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Low-Carb Diet Rip-offs
The overweight and obese have always provided a very lucrative and ready market
for food companies to exploit with expensive, nutrient-poor, highly-processed, slimming 'foods'
and diet products. Some of these, the liquid powders you made into a drink,
were made largely from skim milk powder, with added chemicals and artificial
flavours. The ingredients were very cheap for the manufacturers to buy (skim
milk powder is almost given away), but were very expensive for the dieter to
buy. Others included inert fillers which contained no food at all.
I had hoped that when the new low-carb way of eating caught on, these rip-off
merchants would be unable to sell their products and go into liquidation.
How naïve I was!
The current low-carb 'fad' has allowed the food companies to widen their net to
ensnare even more people with even more rip-offs, which are even more
expensive. Here are some examples on sale to the 'low-carb diet' market (I have written comments in blue below each
one):
Atkins Advantage Shake Vanilla flavour
330ml, 2 grams of carb, 20g protein, 9g fat (1.3 sat), 175 kcals, Cost £1.87Ingredients (try and find the food!)
Water
Milk protein concentrate
Soybean oil
Cellulose gel
Mineral blend (magnesium chloride hexahydrate, tri calcium phosphate, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, magnesium hydrogen phosphate trihydrate) Dipotassium phosphate
Vitamin blend (potassium chloride, potassium citrate, maltodextrin, sodium citrate, sodium ascorbate, ferric pyrophosphate, vitamin E, zinc sulphate monohydrate, nicotinamide, biotin, vitamin A, sodium selenite, calcium d-pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, thiamin mononitrate, folic acid, copper sulphate pentahydrate, vitamin D3, riboflavin, manganese sulphate monohydrate, vitamin B12, vitamin K, chromium chloride hexahydrate, sodium molybdate dihydrate) (Note, most of these aren't vitamins)
Calcium caseinate
Flavouring
Lecithin
Sodium ascorbate
Sweetener (sucralose)
Stabiliser (carrageenan)
Colour (beta carotene)
COMMENTS
'Best served chilled or over ice', it says on the packet. I'll say it is, then you might lose the taste. It's a bit like sweet custard until it has gone down, then it leaves a sort of medicinal taste in the mouth.
If it weren't for the soybean oil, it might be healthier than a 'healthy' low-fat shake but, then, that isn't saying much.
Atkins Morning Shine (Chocolate Chip Crisp) 37g
Ingredients (try and find the food!)Soy crisps (soy protein [22%], tapioca starch, salt),
Polydextrose,
Chocolate with sweetener (16%) (cocoa mass, sweetener [maltitol], cocoa butter, emulsifier [lecithin], vanilla), soy granulate, glyerine, gelatin hydrolysate, chocolate chunks (5%) (sweetener [maltitol], cocoa mass, lowfat cocoa, emulsifier [lecithin])
Coconut,
Non-hydrogenated vegetable fat,
Whey protein,
Non-hydrogenated sunflower oil,
Vitamin and moneral [sic] blend,
Emulsifier (lecithin),
Non-hydrogenated vegetable oil,
Flavourings,
Sweetener (sucralose),
Colour (beta carotene).
COMMENTS
This is a breakfast bar. Breakfast needs to give you at least one third of the energy you need for the day. So you must think in terms of between 600 and 1,000 calories for breakfast.
There is no nutritional information on this bar – it is too small. But, according to information on the Atkins website, it will contain about 137 calories. Thus you will need five of them at least and, as they cost about £1.00 each even with a discount, this means a very expensive breakfast!
Compare this with four large eggs scrambled in butter. They will cost around 70p (more than 80% less), contain all the nutrients in the Atkins bars – and more besides – and be more natural and healthier.
By the way, all the Atkins products seem to contain soy. This is not healthy. See No Joy with Soy and Soy Online Service
Carbolite Chocolate Flavour Crisp Wafer
The Original Bar for Low-carb Dieters (It says on the packet)26g Carb 52.3% (46.8 polyols), Protein 8.5%, Fat 34.8%, 96 calories per bar
Ingredients
Maltitol
Cocoa butter
Cocoa mass
Milk protein
Wheat flour
Butterfat
Hydrogenated vegetable oil
Hazelnuts
Fast reduced cocoa
Emulsifier (soya lecithin)
Flavouring
Raising agent (sodium bicarbonate)
Salt
COMMENTS
There is slightly more real food in this than in the Atkins products, so it
might just be slightly healthier to eat. BUT look at the price! Cost £1.09 per
26g bar — that's a massive £41.92 per kilo (£19.05 per lb)! You really would have to be pretty desperate (or stupid) to pay this, wouldn't you?
Again, you would need to eat a heck of a lot for a meal — to get near
600 calories would cost £6.81
But that isn't the idea, is it? These aren't food, they are a treat. In which case, why not buy
Continental dark chocolate. At about £1.50 for 200 grams, this is not only much
better value — it's a heck of a lot healthier as well! Too much carb? No: relax and don't get all up tight about carbs. This should be a low-carb diet, not a NO-carb diet. You can have treats – without getting ripped off.
But if what you need is a snack, cheese (of which there are many different varieties, textures and tastes) is even healthier – as well as far better value.
Carbolite also do another bar which is called a Milk Chocolate Flavour Bar. At 28g it is the same price as the one above. Despite its name, if you look at the ingredients you will find that it contains no milk chocolate!
These are just a few examples of the ripoffs out there. Of course, other manufacturers are also climbing onto the bandwagon as fast as they can to rip off the overweight while the trend lasts.
The only way to combat this exploitation is not to succumb to it. EAT REAL FOOD! Real food might take a little longer to prepare but, in health terms and in money terms, it really is worth the little bit of effort. For example, to scramble four eggs for breakfast takes about 5 minutes — and compared to the Atkins breakfast bars, saves you over £4.00. That's an hourly rate of more than £50.00. Can you really afford not to do the little work needed to scramble eggs, if that is the pay rate?
Last updated 9 May 2004
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