Food for thought for 製造業者s

By Richard Thomson
Updated: 00:00 BST, 13 May 2004

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IT ISN'T often that an entire nation of some 300m people changes its eating habits. But, spurred on by panic over an obesity 疫病／流行性の, Americans are switching to low carbohydrate, high-protein diets in their tens of thousands every week and the food 産業 is scrambl ing to keep up.

The last time such a 広大な change in diet took place was the 早期に 1980s when Americans turned decisively against fat. But, によれば the best-known low-carb regimen - the Atkins 国会 - fat is 支援する.

The theory is that if you 削減（する） out carbs, your metabolism changes and you lose 負わせる - even if you eat more fat. So food 製造業者s are 猛烈に switching their attention from cutting fat to cutting carbs.

Take chocolate. You can now give the lady in your life a box of chocolates in the reasonable 信用／信任 that it would 現実に help her lose 負わせる. It costs a bit more but Russel Stover, America's third-largest chocolate 製造者 which markets low-carb chocs through Wal-市場, could barely keep up with the 需要・要求する on Valentine's Day this year.

一方／合間, old dieting orthodoxies are 存在 trashed. Sales of Unilever's わずかな／ほっそりした 急速な／放蕩な meals 崩壊（する）d by 30% in the third ４半期/4分の1 of last year, almost 完全に in the US, taking the company 明らかに unawares. It has あわてて 急ぐd out a low-carb 見解／翻訳／版 of わずかな／ほっそりした 急速な／放蕩な and is waiting to see if its $10m (£5.7m) marketing （選挙などの）運動をする will 解除する sales again. It does not, however, have any 即座の 計画（する）s to 開始する，打ち上げる anything low-carb in Europe.

£24bn market next year

OTHER big companies have also had to adapt. Pepsi, for instance, has 急ぐd out low-carb 見解／翻訳／版s of its popular Doritos and Tostitos tortilla 半導体素子s.

Lisa Klauser, 副／悪徳行為 大統領，／社長 of marketing at Unilever Bestfoods, the US 部隊, said the sudden 人気 of low-carb food was an '前例のない 転換' in US eating habits.

'We know that at least 30m people are living the low-carb lifestyle and that number is 推定する／予想するd to 二塁打 in the next year,' she 追加するd.

Other 専門家s 見積（る） the number of 充てるs is closer to 50m and that the market in low-carb food will ロケット／急騰する to around $24bn in the next year. A little excitement in the food 産業 is, therefore, only natural. The panic was evident when the 産業 called a two-da y 首脳会議 in Denver, Colorado, to discuss how to take advantage of the new habits. Some 450 companies …に出席するd.

The 調整 is probably easiest for the retailers. Wal-市場, the largest retailer in the world, has already 献身的な a section in its 蓄える／店s to low-carb goods. Other supermarkets and grocery 蓄える／店s are at least giving generous shelf space to the 速く growing number of low-carb foods. There are even food 蓄える／店 chains springing up that sell only such 製品s.

But it is not so 平易な for the food 製造業者s such as Kraft and ConAgra, which have had to do some 急速な／放蕩な work in the lab to come up with suitable offerings. As 退役軍人s of the diet wars, of course, they have long experience of coming up with fat-解放する／自由な and sugar-解放する／自由な, so they know the 決まりきった仕事. If there are low-fat 半導体素子s then why not low-carb mashed potato mix?

It has already 攻撃する，衝突する the 棚上げにするs. So has low-carb bread (made of soy flour) and low-carb pasta. によれば market 研究員 Mintel International, 728 製品s （人命などを）奪う，主張するing to be low in carbohydrates have been introduced since 1999.

製造業の carb-解放する／自由な grub is not 平易な, of course. Prices tend to be high: you get about half as much low-carb chocolate as ordinary chocolate for a given price. And the companies are not 説 whether they have slipped in a higher 利益（をあげる） 利ざや on the low-carb goods too.

Restaurants are also leaping on the bandwagon with 変化させるing degrees of enthusiasm. But with American restaurant goers spending $440bn last year on everything from cheesecake to french fries, there are big bucks at 火刑／賭ける in 会合 the low-carb 需要・要求する.

Burger in lettuce

DEAN Rotbart, chairman and (n)役員／(a)執行力のある editor of LowCarbiz, a magazine 充てるd to low-carb eating, says: 'The reflexive 返答 of most restaurant 操作者s has been can we ignore this? Can't we just serve the hamburger without the bun?. 明白に, the 消費者 has said no.'

In fact, Burger King has indeed swallowed the idea of a burger without a bun - you can get it wrapped in a piece of lettuce instead. McDonald's, spiritual home of such carb-激しい horrors as 半導体素子s and Coke, has not changed its menu but in some 出口s it gives 顧客s a ちらし advising them on which items to choose for a low-carb meal.

Other restaurants, however, have been cannier with their marketing. Last year, TGI Friday cleverly 署名／調印するd an 裏書，是認 を取り引きする Atkins Nutritionals - one of the high priests of the new diet - to serve Atkins-認可するd meals. This 安心させるs 顧客s, in 影響, that they are getting the real thing. Blimpie's, one of America's biggest 挟む chains, soon followed 控訴.

What makes TGI Friday's move so ingenious is that the chain does not appear to have had to 投資する much in the new meals because Atkins 許すs you to eat most 'normal' food. A centrepiece of its low-carb menu, for instance, is New York （土地などの）細長い一片 steak in blue-cheese sauce, the 肉親，親類d of thing Friday's would have been serving anyway.

The 転換 to the Atkins way of life has been so sudden that it is too 早期に to tell 正確に／まさに how big the 財政上の 影響s will be across the food 産業. But 早期に results 示唆する it could be 抱擁する.

The 初期の 衝撃, as at Unilever, is likely to be 厳しい on the いっそう少なく nimble-footed. But as with other diet crazes, there are probably good 利益（をあげる） 利ざやs and marketing 適切な時期s to be had from low-carb food once the 産業 人物／姿／数字s out how to 供給する it. Let's hope they can at least come up with low-carb summer pudding before the 天候 gets warm.