Posted on 11/08/2003 12:04:57 PM PST by carlo3b
Breadmakers feel pain from Atkins diet
By DAVID SHARP
The Associated Press
11/8/2003, 1:18 p.m. ETPORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Some bakers around the country are seeing a similar drop in business: With millions of people trying the diet created by the late low-carb guru Dr. Robert Atkins, overall bread sales are flat or down slightly, while bread-bashing seems to be at an all-time high.
A sign in Stephen Lanzalotta's bakery reads, "Senza il pane tutto diventa orfano." In Italian, that means, "Without bread everyone's an orphan."
But fewer customers are buying his European-style breads and pastries these days — thanks to the Atkins diet, many regulars are cutting back on carbohydrates. Lanzalotta says the low-carb diet has contributed to an estimated 40 percent drop in business at his shop, Sophia's.
Some customers have even stopped by to apologize.
"They'll say, 'I'm sorry. I haven't been in for six months because I'm on the Atkins diet,'" said Lanzalotta, whose muscular arms are a testament to long hours spent kneading dough.
The National Bread Leadership Council, which says 40 percent of Americans are eating less bread than a year ago, has scheduled what it calls a summit this month in Rhode Island focusing in part on low-carb diets and how to educate the public that breaking bread is still part of a healthy lifestyle.
"It's too bad that we just can't eat all foods in moderation. But no, we have to do something dramatic all the time," said Judi Adams, president of the Wheat Foods Council and a registered dietician, referring to the Atkins diet. "We have to look for this magic bullet."
Estimates of the number of Americans on low-carb diets vary widely, from 5 million to 50 million. Their boycott of bread has exacerbated a sluggish sales trend that was in place before low-carb diets became popular, said John McMillin, a food industry analyst with Prudential Equity Group Inc. in New York.
When Lanzalotta opened his bakery, bread accounted for 75 percent of sales. Now it accounts for just 15 percent. He boosted his dessert offerings and began offering sandwiches to try to make up the difference. He also adapted by selling artwork, including his own paintings.
At Standard Baking, co-owner Alison Pray said sales are nearly flat after previously growing 10 percent to 15 percent a year.
Pray sees plenty of couples stopping by, but often only one partner is eating. The other is cutting carbs.
She's a bit incredulous when customers ask if she produces anything consistent with the Atkins diet. "This one person asked me, 'Can you make a low-carbohydrate bread?' I said, 'I wouldn't know how to do it,'" she said.
Others are adapting. At Anthony's Italian Kitchen, owner Tony Barassa said his customers are ordering Syrian wraps without the wrap and panini sandwiches without the panini. They're also ordering meatballs without the spaghetti.
On Atkins, people can eat cheese, eggs and meat as long as they strictly limit carbohydrates and avoid refined carbs like white flour. White bread, pasta, potatoes and other carbo-loaded foods are blacklisted. The diet was once scorned by the medical establishment, but recent studies have shown that people lose weight without compromising their health.
The Wheat Food Council's Adams, who is based in Colorado, believes low-carb diets are just another fad. And she wonders if they're really helping.
She noted that the nation's obesity rate has continued to grow as flour consumption has declined. Wheat flour consumption has dropped by about 10 pounds a year per person since 1997, she said, calling Americans' tendency to eat too much of everything the real problem.
"We eat 300 more calories a day than we did in 1985," Adams said. "We supersize everything. We eat constantly."
Big Sky Baking Co. in Portland appears to have avoided the worst of the low-carb fallout because its whole wheat bread is the kind recommended for carb-cutters who can't resist a slice every now and again.
Owner Martha Elkus recognizes that times are changing. "The food pyramid has been turned upside down," she said.
Bread bakers aren't the only ones hurting. The pasta industry, the tortilla industry, bagel makers and even brewers of beer have taken their lumps for having too many carbohydrates.
The Tortilla Industry Association held a seminar last spring titled, "An Industry in Crisis: The High-protein, Low-carb Diet and Its Effects on the Tortilla Industry." The National Pasta Association has a "Diet Matters" section on its Web page that focuses on low-carb diets.
Joshua Sosland, executive editor of Milling and Baking News in St. Louis, said it's difficult for consumers to find good information amidst all of the hype that served to overshadow the science behind the diets. Often overlooked is the fact that bread and grains remain an important part of the federal government's diet guidelines.
"Here we have about the most healthy thing in the diet," Sosland said, "and it's being treated like it's poison."
Bakers are changing their products even as they seek to get out the message that bread remains part of a healthy lifestyle.
Flowers Foods' low-carb bread, "Nature's Own Wheat 'n Fiber," has proven to be the company's most successful new product launch to date, said Mary Krier, spokeswoman in Thomasville, Ga.
George Weston Bakeries Inc. has launched "Carb Counting" bread under its Arnold label that carries the Atkins seal. Maine-based Lepage Bakeries has introduced Country Kitchen "Lower Carb" wheat bread.
Panera Bread, a fast-growing chain that offers soups, salads and sandwiches in addition to bread, is also making changes to meet the evolving tastes of its customers. The company is testing three whole-grain breads with fewer grams of carbohydrates per slice.
"Our view of it is not to resist (the low-carb trend) but to recognize it as a real niche," CEO Ron Shaich said.
There is also an opportunity out there for boutique-style artisan bakers to confront the challenge of reduced-carb bakery.
Sugar does such wonderful things chemically and physically--carmelizng and adding texture to baked goods. It's just plain hard to bake without it, though the substitutes are better than they have ever been.
Making fluffy biscuits and scones is hard with the high-protein flours that locarb baking requires.
But with the increased interest in cookery, evinced by the Food and HGTV stations--surely there's an innovator out there!
You have a good poing. I did do without these things for almost a year with little problem--and no one loved taters and bread more than I. But having a sandwich (Nature's Own, 5 impacting g's of carbs) does add to a sense of "normalcy." Something to hold your devilled ham...
Nabisco's Snackwell's Sugar Free Shortbread is mighty nice to have with some hot tea.
Variety keeps me on track--and I'm happy to find a few treats now at the grocery store.
Breyer's sugar-free, but blessedly high-fat, ice cream...chocolate...
Atkins, and modifications of that method do not shut down Carbs completely, they say, and quite correctly IMO, that too many Carbs will cause too many problems. The same could be said for fats! It's the balance that Atkins discovered was the problems..
That appears to be the struggle that he had with the medical commute, it turns their pyramid on it's head.. They have for years had Carbs a the base of the foundation of a healthy diet, well that became the problem.. They also condemned meat consumption.. I now believe that they were corrupted by the "save the animal, at the experience of whatever else". That corruption caused millions of people their lives, and would continue if it wasn't for doctors and people of courage that forced the issue, and changed the direction.
Learn or die, lady. High-tech companies face this every day.
Often overlooked is the fact that bread and grains remain an important part of the federal government's diet guidelines.
The Federal Government is heartily encouraged to blow this, along with everything else it meddles in, right out its a$$.
Until that happens, within 5 years, there exists is vacuum that will be filled by enterprising entrepreneur, and we will all make them wealthy.. Been there, and done that.. :)
People on maintenance can have more carbs than when in the weight-losing stage--
Do you think the doctor asked me what my diet was like? Hell no. All he did was tell me in a jocular manner that I should "take a little weight off" (like I didn't know that) and that I should "hit the salad bar more often." In other words, I should go on the traditional low-fat diet.
That was about two years ago. I went another year of avoiding stuff like bacon and eggs in favor of pancakes without the butter and syrup and dry toast. Instead of ordering steak in a restaurant (what I really wanted), I'd get a pasta dish or fish with rice. I thought I was making the right choices because everybody was preaching on how bad fats were.
Fortunately I discovered the low-carb threads on Free Republic and started participating. At first, I was a skeptic. It didn't make sense to me. But finally around the end of March, when I returned from a business trip having gained over five pounds, I was at my wits end. I now weighed in at around 300 pounds. Which was 115 pounds over what a man of my height (6'3") should weight. My waist size was now 48 and I started buying size 50 pants because loose pants made me feel better - they allowed me to fool myself into thinking I wasn't so fat after all.
So in spite of my skepticism of the normal-carb way of eating, I decided to give it a try. After all, every other diet I tried failed miserably (even when combined with exercise).
BTW, you might be confused with me calling this a "normal-carb" way of eating. This is because I think "low-carb" is the wrong way to describe it. I eat carbs. I just don't eat the ridiculous amount that the government says you should eat under that food pyramid. I think the problem is that we have set the threshold too high for carbs. The average American eats 425g of carb a day. I was eating over 600g of carb a day easy during my fat days.
Well since April, I have reduced my carb intake to 100g or less. I didn't do this consciously. That is, I didn't walk around all day with a notepad counting carbs like some folks do with fat or calories. I simply cut all the junk out of my diet. All the sugary junk. Fast food. Processed food. By sticking to natural foods like meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, berries, nuts, yogurt, etc., I automatically limit my carbs to a tolerable level.
This isn't Atkins officially. I don't think I ever went into ketosis. But it's the same basic idea: By reducing my carb intake, I have forced my body to burn fat instead. I have accelerated the fat burning by incorporating two workouts a day into my schedule. I get up at 5AM and walk for an hour. I then walk another hour either at lunch or right after work. So I walk (briskly) for two hours a day at a 4mph pace. That's at least 8 miles a day right there. And on weekend, I usually do more than that.
So you don't have to be a gym rat or an athlete to boost your metabolism. Just walking two hours a day will do it. This exercise, combined with the normal carb diet, allowed me to lose over 100 pounds in just over 7 months. It works.
And if I hear any skeptic prattle on about how eliminating food groups are bad for you, I ask "what food groups"? I eat more vegetables than I ever did before. I eat berries every day. So what food groups are you talking about? Domino's Pizza? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Lay's Potato Chips? Donuts? Cakes? Candy? Those are the only kind of food groups that I cut out.
There is a good 100% whole wheat bread by Nature's Own that is 10g Carb, 3g fiber, net carb 7g per slice that is very good. They make several lower carb choices but the loaves are smaller and more expensive and none lower in net carbs except their Low Carb bread, only by 2g carb though. That low carb bread contains soy flour and I can't stand it so I settle for the 2 extra carbs.
Russell Stover's sugar free chocolates are pretty good too. My favorites are the Pecan Delight and the toffee squares.
Steamed Clams With metal brush, under running cold water, scrubs clams free of
- 6 dozen clams (if open, tap on shell. if it does not close, toss it)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup melted butter
- chopped parsley
sand. In steamer over high heat, heat enough water to cover bottom
to boiling. On rack in steamer, place clams. Cover steamer with
tight fitting lid. reduce heat to low and steam clams just until
they open. approximately 5-10 minutes. Serve clams in soup bowls
with melted butter on the side.. Pour broth from clams into mugs
or large bowl. Sprinkle with parsley.To eat: with fingers pull clams from shells by neck. dip first in
broth to remove any sand, then into butter (all except the tough
skin of the neck may be eaten. when sand settles to bottom, the
broth may be drunk, if desired.
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