Ok.. I might be totally off the mark here, and this is mostly random musing but.....

Does it seem to anyone else that after the blessed Dr. Atkins passed away, there was a HUGE influx of low carb advertisement and product pushing?

I have a pretty complex view of low carb and read as many different kinds of viewpoints as possible, frequent body building forums etc. and believe it is one of the healthisest ways to eat. I've very happy that it is gaining popularity... But a lot of these products which are being pushed WITH THE ATKINS SYMBOL ON THEM don't really seem to follow his general phlilosophy.. which in my opion has more to do with healthful eating, than with replacing all of the high carb foods you used to eat, with fake foods of the same nature.

I obviously don't know who or what is driving the propaganda, and like I said - I'm happy low carb is gaining popularity and certainly enjoy things like low carb ketchup, tortillas, sweetners etc. but on a certain level it makes me a little sad, and I feel somewhat defensive.. in a way.

Can anyone relate?

Unfortunately, I think it was inevitable. The food industry isn't stupid ... they will always try to give the people what they want, or at least fake it if they can.

Consider the "low fat" products of the last dozen years. I'm sure there were initially a small number number of real low fat, healthy items available to consumers. Then the big manufacturers jumped in with both feet, and now we have "low fat" food products stuffed with sugars and starches.

I fear we're going to see (or more acurately, we're starting to see) the same thing as low carb becomes mainstream. Initially there were a small number of commercially available products that were actually low carb. Now we're starting to see the food industry push "low carb" products stuffed with sugar alchohols and transfats.

As always, caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. There isn't a single item in the grocery store that I'll put in my cart without studying the nutrition label, including the so-called Atkins-friendly and other "low carb" products.

I am originally from Australia (came here 6 years ago) and one of the first things that struck me was, how quickly and completely the American food industry jumps on a new thing 110%.

Low Carb products are springing up everywhere here now very very quickly. When I arrived 6 years ago I was amazed how many low fat products there were in all areas of the food industry.

Back in Australia then if you wanted to eat low fat you used your common sence and chose foods that were low fat. Rarely did you find special foods made for you.

Now that may have changed now but I'm guessing that there are no where near the choices for Low carb for them either. You just follow the diet the way Atkins recommends with good whole foods.

So yes...the industry jumps quickly and completely to provide for a new way of eating (since 1972 haha).

On a side note, I saw something that irritated me this morning. My husband asked me to get him some low carb bread. He's moving through OWL quickly and feels ready for this. So I find the section and get him some. All the loaves have a big flourescent orange sticker boasting 3 net carbs! 5 net carbs!. On the same shelf by the same brand are bagels that with the same orange sticker boast 5 gms fiber! making one immediately assume these are lo carb too. On checking the back, they did have 5 gms of fiber but also had 40 gms carbs for a 35 gm net carb!. Caveat Emptor indeed.

People love to eat "junk food". First there was low fat junk food (Wow potato chips come to mind). Now there is low carb junk food. The junk food industry is partly responsible for the increase in obesity, and is taking advantage of the bad eating habits Americans have developed. The food industry isn't interested in changing people's eating habits into healthy ones. That isn't as profitable as the junk food industry.

It's all about profit. And I'm afraid that the low carb junk food (just think of how mahy low carb products are desserts or treats as opposed to non-junk items) is going to give low carb eating a bad name.

People will continue to eat poorly while thinking they're eating low carb, and fail to lose weight or actually gain weight. Then low carb eating will gain a bad reputation.

It really bothers me that there is such a prevalance of junk food out there - you are assualted with chips, cookies, candies, and other kinds of junk all the time - whether it be regular, low fat, or low carb.

Americans need to get back to basics and give up all the junk they eat.

Aaaahhhhh, feels good to rant!

Joan

just my two cents, i read in the newspaper the other day that the low carb revolution will create about 30 million dollars this year they figure. well all those stores and brands want to be in on that money. i still watch everything i buy and eat by reading labels carefully. those low carb stickers sometimes arent the truth. my mom also does low carb as well as my sister, and my mom has said to me we need to get back to the way we ate on the ranch when i was growing up. we never had pop, any treats were homemade not bought, and everything she made was from scratch. so i have really tried hard to not eat out of a box as my husband calls it, because he grew up eating tv dinners and food out of a box. he loves this new way of life, he thinks he eats better than ever and so do our kids. i dont deprive them of anything, i still make fries, and potatoes for them, i just dont eat it, but i try to make as much on my own as possible. i think this helps because im not just buying it because i think wow low carb.

so i agree it is always buyer beware.

When the low-fat craze was at its highest, I remeber chuckling at the lables on candy, Red licorice=NO FAT WOW! Candy Corns, another wonderful lowfat food. Guess what? White sugar=No FAT. Amazing. So now we need to be wary. I recently saw brocoli touted as lowcarb...no duh.

I agree. People who aren't knowledgeable about low carb or good nutrition will just substitute lower carb junk food for their higher carb components. While that might work for some reduction it won't get at the core of the obese or carb addicts.

Yeah, I saw signs at the butchers that said "low-carb!"

Wow, really????
It just makes me laugh

The problem I see with these LC products (aside from reinforcing bad eating habits, like many have suggested) is that people with weight to lose who have done little or no research will choose these instead of their usual snacks. The higher fat and often higher calorie content of these products, combined with the usual high-carb eating will be a DISASTER! The two WOEs don't mix, and I suspect that along with getting fatter, people will get less healthy too, because their bodies can't handle the processed diet and carbs along with that extra fat.

I just wish more people would take control of their own health and the health of their children, instead of relying on government agencies and industry marketing.

Sorry to rant. The amount of misinformation and sheer ignorance (ignorance on its own isn't so bad, but when people speak with authority on a topic they don't have the first clue about, it really gets to me) is too much sometimes.

im just thinking after what i just witnessed in the grocery store, there will be alot of disappointed people when they jump on this low carb without reading the book about induction. there was a lady giving samples of the low carb sarah lee bread, which is good but in moderation, and she said oh you can have this every day and continue to lose weight, people were just grabbing it up, but if you make a sandwich there goes 18 carbs with just the bread. i am glad i read up on this and studied it all way before the explosion of products into the marketplace.

Very true Alopex. Combining low carb products with high carb eating will be a disaster. Those folks will gain weight now that the fat content has risen in their diets and they are still chowing on the potatoes, rice etc etc

Then they will tell everyone they tried Low carb and actually GAINED weight on it.

I agree totally with all of you. The low carb hype all these foods are putting out is gonna give our WOE a bad name when all these folks that are buying the stuff say it doesnt work!! I had this conversation with a firend of mine yesterday, sho is not a low carber, by the way, and she said it reminds her of the low fat craze when it first hit,,and that it was sad, because it is so misleading. As for me, I found out the hard way with the sugar alcohols..they work on me like regular sugar, I am allergic and swelled with fluid and had a tremendous 10 pound gain in two weeks, cause I was eating way too many! Thats when I decided to just go back to the basics,,no more low carb labeled junk food for me. I do buy the tortillas, but limit them to once or twice a week. Its all about money for them,,,,for me,,,success is more important.

I agree with Alopex. People, like the media, will feel that they can do a low carb diet without doing their homework or research. The race to lose weight is a desperate one indeed and looking at this as a lifestyle change will be disregarded. More people will fail at this diet without a clue as to why.

We already see so much of this sort of thing. Someone hears about someone who is doing Atkins correctly who has lost a lot of weight and they think "oh boy, I'll just eat all the meat and cheese I can hold and drink Diet-Coke and I'll lose allkinds of weight too". They don't read the book, they have no clue about how important drinking their water is, and they don't eat vegetables.

Then they come on here and just can't understand why they aren't losing weight, because they are "on the Atkins". So they quit, and proceed to tell everyone how bad Atkins is, and how they gained weight while "following it to a T".

And it's because everyone wants a quick fix. They don't stop to think that they didn't GAIN the weight overnight--but they dang well think they should LOSE it overnight! "Why, I'll have a low-carb bar for breakfast, a shake for lunch and a steak and bacon for dinner and I'll lose tons of weight"! Yea, right!

It just makes me sad, because following Atkins is such a good way of life, if done correctly.

Sorry for the rant

~Debbie~LoveSong~