What Are Carbs? Survey Finds Many People Don't Know
 

What Are Carbs? Survey Finds Many People Don't Know
eDiets Designates June As Low-Carb Awareness Month

POSTED: 12:57 pm EDT June 1, 2004

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- Although low-carb information seems to be everywhere, a new survey finds a lot of people interested in healthy eating don't even know what a carb is.

A study designed by eDiets.com to measure low-carb knowledge found that nearly one-fourth of the respondents to the survey think a carb is a byproduct of fat metabolism. Actually, carbs are organic compounds that supply body energy. Fat and protein are the other macronutrients that supply energy.

More than one-third of those asked about the makeup of a meal consisting of a hamburger, fries and a medium soft drink said it has 500 carbs. Almost as many believed it has 200 carbs. The correct answer, given by only 19 percent, is 150 carbs.

The survey also showed that many mistakenly believe a cup of oatmeal is low in carbs and a slice of white bread is very high in carbs.

To remedy this, eDiets is designating June as Low-Carb Awareness Month. It's made a variety of low-carb information available on its Web site.

I thought that said crabs for a minute.

I am suprised that most people didnt know ..now to teach them the difference between a carb and a complex carb :glugglug

I know a lot about carbs these days since I have been trying to cut back on them. I really didnt know shit about them beforehand though.

I still don't know. Probably never will.

now why doesnt that surpirse me

I really don't care honestly

wow

Also of interest to low carb dieters:

Introducing Spud-U-Lite, the first low-carb potato
By Karyn Miller
(Filed: 30/05/2004)


At last, some good news for Britain's dieters reeling from gloomy predictions of a soaring obesity problem: American scientists have created a type of potato so low in carbohydrates that it could be used in the Atkins diet.


The Atkins-friendly potato
The potato, developed with a Dutch seed company, has yet to be given a formal name but has been nicknamed "Spud-U-Lite". It is yellow and waxy with a smooth skin and has an "exceptional" flavour, according to scientists who have sampled it. Its carbohydrate content is only two-thirds that of other potatoes.

"Normally, we wouldn't recommend potatoes," said a spokesman for Atkins Nutritionals. The potato has yet to be evaluated by Atkins scientists but the spokesman said: "It sounds as if you could eat these potatoes in larger quantities during the later stages of the Atkins diet, once you have reached your target weight."

The Atkins diet, which shrunk the figures of Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones, the Hollywood actresses, admits carbohydrates only in minute quantities.

The Spud-U-Lite could also give a boost to the potato industry, which is troubled by the Atkins diet. The British Potato Council denied reports that sales fell by four per cent last year but its advertising campaign, due to run for three months this summer, indicates concern. It is called "Fab Not Fad".

In America the Atkins diet is believed to have contributed to a 4.7 per cent drop in potato sales last year. Dr Chad Hutchinson, a potato expert at the University of Florida who has spent five years working with HZPC, a Dutch seed company, to develop the Spud-U-Lite, said it was "the future of the potato". The potato is the result of a breeding programme, rather than genetic modification, but its low-carbohydrate content was discovered by chance and believed to be the result of the low density of the potato's flesh and the relatively short period over which it matures.

Dr Hutchinson is working with a co-operative of Florida potato growers who intend to mass-produce the potatoes and have them on supermarket shelves early next year. It is not known when the Spud-U-Lite will become available in Britain.

Dr Mike Storey, the research and development director of the British Potato Council, was sceptical. He said: "These low-carb potatoes may be similar to small, waxy salad potatoes, such as Maris Peer, Nicola and Charlotte, that we have been growing for several years."

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Taking everything I've observed about people into consideration, I'm surprised more don't swallow their forks.