I think food manufacturers are making a mistake

Headlines trumpet that low carb is dying... well, it isn't dying, and like all diets, it is up at the start of the new year... although adherence will gradually diminish as people lose weight, or splurge and don't go back on, etc. According to Reuters' quote of an NPD survey:

In the week of Jan. 10, 15 percent of 1,000 Americans surveyed claimed to be following a low-carb diet such as Atkins or South Beach, according to market research firm Opinion Dynamics. The level is the highest since Opinion Dynamics began tracking low-carb dieting in December 2003.

But it is going through another transition, especially in regards to the food manufacturers. And some aspects of this transition will not help low carbers in the long term, at least in terms of cheaper low carb convenience foods. Why?

Many large companies are getting out. They are retaining the "low sugar" or "no sugar" designations, but they are pulling many products that are specifically low carb. In other words, the low sugar products have just as much flour (although it may be whole flour now rather than refined flour, somewhat of an improvement) but the ingredient mix won't have as much protein, high fiber versions of flour, nut flour, or other low carb friendly ingredients. These ingredients are more expensive and they think people only demonize sugar now, and not other carbohydrates. (The knowledge that lots of carbohydrates cause hunger in certain people is not fully dissemanated.) One sign of this is MGP, a manufacturer of high protein grain ingredients, is experiencing diminished sales.

Smaller companies will probably continue to offer true low carb products, but the premium prices may be too high for my pocketbook.

When low carb products taste good , are reasonably priced and serve a purpose, like Trader Joe's Flax and Soy Tortilla Chips, then sales are brisk. (And if you don't have a Trader Joe's around, click here for a good alternative low carb tortilla chip.) When products taste horrid and they are premium priced, they fail.

If low carbers just grab the low sugar versions and don't watch carb counts, then they will gain weight. (Remember, no more than 300 calories of non-natural low carb foods a day!) You have to look at the ingredients. Companies will probably do just fine with low sugar versions, but low carbers will have to go back to doing a lot of baking with almond flour and other natural ingredients rather than getting their snack food on the run. If people can still stick with the diet, then this will be better. Whole unprocessed foods are best, and you are less likely to overeat if you have to make it yourself rather than opening a package.

So.. bottom line, there are pros and cons. In the meantime, I think I'll revisit my favorite low carb cookbook.

Comments

[Levi Wallach]

I do think it's funny how many of these articles I get notified about. They have been calling for the death of low-carb diets now for at least 7 months! The fact that some manufacturers are backing out of low-carb products is dissapointing, but not surprising. Whatever the press will say about WHY this is happening, the bottom line is that it's a business decision based on sales. These sales may be because the product was too expensive, didn't taste good, or many other reasons that are the fault of the manufacturer. But some of it may indeed be because those millions who jumped on the bandwagon last year to try a new diet only to quit when the holidays came and stopped buying these products. There was a misconception among many of these people who didn't read much before "going" on a low-carb diet, that you could just eat as much of a product that you wanted to as long as it was labeled "low-carb." Something similar happened to low-fat. Labeling something as "low-carb" or "low-fat" or whatever seems to give a large chunk of people the license to eat large amounts of it, instead of actually learning about good nutrition. I'm not saying that these products can't be used in moderation as part of a healthy diet, but it seems those who are lazy about really learning about this stuff will grab them up when the debut, abuse them, then simply stop buying them, creating this quick peak and then drop that becomes devestating to their market or their product category or brand. If all these manufacturers suddenly stopped making low-carb products, I would personally not care because I don't buy any. Force people to read labels and figure out what they mean instead of putting big eye-popping "No carbs!" "No cholesterol!" or whatever on them - that just insights all of our propensity to grab at stuff without thinking much about it...