Low-carbohydrate products in high demand

Local businesses are cashing in on consumer demand for low-carbohydrate products.

The expanding list of low-carb inventory lining area grocery shelves includes cheesecakes, muffin mixes, candy bars, breads, cookies, potato chips, brownies, steak sauces, pancakes, pasta, shakes, cereals, tortilla chips and ice creams all touting reduced carbohydrates for weight-conscious consumers.

Companies like Carborite, Atkins, CarbSense, Keto LLC, O So-Lo, La Tortilla Factory and others are among the low-carb manufacturers expanding their niche with area consumers.

Clearing the shelves

Phyliss Harper, owner of 49-year-old Evans Health Studio, said her store has experienced an increase in sales of low-carb products. Years ago people thought they needed lots of carbs and they discovered 10 or 15 years later that everybodys fatter than they were before. She added, theyve discovered that carbs can also be stored as fat.

Sales have also spiked at Winslow Health & Diet Foods, according to Manager Sharon Trent, who said the increase in low-carb product sales has been probably, tenfold over last year. Sales of low-carb products are at 25 percent of total grocery sales, she said. Last year we were probably at 2 percent (or) 3 percent.

Trent attributed the notoriety of Dr. Robert Atkins books and product line with heightened consumer awareness of low-carb products. If people are on the low-carb diet, they come in and say, I want the Atkins product, and then we have to explain to them theres more products out there than just Atkins.

The sale of low-carb products at Country Cupboard Health Foods accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of total grocery sales, said owner Teresa Gray. She added, however, that sales are up overall, in part due to increasing its low-carb inventory and moving the stores location to the corner of Glenstone Avenue and Chestnut Expressway.

April Ward, supplement manager at Whole Health Natural Foods, said her stores fastest movers are low-carb bread, tortilla chips, pasta, oatmeal and cereal.

Whereas a year ago very little space was devoted to low-carb products, the Price Cutter Plus at 2021 W. Republic has an eight-foot section plus a full end cap devoted to nothing but low-carb stuff now, said David Sweaney, store manager. The store expanded this section about three or four months ago; it has about four or five brands with about 150 to 200 different items, he added.

Sweaney said sales figures for specialty food like low-carb products arent calculated separately. But compared to last year (there was) probably a 500 percent increase in these types of goods, due in part to the additional space allocated such items.

Sweaney said a year or two ago if products were low-carb, companies werent necessarily interested in marketing them as such. Today, however, theres a purposeful focus to draw attention to that product characteristic.

Prices for low carbohydrate products in many cases are much higher than their carbo-rich counterparts. For example, Keto spaghetti sells locally for $4.99 a box, and an Atkins low-carb candy bar goes for $1.49.

Manufacturers

Arne Bey, chairman and CEO of privately held Keto LLC, a 16-year-old food product company headquartered in Tinton Falls, N.J., said his company shifted its focus from nutritional supplements, such as capsules and drink mixes, to its low-carb development and launch in 1998. The reason Bey said, was I lost 15 pounds reducing carbohydrates. And that was the good news, and the bad news was there was nothing to eat, so necessity was the mother of invention.

Growth has accelerated dramatically since 2002, Bey said. On an annualized basis, the company has grown 280 percent in the period from January to June 2003. He added, sales are forecast to exceed a nine-figure rate within the next quarter on an annualized basis, adding, this means more than $100 million annualized rate by the first quarter.

Keto is short for ketosis, the term given to the physiological state of burning fat, Bey said. All of the 140 products the company manufactures are low-carb.

A place for carbs

Right now, of course, low carbohydrate for weight management is just really, really popular, and I think its wrong. You dont need low carbs to lose weight, what you need is a calorie deficit. If you needed 2,000 calories and ate 1,500 calories of nothing but carbohydrates, youd lose weight, said David Dade, a registered dietician and wellness and sports nutritionist for Cox Fitness Centers.

When Dade is working with a client, he determines the calories necessary per age, height, weight, gender and activity level. You have to create a calorie deficit through a combination diet and exercise to lose weight, Dade said. When this happens the body burns reserve calorie storage, which is body fat. This is when you lose inches and weight.

As popular as low-carb diets are, theres a substantial risk of immediate water weight gain if a person suddenly stops that approach, because carbohydrates draw fluid into the body, said Laura Crawford, registered dietician with New Images Weight Management Program at St. Johns Hammons Heart Institute.

If someone were to go off a low-carbohydrate diet, in a day or two they would gain eight or ten pounds just from the fluid coming back into the body, Crawford said.

Crawford said the best carbohydrate sources are whole fruits and vegetables, such as apples, oranges, grapes, broccoli, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. She recommended eating five servings a day, along with a good fiber source such as bran flakes, whole-wheat bread or whole-grain rice. One of the problems, she said, with the real low-carbohydrate diets is constipation, even sometimes to the point of requiring hospitalization.

Crawford uses a plate method as a visual for a healthy meal where half is low-carb veggies (like lettuce, green beans or broccoli), a quarter is a lean meat (chicken breast, sirloin around the size of a deck of cards, pork loin, fish), and a quarter is a small amount of starch (a half cup of corn, rice, potatoes, pasta or a slice of bread), fruit for dessert, and a glass of low-fat milk.