US breadmakers hold crisis talks over impact of Atkins diet

By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor

20 November 2003

link to article

The growing craze for high protein, low carbohydrate slimming regimes such as the Atkins diet is threatening the market for one of the staple foods of the West - bread.

Consumption of bread plummeted in America in the past year with an estimated 40 per cent of Americans eating less than in 2002. The US bread industry is to hold a crisis "bread summit" tomorrow to discuss measures to curb falling sales. In Britain, the Federation of Bakers launched a promotional campaign last month to counter the Atkins effect. British Bread month was advertised with the slogan "Use your loaf, have another slice."

Sales of sliced and wrapped bread have been declining by 2 per cent a year for the past three years in the UK. John White, a spokesman for the federation, said: "The impact of Atkins in the US is of concern to UK businesses. Everyone seems to be on it."

In America, Patrick Davis of the National Bread Leadership Council, which organised the summit, said that it was unclear whether the fall in bread sales was a temporary blip or indicative of a more permanent change in eating habits. The average American eats 54lbs of bread a year, barely a third of the quantity consumed by the French and Italians. But the Italians and the French are not notably obese, Mr Davis said.

While bread sales are falling, sales of meat, eggs and fruit are rising. In Britain, consumption of beef has risen from 739,000 tons in 1997, when the Atkins diet was first published in Britain, to 990,000 tons last year.

Although the diet has been widely condemned by doctors and nutritionists, an estimated 32 million Americans are on low carbohydrate, high protein diets according to a survey.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) in Britain has warned that the basis of the Atkins diet is questionable and it could be dangerous. Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition at the MRC, said: "It is an unknown risk. The diet is nutritionally incomplete."

"use your loaf - have another slice" reminds me of the cigarette ad from long ago, "instead of a sweet, reach for a lucky"

Gosh...now you don't think that could possibly be due to folks in the UK getting over their fear of mad cow disease and going back to eating beef again, could it? Nah...it's gotta be that evil Atkins diet. How about posting how much beef folks in the UK were eating in the early 70's?

Edited to add...oh, looky! UK inhabitants in 1986 were consuming 1,134,000 tons of beef. Even in 1992 they were consuming 999,000 tons of beef. But still...it's gotta be that Atkins thing making consumption go back up again.

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report...teb2.htm#259172

I'm sick of this crap about other countries' eating habits. They always fail to mention that the average person in those countries [at least until very recently] got ALOT of physical activity on a daily basis. As things are now, most americans can never hope to reach the level of physical activity most of the Hi-Carb countries do [or did until recently - physical activity is decreasing and obesity is increasing in Europe and Asia.]

Americans have jobs which require them to come in early in the morning and sit all day...We don't get exercise breaks like a certain Asian country. We don't walk alot and depend on Public Transit, like some European countries [since gas here isn't $4-5/gallon yet.] Our schools are cutting back on recess. Parents are leaving their kids in aftercare [because both parents work 9-5] where in some cases they do sedentary activities, nap, and eat sugary food...not like it used to be where we played on the playground for those 4 hours. Short of somethign catastrophic (like a terrorist setting off an E-Bomb in a major city) Americans are not going to ever again achieve the level of physical activity needed to counteract the negative effects of a Hi-Carb diet.