The next big thing: a custom diet based on your own DNA? Organic foods becoming a catchphrase like low-carb? A roundtable of nutrition experts offers food for thought on what the next big nutrition craze might be—and on what it should be

Muscle & Fitness, March, 2005 by Jeff O'Connell

M & F: Is the low-carb movement, as represented by Atkins and South Beach, played out?

Larry Krug, co-founder of eatwize.com, diet coach on VH1's From Flab to Fab: It's hard to say how long these things will stay around. Atkins is often shunned in the medical and diet communities because they know it's flawed in many ways, but the marketing is so sophisticated that such concerns can be overridden. It could take a decade before people go, "Hold on a second." Subway advertises its low-carb menu, and then people think, "Oh, Subway is good." Uh, no.

Jeff Feliciano, director of research and quality assurance, Weider Global Nutrition: I think the diet still has legs going forward. It may be waning as far as supplements go, but the big companies that have had R & D [research and development] on the low-carb side are finally coming to market with stuff that's really pretty decent, actually. Plus, plenty of positive research supports, at the very least, low sugar [intake].

Jonny Bowden, CN, CNS, author of the best seller Living the Low Carb Life (Sterling Publishing, 2004), weight-loss expert on iVillage.com: I imagine there's going to be some backlash at some point against low-carb, but it isn't going away. Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

M & F: Why must there be a backlash?

Bowden: The low-carb industry shot itself in the foot by sending the message that you can eat whatever you want as long as it's low in carbs. Why? Because Americans want one-sentence answers to complex issues. We took away from this whole low-carb [movement] the idea that if things are low in carbs, we can eat anything we want. Oh, I thought you could eat two hamburgers and 10 slices of bacon and four chickens a day as long as they're low in carbs. Not!

It's the same mistake we made with low-fat. So now you've got somewhere around 1,800 [low-carb] products on the market, including dozens of junk foods. In L.A. we have low-carb water, for God's sake, and I'm not making this up. So people are now filling up on these junk-food products, thinking they're watching their carbs. And guess what. They're not going to lose weight, and the backlash is going to be, "See, low-carb doesn't work." And the entire industry of bread companies and pasta companies and Krispy Kremes--who are hurting now--are just waiting to point their finger and say, "See, we told you. It doesn't work."

In fact, it does work wonderfully when it's done properly. But it's been corrupted by and contaminated with the rush to market of all of this low-carb junk food.

Mauro Di Pasquale, MD, world-renowned nutrition and sports medicine expert, author of The Metabolic Diet: The basic issues the low-carb diet has brought out will remain important, such as people consuming too many refined carbs and increasing insulin levels rather dramatically. I don't think we're ever going back to the pre-low-carb phase. But people will realize that maybe this isn't the only diet, that maybe the best one for that individual is a little different in macronutrient content, while still keeping in mind the health benefits of decreasing refined sugars and carbs.

M & F: If you assume there is some sort of backlash afoot, what trend might fill the void?

Christopher R. Mohr, MS, RD, LDN, a doctoral candidate in exercise physiology at the University of Pittsburgh: Well, we demonized fat in the early '90s and carbs in the early 2000s, so I guess protein is up next, but I don't think we're ever going to get rid of that, so it's hard to say what the next fad will be. I hope there isn't one and that people go more toward moderation. I'd like to see more of a Mediterranean-type approach with more balance among all macronutrients, concentrating more on the types of macronutrients rather than eliminating one or the other.

Di Pasquale: The phase-shift-type diet I've espoused for the past decade is probably what's going to happen, because it's got so many advantages over a strict low-carb diet. In it there's a certain amount of low-carb, then higher carb/lower fat, so you're maximizing the response to the various hormones, including insulin. The low-carb diets have reduced the insulin response, but remember, insulin is a very anabolic hormone.

M & F: What else is on the horizon that most people haven't yet perceived as approaching us?

Krug: That's tricky: What's the next iPod for the diet industry? No one knows for sure, but I really think that people going organic could be the next big thing. You see the traffic going through these Whole Foods markets in L.A., and they keep opening more of them. At this point, people are getting a little suspect of the meat industry and the pesticides and all of that.

M & F: That's one pinhead on a huge map, Larry. What about Detroit or Houston? Better yet, what about Main Street, USA?

Krug: I don't know how it is in the Midwest. There probably aren't too many Whole Foods [markets] in small towns. But there is more awareness, and people could start going more organic. I think it could happen.