Thursday, February 12, 2004

Ready for some low-carb love?

Chocolate low in carbohydrates becoming a hot Valentine's treat.

Gannett News Service

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index....wcarbchocolates

A not-so-sweet milestone is approaching: the first low-carb Valentine's Day.

How romantic.

Snatch a low-carb box of chocolate for your sweetie - for about twice the price of traditional candy. Don't laugh. The low-carb diet craze popularized by Atkins - which has touched 1 in 4 Americans - may have grown so large that most of those who receive it wrapped with a bow won't be insulted.

Perhaps no one believes that more than Russell Stover, the nation's No. 3 chocolate maker, which sells more chocolate heart boxes on Valentine's Day than anyone. The company has rushed hundreds of thousands of heart-shaped boxes of low-carb chocolate to retailers from Wal-Mart to Walgreen's.

"I'm going into stores and seeing half are already gone," says Tom Ward, president of Russell Stover. Its low-carb boxes are wrapped in silver ribbon - instead of gold - and plastered with two "low-carb" stickers on the front.

Cutting carbs isn't cheap. For the same $7.99, candy buyers can get an 8.25-ounce box of low-carb chocolate or a 16-ounce box of regular, assorted chocolates. The price difference is because the sugar alcohols and sweeteners used in low-carb chocolate cost many times more than sugar.

Ward figures up to 8 percent of the company's Valentine's candy sales will be low carb. That also includes a low-carb version of the Whitman's Sampler, a brand Stover also owns.

Ward is already savoring Valentine's Day 2005. "We didn't get into the low-carb business until June," he says. "Next year, we'll have a lot more options."

Stover also has something on tap for spring: low-carb, chocolate Easter eggs.

But few nutritionists are biting. "I'd rather see a more natural chocolate," says Jo Ann Hattner, author of "Help! My Underwear is Shrinking."

"When we start to alter our foods, we don't get the same satisfaction," she says. "Besides, chocolate isn't a very high-carb food."

But the chocolate makers are gung-ho:

Atkins. While Atkins is doing no Valentine's Day promotion, it is seeing strong sales of its candies and chocolates, says Colette Heimowitz, vice president of research at Atkins Nutritionals. Atkins chocolate "is a pretty nice gift if your Valentine is on the program," she says.

Hershey Foods. No, the chocolate giant won't have low-carb chocolate ready for Valentine's Day. But that hasn't stopped consumers from asking. Many have phoned or e-mailed to ask about the company's Hershey's 1 gram Sugar Carb bars, due in mid-March, spokeswoman Christine Dugan says.

Gift baskets. The hot Valentine's gift from Elegantly Expressed gift baskets is its $50 Low Carb Chocolate Lovers Basket. One in five baskets contain low-carb treats

Regional candymakers. Even the 71-store Gertrude Hawk Chocolates chain in Dunmore, Pa., is testing low-carb chocolate this Valentine's Day. Owner Dave Hawk admits he doesn't understand why people want it. "Coming here for low-carb chocolate is like going to Ben & Jerry's for low-carb ice cream," he says.

But in northern Ohio, the 15-store Malley's Chocolates chain refuses to even consider low-carb chocolate.

"We don't mess with that stuff," President Dan Malley says. "We only carry the real thing."