The Globe has a rundown on the current crop of Atkins and low-carb processed food products. They compared nutritional information and taste test results and discovered that most of these products were sorely lacking in either quality or even their low-carb claims. I don’t have a high opinion of these low-carb diets (I sometimes feel like the only 30-something gay man in this city not following one), but hearing complaints of Maalox-tasting “milk” (actually, Carb Countdown Dairy Beverage) isn’t likely to entice me. And manufacturers fudge their claims as usual, boasting of “carb-counting” products like bagels or bread.
But beyond the faults of specific products, I’m wondering what this portends for dieter’s future success in using low-carb diets to take or keep weight off. I don’t know much about the supposed metabolism behind the low-carb approach (which I gather is a matter of dispute among nutritionists anyhow), but I can’t help but feel that no small part of the Atkins success has been as an arbitrary rule keeping adherents from eating the crappy food they normally do. When people couldn’t eat cookies, chips, crackers, ice cream, breads and processed foods in general, they lost weight. Now that manufacturers are seeing dollar signs and stepping in to manufacture these very items, doesn’t that undercut the very basis of success?
Ultimately, people need to take more control over what they eat and to phase out most processed foods if they want a healthy lifestyle. That’s something that no amount of food engineering from the Atkins folks can achieve.
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