Jennifer Bebko has brought home low-carb peanut butter, Fudgsicles, pasta, bread and ice cream for herself and her husband to try.
But when she sneaked in the low-carb spaghetti sauce for dinner one night, that proved too much.
“My husband was like, ‘Don’t feed us that again,’ ” she said.
Judging by sales of low-carbohydrate food products, he’s not the only one. The hottest diet trend of recent years has probably reached its peak, analysts say, although key parts of the low-carb lifestyle may be here to stay.
“There’s a shakeout,” said Iris Shaffer, executive director of the Low Carb Manufacturers Alliance.
Complaints about high prices and disappointing taste have slowed the sales growth of low-carb products. The government’s proposed new dietary guidelines focus on cutting calories, not carbohydrates, to lose weight.
Although low-carb diet books are still best sellers, casual dieters are starting to abandon them. The number of Americans who say they are trying to restrict their carb intake dropped from 32 percent in April to 21 percent in a recent study conducted for the manufacturers group.
“It’s a craze,” said Bebko, who dropped 17 pounds on a low-carb diet. She’s tried just about everything: the low-carb Atkins and South Beach diets, the grapefruit diet, the Cleveland Clinic diet, even the blood type diet.
Now Bebko, a YMCA fitness director, just eats smaller portions.