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Low-carb craze reaches the office

BY RHODA FUKUSHIMA

Knight Ridder Newspapers


(KRT) - A year ago, meeting planner Margo Martin's clients wanted fruit, yogurt and bagels for their breaks. Today, the hottest items are cheese, Slim Jims, beef jerky and nuts - lots of mixed nuts.

Yes, the low-carb craze has made it to the office. And it's making people like Martin, a senior project coordinator for Carlson Marketing Group, think twice about loading the trays with breads, croissants and other starchy foods. Yet, they acknowledge it's a constant balancing act between carb-haters and carb-lovers.

"The minute you take the bagels off, you have five people screaming at you, 'Where are my bagels?' " Martin says.

Today, 64 percent of Americans are overweight and more than 30 percent are obese, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Being overweight increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. And obesity is gaining on smoking as the leading cause of preventable death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To fight the fat, many people have turned to low-carb diets. More than 17 percent of U.S. households report that someone in the household is on a low-carb diet, according to research by ACNielsen U.S. It's a far cry from the high-carb, low- or no-fat days of the 1980s.

The Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet and the lesser-known cyclical ketogenic diet (a favorite among bodybuilders) all slash carbohydrate intake and beef up protein and fat consumption. How much and what kind of carbs allowed differ from plan to plan. On Atkins, fruit is a no-no. On South Beach, fruit is initially prohibited but later added back. The cyclical ketogenic diet promotes five days of low-carb eating (similar to Atkins) and two "carb up" days.

Low-carb reminders are everywhere. Grocery stores, restaurants and other food establishments hype products with low "net carbs" (total carbs minus the fiber). There's a new self-help book for people who have fallen off the low-carb wagon.

"In the past, dietary restrictions used to be allergenic or political," says Chuck Paton, general manager of the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minn. "Now, there's a broader range of requests."

And how.

Martin, the Carlson meeting planner, says the interest in Atkins-friendly and other low-carb foods started gaining momentum last summer. But it took off in the first quarter of 2004. In some cases, she had to revamp menus.

"In the past, the trend was from full breakfast to continental," Martin says. "Now, it's moving back to full breakfast."

Translation: Eggs and bacon are in. Doughnuts and croissants are out. Bagels are on shaky ground.

Recently, the St. Paul Hotel hosted a five-day conference for 50 people from the travel and tourism industry. The meeting planner had one food request: low-carb for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Paton says. And for the handful of hotel clients with corporate jets, the catering is almost exclusively Atkins-friendly.

Steve Olson, manager of D. Brian's Deli and Catering in St. Paul, started seeing the low-carb craze in his walk-up business last year. In January, the deli added low-carb items like the $3 special - three eggs, three pieces of bacon.

"We sell a ton of them babies," Olson says.

At St. Jude Medical in St. Paul, Atkins and South Beach are often topics of conversation. Meeting planner Teri Larsen says one cardiac surgeon specifically sought her out to make sure a meeting would have Atkins-friendly foods. At a recent cardiac residents symposium, another surgeon offered his take on Atkins at lunch using examples from the animal kingdom.

"Herbivores - he gave the example of the hippopatamus - they're very sedentary, eat a lot of grasses, tend to be fatter," recalls Larsen, marketing services manager for St. Jude's cardiac surgery division. "Whereas cheetahs and tigers - almost exclusively meat eaters - are very lean."

The surgeon, by the way, had steak and broccoli for lunch and skipped the garlic mashed potatoes.

At the same time, Larsen has noticed less chatter about Weight Watchers, a popular diet program based on counting point values given to different foods. In this day of low-carb eating, lavish desserts are ignored and potatoes, rice and breads are barely touched.

Still, Larsen and other meeting planners know they can't eliminate carbs entirely.

"There's the proteins, but there's yogurt, granola and fresh fruit. So, everybody's covered," Larsen says.

Still, there are some holdouts. At This Little Piggy Catering in Minneapolis, owner Jay Riotel noticed a small bump in meat consumption last year. The company cooks pork, beef, turkey, chicken and veal.

"They'll take more meat but still put it on the bread," Riotel says. "And they'll cut something else out like coleslaw."

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WORKPLACE GUIDELINES

Last year, the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health issued guidelines for healthful food in the workplace. The big themes: Eat less high-calorie, high-fat foods. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Watch those portion sizes.

And yes, carbohydrates - especially the whole-grain kind - are permitted. They also suggest eliminating food from midmorning or midafternoon meetings.

So what do you want to look like? A cow or a cat?

doh, so much for understanding low-carb. Keep the bad, dismiss the good



Wow first time I hear of the cyclical ketogenic diet outside of this forum.

Atkins needs an aggressive campaign cause people just don't get it. Atkins and South Beach are identical in how they permit fruits.

Maybe Atkins should close shop and start a new program. Same thing, but with a new more catchy name. They could even say that the old Atkins is bad but try our new and improve Atkins. In the old one you could eat an unlimited quantities of meat, fat, and butter but you weren't allowed any veggies or fruit of any kind. Now you are allowed satisfying portions of meat, fat, veggies and some fruit. Bet it be wildy popular and embraced by all the nutritionists and doctors in the country.

One of the biggest myths about Atkins is "fruit is a no-no"... ack!!! During induction, the plan says don't eat. While in maintenance, eat the low GI kind to your hearts content as long as it meets you daily calorie/carb goals.

I wish my office would offer something besides donuts at our meetings!

I go to a lot of all-day meetings that start with breakfast and they never have anything I can eat except for a little fruit (strawberries often show up). I've learned to eat breakfast at home first, even if the meeting starts at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m.

However, I went to one a couple of weeks ago and in addition to the trays of carbs, they had a bowl of hard boiled eggs! I was thrilled. I wish there was some way I could find out in advance if something lowcarb is going to show up.