By SARAH ROBERTS, Rockford Register Star
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Embarrassed by the frequency with which he dines out, Julius Rankins already has one of his New Year’s resolutions firmly set: cook at least three times a week.

Rankins, a community recreation manager for the Rockford Park District, jokes that as a single guy without children, it’s far too easy for him to eat out. Sometimes, he admits, he can go all week without touching his stove.

Rankins, also a member of the YMCA Black Achievers, tries to maintain a regular exercise regimen and sensible diet.

A growing number of restaurants look at customers such as Rankins and see dollar signs. Driven by Americans’ obsession with losing weight, chain restaurants such as T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday and McDonald’s are partnering with diet gurus to offer low-fat, low-carbohydrate menus.

Nearly 65 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the proportion of those considered severely obese — 100 pounds overweight or more — quadrupled since 1996.

About 32 million Americans are on low-carb diets, and they are expected to spend more than $15 billion on low-carb products by the end of the year, according to LowCarbiz, a trade newsletter and magazine for the industry.

Applebee’s has partnered with Weight Watchers, and Friday’s inked a deal with low-carb king Atkins Nutritionals earlier this month. It’s no coincidence that television ads for the new menu items will begin airing in January — the heart of the diet season.

Even Subway, which traditionally marketed itself as a healthy fast-food alternative, is clamoring for the low-carb tag.

Beginning Jan. 1, Subway will offer every sandwich on a tortilla rollup with fewer than 5 grams of carbohydrates, compared with at least 30 carbohydrates in the restaurant’s standard bread. Rollups already are available at Subways in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Mich.

“They’ve been very popular,” said Jenny Rodriguez, manager at an Ann Arbor Subway. “We’re one of the lower volume stores, and we’ve been selling about a case a week, which is about 120 rollups.”

Rankins doesn’t completely agree with the restrictive low-carb diets, but says he’ll try the new menu items. “It’s a fad, but if this is what the public is asking for, if this is the ‘hot thing,’ restaurants feel they have to put something on the menu to keep up with the trend,” Rankins said. “It’s not necessarily because they’re advocating healthier eating.”

Separating what is healthy from what is fashionable is the trick, according to Peter Vedro, executive director of the Coronary Health Improvement Project, or CHIP. The program is offered through the SwedishAmerican Center for Complementary Medicine in Rockford and teaches people to make diet changes to prevent obesity and related diseases.

“I think it’s a good idea that there are these alliances so that people have more choices, but the question is who is going to educate them on what is really a healthy choice?” Vedro said.

He recommends the Atkins diet only as a last resort to a small percentage of program participants who are slow to notice results with the standard CHIP recommendations. Even then, the diet is only temporary.

CHIP advocates a low-fat, low-sodium and low-sugar diet with an emphasis on unprocessed foods. Vedro pointed to BeefaRoo and Aunt Mary’s as two local eateries that include CHIP-approved menu items.

Bryan Suh, co-owner of Aunt Mary’s in Rockford, confirmed the bistro plans to unveil up to eight low-carb dishes in 2004. He said partnerships between chain restaurants and diet empires are “smart business,” adding that the new dishes are an extension of its existing healthy menu, not a direct response to popular diets.

“The risk is that these (diets) may be fads,” Suh said.

Vedro and his partners recently visited McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook to offer suggestions on how to incorporate CHIP’s philosophy into the restaurant’s offerings.

Along with planning veggie burgers and bagged vegetables, McDonald’s began a test run in mid-December of fresh fruit and juice as substitutes for french fries and soda in Happy Meals.

Hardees and Carl’s Jr. are planning to introduce fast-food’s first “low-carb burger,” a half-pound patty with all the fixings swathed in iceberg lettuce leaves.

This is where health vs. fad comes into play, Vedro said, pointing to research that establishes a pattern of clogged arteries and plaque buildup from eating too much red meat. “It doesn’t do any good to lose weight and then drop dead of a heart attack,” Vedro said.

The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show per capita consumption of red meat was 115 pounds in 2000, the lowest since 1938.

Local butchers can’t put a specific dollar amount on how the more-meat, less-bread diet craze has benefited them, but they have noticed more customers asking them to hold the bun.

“Especially when we’re serving lunches, they’ll ask us to put the meat in a tray or cup without the bread, and they’ll have cheese and all the veggies that go with it,” said Jeff Meads, owner of Meads Longwood Meat Market in Rockford.

Paula Newburg, who owns Countryside Meats & Deli in Rockford, added: “We’ve always had red-meat eaters, but we have a little more of a niche right now because of customers who are on the Atkins diet and looking for that protein.” 

Rocio Perez, an accounting supervisor at Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford, eats carbs and lots of them. As an avid runner, she has an excuse: She needs the energy. She subscribes to the high-protein theory, but avoids red meat, consuming most of her protein from fish and chicken. “From a personal standpoint, it wouldn’t work for me, being a runner. Besides, I love my carbs,” Perez said. 

Contact: smrobert@rockford.gannett.com; 815-987-1343

Published: December 31, 2003