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Old Thu, Jan-29-04, 07:54
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gotbeer gotbeer is offline
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Default "Carb cutters: Meat eaters can have their pancakes and pasta, too..."

Carb cutters

Meat eaters can have their pancakes and pasta, too, with low-carbohydrate diet products pouring into local stores

Thursday January 29, 2004

By Dale Curry, Food editor


link to article

Peter Ricchiuti enjoys a daily iced coffee at the PJ's Coffee & Tea Cafe, a short walk from his office on the Tulane University campus.

"Without the bar, it would be a temptation to order a chocolate chip cookie," the assistant dean of the Freeman School of Business and devout Atkins dieter says of the low-carbohydrate Advantage bars he stuffs into his briefcase.

"I got a big surprise the other day when I went into Walgreens," he said. "I usually have to fight for the three or four bars mixed in with the other (snacks), when I realized they had created an entire section. I used to have to go to specialty stores and all of a sudden I see Walgreens selling (Atkins) shakes and cereal."

Part of the low-carbohydrate diet rage, drug stores, supermarkets and discount stores all over town are creating special sections of diet products and most are low-carb. And, most of the low-carb products are Atkins.

Traditionally, diet products were relegated to a few shelves in the back of the stores. About two months ago, Winn-Dixie began putting Atkins and other low-carb products in sections out front to capture customers' attention almost as soon as they walk in.

In most stores, said Perry Fontanille, grocery merchandiser for Winn-Dixie in Louisiana, Mississippi and Mobile, space for diet products is being increased by about 75 percent. The most popular products, he said, are the shakes, muffin/cake mixes and snacks such as Advantage bars, an Atkins brand of protein bars low in carbohydrates.

"I think Atkins has overtaken the majority of our customers on diets," Fontanille said.

Every week new products are coming out.

"We launched 600 in 2003," said Matt Wiant, chief marketing officer for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc.

"We talk to our users and see what they want," he said. Right now that's bread and pasta, made without flour but with soy proteins and other low-carb ingredients.

"Food scientists have done a pretty good job. The products are close to their high-carb sisters," said Wiant, based at Atkins Nutritionals' Long Island, N.Y., headquarters.

He said the age group buying the products is primarily 30 to 55 although teens are beginning to cut carbs as well.

So far, the steak-friendly Atkins diet is a strong draw for men, who seem to lose quickly on the diet.

"I've got so many friends on the diet," Ricchiuti said. "They're all men and they are usually hugely diet-resistant. If you are on one of those wussy diets, you have to sit in the corner and eat a grapefruit, but now you can go out and order an omelet and steak for lunch."

Ricchiuti has lost 20 pounds since August and it shows.

"I was in Atlanta this fall in a department store and saw this black cashmere sportscoat marked down from $800 to $135 and it said 40-regular. I wear a 42-regular but I said maybe it's on the wrong hanger." He tried it on and it fit. "It was like being on a game show."

Ricchiuti recalls being on diets before but never getting anywhere, even though he exercises five times a week. "It wasn't until I gave up bread and pasta and regular cereal that (the pounds) went away."

Diets go in cycles

But what about the New Orleans-born Sugar Busters! diet? It's low-carb and just a few years ago turned the diet scene upside down locally and caught a lot of national attention, too. After all, this foreign intruder called the Atkins diet is now 30 years old.

"This business goes in cycles and what was popular five years ago is certainly different than what is popular now," says Greg Cannizzaro, who distributes much of the diet products to supermarkets in Louisiana and Mississippi.

As Southeast account manager for Tree of Life Gourmet Award Foods, he has seen products come and go but never quite like this.

"Years ago we went throught the oat bran phase, low-fat, fat-free and today it's low-carb. A few years ago, the big thing locally was Sugar Busters! . . . but now it's Atkins. Everybody pretty much is jumping on the Atkins bandwagon."

So why all the fuss over an old diet that waned years ago?

The reason Atkins has come back like gangbusters, Wiant says, is that little research went into supporting it until Dr. Robert C. Atkins -- who died last year when he hit his head while falling on ice -- started financing studies three years ago. Once his studies showed positive findings, more studies were launched by other sponsors and many came up with the same results: that eating foods high in cholesterol, such as meat and eggs, while drastically reducing carbohydrates could result in health benefits such as not only losing weight but lowering cholesterol.

Sugar Busters! and other low-carb diets such as the South Beach Diet and the Zone are similar to Atkins but more liberal in carb allowances. Some of the array of low-carb products are attached to specific diets while others aren't. And the latest products to hit the market are from major producers such as Sara Lee with new breads, and Lean Cuisine with frozen low-carb dinners. Despite 600 new products launched last year, Atkins is coming on with 50 more this year, including frozen dinners, breakfast cereals and pasta, Wiant said.

Sugar Busters! alive

By no means is Sugar Busters! out of business.

"It is doing very well," said Dr. Morrison C. Bethea, a heart surgeon and one of the founders. Five million Sugar Busters! books have been sold, he said, and products are now being developed in conjunction with Cajun Foods in Lafayette and QVC, which will sell a whole line of Sugar Busters! products via television, beginning in April. They will include whole-grain pizza, cake and muffin mixes and pasta sauces as well as bread, salad dressing and pasta, their other products long familiar in supermarkets.

Bethea said the difference in Sugar Busters! and Atkins is that Sugar Busters! is not low-carb but "less carb."

"If Atkins is a restrictive carb diet, we're a selective carb diet," he said. You can lose weight on either one, he says, but asks, "Is Atkins a healthy sustainable diet? No, it is not." He also pointed out that Sugar Busters! is advertised by word of mouth and that none of the four founders has spent any money on advertising. Major advertising for Atkins is the reason for its current rage, he said.

Restaurants join in

Low-carb offerings are popping up almost every day at strongholds of the fast-food industry such as Burger King and Hardee's. Subway recently introduced an Atkins wrap, and chains such as TGI Friday's and P.F. Chang's China Bistro are jumping in, too. Ye Olde College Inn features an Atkins catfish with brie cheese dish, served with sauteed spinach and salad, on its menu. Even high-end restaurants such as Galatoire's will cater to Atkins dieters by altering certain dishes, a spokesman said.

There are still holdouts by many in the medical world who feel a balanced diet including a fair share of carbohydrates is the most healthful way to eat.

Rather than buy processed products, Barbara Le Gardeur, a registered dietitian at LSU Health Sciences Center, advocates eating a balanced diet with lots of fresh foods and controlling portions. "The consumer would be better off serving fresh foods," she says. While packaged foods may be convenient, "it's like we're recreating what nature has provided."

Le Gardeur believes that anyone will lose weight on any reduced-calorie diet, but the long term is what's important. "Changing lifestyle is the only thing that makes any difference." Teaching nutrition to nurses, she recommends portion control, reduced calories and increased exercise.

"Carbohydrates is not a bad word. You need sources of whole grains such as cereals and breads," she said.

Yet a local cosmetic surgeon says she is not against the Atkins diet, although she finds it a little strict.

"I see a lot of people after profound weight loss to work on their skin," she said. "Many have lost 75 to 100 pounds. I've seen people with cholesterol lowered and other health benefits. Sugar Busters! goes beyond the Atkins diet by not restricting carbs but choosing good carbs and fulfilling nutritional needs. I like Sugar Busters! better."

One diet giant whose name is obscure among grocery products is Weight Watchers, the long-time diet solution that advocates portion control and group therapy.

"You don't need special products to lose weight on Weight Watchers. You can eat all food groups. There are no foods that are off limits," said Lisa Craig, public relations manager for the Southeast United States. Based in Atlanta, the Weight Watchers official said products are not needed to be on the diet although some frozen dinners and ice creams are produced for convenience under the brand of Smart Ones.

Allowing any foods, she said, is "one of the reasons we've been around for 40 years."

Meanwhile, the trend to low-carb has dramatically effected the meat and eggs industries. Tulane's Ricchiuti runs a stock research program with his students and follows two companies with farms in Mississippi. One is Miss Goldy, whose stock doubled in 2003 in its sale of chickens, and the other is Cal-Maine Foods, the largest distributor of eggs in the United States, whose stock increased 800 percent since last summer, the professor said.

Cost of products is high

What about the higher costs of weight-loss products, considering that a box of Atkins muffin mix costs nearly $7?

Atkins' Wiant says that costs will come down as consumer demand increases. Until now, demand was low and the ingredients such as the sweetener Splenda are quite expensive. Some Atkins ingredients are $1 per pound, compared with sugar at seven cents, and flour, 15 cents, he said.

Despite the cost, some retailers see no problem with cranking up the supply in local supermarkets.

"It definitely is not a fad," said Kenneth Delcambre of the low-carb craze. As director of grocery merchandising for Sav-A-Center in the New Orleans area, he said he has increased his stock of diet products by more than 200 and now carries 1,000 to 1,200 items, mostly low-carb. The most popular are bars and meal supplements such as shakes. Because of the cost, he takes a lower margin of profit in order to remain competitive. "It's one of the things we feel we have to do."

Delcambre said he has seen some fads die, but he expects low-carb "to last much longer. It's my opinion that low-carb will be around for years. The customers are asking for it."

What's coming next?

More pasta, breads and cereals made from protein such as soy, more ice creams from diet companies as well as major ice cream manufacturers, and more frozen dinners

"Now we have to figure out how to make those beignets," Wiant says.

. . . . . . .

Dale Curry can be reached at (504) 826-3443 or dale.curry~timespicayune.com
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