Taco Bell's new 'Drive-Thru Diet' might not be as healthy as it sounds

Subway has always led the fast food restaurant industry as healthier than the others. It has shown Jared, a frequent consumer of Subway, losing weight eating its sandwich.

Now it seems that Taco Bell has taken a page out of Subway's book. Taco Bell's new "Drive-Thru Diet" is comprised of seven meals that are less than 350 calories total. The Fresco selection, as the items are collectively called, features the classic burritos and tacos with healthier twists.

Taco Bell's new commercials state that a woman named Christine, who was overweight, finally chose to lose weight but didn't want to get rid of fast food, so she switched to Taco Bell. Its "Drive-Thru Diet" helped her cut calories with the same great taste. In the end, it helped her lose 54 pounds.

I've only seen Christine once, in one commercial, after supposedly losing these excess pounds, and perhaps it would have been more believable if we saw her before, during and after her weight loss.

I took a further look into comparing one of the Fresco options with one of the regular options. There is a chicken supreme burrito on both menus; between the two, there was not such a huge difference. The calories for the Fresco option were only 50 less, only four grams less fat and only one gram less in carbohydrates.

To me this was a major disappointment. I love Taco Bell and always have, and when hearing that there was a "Drive-Thru Diet" menu it made me think, "Hey, I can have my fast food and eat healthy as well. Perhaps I'll lose weight."

On Taco Bell's Fresco Web site, it says it is "not a weight loss program," yet it is called a diet. My conclusion with this is that even though the Fresco selections have less calories and fat, the results are not dramatic enough to call it a diet.

The controversial question is whether fast food should be advertised as healthy, even if it really isn't. Though it is shown that Taco Bell's Fresco menu is slightly healthier than their normal counterparts, I would not say it is diet-friendly.

Viewers have no clue who Christine is and what her true story is. I find it hard to believe that there truly is a Christine. Taco Bell should have looked at Subway's playbook a little longer to realize they need to show before and after photos for viewers to believe.

Taco Bell takes its advertisement one step further, offering a coupon online for a free Fresco taco. This makes the deal for me because even if it is not healthy, a free meal is just that, free. In today's economy there are not a lot of things for free.

Fast food is starting to focus on lower calorie meals because American society is pushing health issues. It is more widely known that obesity and other health issues are big problems and that Americans could slim down a few pounds. Apparently, fast food is jumping on the diet train, too.

In general, the fact that the fast food industry is focusing on healthier options is a good thing. The way Taco Bell is advertising it is a bad thing.