LOW-CARBOHYDRATE DIETS SHAKE UP SUPERMARKET SELECTIONS

Dan Alaimo

Low-carbohydrate diets are reshaping Americans and the supermarkets they shop in.

It's been more than 30 years since the late Dr. Robert Atkins published "Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution," which evolved into a cottage industry of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet books and products. But the medical establishment and conventional wisdom were aligned against Atkins and his followers. Low-fat, not low-carb, was the way to go, they said.

The ground shifted significantly in the last year or so as credible studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and from the Harvard School of Public Health validated the low-carb diets. Then the national publicity machinery went into overdrive getting the word out, and this must have felt like an earthquake to Atkins' many critics. The aftershocks are certainly being felt in the nation's supermarkets.

Coming at a time when the media is equally preoccupied with obesity, the food business is getting up to speed quickly on this old, but suddenly very current, diet trend. So it's also a good time for SN to focus on it with a special issue presenting trend features in the Fresh Market, Center Store and Nonfood Strategies sections.

Low-carb diets are not easy, as I learned researching my part of the project. There's no "magic pill" like ephedra. They require a complete lifestyle change and, if one has been following the previous low-fat recommendations, it also calls for an almost complete revamping of food choices.

That's hard, but a lot of people are giving it a try and many are succeeding.

"I'm seeing a huge amount of curiosity from customers about low-carb products and requests for specific low-carb brand names," Leah McGrath, corporate dietitian, Ingles Markets, Asheville, N.C., told Stephanie Fagnani, Center Store editor.

"This thing has legs. And it's having more impact on bakery than any diet I've seen in 20 years," said Paul Supplee, director, bakery operations, Lunds/Byerly's, Minneapolis, in a story by Roseanne Harper, Fresh Market's reporter.

"The whole category is on fire," Gordon Thompson, GM/HBC buyer, Rosauers Supermarkets, Spokane, Wash., told Stephanie Loughran, Nonfood Strategies' associate editor. "It will be a great boon to sales for anyone jumping on the bandwagon, provided they merchandise the products correctly," he said.

Examples of the impact of low-carb diets can be found throughout the store:

Center Store: Atkins-branded products, as well as low-carb versions of everything from packaged bread to beer, are proliferating. New merchandising approaches are being adopted to take advantage of the trend.

Fresh Market: Handwritten signs and fluorescent stickers call attention to product attributes, cooking classes are getting organized, and meat sales are up significantly. Cheese sections are taking advantage of the sales opportunity, and in-store bakeries are coming up with low-carb options.

Nonfood Strategies: Supplements and vitamins that pick up the nutritional slack from the low-carb diets are increasingly in demand. Starch blockers in particular are spiking in sales, and on the general merchandise side there is the sale of diet books.

The one thing nearly everyone interviewed by SN agreed on is that low-carb, high-protein diets are no fad. Low-carb diets are here to stay, and are fast becoming a way of life for many overweight American adults, who are 65% of the population, according to recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

It's a trend no supermarket can afford to overlook.

Dan Alaimo Editor, Nonfood Strategies [email protected]