Commentary

"The Low Carb Craze..." It's the buzz of the year, that little phrase. Blamed for everything from soggy profits at Krispy Kreme to pasta company bankruptcies to orange juice slumps.

Well, if low carb is a craze, then I'm a lunatic. And many of you are, too.

I'm assuming that YOU don't like the innuendo here any more than I do. Like, we're all a bunch of lemmings blindly going off the low carb cliff. Us stupid, fat American consumers—we'll fall for anything that sounds good, won't we?

Dear Low Carb Eaters and 'Concerned Corporations' (see below),

I have some VERY important and timely things to talk to you about today.

No doubt you have been exposed to the recent press coverage of statements made by an organization called "Partnership for Essential Nutrition". (You can read their full press release on their website. You probably heard about this group through your local Annoying Co-Worker, who made sure to bring the "big news" to your attention (loudly) in the middle of the company lunchroom. "I told you that diet was going to kill you," he or she gloated, as you tried to eat your chicken and green salad in peace. "The evidence is mounting!"

Many are initally attrached to low carb by promises of quick losses and want to know how they can maximize return on their efforts.

I don't know about you, but I've been exceedingly annoyed lately about the continual references made by various "experts" and other interested parties to the Atkins diet in particular - and low carb in general - as a QUICK FIX.

And maybe you're new to low carb, or just kind of "checking it out", and you're wondering if this "quick fix" claim is a valid criticism.

My answer to that? YES AND NO

Before you low carb veterans dash off a shocked email to me, please let me explain.

Unless you live under a rock, you're well aware that since the July 2002 publication of Gary Taubes' well-researched and much-debated article "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" in the New York Times, 'low carb' has gotten an enormous amount of press. Unfortunately, much of it has been in the form of "Atkins vs. Ornish" debates - debates that never have enough time for the participants to finish more than a sentence or two at a time let alone go over in detail any of the research being discussed or make clear what the diets are REALLY all about.