Low-carb buyer, beware
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Low-carb products are showing up everywhere. More than 600 low-carb foods were introduced last year, varying widely in taste and texture. With such an avalanche, how are dieters supposed to figure out which ones are best?
They have two choices: Either they start trial-and-error tasting on their own, or they seek out good advice.
The first option is time-consuming and expensive. And unless they're very lucky, dieters will have to eat a lot of mediocre products before they find foods they like.
So for those who choose the second option, USA TODAY asked two experts who have sampled hundreds of these foods to pick out their favorites — and their least favorite. Our taste testers are:
• Dean Rotbart, executive editor of LowCarbiz. He follows a low-carb diet and has sampled about 750 products.
• Elaine Payne, president of
www.low-carb.com, who has tasted more than 1,000 products.
The experts have different overall impressions of the foods. Too many of the products aren't very good, Rotbart says. "Many taste like flavored cardboard, but the taste of the low-carb products today, however awful, is actually much improved over what it was two years ago. In other words, it's more flavorful cardboard."
He says the industry has gotten by with charging triple the price for many products like the bars because "Americans are hungry to lose weight. They will eat flavored cardboard if someone promises them it will help them lose weight."
But he doesn't believe carb-counting consumers will buy products a second time if the taste isn't worth the cost in terms of dollars and grams of carbs.
Payne gives the products higher praise. "Manufacturers have done a pretty good job keeping the carb count low and giving consumers a decent taste, although many products aren't exactly like the real thing."
Still, she says, there are some categories that need a lot of work.
"The taste and texture of some of the low-carb cake and cookie mixes on the market leave a lot to be desired," she says. "The manufacturers have not yet been able to achieve the chewy texture many people prefer in their cookies, and the cakes tend to be dense and somewhat gummy rather than light and airy."
Another major void: a decent cracker with a light, crisp texture. The ones that are currently available "are generally of the flatbread variety and tend to taste too much of soy or have too much of a fibrous texture," Payne says.
Both taste testers agree that these foods have to eaten judiciously so that dieters don't sabotage their weight loss.
For low-carb devotees, eating a cookie from the brand-new line of SnackWells CarbWell cookies, coming out from Kraft next week, is preferable to eating a full-carb Mrs. Fields cookie, Rotbart says.
"But you don't want to go on a Mrs. Fields cookie diet, and you don't want to go on a SnackWells CarbWell cookie diet, either."
CLick on the story to see Dean and Elaine's choices for low carb bars, cereals etc:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifest...rb-treats_x.htm
Low-carb buyer, beware
I'm rather GLAD a lot of them taste like flavored cardboard. It keeps me from eating them!! At least I've gotten out of my "eat the whole box" mentality, or I'd be DOOMED.
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