Hungry Girl Feeds a Nation of Snackers

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts)
May 7th 2009 5:00PM

Hungry Girl, aka Lisa Lillien, laughs in the face of that common piece of nutrition advice: Shop the perimeter of your grocery store. "People are hypocrites," she recently told the Washington Post. "They say 'shop the perimeter of the store, never eat anything that's not organic,' but it's B.S., because people can't live like that forever." Instead, Lillien shows them how to enjoy their favorite -- mostly processed -- foods without the extra calories (or guilt).

It's a formula that seems to work for a lot of people. With her Hungry Girl website, Lillien has done for processed diet foods what Oprah did for books. Her email list is 700,000 strong, and when she recommends something sales go through the roof. "I know exactly what people will like," Lillien says. "I just know. I'm that way. When I taste something, I can say, 'You know what? I like it okay, but only 20 percent of the people will like it,' or 'If I really like it, then 99 percent of people will like it, too.'"

But should fit and healthy girls really follow Hungry Girl's lead? Take a look at her latest book, "200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories." On the cover are cupcakes and rolls, french fries and donuts. They might be under 200 calories, but are they really the slim secret to success? After all, that advice to shop the perimeter of the store (organics aside, because I don't think everyone has access to or can afford organics) isn't just for weight loss ... it's for nutrition.

Here's my take: If you're a snacker, a processed food lover, Hungry Girl is a step in the right direction. She can help you make the switch from high-calorie junk food to, well, low-calorie junk food. But if you're going to spend an hour trying to bread chicken with Cap'N Crunch cereal, then you've got time to create meals from fresh, whole foods too. I'd much rather enjoy a crunchy salad at lunch that leaves room for a small dish of real ice cream after dinner then eat artificially all day long.

It makes me think of a woman I used to work with who was chronically "on a diet." Every day at lunch, it was the same thing: a frozen diet dinner, a sugar-free Jello and a diet soda. She sat next to a friend of mine -- never on a diet. Most days, she brought a green salad for lunch, topped with chicken, egg or tuna, and piled high with fresh veggies, leftover stir-fries with chicken and brown rice or pita pockets stuffed with veggies and a little cheese or turkey. Sometimes she stuck in a bite-sized candy bar or a chocolate chip cookie.

Neither woman lost or gained weight while I worked with them, but I can tell you who enjoyed lunch more. There's plenty of nutritious food out there that's also delicious, and I think that Hungry Girl makes eating low-cal look harder than it needs to be.

What do you think?

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Comments (6)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

M 5-07-2009 @ 5:40PM

I used to be a big fan of Hungry Girl, subscribed to the newsletter, followed her on Yahoo, perused the recipes when I needed something to chew on. But no longer. What I came to realize is that processed foods - in such large bulk - are not for me. Part of it was the high cost - one box of those 100-calorie snacks is about $3.49 at my supermarket. In comparison, I can get fruit for much less -strawberries (in season) for $1.00, bananas for $.49 a pop, an entire pound of apples for $2.99. The other part was that I never felt satisfied eating those foods. I had a hard time limiting myself to just one bag of 100-calorie snacks. I'd say to myself, Well I can eat just one more, because it's only 100 calories. And before I knew it, i'd eaten all six packets in the box. And *still* felt hungry.

There were some good sides to Hungry Girl. It's because of HG that I discovered which fat-free yogurts are tasty enough to remember to eat, and I still have her supermarket list tucked inside of my wallet. There are a smattering of products that have earned a permanent place in my diet that I wouldn't have discovered without HG - Fage yogurt, laughing cow cheese, Fiber One cereal (though I can't eat it as often as HG recommends because it still tastes gross to me).

In the long run, I think HG should just be a stepping stone for people who are going from eating all processed foods all the time to making healthy choices without relying on microwave meals and portion-controlled baggies. If you recognize that, then good for you. But if you get stuck there, though, that's when it might become a problem.

u262f 5-07-2009 @ 7:43PM

I completely agree with you! I've been rolling my eyes every time I see Hungry Girl recommendations for months now, so I'm glad you posted this! A lot of her stuff and a bunch of those "Eat this, not that" recommendations just aren't worth the effort of the swap (not to mention that the recommended so-called foods are sometimes very scary too). It's just not possible to become healthy by going that way. Processed is still processed, and I firmly believe I became obese by trying to do swaps like that throughout my 20s. For people who want to get healthy and fix blood sugar and blood pressure problems, there's just no substitute for eating real fresh produce. (Organic everything goes way overboard and isn't practical.) Shopping the fresh produce section is what keeps people healthy. It doesn't mean that people can't occasionally have something processed and decadent, but I found her quote ironic: it's the people who _don't_ shop the perimeter of the store who "can't live like that forever". It's not BS at all, and there will be more of us store-perimeter-shoppers over time because the processed food swappers will die off faster.

Average Guy Workouts 5-08-2009 @ 5:47AM

Nice Site ...First time i heard About Hungry Girl..And Go throw the website.Very Nice tips, tricks & recipes... http://dietandexercises.wordpress.com/

Esss 5-08-2009 @ 9:47AM

I read the hungry girl website... I don't make a tonne of the recipes, but I like it for ideas...it has opened up my eyes to alot of lower calorie options that I didn't know existed. I like to know about those things for when I have a craving...instead of indulging in a 1000calorie desert at a restaurant, I can wait til I get home and have a 200calorie desert that is just as satisfying. Also, who knew about tofu shirataki?! I love pasta, and this stuff tastes pretty much the same to me...meaning I can have a creamy sauce on my tofu shirataki and not feel bad about it, whereas if I had real pasta I would never have a creamy sauce...only marinara.

Paige 5-13-2009 @ 2:37PM

Um....I don't think a lot of you really understand what Hungry Girl is actually famous for. While a lot of diet websites would tell someone to eat carrots instead of a Whopper, Hungry Girl shows people how to create a healthier, lower-calorie VERSION of the Whopper. They strive to let weight-watchers enjoy the junk foods they refuse to give up in a healthier way. It's not about being organic, it's not about saving money necessarily. It's about swapping.

Kelly 6-13-2009 @ 2:44PM

I completely agree with the poster above. She's NOT advocating an all-processed diet but she gives those of us who still LOVE junk food a great alternative. Those who only eat all of her recommendations and recipies are going to suffer nutritionally, but her recipes combined with whole fruits and veggies, simple proteins, etc is the perfect compromise for calorie counters.