Carb-crazed? Teens get wrapped up in diet frenzy

Current Events, Sept 24, 2004

FAT CITY, U.S.A. Stroll through a supermarket, and you're bombarded with low-carbohydrate labels. Open up a menu, and you're faced with Atkins-friendly treats. Flip through a magazine, and you're blasted with dieting successes. Don't bother hiding--there's no escape. Low-carb diets are everywhere!

Low-carb mania, fueled by the popularity of the Atkins and South Beach diets, is taking the country by storm. About 24 million Americans are cutting out carbohydrates, and 44 million more say they may try a low-carb diet in the next two years.

Dieters may be limiting their carbs, but they have plenty of new products to munch on. Manufacturers have introduced more than 1,500 low-carb products in the past two years. Even pet foods come in low-carb variations.

"It's like a fire out of control," said Joanne Slavin, a professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Food Science and Nutrition.

Low-Carb Teens

Lured by the promise of quick weight loss, teens are among the millions of people trying on low-carb diets for size.

Sixteen-year-old Annie Grills of Sandy Hook, Conn., has been on the South Beach diet for about six months. "It worked out pretty well for the first few weeks," Grills said of the diet's initial phase, during which she ate almost no carbohydrates. "The weight ... theirs off you," she said.

Grills knows other teens who have cut carbs too. "Girls want to fit in their prom dresses, so they'll try and lose a few pounds before [the dance]," she said.

Those girls aren't the only teens watching their weight. A recent survey of California students ages 13 to 15 found that 73.6 percent of the girls said they had tried to diet, compared with 36.5 percent of the boys. Of the boys and girls who had tried dieting, 15 percent said they'd started dieting by age 11, and 84 percent had tried dieting by age 14.

The Skinny on the Diets

The Atkins and South Beach diets work because they force the body to burn fat instead of carbohydrates, which normally provide the body with its greatest source of energy.

Atkins dieters give up carbohydrate-rich foods, such as breads, pastas, sugar, potatoes, fruits, and milk, and instead eat sources of protein, such as meat, seafood, and cheese.

The South Beach diet follows the same basic principle but is not as severe. Its followers eat some carbohydrate-rich products, such as milk, yogurt, tomatoes, and carrots, but aren't allowed unlimited consumption of saturated fats the way Atkins followers are.

Danger Ahead?

Although studies have shown that diets like Atkins successfully help people lose weight, some nutritionists fear that low-carb diets are too good to be true. They say people may regain weight if they stop the diets.

That's what happened to Antonio Banks, 17, of San Bernardino, Calif. "I did [Atkins] for 2 1/2 months and lost 15 pounds during the first three weeks," he told reporters. But the weight came back after he stopped the strict [regimen].

Low-carb diets' long-term effects are unknown. However, some doctors say the diets may be downright dangerous, especially for active teens who need a lot of carbohydrates for energy.

Rachel Huskey, 16, of Missouri, died while on the Atkins diet. When she died, she had low calcium and potassium levels in her blood--a possible result of the diet. Paul Robinson of the University of Missouri, Columbia, said those [depletions] disrupted Huskey's normal heart functions, killing her.

Diet Right

Experts say many people are dieting because of the government's recent warnings about the U.S. obesity epidemic. About 64 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.

Yet helping people control their weight is a tricky issue. "It's a balancing act, because on the one hand, clearly we have concerns that more and more teenagers are becoming obese," said David Sarwer, associate professor of psychology and director of education at the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania. "On the other hand, we don't want teenagers to be so restrictive with their food that they may develop an eating disorder."

Kaelyn Eckenrode, a senior at Newtown High School in Sandy Hook, Conn., says the country's obesity problem spurs dieting. "So many Americans are obese, and people are saying, 'I don't want that to be me, so I'm going to go on the "blank" diet.'"

Her classmate, Will Jacob, 16, predicts that attitude will stick around. "You sort of wonder what's next," he said.

Obesity Epidemic

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 64 percent of Americans are overweight or obese--the highest percentage of fat people of any country in the world. The rest of the world is gaining on Americans, however. Last September, the World Health Organization declared obesity a global epidemic, reporting that there are now more than 1 billion overweight adults worldwide (no pun intended). At least 300 million of those people are obese. What has health experts particularly alarmed is the growing number of obese children worldwide. The United States continues to lead the way, with as many as 37 percent of children who are overweight or obese.