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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.