The Lo Down
A new store in Cool Springs caters to Atkins dieters with low-carb products...but who wants to eat facsimiles of food?
by Kay West
The Lo Carb Company
Cool Springs Crossing, 1745 Galleria Blvd. 771-1282
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat.; 1-5 p.m. Sun.
The third time I circled the Green Hills YMCA parking lot the Friday after New Year’s Day, looking in vain for an empty space, I began to wonder what was going on. Was Rebecca Paul there, giving away advance lottery tickets? Was Eddie George teaching a yoga class? Shouldn’t he be on his way to Baltimore?
Finally parked, scanned in and upstairs in the large room devoted to cardio equipment, I discovered that every single bike, treadmill and Stairmaster was already claimed. That’s when it hit me: The @#&!% Resolutionists were back. Every January like clockwork, they descend—with their new shoes, new workout gear and new year’s resolutions—into the space usually inhabited by year-round fitness devotees. Much like the folks who crowd church pews on Easter and Christmas, the newbies are an irritation to the regulars, who raise eyebrows and smile smugly at one another, secure in the knowledge that, come February, most of them will be gone and once again we will have the gym back to ourselves.
Brenda Jarrard, who opened The Lo Carb Company the day before Thanksgiving, is hopeful that her own customer base is a little more resolute in its resolutions. The small market, located in the Cool Springs Crossing strip center perpendicular to the Target store, stocks low-carb and sugar-free products, a segment of the food industry that’s growing as rapidly as the nation’s obesity problem.
The store is primarily geared toward followers of the Atkins diet, which some surveys say counts 10 million followers. Jarrard is a nearly two-year veteran herself, so she knows her stuff. She also knows the challenges that face the Atkins dieter. “Once the novelty of eating eggs, bacon, beef and cheese wears off, you want a little more variety,” she notes. “When I started Atkins, there were some pretty unpalatable foods out there. The industry has grown so much, there are so many choices out there; we try to offer our customers as much variety as we can, but still remain selective.”
The store is primarily geared toward followers of the Atkins diet, which some surveys say counts 10 million followers. Jarrard is a nearly two-year veteran herself, so she knows her stuff. She also knows the challenges that face the Atkins dieter. “Once the novelty of eating eggs, bacon, beef and cheese wears off, you want a little more variety,” she notes. “When I started Atkins, there were some pretty unpalatable foods out there. The industry has grown so much, there are so many choices out there; we try to offer our customers as much variety as we can, but still remain selective.”
Much like other food markets, Lo Carb is divided into food categories: breads and bake mixes; sauces, dressings and snacks; drink mixes and syrups. Much of the shelf space is claimed by the Keto brand line, which includes everything from meal-replacement drink mixes to cereals that mimic conventional sugary cereals like Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Puffs. A free catalog offers even more: ice cream and pudding mixes, coffee and creamers, pasta shells, hot cereal and something called Keto Ketato mix, which promises “the taste of luscious, creamy-smooth mashed potatoes without worrying about the carbohydrates.” Low-carb holiday recipes in the back of the catalog include one that combines Ketatoes and Keto Butta, a butter-flavored MCT (medium chain triglyceride) oil. Mmmmmmm.
Other products that caught my eye were soy grits, sweet rolls, granola, tortilla chips, cocktail drink mixes, peanut brittle, oatmeal cookies and, my favorite, Gram’s Gourmet Sweet Cinnamon and Butter Fried Pork Rinds. Another thing that caught my eye was the prices, reminiscent of what natural food products were before big-box stores like Wild Oats brought down pricing (and quality, many say). A 9-ounce bag of granola costs $7.89, a jar of pasta sauce $7.99, a 10-ounce container of popcorn brittle $6.49, and four frozen banana muffins $5.99.
My family sampled several products, among them tortilla chips, cheese straw bites, sesame crackers, granola and the aforementioned pork rinds. Though the flavor was tolerable on most, and pretty good on a few, what we found was a consistent dryness to the products that had us rehydrating with water between samples. Even in the store, which thoughtfully sets out an array of samples for customers, I had to purchase a beverage from the cooler to supplement the grazing.
After their first inquisitive bite of the banana muffins, my children refused to eat any more, asking for grapefruit and toasted English muffins instead. The best thing we sampled was the no-sugar-added chocolate-swirl single-serving cheesecake by Desserts of Distinction, which had just 250 calories and 19 carb grams. (Is that good?)
The Atkins diet has proven to be an avenue to successful weight control for millions of passionate followers, and that’s great. We should celebrate anything that can help curb one of America’s worst public health concerns. For those who can afford it, The Lo Carb Company is offering, through its extensive inventory, further incentive to stick with the program. More is on the way: According to Jarrard, there are companies in New York and Los Angeles that deliver three Atkins-friendly meals a day to well-heeled customers. She has already reserved freezer space for the ready-to-heat meals that she hopes to begin stocking before long. In the spring, she will be selling frozen soft-serve treats.
Though healthy eating and weight control are as much a part of my lifestyle as daily workouts, the closest I have come to the Atkins diet is skimming the book I purchased a couple years ago. What I saw did not entice me to delve any further, and frankly, I am a little weary of the low-carb craze, which reminds me of the low-fat/no-fat craze about a decade ago—clearly, that had little effect on climbing obesity rates. According to representatives of the beer industry, low-carb beers are the most successful new product since light beer. Even the fast food industry is riding the wave: Hardee’s has a low-carb burger, and Subway has introduced Atkins-friendly Wraps.
Personally, I would rather eat cat food than something called Ketatoes topped with butter-flavored MCT oil. Or, put another way, I would rather have a half-cup of real mashed potatoes with a tablespoon of French butter than a heaping mound of the substitute. I’ll stick to what has been successful for me for years: modest portion size and exercise. And I’ll try not to be too cranky as I wait for the Resolutionists to clear out of the Y.
