Lowcarbezine!

The Low Carb Specialty Products Report

Some of the reports of the death of low carbohydrate diets are based on the fact that many of the low carb specialty products are not doing well. In particular, I've seen articles about Coca-Cola's disappointment that their "low carb" alternative, C2, was dying on the shelves. They're sure this is due to the end of the "low carb fad."

Huh? Since when is something with almost two tablespoons of sugar and 17 grams of carbohydrate per can "low carb?" Anyone who is even a tiny bit serious about low carbing (or nutrition in general) looks at a label that says "half the sugar" and just snorts and walks on by. Seventeen grams of high impact, nutritionally devoid carbohydrate?! I could eat four or five big salads for that carb count. Or six Finn Crisp rye crackers. Or an orange, or an apple. Or ten cups of broccoli. Or a half a cup of cashews, or one and a half cups of pecans. Or any number of real foods that would be more nutritious, more satisfying, and add far more variety and interest to my day than a can of fizzy sugar water.

And since there's diet soda in the world, what the heck is the point in the first place?

All of which leads me to the survey I did a few months ago regarding low carbohydrate specialty products. I have to say it, loud and proud: You guys rock. You're smart. You're informed. You've been paying attention. You're not looking for a quick fix. And you haven't been suckered into the idea of "changing without changing." I was absolutely blown away by the results of the survey.

Here they are:

692 of you responded to the survey, enough to get at least a modestly accurate picture of what the group is doing.

When asked how often you used low carb specialty products, the most common answer was 1-3 times per week. After that, the most common answer was daily, and the third most common was weekly. Overwhelmingly, you felt that taste was either a very important or essential factor in choosing those foods.

Asked about the importance of convenience in using specialty foods, "very" was the most common answer, with "fairly" the second most common. Price, however, was less important - about half of you said it was only "fairly" important to making choices, with "very" the next most common answer, and "essential" after that.

But here's where it gets really good: Asked how important nutritional value and ingredients were to your choices, almost all of you said "essential" or "very." Warms my heart like a blowtorch, that does. When asked how important the lowest carb count was in influencing your decisions, the most popular answer was "very", with "essential" and "fairly" running neck-and-neck.

You don't seem to care much about brand names - asked how important a familiar brand name was to your decisions, the most common answer was "not very," with "fairly" and "not at all" next in line. Packaging is no big deal, either - asked how important it was, most of you said "not very."

Variety, fighting cravings, and having an occasional treat are your biggest reasons for using low carb specialty products - about half of you rated all of these factors "very" important, with "fairly" next, and then "essential." I found the similarity of the breakdown for these questions stunning.

I was thrilled to find that few of you are using low carb products as a reason not to cook - asked how important avoiding cooking was, "not very" was the most common response, with "fairly" and then "not at all" coming in after that. Very, very few of you said avoiding cooking was an "essential" factor. Thank goodness.

Your favorite low carb specialty product? No surprises here. Over half of you eat sugar-free chocolate at least weekly, and over a hundred of you eat it daily. (Confession: I'm in the "daily" group myself.)

Other sugar free candy, however, does nowhere nearly so well - the vast majority of you either use it "only occasionally" or "never." I have to agree. I mean, why eat jelly beans when you can have a chocolate truffle? (I swear, somewhere back in the Old Country is our ancestral family estate, and carved over the mantle are the words, "If it ain't chocolate, it ain't worth it.") More importantly, since the bulk of chocolate is made up of - well, chocolate - it's less likely to cause gastric upset than candies that consist almost entirely of polyols/sugar alcohols.

How about other treats? Asked about low carb cookies, most commonly you said you never ate them at all, with several of you saying you eat them occasionally. Almost no one eats them daily. Sugar free ice cream is fairly popular, with "weekly" the most common usage, followed by "occasionally." Seventy eight of you eat sugar free ice cream daily! I'm afraid I can't do that - I just can't be moderate with the stuff, unless it's packaged in individual servings, like ice cream bars. Better for me not to keep it in the house.

You know all of those low carb bake mixes out there? The ones for muffins, pancakes, corn bread, and a whole bunch of other things? You're not buying them. The most common answer to how often you used bake mixes was "never" and the second most common was "occasionally." That accounted for 523 of you. One hundred and five of you use mixes monthly, and only four of you use them daily. Since bake mixes tend to be loaded with soy, and many have other questionable ingredients - "low glycemic corn starch" comes to mind - this made me very happy.

You're not using the bread machine mixes, either - overwhelmingly you said you "never"used these mixes, and not a single soul uses them daily.

Low carb tortillas, however, have found a place in many hearts - not to mention kitchens and meals. The most common answer was that you use them weekly - and so do I, if not more often. However, many of you use them only occasionally, and one hundred and thirty five of you never use them at all.

This makes low carb tortillas the most popular low carb bread-like food. Asked how often you used low carb bread, bagels, and other baked goods, the most common answer was "never." However, the next most common answer was "weekly," and one hundred and eight of you use low carb bread "daily," so it's obviously one of those yes-or-no products - either you don't use it at all, or it's a staple.

How about snacks and chips? Many of you don't use them at all, and those of you that do are, for the most part, only using them occasionally. This pleases me - apparently you're rejecting the concept of "low carb junk food." Again, the chips tend to be very soy-heavy, and they also tend to be higher carb than some other products, often running 8 grams or so per serving.

Low carb condiments, on the other hand, are quite popular. Doesn't surprise me a bit; heck, even I buy now my low carb ketchup instead of making it. Most commonly you're using condiments weekly, with one hundred and twenty seven of you using them daily. However, a substantial group of you use them only occasionally, and the folks using low carb condiments daily are almost exactly balanced by those of you who aren't using them at all.

How about low carb soups? Dead in the water. By far the most common answer was that you weren't using them at all. Less than half that number use low carb soups "occasionally," and only a few use them monthly or weekly. However, three of you use them daily!

One of the most striking graphs was for low carb pasta - it's just about a straight line sloping from a high of 315 of you who "never" touch the stuff, to just two of you who use low carb pasta daily, with descending bars for "occasionally," "monthly," and "weekly." The fact that most low carb pasta is as bad as it is overpriced no doubt contributes to these figures, as does, I suspect, the doubts many of you have expressed about the new Dreamfield's pasta.

Entrees and packaged meals are a dead loss - the vast majority of you never use them, with a few of you using them occasionally. There are about fifty of you, however, who use entrees and packaged meals weekly, and ten of you who use them daily. To this last group I'd like to simply say, "Cook something, will you?"

Now for the part of the survey that really made me happy - when asked whether you actually read the nutrition label, serving size, and ingredient list before buying a product, all but 23 of you said "Yes." Give yourselves a big pat on the back! You've learned one of the basics of nutrition - Pay attention to what you put into your body.

The vast majority of you say you have a cutoff point for how many grams of carbohydrate are acceptable in a product. For most of you, that cutoff point is 10 grams, but many of you draw the line at 5 grams, while almost 100 of you will accept up to 15 grams per serving. To me, the question here would be what sort of product? And what nutritional value does it offer? Just as I'm willing to eat 15 grams of usable carbohydrate in a salad, but not willing to drink 15 grams of carbohydrate worth of soda, I'd be likely to allow a few more grams for a product that was offering substantial nutritional and satiety value than I would for, say, a cookie.

Most of you say you stick to the listed serving size when eating low carb specialty products, though a substantial number of you do not. Please, just be aware that you can get fat on low carb stuff if you eat enough of it. The words "low carb" or "reduced carb" or "carb conscious" on the label do not make anything a free food!

Another statistic that thrills me is that fully 626 of you say that there are ingredients you shun, regardless of the total carb count. Roughly half of you won't buy anything with refined or "enriched" flour, and the majority won't buy anything with sugar or corn syrup, thank God. As for corn starch, you were absolutely evenly split - exactly half of you won't buy anything with corn starch in it, the other half will.

You've gotten the bad news about trans fats, too - 550 of you won't touch anything made with the stuff. (This is my absolute no-no. I'll buy a product with added sugar if the product has, say, 1 gram of carb or less per serving; ham is often like this, or Worcestershire sauce. But I won't knowingly touch a single molecule of hydrogenated vegetable oil. That stuff is poison.)

Most of you are okay with polyols/sugar alcohols, but 114 of you won't eat them, I'm guessing because of gastrointestinal upset. And all but 43 of you are okay with eating artificial sweeteners.

One ingredient I didn't include in the survey drew a lot of email: Soy. Many of you are shunning soy; I'm quite cautious about it myself. The manufacturers are really shooting themselves in the foot by making so many of the products so soy-heavy.

Here's an interesting tidbit: Overwhelmingly you feel that you understand the "net" or "impact" carbs concept - but almost as overwhelmingly, you don't trust the counts on the labels to be accurate. I can understand this - while many companies are putting out honest products, I've certainly seen products claiming to have a very low net carb count that, when I read the ingredients list, struck me as being impossibly low. This clearly is a hurdle low carb manufacturers will have to overcome to make this food category fly.

Most of you don't care much whether your low carb specialty products are made by a big "household name" food processor, or a small, dedicated low carb company. However, of those who do have a preference, it is clearly for the small companies. I can tell you from having been in and around this industry for a while, the folks I have met who run little low carb specialty companies are just about all low carb dieters themselves, and seem to care a great deal about putting out the best products they possibly can.

You're split just about 50/50 as to whether you pay attention to calories along with carbs. I pay modest attention to calories myself, and find I do better when I watch both pretty closely - no strict limits, mind you, but consciousness is a very powerful tool.

So here's the overall picture: You're using low carb specialty products cautiously and moderately, largely to add a little variety. You're mostly using products that it would be genuinely inconvenient to make yourself, or difficult to reproduce at home, like tortillas, bread, condiments, chocolate bars, and ice cream. You're not relying on specialty products to replace meals. You're eating little low carb junk food, like chips and cookies. You're reading the labels. You're paying attention to portion sizes. You're picky as all get out about ingredients. And you're skeptical to the point of cynicism about attempts to label every darned thing "low carb."

I've never been prouder of you guys. Makes every single word I've ever written for this free ezine worth it, worth it, worth it.

Posted by HoldTheToast at January 18, 2005 09:30 PM