Weight Watchers Liberates Fruits and Veggies (But Not Brownies) From Points System

New changes to Weight Watchers’ points-counting system make fruits and veggies point-free. Now members can eat those foods without having to include them in their daily diet tallies. Oh, but what if you don’t like fruits and vegetables?

Then you’re SOL, basically—especially because all those yummy processed foods get higher point values under the new system, called PointsPlus. And fruity things that aren’t straight-up fruit, like juice and (one presumes) strawberry ice cream, still have points assigned to them. No fun there.

The NY Times says the new plan—in the works for several years—”is based on scientific findings about how the body processes different foods.” It seems to add consistency to a program that has been counting apple-points and cookie-points equally. That’s gotta be less confusing, right?

But the changes also seem to introduce some new issues, especially for people who aren’t fans of fruits and vegs. The Times notes one WW online discussion comment that goes, “I feel like I am being forced to ‘diet,’ and that is what I DO NOT WANT.” If people genuinely feel this way, as this person surely does, then doesn’t the new system defeat the whole program’s promise not to “teach you how to diet”? PointsPlus might be more scientific and all, but sometimes science doesn’t jive with people’s attitudes and preferences. Guess we’ll see how this all adds up (sorry!).