weight Watchers has decided to let their members eat as much fruit and vegetables as they want. As The New York Times points out, "All fruits and most vegetables are [now] point-free."

Hurray!

As The Times explains, this is a huge change for the nearly two million devotees of the national dieting program who are used to counting every grape, banana, and pear: "Their world [has] been rocked . . . A 31-year-old teacher from Midtown Manhattan who had barely touched a banana in six years wanted to know if she could really consume them with impunity."

Yes, it's really true. You can now eat bananas until your stomach is full and your heart is content.

Guess I know what I'm getting my mother-in-law for Christmas.

3 comments:

  1. Under one of their plans (the core plan), you can eat as many bananas as you want and you don't have to count points at all. It sounds like they made an adjustement to the other plan (the flex plan) but the way this is being reported (by the New York Fishwrapper and by your aunt) is a half-truth.

    Also, Serena Williams may have a super-feminine and buff body, but she proved at the 2009 US Open that she's a creep.

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  2. Why are you dragging my aunt into this, Tom???

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  3. I don't know. I think I meant your mother-in-law.

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