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Starch sales signal end of low-carb fad
The low-carb craze has passed its prime, as companies report a pickup in the sales of starch-heavy food. General Mills Inc., which makes cereals such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Wheaties and Trix, said sales climbed almost 3 percent in the third quarter, to $2.58 billion from $2.51 billion a year ago. Although net income dropped 19 percent to $183 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Minneapolis company blamed higher commodity costs and restructuring instead of the "Atkins effect" as it had done earlier this year. Fewer people are using the Atkins, South Beach and other low-carb diets these days, as they grow tired of the high-protein, high-fat diets -- lots of meat, no starch -- and health professionals question the long-term consequences of those food choices. The percentage of Americans on low-carb diets has dropped by almost half to 4.6 percent at the end of September from 9 percent in January, its peak, said Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y., marketing-research company that tracks food-consumption behaviors. "Well, the increased awareness for the low-carb diet fad appears to be waning," said Mitchell Pinheiro, a food analyst for Philadelphia investment bank Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-11-11 |
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