Carb craziness
The media takes aim at low-carb eating - again
Well, the media onslaught against the low-carbohydrate, high-protein lifestyle continues. But distressingly, it's not the obviously-biased Washington Post or Newsweek magazine that's tossing the grenades this time - it's the Associated Press.
As you know, I use the AP as a source quite often and have found their coverage of events and developments in the medical, nutrition and political arenas to be fair and balanced, for the most part. But they dropped the ball a few weeks ago with this unfortunate headline:
Experts Say Low-Carb Craze May Be Over
First off, to characterize any movement - much less one as widespread, credible and influential as the Atkins Diet and other such nutritional approaches - as a "craze" is to marginalize it in people's minds right off the bat. And since the Atkins Diet, for one, has been around for more than thirty years, I think its existence alone (not to mention its rise to prominence in the mainstream) qualifies as slightly more than a craze - more like a tectonic shift.
Secondly, the "experts" the story quoted included the CEO of a pasta company (sure, he's an expert on low-carb eating) and the VP of a food industry "research" firm. Hmmm, sounds a lot like a lobbyist to me. Yeah, they're known to be unbiased. Also, the article trumpets the fact that the percentage of U.S adults participating in a lower-carb diet declined from 9.1% in February of 2004 to 4.9% by early November.
Well, DUH! This trend is the same in all diets, year after year. Most people balloon during the holidays, and adopt new dietary approaches in the early part of the year, like February. As the warm and active months progress, many lose weight and no longer feel the need to aggressively diet. Conveniently, the trend quoted in the piece ends in early November - right before the typical Thanksgiving-through-New-Years bulk-up. After the first of the year, many of these part-time dieters will be right back in the low-carb trenches.
In my opinion, the real measure of a trend is how the market is treating the stocks of companies that directly serve said trend. Cases in point: Tyson Foods (the chicken giants) stock more than doubled from January to July of 2004, and Smithfield Foods (the ham folks) stock is up more than 25% in just the last 3 months. I could go on, but I think the point is made…
The 30-years-and-running low-carb, high-fat and -protein nutritional plan is alive and well - and will be around long after the media realizes it can't stop this healthy "craze."
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Cereal killing?
Despite the preponderance of evidence - the millions of successful weight-loss stories and the nearly 10% per year adult participation in low-carbohydrate, high-fat nutritional plans - at least some people are betting against the low-carb movement. Case in point:
A new restaurant in Philadelphia that serves only BREAKFAST CEREAL.
Yep, that's right, the Cereality Cereal Bar and Café at the University of Pennsylvania (figures it'd be on a college campus, doesn't it?) features pajama-clad servers that dish out your choice of over 30 name-brand breakfast cereals. On the menu are perennial junk-food favorites Cap'n Crunch, Froot Loops, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Apple Jacks and every other brand of refined, mass-produced breakfast-time sugar-bomb you can think of.
As if this isn't bad enough, you can load these up with even more sugar by adding things like molasses, chocolate sprinkles, malt balls - even pop rocks! (Ugh)
This Philly-area location opened its doors after the resounding success of the first Cereality, a small kiosk on the Arizona State University campus. They plan to open a dozen or so more of the novelty restaurants this year not only on other college campuses, but also in airports, office buildings - and yes, even hospital lobbies!
Well, at least the hospital-based locations would be in the right place for the diabetic comas some of these cereals will likely induce.
Crazy over the latest literal sugar-coating,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
