Atkins, carbs, Walmart, and beer on the wall

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/investing/articles/0,15114,565936,00.html

Excerpt:


The low-carbohydrate era is breathing new life into some old companies. Launched in September 2002, Anheuser-Busch's Michelob Ultra beer gave the stodgy brewing world a jolt. Projected to sell about one million barrels in 2003, it tripled that and forced rivals like Adolph Coors and SABMiller to play catch-up.

Billions of dollars are on the line. Where they will go is anyone's guess, but it's clear that the smart money is getting into this game. Mighty Wal-Mart—America's largest grocer—is reportedly planning to launch a low-carb store brand sometime this year. (A Wal-Mart spokesman would say only that "this is an area of opportunity.")



Cool.

Wal-mart selling atkins-branded food for 10 cents less... of course the sheeple will fall for it.

While America consumes 5 million barrels of oil per day, Michelob's Ultra "low carb beer" :eyes: is gonna sell one million barrels per year. Pity beer isn't a substitute for oil, I suppose, but it costs more so let's be grateful for oil...

Long article, and it tries not to politicize their viewpoints. But it's worth a read, anything regarding a fad is.

add water?

Mich Ultra tastes just like Bud. :puke:

It tastes like water. It has no beer flavor whatever. Ewwwwwwww.

a real treat. To me, at least. It wasn't any worse and in some ways a wee bit better than lite beers like Coors lite. Definitely not a beer to win any competitions and I still miss my favorite micro brews. But, it tastes like beer, has a bit of alcohol and when cold, does the trick on a hot day.

It's not for everybody, but low-carb does work.

I agree, its not for everyone and I have been very strict. My philosophy on weight loss is: WHATEVER works to get the weight off, lol ;)

I killed all sugar. Sugar turns into a carbohydrate. 80 in one year isn't bad.

and I am looking Fabulous darling!!!

The flip side of low carb is the high price of eggs,meat and cheese, but it has lowered the prices for potatoes, pasta and orange juice. So, my lost is your gain.

But it works-I feel great.

foods are. Given that you're not buying those "lean cuisines" or other ready made foods, you may be coming out about the same or even ahead. And when I spend money on healthy foods (like wild Alaskan salmon) or an extremely fresh mixed salad with lots of fresh veggies, I feel ok about it. However, I do agree with the WHO report that the administration is fighting: countries SHOULD subsidize healthy foods (like fresh veggies) to encourage healthy eating and to make these foods more affordable for all, rather than beef and high fat dairy industries....

The best nutrtitionists and biochemists have shown the link between insulin resistance, unstable blood sugar levels and type II diabetes with a diet high in processed (hi glycemic index) carbohydrates. This is one "fad" that's here to stay.

The naysayers can continuing coming along slowly, but most of Europe, Australia, and the Far East have recongized this for years. Remember that until 20 years ago, the researcher who maintained a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori was the leading cause for stomach ulcers was nearly run off the stage at medical conventions. It took a very long time for the medical establishment to admit he was right.

If you have an injury or special illness of some kind that precludes exercise and/or an ordinary metabolic rate, and you don't have the willpower to feel a little hungry some of the time, go Atkins.

If you have an ounce of self-respect and/or wish to save boatloads of money on food by *exercising* 45 minutes or so per day, avoid Atkins. Eat a healthy, balanced diet low on saturated fat and sugars and exercise daily. Easiest, and healthiest, way to be in shape. Atkins to me signifies our culture's "quick-fix" obsession. There is no quick-fix to health and weight-loss. Anything worth getting takes hard work, and just limiting what foods you eat hardly qualifies.

Before you bombard me with pro-Atkins reports and stories, bear in mind that this is a HUGELY profitable business to the degree of making such abomninations as low-carb bread and beer. The science that supports the pocket-picking will be upheld, the rest will be discarded. Mark my words.

edit: This post looks nasty now to me. In these Atkins threads I always put my foot in my mouth. :( I'm a big carbohydrate partisan, I suppose--let me say again, if Atkins works for you, feel free to ignore every hotheaded and silly word I say. :)

I am at the gym jogging 3 miles 5 days a week. I used to do the same exercise routine, but lost no weight because I was gorging myself with sugar and crap! Now I eat plenty of veggies, some beeries and nuts with plenty of cheese and proteins. Do you understand I have changed my life with this? Please do not bash a weight loss program that really works for some people, maybe not all people, but if this will help the largely obese population of America lose the weight, what do you care? Would you prefer us to still be called the "fat" country. Please don't bash low-carb until you've been 100 pounds overweight, depressed that exercise isn't working, wanting to kill yourself and then finally find a plan that helps you curb your appetite and severly lessen your cravings for sugar and refined sugars. Like I said, its not for everyone and it must be followed closely with lots of variety, but will it harm you if WE lose the weight finally?

That's all. I don't have any personal guff with Atkins, but I think the focus on this particular diet may be unhealthy. Peace. :hi:

Atkins really followed a hunch, a hunch that was half-right, but he didn't follow the research that showed the other half or even the real reasons why he was half-right. He just stuck to his theories. Unfortunately, branding is so important that those theories are now getting pushed in front of what is known, so that, even though some people may improve their diets by following Atkins, much of America is once again following something outdated. Ugh.

There are those who use it, who love it, and will keep up with it.

But sadly, america is the land of braning and opportnity and especially of the desire for the "quick fix". So all of a sudden Atkins takes off as a fad, we have low carb beer and bread and other shit, bovine america looks at all this and goes, "Cool - another diet, like low-fat, that we can just buy and be done with it" and they'll sit back and eat three loaves of low-carb bread instead of one, or say "Hey - it's low carb beer, so I can have a bag of Doritos" or whatever, but they won't really actually *do* the diet, nor will they exercise. They'll get into it, lose weight maybe for a bit until the "honeymoon" is over and they get sick of missing their regular food, and that'll be it.

But in the meantime, the big ass food prodcuers - who fill their food with all the sugars and preservatives and shit that are the real bane of healthy living - will make boatloads of food off lazy, ignorant America.

In the meantime, there will be those of us who find in Atkins and Atkins-style diets a real godsend of a diet, but after the fake-Atkins bubble bursts, we'll have to endure all the sob stories on Oprah, as that fake idiot *@&$^# will have her "victims" of Atkins on the show to talk about how evil the Atkins diet was, to promise incredible weight loss, but it didn't work, and she'll never mention through her fake tears and faux-emotionalistic "connectin" with her victim guests, how her victim guests were sneaking Big Macs and SuperSizing their Taco John orders because, hey, they're drinking a case of low-carb Pepsi everyday, so that shouldn't have mattered.

Pfagh.

Simple as that.

I've heard too many success stories to discount these protein diets. I started on The Zone years ago and it's been great. Now I do South Beach, which is very similar. Atkins is too hardcore for me.

Those who disagree on Atkins heavy use of saturated fats can certainly find one that uses healthier fats, such as fish oils and so on. I think the big point of any of these diets is that sugar and refined starch is BAD for you.

I'm just saying that I think it has, indeed, hit fas status, in a couple years, we won't be seeing all the Atkins-capable foods that we see now, because a lot of people who are on the diet will realize that it still takes effort, that it isn't just about buying food with the Atkins stamp, and that they still can't just go and eat two loaves of atkins bread for supper. Then those people will leave the diet, disappointed that yet one more diet has failed them, and nmove on to the next one.

I hope not - it would be cool if this helped spark a new interest in diet and health in this country, maybe even to the point of challenging the industry to stop using so many checmicals and preservatives and other bad things, and get people to start buying more fresh veggies and other fresh foods. That would be totally awesome.

Yes, the diet truly does work.

That's the only way fads and brands survive.

I just really look at Atkins with saving my life, literally. Atkins is exteme, at first. However, what most people don't realize is that Atkins weans people back onto whole grain foods when they're at a stage to start maintaining their weight loss. Atkins For Life is a good example of this factor including Whole-wheat bread, pasta, oatmeal, high fiber fruits, etc. By the time a person has lost the weight, they are basicaly able to eat what they were supposed to be eating all along. The first phase, induction, is radical and extreme, mostly used to get people out of the addiction to things that are just plain junk. Again, I'm sorry, I'll try to behave myself, LOL ;) Adult-onset diabetes runs in my family and I had to stop the sugar addiction before I got the type2 myself.

The whole point is to feel good anyway, but it is my opinion that more energy should be spent dealing with the problem, the one that gets our kids in a hole they have to dig themselves out of when they are 45+ pounds overweight. I am a carb lover and am a bit reactionary I suppose to carb-hate at the supermarkets. :) If other diets and fitness plans don't work and Atkins does, far be it from me to be the Diet Grand Inquisitor.

My biggest problem came when I moved out and made my own decisions on what to eat. I had literally been deprived of sugar my entire life and then went on a carb binge for 6 years, it was scary how fast the pounds came on. My mom never allowed refined sugar in our house except for birthdays and christmas. We put orange juice on our whole-wheat pancakes and I didn't know syrup exsisted until I was 14 (at a sleep-over). So now I face a challenge with my own kids, I don't want to completely deprive them of sugar, but I don't like junk in my house. Its difficult to find the line, yet keep them healthy.

It's quite a lot to fight against for any parent, and hard enough to keep track of your own diet in the process. Sorry if my first post in this thread is inflammatory--just a little protective of my carbohydrate-filled loved ones. I edited it so I acknowledge that it sounds pretty nasty, with due humility. :)

extremely strictly with regard to nutrition. My mouth would literally hang open when they WANTED to brush their teeth with baking soda, which they somehow LIKED. I always wondered what would happen to them when they got away from home and discovered SUGAR and JUNK FOOD. Hopefully they only binged a little.

of alternatives, I agree. And truly the answer for everyone is moderation within the right type of diet for them with excercise. But there really is such a thing as insulin resistance, (carb sensitivity resulting in unstable blood sugar, cravings, and the entire overeating cycle pathway). For these folks, restricting carbs to those that are digested more slowly like most non-starchy vegetables, berries and other low GI fruits or high fiber legumes, makes a tremendous amount of difference. You'll know it if you are sensitive. For me, single meal of highly processed carbohydrates puts me into a near immediate almost coma-like sleep or gives me the shakes an hour later like you would not believe. Upon wakening, I have insatiable cravings for those same kind of foods. By contrast a lower carb meal balanced with lean protein and healthy fats leaves me alert, able to concentrate or exercise and raring to go.

And for those who truly are carb sensitive but feel atkins to be a bit too restrictive or wish to emphasize more vegetarian or lower fat alternatives, South Beach is an excellent alternative (I've lost on Atkins, but always modified it to rely on more unsaturated and monosaturated fat protein alternatives like fish and lean chicken-- I think legumes are an excellent alternative too for vegeterians, which can work on S. beach).

That's the individuality within us... different approaches for different folks.

Marketing does its job once again.

What are you talking about?

"Atkins" is a DIET, or more correctly, an eating plan. It entails cutting back on carbs and eating protein. I've never yet bought a chicken that was labeled "Atkins", or bought fish that was labeled "Atkins", or bought cheese or nuts labeled "Atkins". If you've seen those products with the Atkins label, then..... you must live in a very different part of the country.

As the diet has become more popular, those who have a hard time staying away from carbs are buying low-carb products as a way to maintain the diet and yet still have some of the items they've grown to desire eating. Maybe that's what you're referring to? Those would likely be a small part of the eating plan, and many people do fine without them.

There is no "marketing" involved... mostly word of mouth of people who've been successful in losing weight, and improving their health. Have you bothered to read any of the studies? People who've been on the Atkins plan for some time have actually lowered their colesterol, raised their good colesterol, and many such factors. Most important for many of us, we've managed to reverse our slide into diabetes........ in fact, some diabetics who've followed the Atkins plan have stabilized their blood sugar, and many are not longer needing the medication.

So, if that sounds undesirable to you, then we definitely see things differently.

So I would suggest that before you disparage something you don't know anything about, and hand out blanket judgements of people, you do a little more looking into what the issue is about.

Kanar

Yes, Atkins is a plan, just like Weight Watchers is a plan.
Weight Watchers is also a brand of prepared food, just like Atkins is a brand of prepared food.

"Dancercise" is a "brand". "Jazzercise" is a "brand". Tony Little is a "brand", as is Jack LaLane...

I see diet Fundamentalists can be just like religious Fundamentalists, clannish and quick to disparage any who question their Grail.

You need to take your own advice, Kanar.

You clearly haven't, from what you have posted.

I already said there are some snack bars, etc for those who have a hard time getting away from the carb food they have been used to. They are NOT in anyway necessary to the plan. (I don't know much about Weight Watchers, but ... I think you are supposed to buy the Weight Watchers brand food in order to follow the diet..?) People lost weight on Atkins for many years before there were any prepared foods with the Atkins label.

As I said, when you show me chicken, pork chops, fish, beef and cheese labeled "Atkins", then you will have won the point.

Until then, you are condeming something without knowing anything about it.

Kanar

>"People lost weight on Atkins for many years before there were any prepared foods with the Atkins label."

No argument there. But, you missed the point of Huckle and my post entirely.

Can you deny that there is now "Atkins Brand" foods for you to buy to go along with your Atkins Diet?

No, you can't. That's all we were saying. They are marketing this "Atkins Plan" with a WHOLE line of "special" (and probably available-for-less-elsewhere) foods to go with it. Care to deny THAT?

>"As I said, when you show me chicken, pork chops, fish, beef >and cheese labeled "Atkins", then you will have won the point.

>Until then, you are condeming something without knowing anything about it."

OK, 2 things here. First, I can show you all the OTHER stuff on the shelf with the big "A" on it, so as far as "winning my point", I believe I have already done so.

Secondly, would you be so kind as to point out exactly WHERE in my post I was "Condeming" Atkins?

You can't, can you? Like most Zealots, you're seeing "enemies" where there are none.

Frankly, I don't give a damn if people go after "The Oral Sex Diet" or whatever Oprah or Doc Phil are shilling for this week. If it works, and you don't give yourself long-term health problems down the road, great!

Just don't get in my (or someone else's) face about whether the latest wonder-diet involves heavy Marketing or not.

have followed Atkins and lost weight in years past just by following the plan. Even now, while I continue a low carb lifestyle (more in keeping with South Beach), if I choose to purchase convenience foods like, meal replacement bars or shakes, I think there are better tasting (and cheaper brands) available. Atkins has become quite the marketing phenom.... Guess his heirs will be happy.

but the side effects from maltitol are NASTY (gas, colon blow).


There are other low-carb bars available also. I just avoid convenience food unless absolutely necessary.

It's aimed to make someone money. That's the bottom line. It's not aimed with the pure notion of building a better understanding of nutrition. It's about sales of books, videos, food products. And it's success has been adopted by others, or coopted, just like the old "low fat" branding did.

By the way, I have spent years learning about and researching nutrition. Don't tell me I don't know anything about Atkins. I know more about the physiology of nutrition than you would ever care to imagine, thank you very much.

I might give that one a shot someday, but what I'd really like to see is low carb Guinness :beer:

I'll stick with Miller lite. Only about one carb more per can.

.

at least much better than traditional "lite beers." It sure isn't as good as my favorite micro-brews (e.g., Fat Tire), but I'll take a Mich Ultra over a Coors lite or Miller Lite any day of the week.

A paper towel in the mike is a paper towel in the mike. There is no difference between "microwave Bounty" and white Bounty.

And my Miller Lite has only 3.21 carbs per 12oz.

Kinda like MSNBC calling themselves a "news" channel when they were "exclusive" in following - on camera, minute by minute, Michael Jackson's trip from the courthouse to his ranch. It just went on and on and on...

Marketing and advertising.

"as long as the soda cans are red, white and blue ones...."

I do it chiefly because I don't have to fix a meal in the evenings. I substitute protein shakes and bars for the evening meal. Because I live alone, I enjoy the convenience of not having to cook twice a day.

I also use the low carb bread (1 slice/every other day) because I missed it. If I tried to eat regular bread, I would balloon out fast. That's just the way it is.

I shop at the nutritional supplement store and get 20% off these things the first week of every month.

If I buy into the marketing, it is only to the extend that I prefer the convenience. And honestly, I don't spend any more at the vitamin store than at the grocery store.

substitute. But, I tend to use bars/shakes more earlier in the day, buy a big mixed green salad at the health food store that will last two meals, throw salmon or tuna on it and some Newman's Dressing, and voila I'm set! I need something like real food at night, especially after being on the run all day.

BTW, whole earth grocery sells a really good low carb bread (comes in a blue wrapper, but the name escapes me). It's cheaper than Atkins and (at least to me) much better.