The title of the piece in the Los Angeles Times today says it all: Carb Supporters Rejoice as Atkins Goes Belly Up.
There is a saying in my favorite sport: every golf shot makes somebody happy. If, for instance, I hit a good shot, it makes me happy; if I hit a crummy shot, it makes the guy playing against me happy. The same must hold true for bankruptcies in the food processing industry.
In Boise, staff members of the Idaho Potato Commission gave one another gleeful high-fives when they heard the news. In Houston, the folks at the U.S. Rice Producers’ Assn. declared “good riddance.” And fruit farmers in California’s Central Valley said they were “happy to see them go.”
Across the nation, producers of carbohydrate-laden food exulted at the decision by Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based designer of the once-popular low-carbohydrate weight-loss program, to file for bankruptcy protection.
The shoe was on the other foot not long ago, however, when a number of large companies fell victim to the low-carb diet.
Executives at Interstate Bakeries Corp., whose cream-filled Twinkies have found a spot in the lunch boxes of American schoolchildren since the 1930s, said the low-carb trend contributed to its bankruptcy filing in September. A few months earlier, New World Pasta Co. — maker of the Ronzoni and Creamette brands — also filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it was hurt by the popularity of Atkins and similar diets. Even onetime Wall Street darling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. blamed Atkins for its financial troubles, which now appear to be a result of accounting rather than eating irregularities.
I especially like the touch about the cream-filled Twinkies having found a spot in the lunch boxes”�since 1930. It almost makes them sound wholesome instead of like the nasty, sugary, trans-fat laden pieces of junk they are. Talk about heart disease in a plastic wrapper.
The one statement in this article that annoys me the most is a quote from one Elizabeth Fauerso, who in reference to her experience with a low-carb diet chirps:
I was on it for like three years and I got really thin, but as soon as I got off it I gained like 20 pounds that I still have on me.
Like, duh.
Earth to Elizabeth, Earth to Elizabeth. The low-carb diet like worked, you know, really well for you. And, like, if you had like stayed on it, you would, like, still be, you know, like really thin. Cuz, if you like did well on a low-carb diet in the first place, it probably means that, like, you have some kind of like underlying metabolic problem causing your weight gain in the first place. And if the low-carb diet, like, treated it successfully, it stands to reason that if you like go off the diet you will like gain all your weight back.
Another comment showing just how misinformed folks can be:
“We are glad to see any diet that says ‘don’t eat fruit’ fade,” said Fred Lagomarsino, who grows plums, peaches, grapes and cherries in Tulare.[California]
Fred, Fred, Fred. Don’t you realize that cherries and peaches are both low-carb fruits? Plums and grapes, too, for that matter, if eaten in moderation. Have you ever heard any low-carb expert say “don’t eat fruit?”
Where do they find these people? It must be the nutritional equivalent of James Carville’s remark about dragging a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park.