Europe Intelligence Wire, March 11, 2004 pNA

Down with carbohydrates! US "low carb" food fad on up.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 Financial Times Information Ltd.

(From Agence France Presse)

The low carbohydrate diet -- limiting sugar and starch -- is taking over America, spawning a new multimillion dollar industry, but provoking alarm cries from consumer groups.

Some 59 million Americans -- almost 30 percent of the population -- now control the amount of carbohydrates they eat, according to a recent study by the Valen Group.

"We've already seen an explosion of interest in low-carb products and the signs are that 2004 will be a banner year in the category," said Tom Weir, of Progressive Grocer magazine.

After the craze on cutting calories and the fad for "light" products, the fashion now is to eliminate carbs -- and the agro-food industry is making the most of it.

The diet, based around cutting down sugars or starches and increasing protein intake, was made popular by the Atkins diet. Its author, Dr. Robert Atkins, first published his book on the subject in 1973 that has since sold more than 10 million copies.

"It is a sort of wild, wild West for this industry," said Iris Shaffer, director of the Low Carb Manufacturers Alliance, a lobby group of manufacturers set up just a few months ago.

"We support better consumer information, including labeling," Shaffer noted.

In January, 450 companies gathered for two days at a "Low Carb Summit" in Denver, Colorado to talk about opportunities in a market worth tens of billions of dollars.

The meat industry was the first to benefit from the trend, and saw a net increase in sales to the detriment of pasta and bread and sweets manufacturers.

The latter group opted to counter-attack, and moved into the territory, with some chocolate bars even bearing the label "low carb."

Pizza companies, jumping on the bandwagon, are proposing "low carb" pizzas. One such is the Donatos chain, a former subsidiary of McDonald's.

One of the three main US brewers groups, Coors, joined a market full of competitors on March 1 with its own low carb beer.

The publishing industry is also benefiting from the trend.

The magazine LowCarb Energy, due to be launched in May, maintains there's never been a better time to publish on the low carb lifestyle.

But according to recent scientific research, diets low in carbohydrates are no better in the long run than the more traditional diets that cut fat intake. Eating fats without restriction, meanwhile, potentially raises cholesterol levels, a factor in cardiac illnesses.

"With two out of three American adults overweight and obesity rates surging in children and teens, the nation cannot afford to let this carbohydrate craze add even more pounds to our bellies and backsides," warned Bonnie Liebman, a diet specialist at consumers association the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"In recent weeks, manufacturers have started to flood supermarket shelves with foods that make implied low-carb claims like 'carb-smart', 'carb aware', and 'carb sense'," the association laments.

"Consumers clearly buy those foods because they expect to get fewer carbs," Liebman said.

The CSPI is calling on the US Food and Drug Administration to set out an official definition for what is "low carb", to avoid a plethora of misleading labels. "The proliferation of carbohydrate claims on food labels and menus should spur the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to define "low-carb" and other carbohydrate claims," it says.