Low Carb Lowdown: Sorting out the truth and judging the tastes of products born of the latest diet craze

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04055/276588.stm

Tuscan spinach dip. Buffalo wings. Chicken dripping with melted cheese.

On a recent chilly night at TGI Friday's, the menu was loaded with hot, sizzling selections that were, on the face of it, a calorie-counter's nightmare. But longtime dieters Matt Green and Debbie Graham just smiled and dug right in.

"Not bad," said Green of the gorgeously greasy spinach dip appetizer, while Graham nodded in agreement.

Green, of Ambridge, and Graham, of South Fayette, are veterans of one of the hottest diets around today -- the Atkins Diet, which claims that carbohydrates, not fat, are the culprit in America's obesity epidemic.

And, as such, Green and Graham were asked by the Post-Gazette to taste-test items on Friday's menu that have been recently given the "official" Atkins stamp of approval. And while the steak with bleu cheese wasn't exactly on a par with Morton's or Ruth's Chris, overall, the reviews were decent -- as long you're pro-fat and anti-carbohydrates.

Some 24 million adults are trying to be. Currently, 11 percent of the U.S. population is on some kind of low-carbohydrate diet, according to a national poll released last week by Opinion Dynamics Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., and retailers -- whether they be restaurants, fast-food chains or grocery stores -- are taking notice.

Besides, Friday's, there's Subway, which is marketing "Atkins Approved" sandwich wraps made from (relatively) low-carb soy flour. Hardee's, Chili's and Burger King also have low-carb offerings.

Food manufacturers are hopping onto the low-carb bandwagon, too. Last month, reduced carbohydrate versions of various products were launched in grocery stores, from Ragu pasta sauce to Skippy Peanut Butter. Russell Stover is marketing low-carb chocolate mint patties; Dannon, its "Carb Control" yogurt. And don't forget all those diet power bars, whether for snacking or meal replacement, that tout their low "net carbs" (but don't broadcast their calorie count, which can equal that of some candy bars).

Some of this low-carb craze has had an unpleasant fallout for food producers as well: Orange juice consumption (a no-no on both the South Beach and Atkins diets for its high sugar content) is down as much as 40 percent, as are sales of other high-starch products like bread and potatoes.

Putting taste to the test

So what does all this mean for the person who's trying to lose weight? Are these low-carb products any more healthful than their high-carb counterparts? And do they taste good?

We asked Green and Graham, our guests recently at TGI Friday's, to give us their opinion on the choices out there, for both dining out and dining in. Green, 50, is a veteran of the Atkins diet, which he first tried back in 1973, losing 55 pounds. He kept off the weight for a time, but gained it back slowly and has been on and off the diet. He started the Atkins diet again last month and hopes to lose at least 25 pounds.

Graham, 44, a mother of four, started researching low-carb diets in 1999 and after losing -- and keeping off -- more than 20 pounds, she has become something of a crusader for the low-carb approach to weight loss, swapping recipes with friends and always on the lookout for low-carb food products in the grocery stores.

They were joined by Madelyn Fernstrom, director of the Weight Management Center at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who, like so many obesity experts, is no fan of the high-fat Atkins diet, which she says could cause heart problems.

But she understands completely why the low-carb eating approach might be right for some people.

"There are no absolutes in eating," she says. "Atkins did a good thing by bringing fat consumption back, at a time when fat was thought to be the enemy."

Protein also can be of help, in that it will minimize spikes in blood sugar that create hunger and, consequently, excessive eating for some people. But "what we see in the low-carb craze -- or craziness -- is that the same mistakes relating to fat are again being repeated." The Atkins approach makes no distinction between what she calls heart healthy fats like olive oil and artery clogging fats like butter.

"And just as 'low fat' doesn't mean 'low calorie,' 'low carb' doesn't mean 'low calorie,' " she cautions.

Thank God for Fridays?

Everyone -- Green, Graham and Fernstrom -- agreed that the "Atkins Approved" menu at TGI Friday's would make it easier for someone on that diet to dine out without stumbling. The menu offers two appetizers and seven entrees: the aforementioned spinach dip, the wings, and the chicken, along with a second chicken with garlic dish; a New York strip steak topped with bleu cheese; char-grilled salmon; tuna salad with a lettuce wrap; grilled chicken Caesar salad and an entree of two cheeseburgers without the bun.

Interestingly, while the menu listed the "net" carb count of each dish, which ranged from 5 (the buffalo wings) to 17 (the spinach dip), there was no other nutritional information available. Even a call to TGI Fridays' headquarters near Dallas, Texas, produced only vague promises.

"It's something we're looking at," said Amy Freshwater, a TGI Friday's spokeswoman. "We realize that's something the public is interested in. We have an entire group of people looking at how we can address those needs."

Maybe the reluctance had something to do with the fact that most of these dishes were loaded with fat, which made a nutritionist and non-Atkins-acolyte like Fernstrom recoil a bit. But she approvingly noted that all the dishes came with generous helpings of bright green steamed broccoli.

Fernstrom noted that fat does bring one important benefit to eating -- what she called the "satiety" factor, which makes people feel fuller longer because it slows digestion.

"Fat keeps you content, so the level of satiety is more intense than if you're eating from the bottom of the food pyramid," where most carbohydrates reside.

From a taste perspective, Green gave the entrees a positive review.

His favorite dish? "The steak with blue cheese. I like steak, and the sauce was nice. It was moist and good tasting. I didn't feel that the cheese was even necessary." His least favorite? "I wasn't wild about the cheeseburger. It looked less appetizing sitting on the plate than it would have on a bun."

Green, who sells wine for a living, is something of an aficionado of good food. "Oh, God, it's true, but I don't like to say it, since I would eat pizza no matter where it came from. I never met a pizza I didn't like. But if push came to shove, I might spend my money at a higher-end restaurant for food containing similar ingredients, but prepared with more finesse."

Graham raved about the salad of field greens with Balsamic vinegar that came with the chicken, which she also liked. But overall, she thought Ruby Tuesday offers better low-carb choices, including what she described as a "killer low-carb cheesecake."

Fernstrom rated the char-grilled salmon filet (6 carbs) as the best choice from a heart-healthy standpoint, while the sizzling chicken (17 carbs), cooked in olive oil AND butter AND cheese "is a poor choice. It's swimming in fat."

Overall, Fernstrom sees TGI Friday's concept as a good one, because the menu doesn't force the shy diner to tell the waiter to hold the potatoes, please.

"People are intimidated in restaurants," Fernstrom noted. "This makes it possible to order something without undergoing assertiveness training."

Low-carb at home

A few specialty stores devoted to selling only low-carb food have opened in the Pittsburgh area, but supermarkets are getting into the act. A visit to Giant Eagle in the Waterworks Mall near Aspinwall unearthed a surprising number of low-carb choices, which we brought to the Post-Gazette for a tasting.

For the most part, the results were not encouraging. Words like "concrete" and "tasteless" were bandied about. Still, for the low-carb dieter, they would have to do.

Or would they?

With assistance from Graham and Fernstrom, along with some curious staffers, we placed them into three categories.

The Best: These were foods that were not only good-tasting but good nutrition. They included Dannon's "Carb Control" yogurt. Available in four flavors and with three grams of carbohydrates, 80 percent less sugar than regular lowfat yogurt, five grams of protein and 15 percent of the recommended daily value of calcium, Carb Control is a "great product," said Fernstrom, because it added a little fat to the yogurt, improving "mouth feel."

Another winner: Subway's wraps, in chicken and turkey, which were not exactly low calorie, since they averaged about 450 calories, but featured chewy, satisfying soy-flower tortillas. Total carb count ranged from 19 to 22, depending on the type of wrap, although net carbs were much lower.

Lean Cuisine's entrees also got good reviews. The company has introduced 11 frozen low-carb dinners, all under 300 calories and 25 carbs. Atkins' Soy Chips were also cited as a good choice for flavor -- intensely salty -- and with 8 grams of carbohydrates, 3 of which were fiber, a decent option for the low-carb dieter. The calorie count, at 140 calories a bag, was also reasonably low.

In the OKish category, tasters liked Klondike's low-carb, chocolate coated ice cream bars, which were deemed tasty enough, although some complained about the "cottony" texture of the ice cream. Plus, the bars have little nutritional value.

Low-carb pasta (18 grams) by Darielle was also given a decent grade, especially for its relatively high (28 grams) protein content, although some people didn't like the taste of the soy flour at all.

Pria's original snack bars were rated higher than their "new and improved" low-carb bars, which have more calories, despite their lower net carb count.

In the Worst category, there were some surprises. Low-carb bread by Healthy Home got failing grades for taste -- "like cardboard" and "spongy" -- and nutrition, since, as Fernstrom pointed out, at 60 calories per slice, they were actually higher in calories than regular "light" Country Hearth bread (70 calories for two slices), lower in fiber and roughly equivalent in carbohydrates, at between 8 and 10 grams.

Tasters also rebelled against low-carb muffins from a mix made by a company called Ketogenics that contained Splenda, a low-calorie sweetener made from sugar. They had virtually no nutritional value and a funny taste. (Graham suggested that you slightly under cook these bread mixes to improve taste and texture.)

Bella Vita low-carb pasta sauce was deemed a waste of money at $3.69, since most tomato sauce is low in carbohydrates and costs less, but Graham liked the company's pasta product, which tasted better than Darielle's.

In the end, because of increased use of soy flour and natural-tasting sweeteners like Splenda, there are some products on the grocery shelves that may help low-carb dieters get through the day. But, as Fernstrom reiterated, you may do just as well focusing on whole-grain breads or pastas in moderate amounts, along with vegetables and fruits.

But if you crave a snack, there are choices, like the Atkins Soy Chips, the Carb Control yogurt and the Klondike ice cream bars, that will do in a pinch.

For those confused about just how much a net carb really is, wait: the Food and Drug Administration is planning to get into the mix later this year, when it announces a standard for what constitutes "low carbohydrate."

In the meantime, it's every dieter for himself, said Fernstrom.

"We live in very confusing food times."

(Mackenzie Carpenter is following the less-restricted low-carb South Beach diet for six months as part of a weight-loss series running in the PG's Magazine. She can be reached at 412-263-1949 or mcarpenter~post-gazette.com.)