nobimbo
Sun, May-15-05, 06:46
Article published May 15, 2005
Carbs? Nah. Sugar is the new target
Last summer, as the low-carbohydrate dieting craze began to fade, executives at Stonyfield Farms decided they had to make a change to their Moove Over Carbs yogurt.
What they came up with was simple and painless: In January, they pulled Moove Over Carbs from the shelves, and this month, Moove Over Sugar takes its place. Except for the name, the product remains exactly the same - sugars are, after all, also carbs. Both yogurts contain a sugar substitute and have at least 40 percent fewer calories than Stonyfield Farm's regular flavored varieties.
Low-sugar has become the new low-carb. Food makers are rushing to meet demand from consumers concerned with their waistlines and healthier eating by providing an array of new products, some of them aimed at children. But scientists are divided over how positive this development is, questioning whether the change will help people lose weight, and how healthful the artificial sweeteners are.
According to a survey done by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a food industry trade group, almost 50 percent of all grocery shoppers said they were looking for products with reduced sugar.
"Carbs was a trend, but the concern about sugar is here to stay," said Cathleen Toomey, vice president of communications at Stonyfield Farms, which is owned by Groupe Danone of France.
Just about every major food company is thinking along these lines. Among the new products being offered are Pepperidge Farm Sugar Free Milano cookies, Arnold Smart & Healthy Sugar Free bread and General Mills 75 Percent Less Sugar Cocoa Puffs.
Propelled in part by the popularity of the sugar substitute sucralose, or Splenda, the food industry last year introduced 2,225 sugarless or sugar-reduced products in the United States, according to the research firm Productscan Online. This figure is more than double that of two years ago and represents 11 percent of all new products in 2004.
By contrast, in 2004, the height of the low-carb boom, there were 3,375 products introduced, accounting for 19 percent of all new products that year, according to Productscan. This year, low-carb product introductions from January through April were down 25 percent from the same period last year.
Last week, ACNielsen identified organic and low or no sugar as the two "good for you" food segments that will get products noticed by consumers and generate the strongest sales growth. Many of these new low-sugar products are not just the old standbys like diet sodas and sugarless gum, but foods and drinks like cereals, fruit juices, cookies, bread, ice cream, flavored milk, pasta sauce, maple syrup and even bottled water.
A few of these products, like Kellogg's One-Third Less Sugar Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes cereals, and Mott's Healthy Harvest apple sauce, simply have less added sugar and taste less sweet. But most are made with one or more of the half-dozen no-calorie artificial sweeteners on the market and are designed to taste much like the original.
While many nutritionists champion artificial sweeteners as a way to cut calories and reduce sugar, others say these products are not the answer to America's weight and health problems. Some critics voice concern about the increased consumption of what are essentially chemical sweeteners, especially among children. New low-sugar products - like breakfast cereal and fruit juice sweetened with Splenda and vanilla milk with neotame, a new intensely sweet sugar replacement - are consumed heavily by children.
Dr. Susan Schiffman, a sweetener specialist and professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center, says she has safety concerns about sucralose, which is the nation's fastest-growing sugar replacement, according to the Freedonia Group, a research firm. She points to the Food and Drug Administration's 1998 report giving approval for sucralose, which said the compound is "weakly mutagenic in a mouse lymphoma mutation assay," meaning it caused minor genetic damages in mouse cells.
The report also said one of the substances produced when sucralose is broken down in the body is "weakly mutagenic in the Ames test." An Ames test is the standard method used to detect possible carcinogens.
"The sucralose people keep saying, 'It's just a little bit of a mutagen,"' Schiffman said. "Well, I don't want a little bit of a mutagen in my food supply. How do you know what happens in a long life span or to the next generation or to your eggs and sperm? I don't feel like the issues have been answered."
McNeil Nutritionals, a division of Johnson & Johnson that sells Splenda, says that the safety of sucralose has been confirmed in more than 100 studies done over the last 20 years, and that it has been approved for use by regulatory agencies around the world. Over the years, sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame have also prompted various safety concerns.
Other critics of artificial sweeteners focus their concerns on whether these foods and beverages actually help people lose weight or improve their diets. According to a consumer survey done last year by the Calorie Control Council, a trade group representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry, people use sugar-reduced products primarily to "stay in overall better health" and "reduce calories."
Dr. Stuart Fischer, who worked for nine years with the low-carb diet specialist Dr. Robert Atkins and now runs his own nutrition practice in Manhattan, contends that artificial sweeteners do nothing for a person's "overall health" because they perpetuate cravings for sweet foods.
"They remind dieters about the taste of the forbidden fruit," Fischer said. "Does Alcoholics Anonymous recommend alcohol-free beer? Of course not." Fischer said he counsels patients to cut out all sweet foods from their diet to eliminate sugar cravings, which he says can lay the groundwork for Type 2 diabetes.
Dr. David Katz, a nutrition specialist and professor of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine, says that in his 15 years of treating patients he has observed that people who consume a lot of artificially sweetened foods also end up eating an excess of foods loaded with regular sugar, negating any savings in calories. "If you're exposed to sweet foods and drinks often, the threshold for satisfaction goes up," Katz said.
As in many areas of science, research findings on the issue are mixed. While some studies, like one done last year at Purdue University, support the ideas of people like Katz and Fischer, other, longer-term research has shown that people who consume artificially sweetened, no-calorie beverages do lose more weight than those drinking regular, full-calorie sodas. Yet almost all of these studies have looked at zero-calorie diet drinks, not low-sugar foods like Sugar Free Milano cookies and 50 Percent Less Sugar Quaker Instant Oatmeal, which still have calories.
Some of these products, in fact, have as many calories as the original, making things confusing for the consumer. According to information displayed on box labels, One-Third Less Sugar Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops, 75 Percent Less Sugar Cocoa Puffs and Trix, and 50 Percent Less Sugar Fruity Pebbles cereals are not significantly lower in calories than the original versions. Neither are Sugar-Free Milanos or Arnold Smart & Healthy Sugar-Free bread.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050515/WIRE/205150308/1117/news&template=printart
Carbs? Nah. Sugar is the new target
Last summer, as the low-carbohydrate dieting craze began to fade, executives at Stonyfield Farms decided they had to make a change to their Moove Over Carbs yogurt.
What they came up with was simple and painless: In January, they pulled Moove Over Carbs from the shelves, and this month, Moove Over Sugar takes its place. Except for the name, the product remains exactly the same - sugars are, after all, also carbs. Both yogurts contain a sugar substitute and have at least 40 percent fewer calories than Stonyfield Farm's regular flavored varieties.
Low-sugar has become the new low-carb. Food makers are rushing to meet demand from consumers concerned with their waistlines and healthier eating by providing an array of new products, some of them aimed at children. But scientists are divided over how positive this development is, questioning whether the change will help people lose weight, and how healthful the artificial sweeteners are.
According to a survey done by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a food industry trade group, almost 50 percent of all grocery shoppers said they were looking for products with reduced sugar.
"Carbs was a trend, but the concern about sugar is here to stay," said Cathleen Toomey, vice president of communications at Stonyfield Farms, which is owned by Groupe Danone of France.
Just about every major food company is thinking along these lines. Among the new products being offered are Pepperidge Farm Sugar Free Milano cookies, Arnold Smart & Healthy Sugar Free bread and General Mills 75 Percent Less Sugar Cocoa Puffs.
Propelled in part by the popularity of the sugar substitute sucralose, or Splenda, the food industry last year introduced 2,225 sugarless or sugar-reduced products in the United States, according to the research firm Productscan Online. This figure is more than double that of two years ago and represents 11 percent of all new products in 2004.
By contrast, in 2004, the height of the low-carb boom, there were 3,375 products introduced, accounting for 19 percent of all new products that year, according to Productscan. This year, low-carb product introductions from January through April were down 25 percent from the same period last year.
Last week, ACNielsen identified organic and low or no sugar as the two "good for you" food segments that will get products noticed by consumers and generate the strongest sales growth. Many of these new low-sugar products are not just the old standbys like diet sodas and sugarless gum, but foods and drinks like cereals, fruit juices, cookies, bread, ice cream, flavored milk, pasta sauce, maple syrup and even bottled water.
A few of these products, like Kellogg's One-Third Less Sugar Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes cereals, and Mott's Healthy Harvest apple sauce, simply have less added sugar and taste less sweet. But most are made with one or more of the half-dozen no-calorie artificial sweeteners on the market and are designed to taste much like the original.
While many nutritionists champion artificial sweeteners as a way to cut calories and reduce sugar, others say these products are not the answer to America's weight and health problems. Some critics voice concern about the increased consumption of what are essentially chemical sweeteners, especially among children. New low-sugar products - like breakfast cereal and fruit juice sweetened with Splenda and vanilla milk with neotame, a new intensely sweet sugar replacement - are consumed heavily by children.
Dr. Susan Schiffman, a sweetener specialist and professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center, says she has safety concerns about sucralose, which is the nation's fastest-growing sugar replacement, according to the Freedonia Group, a research firm. She points to the Food and Drug Administration's 1998 report giving approval for sucralose, which said the compound is "weakly mutagenic in a mouse lymphoma mutation assay," meaning it caused minor genetic damages in mouse cells.
The report also said one of the substances produced when sucralose is broken down in the body is "weakly mutagenic in the Ames test." An Ames test is the standard method used to detect possible carcinogens.
"The sucralose people keep saying, 'It's just a little bit of a mutagen,"' Schiffman said. "Well, I don't want a little bit of a mutagen in my food supply. How do you know what happens in a long life span or to the next generation or to your eggs and sperm? I don't feel like the issues have been answered."
McNeil Nutritionals, a division of Johnson & Johnson that sells Splenda, says that the safety of sucralose has been confirmed in more than 100 studies done over the last 20 years, and that it has been approved for use by regulatory agencies around the world. Over the years, sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame have also prompted various safety concerns.
Other critics of artificial sweeteners focus their concerns on whether these foods and beverages actually help people lose weight or improve their diets. According to a consumer survey done last year by the Calorie Control Council, a trade group representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry, people use sugar-reduced products primarily to "stay in overall better health" and "reduce calories."
Dr. Stuart Fischer, who worked for nine years with the low-carb diet specialist Dr. Robert Atkins and now runs his own nutrition practice in Manhattan, contends that artificial sweeteners do nothing for a person's "overall health" because they perpetuate cravings for sweet foods.
"They remind dieters about the taste of the forbidden fruit," Fischer said. "Does Alcoholics Anonymous recommend alcohol-free beer? Of course not." Fischer said he counsels patients to cut out all sweet foods from their diet to eliminate sugar cravings, which he says can lay the groundwork for Type 2 diabetes.
Dr. David Katz, a nutrition specialist and professor of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine, says that in his 15 years of treating patients he has observed that people who consume a lot of artificially sweetened foods also end up eating an excess of foods loaded with regular sugar, negating any savings in calories. "If you're exposed to sweet foods and drinks often, the threshold for satisfaction goes up," Katz said.
As in many areas of science, research findings on the issue are mixed. While some studies, like one done last year at Purdue University, support the ideas of people like Katz and Fischer, other, longer-term research has shown that people who consume artificially sweetened, no-calorie beverages do lose more weight than those drinking regular, full-calorie sodas. Yet almost all of these studies have looked at zero-calorie diet drinks, not low-sugar foods like Sugar Free Milano cookies and 50 Percent Less Sugar Quaker Instant Oatmeal, which still have calories.
Some of these products, in fact, have as many calories as the original, making things confusing for the consumer. According to information displayed on box labels, One-Third Less Sugar Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops, 75 Percent Less Sugar Cocoa Puffs and Trix, and 50 Percent Less Sugar Fruity Pebbles cereals are not significantly lower in calories than the original versions. Neither are Sugar-Free Milanos or Arnold Smart & Healthy Sugar-Free bread.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050515/WIRE/205150308/1117/news&template=printart