Carbo unloading: Health-conscious consumers pushing low-carb products into the mainstream

By Greg Gatlin Sunday, September 7, 2003

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Low-carbohydrate pasta may sound like a contradiction, but don't tell that to the carb-counting consumers at the Good Health Natural Food stores in Quincy and Hanover.

The stores can hardly keep it in stock. Same goes for low-carb breads, pizza and ketchup.

``It's really gone through the roof,'' says Sean Cahill, the store's general manager. ``Everyday we're expanding the section. They have anything you can imagine. Atkins even came out with low-carb ice cream. I can't even keep it on the the shelf.''

Good Health is among the specialty food stores enjoying what experts say is the front end of a boom in consumer demand for foods with low or no carbohydrates. At the Hanover store, at least one-third of all food sales are coming from low-carb products, Cahill said.

But the low-carb food business is rapidly moving well beyond health food stores.

Supermarkets are stocking up on low-carb products and expanding the floor space allotted to those foods - a trend that some insiders suggest is about to explode.

Anheuser-Busch's new low-carb Michelob Ultra is already a top-selling beer. And Labatt USA recently said it would launch a low-carb version of its Rolling Rock beer, called Rock Green Light.

Restaurants in the Hub and elsewhere are altering their menus for diners trying to stay away from breads and starches. Some are training servers on which menu items are carb-heavy and which are not, as customers are asking for low-carb options.

``In the past three or four months we've seen that spike surprisingly,'' said Regina Hanley, a spokeswoman for L'Espalier in Boston. ``We've really had to take a careful look at what was on our menu.''

Chris Frothingham, executive chef at Todd English's Bonfire steakhouse in Boston, says customers are looking to get away from carb-heavy starches, such as mashed potatoes, asking instead for vegetables, such as grilled asparagus. Some are refusing croutons on their salads.

``We have empowered the waitstaff to open up that dialog,'' said Frothingham, who lost 20 pounds on the Atkins diet.

The debate rages on over whether low-carb diets that stress meats, fish, eggs and other high-protein foods over pasta, breads and carb-rich foods are healthy or nutritionally absurd. Proponents point to the pounds they've dropped on such diets. Opponents, including some dietitians, warn that while they may trigger short-term weight loss, those diets raise cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease and kidney damage.

But in May, studies in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated there may be some health and weight benefits to low-carb diets such as the one promulgated by the late Robert Atkins. The mainstream press picked up on that, and more consumers started dumping the carbs and jumping on the bandwagon.

Mike McKenna, of Quincy, says he lost 10 pounds and a lot of body fat since he started dropping his carb intake about six months ago.

``I'm a sugar and starch fiend,'' McKenna said. ``I like all the wrong foods. I eat more carbs than I should.''

McKenna was in the Good Health store buying soy protein substitute and low-carb Advantage bars. He says he's seeing more and more of those products at Stop & Shop, CVS and other chains.

``Mainstream acceptance is upon us,'' said Arne Bey, chief executive of Keto Inc., the Neptune, N.J., distributor of products including low-carb spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and ``Ketatoes.'' The latter is an instant soy and milk product said to taste like mashed potatoes, only with just five grams of carbs per serving.

``I tell people all things low-fat will soon be low-carb,'' Bey said.

In the first six months of this year, Keto's sales have grown 280 percent, Bey said. That sales trend continues, he said.

Stop & Shop says it's expanding the mix of low-carb products in its stores as their popularity grows. The Quincy-based chain sells products made by Atkins, Carb Solutions, Carbolite, EAS and others.

Shaw's Supermarkets has the low-carb products in about 100 stores and aims to have them in all 190 locations soon, spokesman Terry Donilon said.

Industry insiders say mainstream companies are looking to come out with low-carb products to capitalize on the explosive category. But Bey and others say the economics of producing low-carb foods don't work as well for mainstream food manufacturers, because low-carb products tend to be significantly more expensive to produce.

To stay competitive, mainstream manufacturers may wind up buying smaller low-carb food producers.

Meanwhile, makers of low-carb foods are still trying to overcome a major hurdle for the mainstreaming of those products: taste. Sugars and carbs are often replaced by soy proteins, which can leave a bitter flavor.

But Bey says that is a hurdle that technology is overcoming, allowing flavors and textures to improve rapidly.