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Counting carbs has become as powerful a fixture in the economy as it has in society. Some 586 distinct new low-carb foods and beverages hit the grocery shelves last quarter, up from 633 in all of last year and 339 in 2002, bringing the total over just two years to 1,558 new entries. The average carb-conscious shopper spends $85 a month on specialty foods. Low-carb-related sales from such consumables as Michelob Ultra beer and books like Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution are expected to hit $30 billion this year, reports LowCarbiz, a trade publication that owes its existence to carbophobia.
Carb awareness is building by the day--to the consternation of companies even loosely in the business of selling the dreaded carbs. They are fighting back any way they can. Anheuser-Busch, which has launched Michelob Ultra and helped publicize that all light beers (including Bud Light) are relatively low in carbs, spent nearly $1 million for full-page ads that ran in 31 major newspapers last Friday. The ads pointedly attack the claim in Dr. Arthur Agatston's South Beach Diet that beer is laden with the carb maltose, a sugar. "The South Beach diet is enormously popular," says Francine Katz, a spokeswoman for Anheuser. "But there is information in there about beer that is incorrect, and a call to any brewer would have cleared it up." She says that all maltose turns to alcohol and carbonation in the brewing process and that Anheuser won't rule out legal action if Agatston fails to set the record straight.
Those with less at stake are embracing the trend. When baseball opened for business this spring, many ballparks were promoting low-carb concessions, from bison burgers on low-carb buns at Cleveland's Jacobs Field to braised pork "wings" at St. Louis Busch Stadium. This month burger chain Hardee's signed baseball great Mark McGwire, known as Big Mac, to flog its bunless Thickburger, playing catch-up with the other Big Mac, McDonald's, which is phasing out supersize portions and offering adult Happy Meals that are carb conscious. Burger King is launching an Angus steakburger that can come wrapped in lettuce and slathered with low-carb steak sauce. Krispy Kreme says it will have a low-sugar--and therefore lower-carb--doughnut by year's end.
Even before the food chains caught on, local eateries were offering Atkins-friendly menus. "We'll never take French fries and onion rings off the menu," says Miles Angelo, a chef at the upscale Caribou Club in Aspen, Colo. "But I was forced to read the Atkins book and immerse myself in the whole diet. Now 50% of our menu can be prepared Atkins-approved."
In grocery stores, niche firms like Atkins Nutritionals, founded by Atkins (the bulk of it was recently sold for more than $500 million), and Ketogenics have so far been responsible for most of the low-carb breakfast bars and other packaged foods to hit the grocery aisles. But now the big boys are crowding into the act.