Yalie Goes on Tasti D-iet

Freshman Christine Kwon recently documented her three-day Tasti-only experiment for the Yale Herald. The research was allegedly to "explore the social and gastronomic aspects of a dieting phenomenon; that [she] wanted to answer an essential question: What is Tasti and why does it matter?" The dieting phenomenon in question, apparently, is women who eat almost entirely on Tasti D-Lite and iced coffee. Nice. Unfortunately, the experiment provided little clarity:

The past few days have raised more questions than provided answers. The actual secrets of Tasti remain as elusive as ever. All I know is that it is “not frozen yogurt, because it does not contain any yogurt, nor is it ice cream, because it does not contain a significant amount of cream.”

The article's worth checking out. Christine's final conclusion:

I can see the appeal. There’s something perversely comforting about the idea of consuming something so synthetic. I don’t think anyone but someone who has actually stepped on the scale every morning on a Tasti D-Lite diet will understand. Even if a portion of Tasti has more calories than advertised, the “light” feeling that one gets is completely authentic, albeit mixed half-and-half with hysteria. If only for the experience of feeling that lovely, empty yet satisfying sensation alone, the whole thing was worth it. I still don’t know what’s in Tasti D-Lite, and no one probably ever will. Maybe this is the kind of thing we should just take at face value and just blindly accept. Maybe we’re all better off that way.