Canucks still love carbsDiet craze hasn't stopped appetite for pasta, bread

[vbrowne]

This article was in the Toronto Sun this morning.


OTTAWA (CP) — Despite the craze for low-carb diets, Canadians still sit down to plates of pasta, bakery products and cereal-based snacks, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

And they washed it down with more milk and coffee.

The average Canadian went through 66.8 kilograms of cereal products last year, up from 65.8 kilograms the year before. Most of these were made from wheat flour, although rice consumption has doubled since 1990, to 7.3 kilograms a person.

While people were digging into the bread and rice, they cut down on the beef, with consumption dropping 4.0 per cent to 13.6 kilograms a head.

The statistics agency said prices may have helped cut down on beef at the table, as the cost of premium cuts jumped during the last barbecue and remained high into fall.

The average Canadian went through 11.6 kilograms of pork last year, up 6.3 per cent from 2003. However, people are eating less red meat these days, with consumption down 8.0 per cent from five years ago.

Poultry consumption, which has been slowly climbing, dipped in 2003 before rising in 2004 to 13.5 kilograms.

People also swigged down more milk last year, downing an average of 63.2 litres each. About half of that was two-per-cent milk.

Table cream was also popular, despite fat conscious diets. The average Canadian went through 1.9 litres of the stuff, four times the consumption of a decade ago.

All that cream may have been poured into the 93.7 litres of coffee that the average Canadian drank last year.

[Kagior]

Well, I wonder who has been eating my share of all the carbs? And the extra share from my family members who don't see anywhere near as much rice, cereal, etc as they used to.

By the way, the cream average rose because of the low carb contingent. At 1.9 litres per year per person, we drank the share of several people in just our family alone. We use about 1 liter every 10 days or so.

[vbrowne]

I was wondering the same thing - I see more and more people eating LC than ever before, not necessarily buying the "products", but in restaurants going without buns, rice, potatoes, and in grocery stores too, because I do look in the carts :) - it's almost like these articles appear to tell LCers that the craze is over, go back to "normal", written by the marketers of these manufacturers.

Vikki

[tie_guy]

As the world's population increases (and I assume Canada's population as well -- not being Canadian I am not up on their population figures) it only make sense that we would consume more carbs even if the carbs per person drops slightly. They said Canada consumes less beef and then claims it is because LC is not as popular. Of course people could be laying off the cow because it is too expensive (as the article suggests) or worry from mad cow or whatever. It is interesting that poultry and pork consumption rose overall. I just think that food per person would be a better number than total food consumed.