Low-carb zone
Restaurants carve carbs from dishes in response to high-protein diets' popularity
By Rachel Harris, staff writer, January 27, 2004
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Don't expect to eat with your hands if you order a sandwich from the "naturally low-carb" menu at the Vero Beach eatery The Lemon Tree.
You just might end up with more in your lap than in your mouth.
A nod to the ever popular low-carbohydrate Atkins and South Beach diets, the sandwiches are served sans bread: a chicken breast topped with bacon and melted cheese, nestled atop a Caesar salad.
"It's our most popular lunch item," says owner John Marx of the "breadless" sandwich, one of a dozen new low-carb items added to the menu. Other dishes include shrimp scampi and herb-crusted salmon, both served with sliced tomato and mozzarella and homemade dressing.
"It's ordinary food," Marx says. "We're just selecting items that aren't high in carbs."
Loads of other local restaurants are making menu changes, too, following the lead of national chains eager to cash in on the low-carb craze.
Last week, Burger King rolled out a "bunless" Whopper. TGI Friday's boasts an Atkins-approved array of appetizers and entrees. And Subway has added two low-carb wraps to its menu, made with sesame flour "tortillas" that yield just five grams of net carbohydrates.
"I think it's a really good idea to have choices that are lower in refined carbs," says Katherine Bernstein, a registered dietitian in Stuart. "The average American consumes way too many sugars and way too many starches."
Refined carbohydrates, which include most breads, cakes and rice, are metabolized quickly and transformed into sugar in the bloodstream, Bernstein says. This means they pack a lot of empty calories -- and the potential for unwanted weight gain.
Cutting out carbs
Among the local eateries amending menus is the Tap House in Fort Pierce, known for Reuben sandwiches, burgers . . . and accommodating dieters?
Owner Steve Horn hopes customers will appreciate the new low-carbohydrate dishes on the menu, which include a quesadilla made with a low-carb tortilla and stuffed with a variety of cheeses and a choice of mushrooms, chicken or bacon.
Other new items include six vegetable selections, including cauliflower casserole, broccoli with cheddar and sauteed zucchini with squash.
In the month since the items debuted, they have received rave reviews, Horn says.
"Our customers love it," he adds. "A lot of them are on these diets, and they're helping us write the menu."
In Stuart, staff at the Bistro Madeleine Restaurant & Bakery had to get creative when bread sales slumped about six months ago.
"Now, instead of doing 60 croissants a day, it's more like 30 a day," says owner Evan Reisfeld. "And we make more rye," which has a high fiber content.
But the restaurant hasn't lost sales overall, says Reisfeld, in part because of other low-carb additions to its menu: a popular egg-white omelet stuffed with cheese and vegetables and a "diet delight" burger, served bunless, with cottage cheese and fruit.
Prompted in part by patrons' requests, Reisfeld insists the menu changes were more personal than proprietary.
Since April, he has lost more than 45 pounds on the Atkins diet, the brainchild of the late Dr. Robert Atkins, a cardiac specialist whose low-carbohydrate diet theory was published in 1972.
Atkins' work concluded that if people do without the sugars and carbohydrates produced for energy, their bodies would turn to stored fat for energy and therefore they would lose weight.
The South Beach diet, created by Florida doctor Arthur Agatston, is a modified version of the Atkins diet, and allows more vegetables and nuts than the original low-carb regimen.
Both diets start with two weeks of restricted eating of mostly protein and low-carb foods, banning bread, fruits, rice, potatoes and pasta.
Fad or mainstay?
For all the area eateries making their menus more low-carb friendly, some haven't had to change a thing.
"(Our customers) are basically changing it for us," says Chef Michael D'Aquila of the Black Marlin in Stuart, where more patrons request bunless sandwiches and no fries.
Pascal's French Bakery in Port St. Lucie hasn't changed a thing on its menu, except to add a multi-grain bread packed with complex carbohydrates including flax seed, sunflower seeds and oats. The bakery sells about 60 loaves a week, says owner Pascal Bizot.
But he says sales of other baked goods have been unaffected by the low-carb craze, something he considers a passing phase.
"I don't see how it can allow you to eat bacon but you can't drink orange juice," Pascal says of the Atkins diet. "Everybody knows that oranges are healthy for you."
Bernstein wonders if the low-carb philosophy isn't here to stay.
"I think this is bigger (than past diet crazes)," she says. "And this is due to obesity in this country. You can look at any age group and you will see a larger percentage of obese people than ever in our history. Something needs to change."
Whether the low-carb craze is a fad or the future, local restaurant staffs say they will have no trouble adjusting.
"It's like anything," says D'Aquila, who has watched patrons cut back on potatoes but indulge in desserts.
"You take it in stride."
- rachel.harris~scripps.com
Eating at a restaurant that doesn't offer special low-carb dishes? Registered dietitian Katherine Bernstein, of Stuart, has some advice:
Stay away from pasta. A serving is a half-cup, Bernstein says, but you're almost always guaranteed to get more at a restaurant. If eating Italian, opt for Chicken Marsala.
Ask for steamed vegetables or a salad in place of french fries.
Take the bread basket off the table. It's much easier to avoid it if it's out of sight, Bernstein says.
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