America needs the Twinkie diet

Americans love to diet. It's part of our culture.

We love to eat, too. Which is why sooner or later we all talk about shedding a few pounds.

But thankfully we no longer have to eat rice cakes to lose weight.

Joni has tried to introduce me to the culinary joy of rice cakes. But so far I've resisted her encouragement.

I like rice. But I'm not thrilled about rice cakes. Cake and rice just don't go together.

But thankfully our nation has discovered that diets don't have to be bland. A health magazine recently published an article about "summer's sweetest diet."

That's the Ice Cream Diet. New research from the University of Colorado shows that adults can burn more fat by eating ice cream.

It beats climbing the Rocky Mountains. But I'm still not convinced that eating a ton of ice cream is the best way to lose weight.

But at least it sounds great.

Our older daughter, Becca, eats a big bowl of ice cream almost nightly. Now I'll have to tell her that she's embraced a healthy lifestyle.

One woman said she lost weight at a spa in Vermont where customers consumed pizza and ice cream. Most Americans couldn't find fault with such a diet.

It's the kind of diet that our 10-year-old daughter, Bailey, would love.

Apparently, the ice cream has a lot of calcium, which helps burn fat. I'm not sure how the pizza fits into the weight-loss equation.

But as a pizza lover, I'm all for it.

Experts say no weight-loss program is complete without exercise. The Ice Cream Diet recommends 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three to five days a week and 20 minutes of strength training two or three days a week.

At this rate, we'll all be feasting on ice cream as part of the local chamber's Shape Up Cape program. The program is designed to get us moving and keep us from becoming permanent couch potatoes. You get points for exercising, but so far I haven't seen points assigned to eating ice cream.

And if ice cream is good for you, how about Twinkies?

I think America needs a Twinkie diet.

After all, a treat that is 76 years old has to have some nutritional value.

There's even a Twinkies cookbook, complete with recipes for Twinkie sushi (sounds better than rice cakes), Twinkie milkshake and Twinkie lasagna.

Many Americans have dined on the snack food. The cookbook makes us feel better about it.

If it's in a cookbook, we reason, it can't be so bad for your health. It's not a snack, but a meal.

The Twinkie was born during the Great Depression. A Chicago area baker created the treat by whipping up some oblong finger cakes and stuffing them with banana filling.

For a nickel, hungry Americans could get two of them.

Bananas became scarce during World War II, resulting in a switch to cream filling. It's been that way ever since.

Some 500 million of these snacks are produced annually.

I'm sure even more would be produced if a health magazine would tout a Twinkie diet.

Of course, I would only advocate eating Twinkies in association with exercise. But there's no reason why it can't be a treat to shape up.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.