Experts Say Diets Bring Record Egg Prices

AP/yahoo.comnews ^ | December 10, 2003 | RYAN LENZ,AP

[1Old Pro]

If everyone is eating eggs and meat now, why are the prices of my rice and pasta not comming down? Are some of you out there cheating?

No kidding, where's the free bread??

[js1138]

I don't deny the possibility that Atkins is good, or that changes in behavior can't be permanent and beneficial. But with the current state of knowledge, Atkins is a fad. That is true even if long term research proves it to be beneficial. We don't yet have that research.

[HangThemHigh]

"No kidding, where's the free bread??"

I have noticed the vairety at the bread outlet is better lately.

[Squantos]

Omelet ping !

[Prodigal Son]

I'm not an Atkins fan. The diet itself had nothing to do with my comment. I'm not even sure what a proper Atkins diet is. For me, it has always been pretty obvious that bodybuilders know what they are talking about when it comes to losing fat. I mean, their livelihoods depend on it and the results are self evident when you look at them. When I shed unwanted fat, I am usually taking an approach that bodybuilders use.

[CajunConservative]

My brother won a bet with his wife using the atkins diet. Ten years later he weighs 320 pounds and has a new wife. There is not a shread of evidence that weight loss diets contribute to longer life, or even that they contribute to sustained weight loss over a ten or twenty year period.

Good genes, however, are as good as gold.

Well, basically what has to happen is a lifestyle change to keep the weight off regardless which plan you follow. I do moderate carb, non refined, whole foods, simply because I feel better and it tastes better than the low fat/high carb crap. IOW I eat real food and a variety of it. It's not a diet just to lose weight for me. I have been eating this way for over 5 years. That's my choice and it works for me.

Not everybody is blessed with good genes, especially my family, dang cajuns and germans.

[SAJ]

The retail price of beef took off in October-November, when the long-term contracts that the national and large regional grocery chains had with the packers began to expire. There are a few l-t contracts still on, but they expire very shortly.

The good news is that, afaik, very few packers even offered renegotiated l-t contracts to the grocers because of the uncertain supply situation, and the grocers, speaking broadly, are working hand-to-mouth regarding beef right now...hence the temporary spike in price. Similar in many respects to the self-manufactured energy ''crisis'' in Calbania in 2000-2001, when the users were forced to play in the spot market, as opposed to hedging future needs.

Why is this good news? Because LC, basis June 04, is trading $24.00/cwt under cash (spot), $20/cwt under Dec 03, and $16/cwt under Feb 04. In plain language, assuming only that Canadian beef imports resume, you can look for about a 25% drop in retail by May, and likely another 10% by August. There may be further spikes betweentimes, and prices will vary SHARPLY by location. And, there's another component to the mkt that may speed up the process.

Japan, the other huge mkt for export Canadian beef, is absolutely and utterly paranoid about BSE, and won't resume imports from Canada for QUITE a while. Sooooo, the minute the first Canadian shipment to the US is announced, look for the LC mkt (and, 30 days later or so, retail beef prices) to crater, tank out, bomb, implode. Canadian ranchers can't wait to move the critters, the mkt knows this perfectly well, and once the door is open, look out below.

BTW, the huge price spike was caused in the immediate sense by the Canadian ban; however, this mkt in May was a bomb waiting to go off, and has been for some time -- Canada was just the fuse. The US cattle herd has been undergoing reduction since 1995 (lots of reasons for this, can elabourate if you want), and the mkt has become much more dependent on imports than anyone in his right mind would ever want. When the major import source (Canada) was taken away, there was nowhere for prices to go but straight up -- no conspiracy, nothing like that, just the mkt at work. The relative increase in demand due to the growing preference for high-protein diets, while small in an absolute sense, is huge when considering the price of the famous marginal cow, i.e. the NEXT cow you want to buy, and has contributed considerably to the price rise.

WILL Canadian beef start moving south ''on time'', say, February or thereabouts? Absolutely, because everybody (except the food cranks) wins. Also, Mr. Bush has exactly zero interest in running for re-election with housewives up in arms over the highest retail beef prices in history.

FReegards!

[Squantos]

Also, all your blood numbers leave the doctors asking you for your secret

Agree on that my Doc was amazed. I dropped lots of weight and bad blood test results by adopting some of Dr Atkins concepts. Lower amount of carbs has elimanated a lot of my woes. Pretty much not how much of but what one eats. Each individual has to experiment with it carefully but I have found it works well and will stick with it.

Stay Safe !

[Trust but Verify]

Wow, thanks for elaborating on that for me. I'm so surprised that so many people seem not to have noticed! I haven't seen any of this in the news at all, nor had anyone mentioned it in normal conversation.

We don't actually eat a lot of beef, but I do like my steak now and again.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the beef supply from the Great White North resumes!

[Trust but Verify]

What you describe is exactly the way I have chosen to eat. I lost 110 pounds that way and have kept all of it off. I never feel deprived and during my quest to eat healthier, I made a lot of discoveries of food that tastes good and is good for you! How cool is that?

[js1138]

I have no idea whether sheding unwanted fat is good in the long run. If you mean twenty pounds, there is lots of evidence that repeated attempts at dieting are more unhealthy than having the extra weight. One hundred pounds? probably need to lose some of it. But there is not a shred of evidence that it will make you live longer. At least not yet.

[Old Professer]

Nonody ever got tired carrying an empty 5 gallon bucket.

[Prodigal Son]

But there is not a shred of evidence that it will make you live longer.

I give a rat's behind about living longer. When I lose unwanted fat, it's unwanted because of how it makes me feel. It's unwanted because it costs more to go out and buy new clothes than to simply lose a few pounds. It's unwanted because it's a bitch hauling all the extra weight around. Etc. I don't care about the scientific aspects of it- I'm talking about practicality.

[js1138]

Good enough reasons. I'm not opposing them. But dieting for medical reasons is a great unknown.

[tubebender]

the price of beef rib eyes to go to $11.48/lb, doesn't it? That's what it was last week in the store.

You must have been looking at "Prime" Rib Eye. I buy extra thick Rib Eyes at Costo for about $8.99 a pound for "Choice" currently up from $6.99 a pound a few months ago

[Tree of Liberty]

As others have intimated, Diet Rite is good for Atkins because it does not contain Nutrasweet. Aspartame (the generic name for Nutrasweet) causes a very similar metabolic reaction as sugar and keeps you from burning fat.

Also, does anyone know if there's an organized "freepers on Atkins" group? I just started the diet a few days ago (already in heavy lipolysis according to the ketosticks) and was wondering just how many of you out there are also on it.

[CajunConservative]

I had some medical reasons to go low carb and for me it has evolved through trial and error where I know whether or not certain foods are problematic. Most fruit for me is off limits because of the reactions I have, however, I know that for other folks it's just fine for them because it doesn't make them have a blood sugar spike and a migraine afterwards.

I know immediately if something has high fructose corn syrup because I literally get a buzz from the stuff. IOW I have learned to listen to my body's reactions and pay attention to the signals and adjust as needed.

[mountainfolk]

We have been wondering at the increased cost of eggs these past three months. We went to ALDIES grocery store this week and there was a sign above the eggs which said the higher cost was due to new government standards. There was no further elaboration. Maybe the USDA is behind the increased cost and ATKINS is the convenient scapegoat.

[xm177e2]

Its a national egg emergency!!

You have broken the rules!

Whenever you mention eggs, you MUST substitute "egg" for a neighboring word's syllable.

Examples: "Eggmergency!" "Emereggency!" "Nationegg!"
If it doesn't seem to work out with these words, you need to pick new, egg-friendly words:

Instead of "Emergency," try these: "Categgclysm" or "Eggcigency"

[Tree of Liberty]

You're cracked, man.