Low carb, big business. Firms are scrambling to cash in on diet trend

On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 23:06:13 -0500, Ken Kubos wrote:

Low carb, big business
Firms are scrambling to cash in on diet trend
By Mike Ivey
September 25, 2003

Sara Dobbs lifted her small basket of groceries onto the checkout counter at
Copps Food Center on Whitney Way.

In it: a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, several cans of tuna and bottled
water.

Low carb? You bet.

"So far it's working for me," said Dobbs, 32, a graduate student at the
UW-Madison. "We'll see if I can stick with it."

If it seems like everybody and their sister are on a low-carb kick, it's
probably because they are.

More than 80 percent of American adults now claim to follow some sort of
low-carbohydrate diet, according to a new survey from the Supermarket Guru,
a national grocery service.


And while skeptics may call it a fad and health experts may cringe, "low
carb" is becoming big business. From beer to bread, businesses are
scrambling to cash in on the consumer taste - or rather distaste - for
anything high in carbohydrates.

"These diet fads come and go, but this thing has just mushroomed," said Tim
Metcalfe, owner of Sentry Foods Hilldale.

Like many grocery stores, Sentry has turned its "diet" section into a
"health" section where it offers products aimed at consumers who are
counting carbohydrates as much as calories.

"It's a category that didn't even exist two years ago," said Metcalfe.

Anheuser-Busch has been the first big American company to jump hard on the
low-carb bandwagon. The St. Louis-based brewer last year launched Michelob
Ultra with just 2.6 grams of carbohydrates, the lowest of any light beer.
(Regular beer has about 13 grams of carbs per 12-ounce serving.)

Miller Brewing of Milwaukee has recently countered with ads touting its
Miller Lite, introduced in 1975, as the original low-carb beer. The Miller
ads note that Lite, with 3.2 grams of carbohydrate, has just half the carbs
of Bud Light, although the ads don't mention Michelob Ultra.

"We need to get the message out and raise awareness about the benefits of
Miller Lite," said Molly Reilly, a spokeswoman for Miller. "We have the
original low-carb beer and with all of the taste."

Brewers are not the only food and beverage companies looking to cash in on
the diet phenomenon. Since 2000, more than 800 new products making a low- or
no-carb claim were introduced into the marketplace, according to market
research firm Productscan Online of Naples, N.Y.

What's curious, says Productscan spokeswoman Suzanna Eygabroat, is that
smaller companies have been quicker to embrace low carb than the bigger
players in the food industry.

"Anheuser-Busch really stuck its neck out there, but the other majors have
been much more cautious," she said.

As a result, smaller brands like Carbsense Foods of Hood River, Ore., and
Atkins Nutritionals of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., have been faster out of the gate
with low-carb products.

Carbsense, for example, offers a honey bran muffin mix with 16 grams of
carbohydrates per two-muffin serving. Atkins Nutritionals, which came on the
scene seven years ago with high-protein shakes and bars, has started making
foods like breads and breakfast and bakery items.

Eygabroat notes that manufacturers are marketing these products not only to
those interested in weight loss and physical fitness. They're also looking
at the nation's ever-growing population of diabetics.

"Frankly, I'm surprised more of the major players haven't gotten involved,"
she said. "They are obviously waiting to see which way the compass is
pointing, but the trend is definitely there."

One successful Wisconsin company hasn't waited. Natural Ovens of Manitowoc
recently rolled out two varieties of low-carb breads that are quickly
turning into best sellers: Golden Crunch Lo-Carb and Original Lo-Carb.

"We can't keep them on the shelves," said Barbara Stitt, co-owner of the
family business founded in 1976. "The breads are just divine. They are
fantastically high in fiber and vegetable protein but low in net carbs."

Stitt admits the baking industry as a whole is struggling to respond to the
low-carb trend. Natural Ovens saw its sales flat last year at $21 million as
consumers eschewed products containing flour or sugar, although Stitt said
sales have been up 30 percent over the past months.

"The point is there are good carbs and bad carbs," she said. "Whole grain
breads are good carbs. It's the refined carbs that turn right into sugar in
your system."

The dairy industry is also wondering how it will handle the low-carb
phenomenon, said Pete Hardin, a dairy marketing analyst from Brooklyn, Wis.
While cheese sales have benefited from the diet trend, Hardin noted that
Dean Foods has found sales of prepared orange juice dropping as consumers
realize an eight-ounce glass contains a whopping 27 grams of sugar,
comparable to full-strength Coca-Cola.

"The flour industry has also been taking a beating, and you just wonder if
ice cream isn't going to be next," said Hardin.

Whether low carb is for real or a passing fad remains open to debate. For
years, "low-fat" was the hot buzzword in the food industry, with products
like no-fat coffee creamer and fat-free salad dressings lining supermarket
aisles.

In fact, just five years ago some 38 percent of new product launches had
low-fat claims, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based
market research company. But last year, the percentage of low-fat products
dropped to 11 percent of all new launches.

"Low fat was something everybody in the medical community could agree on so
all the major players really jumped on that one," said Eygabroat. "With low
carb, you don't have that same kind of consensus. The big companies don't
want to put a lot research and development into new products if it's a
passing fad."

Meriter Hospital dietitian Susie Schleicher thinks the low-carb phenomenon
will eventually fade. Like most health professionals, she warns that a diet
high in fat and protein may lead to short-term gains but long-term problems.

"There are so many reasons low-carb diets are a bad thing," she said,
pointing to the lack of any credible scientific evidence that the Atkins or
similar diets are healthy or bring lasting results in keeping the weight
off.

"These kind of high-fat diets have been around for over 100 years and have
come and gone," she said. "What's going on now is the marketing people want
to sell their products."

Sales of special low-carb foods are hard to estimate since consumers may be
loading up at the meat counter or simply buying low-carb foods that aren't
marketed as such.

Atkins Nutritionals expects sales of more than $100 million this year while
Carbsense is hoping for a more modest $2 million. That compares to sales of
around $5 billion for the "low-fat" food category.

But analysts expect more and more large companies will get into the action.
Low-carb Michelob Ultra, for example, is hailed as one of the most exciting
things in years to hit the beer market, an industry that has seen sales flat
for more than a decade.

"Probably what will happen is you'll get these majors buying up one of the
smaller companies," said Eygabroat. "That's the easiest way for them to get
involved."

What information is out there seems to suggest that consumer interest
remains strong. A recent study from NPDFoodworld showed the consumption of
high-protein breakfast foods like eggs, sausage and bacon at a 10-year high.

Still, how much long-term success these products have in the marketplace
remains to be seen. The fickle nature of American diet trends, as well as
confusion over what is really good for you, leavesquestions about what
consumers may demand down the road.

But there's no confusion at Jacobson's Deli in downtown Madison. The smell
of seared meat fills the air as manager Brian Nelson removes a sizzling pan
of roast chicken from the oven as the 11 a.m. lunch crowd starts to arrive.

Since opening in 2002, the store hasn't had to alter its operation one iota
to answer the low-carb craze.

"There are still lots of carnivores out there," said Nelson. "I don't think
that is going to change anytime soon."


E-mail:

I swear, the word "fad" just ****es me off. Who the hell ever heard of a
30 year fad??

Jake

"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 23:06:13 -0500, Ken Kubos wrote:

Snip article


I swear, the word "fad" just ****es me off. Who the hell ever heard of a
30 year fad??


I have. The words 'low fat' seem distinctly familiar.

revek

"Ken Kubos" wrote in message

[snip]
Meriter Hospital dietitian Susie Schleicher thinks the low-carb
phenomenon will eventually fade. Like most health professionals, she
warns that a diet high in fat and protein may lead to short-term
gains but long-term problems.

"There are so many reasons low-carb diets are a bad thing," she said,
pointing to the lack of any credible scientific evidence that the
Atkins or similar diets are healthy or bring lasting results in
keeping the weight off.

"These kind of high-fat diets have been around for over 100 years and
have come and gone," she said. "What's going on now is the marketing
people want to sell their products."
[snip]

Lack of credible scientific evidence? How about:
http://www.lowcarbresearch.org/lcr/results.asp

Now, Susie, where's *your* credible scientific evidence showing "so many
reasons low-carb diets are a bad thing"?

****ing hypocrite.

-J

Ken Kubos wrote:
Low carb, big business
Firms are scrambling to cash in on diet trend
By Mike Ivey
September 25, 2003

Sara Dobbs lifted her small basket of groceries onto the checkout counter at
Copps Food Center on Whitney Way.

In it: a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, several cans of tuna and bottled
water.

Low carb? You bet.

Atkins or any other published low carb diet?
Hell, no.
Yet another mischaracterization of low carb as a no-veggie diet.

Yet another twit ready to make herself sick by incorrectly winging
low-carb as no-carb, to blame eventual failure on the diet.

--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."

"jamie" wrote in message
...
Ken Kubos wrote:

Sara Dobbs lifted her small basket of groceries onto the checkout
counter at
Copps Food Center on Whitney Way.

In it: a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, several cans of tuna and bottled
water.

Low carb? You bet.

Atkins or any other published low carb diet?
Hell, no.
Yet another mischaracterization of low carb as a no-veggie diet.

Yet another twit ready to make herself sick by incorrectly winging
low-carb as no-carb, to blame eventual failure on the diet.

Or maybe she buys her vegetables at a farmer's market. I have found that
with the new emphasis my diet has on vegetables, I'm a lot picker about the
quality and freshness.

But yeah, I agree, when an article mentions all the meat (and nothing else)
in a grocery cart, it makes it look like that's all you can eat.

Reb

*************************************
Does your photo do you justice?
http://ThePhotoFixer.home.comcast.net

Maybe, maybe not. One can hardly make a determination based on one small
shopping basket. I've certainly had baskets that probably contained only
meat and cheese and eggs. Does that mean I don't eat my veggies? Certainly
not, I eat plenty of veggies, but just didn't happen to need any on that
quick run to the store.

It's not the customer who is necessarily the silly twit, but the article's
author who implies that this is all the diet entails.

Debbie

"jamie" wrote in message

Yet another twit ready to make herself sick by incorrectly winging
low-carb as no-carb, to blame eventual failure on the diet.

In article ,
"Debbie Cusick" wrote:

Maybe, maybe not. One can hardly make a determination based on one small
shopping basket. I've certainly had baskets that probably contained only
meat and cheese and eggs. Does that mean I don't eat my veggies? Certainly
not, I eat plenty of veggies, but just didn't happen to need any on that
quick run to the store.

It's not the customer who is necessarily the silly twit, but the article's
author who implies that this is all the diet entails.

Exactly. My Shaws run this evening netted me a chicken, two bricks of
cheese, and a can of Espresso.

I had first stopped at a produce market where I bought lettuce,
cucumbers, avocados, cauliflower, and yoghurt, and Trader Joes, where I
bought olive oil, olives, tuna.

I don't usually make three stops on the same day, but the purchases at
each place were pretty typical.

--
AF
"Non Sequitur U has a really, really lousy debate team."
--artyw raises the bar on rec.sport.baseball

Alice Faber wrote:

In article ,
"Debbie Cusick" wrote:

Maybe, maybe not. One can hardly make a determination based on one small
shopping basket. I've certainly had baskets that probably contained only
meat and cheese and eggs. Does that mean I don't eat my veggies? Certainly
not, I eat plenty of veggies, but just didn't happen to need any on that
quick run to the store.

It's not the customer who is necessarily the silly twit, but the article's
author who implies that this is all the diet entails.

Exactly. My Shaws run this evening netted me a chicken, two bricks of
cheese, and a can of Espresso.

I had first stopped at a produce market where I bought lettuce,
cucumbers, avocados, cauliflower, and yoghurt, and Trader Joes, where I
bought olive oil, olives, tuna.

I don't usually make three stops on the same day, but the purchases at
each place were pretty typical.

Yes, come to think of it, I usually buy our REAL food at Whole
Foods, and I get sometimes get other stuff at another market. I
do occasionally think that the contents of my cart/basket look
sort-of odd.

--
Jean B., 12 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA

On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, Ken Kubos wrote:

Low carb, big business
Firms are scrambling to cash in on diet trend
By Mike Ivey
September 25, 2003


More than 80 percent of American adults now claim to follow some sort of
low-carbohydrate diet, according to a new survey from the Supermarket Guru,
a national grocery service.


80%??? That fails a reality check for me. The people I know are starting
to be more conscious of carbs and aware that carby foods may not be as
much of a health food as we'd all assumed, but I really doubt that
anything like 80% of the people I know would claim to be following a low
carb WOE. I'm not exactly living in the boondocks either, so I'd expect
that the number of lowcarbers I know would actually be higher than the
national average.

Martha


--
Begin where you are - but don't end there.

If that figure were correct all the fast food places would be heading for
bankruptcy.

"Martha Gallagher" wrote in message
...
80%??? That fails a reality check for me. The people I know are starting
to be more conscious of carbs and aware that carby foods may not be as
much of a health food as we'd all assumed, but I really doubt that
anything like 80% of the people I know would claim to be following a low
carb WOE. I'm not exactly living in the boondocks either, so I'd expect
that the number of lowcarbers I know would actually be higher than the
national average.

Martha


--
Begin where you are - but don't end there.