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Product-based diet plans are short-term solutions that fall into the latter category, said Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers International, which promotes learning to eat all foods in moderation. "That approach is like giving a person a cod for breakfast and a mackerel for lunch
-- but the person still hasn't learned how to fish," she said. Miller-Kovach also noted that people also get sick of eating the same thing all the time, which is why diet food makers have to roll out so many product extensions. Other healthy eating advocates question the nutritional credentials of such packaged snacks, and whether they have any role in a healthy diet. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, notes that there's a difference between trying to lose weight and eating better. So while the Special K cereal bars may only be 90 calories, for example, he notes that they're full of corn syrup and a long list of other ingredients people may not recognize. "It probably provides 90 calories of a tasty snack but it's not a health food," Jacobson said. Still, Special K has its loyal followers. Lindsay Cobb, a 30-year-old who works in finance in New York City, got into the habit of eating Special K with Red Berries for breakfast after trying it at her mother's house four years ago. "My metabolism was slowing down and it beat having a bagel in the morning," she said. She still eats it for breakfast on most weekdays, estimating that the generous bowls she pours herself clock in at around 250 calories with skim milk. And Cobb is usually willing to try whatever new Special K products she sees at the supermarket at least once. Even though she doesn't like to snack often, she trusts that a Special K treat won't crash her diet.
[Associated
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