This is a great site. The article claims what I've begun to suspect and
that is that most of the low carb food products are just as processed as
the low fat processed crap and that the net carb claims are often bunkum!
Liz
http://www.theomnivore.com/shonky_bread_claims.html
You can't have your     low-carb bread and eat it too!

Low-carb bread claims     don't pan out in lab test.

By Anthony Colpo, April 13,     2004.


When people ask me what low-carb bread substitutes I recommend,     my
answer is always the same: fruits, nuts, and vegetables!

Obviously, that's not the answer     that most folks are hoping for, but
my goal is to give people     the facts, not merely what they want to
hear. Personally, I consider     bread to be a poor excuse for food, and
that applies to most     low-carb versions of this staple. Reading the
ingredients labels     of these products makes me cringe, especially
when I see garbage     like soy protein isolate and wheat gluten
appearing with such     regularity.

Those who are tempted to pass     me off as an uncompromising hard-ass
should first read about     the experience of Lois Kaplan and Bo
Bodenschatz. Their story     reinforces my insistence that a healthy
diet should rely upon     real paleo-style foods, not cleverly-marketed
psuedo-foods.

After experiencing dramatic health improvements from low-carb     diets,
Lois and Bo opened a low-carb grocery store in Salem last     year. At
their store, the two spend a lot of time talking with     customers,
explaining the ins and outs of low-carb programs.

One of the things they found     out early on was that bread seemed to
be a hard item for some     low-carb dieters to give up. So Bo and Lois
spent months looking     for a palatable bread product with a reduced
carbohydrate count.     About six months ago, a distributor recommended
breads with the     Low Carb Emporium label.

"They tasted very good,     especially for low-carb," Lois says. The
label said the bread had 1 net gram of carbohydrate     per slice, a
very low amount. Customers snapped up the Low Carb     Emporium bread,
bagels and other bakery products.

However, when some customers     stopped losing weight after
incorporating the supposedly low-carb     bakery products into their
diets, Lois and Bo became suspicious. "It just tasted too good to be
low-carb. That was a red     flag."

The couple contacted Low Carb     Emporium and asked for laboratory
proof that the claims on the     label were correct. They waited. And
waited. And then waited     some more. Eventually, the couple decided to
have the bread tested     - at their own expense - at an independent
laboratory.

The results were shocking: the     bread had nearly 15 net grams of
carbs per slice, a similar carbohydrate     content to 'normal' bread!

Last week, I posted an article explaining a number of     reasons why
many low-carb dieters are recieving little return     for their efforts.
Chief among these was the ever-increasing     reliance on low-carb junk
foods, and the unquestioning acceptance     of the 'net carbs' concept.

This whole net carbs tom-foolery     reminds me of the shady accounting
practices used by some corporate     entities. Clever accountants can
shuffle the figures and manipulate     profit and loss statements to no
end, and frequently succeed     in fooling investors and analysts into
thinking that business     is great, when in fact it really isn't too
good at all.

In the end, however, reality     is always the final arbiter. A company
is either making money,     or it isn't. If the latter is the case, a
company won't be able     to survive on cleverly-worded and misleading
financial reports     forever.

By the same token, low-carbers are either eating too many carbs,     or
not, a fact that is not changed by the wishful thinking proponents
of net carbs or the dodgy labelling practices of processed food
manufacturers seeking to cash in on the popularity of low-carb     diets.

Carbohydrates don't magically     disappear just because they are
accompanied by a little fiber!     As I explained in last weeks article,
processing carbohydrate     foods dramatically reduces their satiety. It
also increases their     ability to produce rapid spikes in blood sugar
that are followed     by bouts of reactive hypoglycemia. The
accompanying hunger pangs     will have most dieters heading straight
back to the vending machine     for another fix of blood glucose-rasing
junk. This happens because     when carbohydrate foods are processed,
the structural matrix     of the fiber is quickly broken up, losing its
'bulk' and hence     its ability to provide satiety and to slow
carbohydrate absorption.     Low-carb bars, breads, bagels, etc, etc,
are all highly processed     food items.

So to avoid having your weight     loss and health improvement efforts
go the way of Enron, count     ALL carbs, and get these carbs - as well
as your proteins and     fats - from REAL paleo-style foods; fresh
meats, eggs, nuts,     fruits, and vegetables. While not a true paleo
food item, uncultured     dairy products (butter, cheese, yogurt) are
fine for those who     can tolerate them, and are a good source of fats,
calcium, and     vitamins A and D. Leave the brightly-labelled,
nutrient-depleted     junk on the shelves for those who really think
they can have     their low-carb cake and eat it too.

Read Lois and Bo's story, and     the extremely disappointing response
from the folks at Low Carb     Emporium, at:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/margie_boule/index.ssf?/base/living/1081512040160450.xml




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