Ever since God created the modern supermarket, people have been looking for a way to eat their cake and not have it, too. (Around their waistline, that is.) Dr. Atkins and other proponents of the low-carbohydrate diet now tell us that this miracle is finally in reach, as long is the cake doesn't have any carbs in it.
Unfortunately cakes made without carbs don't generally taste like much, and that, it turns out, may be the real secret behind the Atkins diet.
As reported in Consumer Reports ("The truth about low-carb foods," June 2004), a six month study that compared two diet plans -- low carb versus low fat -- showed that those on the low-carb diet lost more weight by an average of 8.4 pounds. However, they also ate fewer total calories, by an average of 189 per day. Pound for pound, fats contain lots more calories than carbs. So how is this possible?
The answer seems to be that they got bored. Even steak and eggs can get old if you eat it every day, and until recently, alternative low-carb foods were lacking. People stuck to the diet because nothing else was available. The low-fat dieters, meanwhile, could spend their days happily munching on low-fat cookies and fat-free sour cream (even though that's an oxymoron). But fat-free doesn't mean calorie-free.
This is now changing, as the market for "low-carb" foods is now booming, with expected sales of $30 billion this year. From cookies to ice cream to tortilla chips, many of these products have as many calories as the traditional versions they replace.
Whatever the finer points of net carbs, fermentable carbohydrates, sugar alcohols, ketosis, and all the rest, metabolism comes down to a pretty simple formula:
number of calories you eat — number of calories you burn = number left on your butt
So if you're going to count anything, count total calories. In the meantime, I find it hard to believe the national weight-gain epedimic will be reduced by more people spending more of their money on prepared foods, whether low-fat, low-carb, or otherwise. Make it fast, make it easy, and people will eat more of it, period.
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