Understanding the low-carb craze
By: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN


Well, we are not done talking about the low carb diet yet -- in fact you are going to hear just more about it in 2004. In fact, $15 billion are going to be spent on these products, this year, an amazing number. A lot of people look at these diets and say just how could they be healthy? Let's break that down. First of all, the popularity of these. The Holiday Inn. You are going to see a lot of these. Holiday Inn serves about 25 million breakfasts a year . What are they serving? The new low carb inspiration. Bacon and eggs and sausage, hold the potatoes. Sound kind of familiar? But about eight grams of carbs, 38 grams of protein. They are not even going to tell you about, the calories and fat. I guess that is not even important anymore from a low carb diet.

Burger King. You've heard of holding the pickle, how about holding the bun? You are going to hold the bun now with these Burger King burgers. You are not going to get a bun. You are not going to get ketchup either. Low carb burgers, those are going to be coming up as well pretty soon. Again you are not going to be hearing about the calories or fat unless you ask for it.

Now you have heard about Subway and the low fat sandwiches. Well, they are going to have low carb sandwiches as well. The turkey and bacon melt and the chicken and bacon ranch -- lots of calories here -- 430 to 480 calories. There is nine grams of saturated fat, very high in sodium. But the good news for the Atkins lovers, about 10 grams to 11 grams of carbohydrates.

Remember Snackwell's for example, low fat but higher in calories, you start snarfing those down and you are going to gain weight even if you are on a low fat diet, low carbs could have the same problem.

First of all there is a very high drop out rate. These diets are low in fiber which could be a problem in the long run. And after a year, the thing most people seemed to be concerned about is similar weight loss to a low fat diet. So not very much of an advantage there.