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Low-carb craze will fade away, expert says

May 4, 2004

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

The low-carb diet craze that has spawned everything from low-carb hamburgers to low-carb cheesecake is nothing more than a "fad" that will fizzle out just like the low-fat wave of the '90s, a top federal nutrition official said Monday in Chicago.

"We spend $40 billion in diet-related books in the United States and we're still getting chubbier," Eric Bost, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services told the Sun-Times.

Bost was in town for the food industry's annual convention and new product showcase at McCormick Place, where low-carb frozen entrees, salad dressings and desserts jockeyed for space alongside soy puddings and spicy jerky.

The convention, which ends today, brings together the Food Marketing Institute, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the U.S. Food Export Showcase, the United Produce Expo and the Organic Trade Association.

There's no question low-carb is big business. Last year, bread sales were down 1.1 percent while low-carb products racked up $1.2 billion in sales, according to Information Resources Inc., a consumer research firm.

The problem with low-carb is that people tend to overdo it, as they did with low-fat diets, Bost said.

"People see the low-carb thing and say, hmm, I can eat 10 helpings," he said.

Bost is leading a USDA campaign to address the obesity crisis by collecting consumers' concerns and complaints in a series of public forums across the nation. Two Midwest forums will be held this summer in Milwaukee and Indianapolis.

Sixty-four percent of Americans are overweight, and 31 percent are obese. At the current rate, the number of obese people will hit 40 percent by 2010, Bost said.

The USDA's emphasis is not on losing weight but rather "moving toward a healthier lifestyle" by making better food choices, controlling portions and exercising, he said.

Removing junk foods and sodas from school vending machines -- as the Chicago Public Schools will do starting next school year -- is "one small part" of reducing obesity, Bost said.

But he added he would prefer that vending machines be taken out of elementary schools altogether because students at that age are too young to have that option. About 15 percent of elementary schools have vending machines, while more than 70 percent of middle schools and 90 percent of high schools have them.

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Pita pizza is low-carb hit

Take a piece of pita bread, a little tuna, some olives and capers and -- presto -- it's a low-carb ''sort of Mediterranean'' pizza. The impact of the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and other low-carb eating plans is everywhere at this year's food industry show of new products.

Food companies are trying hard to fit the current low-carb diet craze into their familiar product lines, and Margaret Dennis' easy-to-make pita pizza was just one contribution at the exposition.

As long as the cook uses pita bread instead of standard pizza dough, the result will be a thin-crust product with 12 grams of carbohydrate per slice, roughly half the carbs of regular Mediterranean-style pizza, Dennis said.

Right, it is just a fad diet ... so I should go back to eating the regular processed crap full of HFCS and trans-fats because it makes me feel better? (NOT!)

As with anything, there will be people who binge on lc junk foods and blame the diet for not working. As for all of these new lc products - we don't have to buy them. Most of them are expensive and not all that great tasting. If they aren't profitable, they will disapear from the marketplace. That won't mean that lc is fading away, just that my woe doesn't include supporting the junk food manufacturers. I prefer the whole, natural foods, anthough will opt for convenience on occasion.

That's the beauty of low carb. It's handy to have the specialty foods. But until they ban meat and vegetables, we can always low carb!

Expert Craze Will Fade Away, low carb says.

Guess what, low carbing will NEVER fade away.

Why? There are too many diagnosed and about to be diagnosed diabetics in this country who are being put on reduced carb diets, because they WORK. Even if you don't lose a lot of weight on a low carb diet, your blood sugar will normalize, even WITHOUT weight loss (explanation in the Four Corners Diet by Dr. Jack Goldberg).

Low carbing won't fade away because folks will continue to buy low carb food products, if for no other reason alone, than because they are diabetic. Even the current Time Magazine cover article on Low Carbing had to admit that.

hah!! We should be so lucky. They are just going to change their tune and spout the latest pre-digested drivel.

I do agree with this article PARTIALLY. Diet fads do tend to come and go rapidly. Atkins will eventually fade and something new will come along that everyone will jump on, BUT the people who actually tried the diet and did it the 'right' way and saw results. They will stick with it and it will work for them, people will try the diet, it will work for some, those people will stick to it. The rest of the people which it did not work for or just didn't fit their lifestyle will move on, meaning a new diet will come along. Atkins will fade in popularity in media but not among the groups who use it and it works for them.

I have PCOS and I'm told I have to eat low carb to control my hormones and insulin. I can't imagine it fading away...although the stupid overpriced and overprocessed junk low carb will probably eventually fade away. They are marketing the dumbest things as low carb just to make an extra dollar.

I agree, the fad portion will fade away.

Once the snackwellification of the diet is complete, some people will just eat the low carb versions of the foods that made them fat, and will never develop good eating habits, and be doomed to gain everything back (if they ever lose it).

Those who actually had success will see the value the WOE provides, and never give it up.

--nw

it will fade...because people are IGNORANT.

that's all it boils down to. i know people who are low carbing and eating a half gallon of carbsmart each night, because it's "for low carbers."

fine, i don't care...i know it works when done correctly, and the rest of us that know this can band together and live the l/c lifestyle...ongoing fad or not.

Couldn't we, just as easily, say that the "High Carb Craze" is FINALLY starting to fade away. Our early, early ancestors were hunter/gathers. Then some nut has that crazy idea about a radical experiment: Milling that weed-like plant into powder and turning it into the grain-based highly-processed food we know today. Isn't finally time for that crazy fad to fade away!

J.

Bravo!!!!

I think that is soooo true J. It's time for the world to get back to basics and see all these refined over processed nutritionaly bankrupt foods are going out of style!

Fade away like low fat? That only took 25-years. If it fades, what's next - low protein?

Oh, that is my neck of the woods. I should attend the Indy forum and voice my opinon on why if this "diet" is done properly, it can save your life. This quack needs to do his homework and stop hanging on to that old lowfat wol!

For some people it will be a fad. They are the ones that get quickly bored with the latest and greatest. Personally for me, this will be a WOL as I find it's helping my diabetes and I'm losing weight as a side benefit.