Kailua store sells only low-, no-sugar products
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
Guar gum. Xylitol. Thicken Thin Not/Starch Thickener.
At the Paradise Foods Low Carb and Low Sugar Market, chocolates have no sugar, tortillas don't pack a carbohydrate wallop and baklava is made without honey. The No. 1 selling item: pork rinds.
Who is buying all this?
Dennis Muth, who co-owns the store with his wife, Hedy, a nurse and follower of the Atkins diet regime, says roughly half of their customers are diabetics; everything in the store is low- or no-sugar. The remainder are people who follow what he calls a "low-carb lifestyle." Some may be people with allergies looking for, for example, a grain-free thickener for gravies and stews. Many had been ordering specialty food items by mail, said Muth.
The store is part grocery, part snack shop. They stock basic ingredients (flours and baking mixes, cereals, dry and fresh pastas, breads, tortillas, nonsugar sweeteners) as well as sweet or crunchy indulgences (pastries, chips, candies, nonsoda drinks, ice creams).
These items are hard to find in other stores in this concentration and variety. However, Muth notes ruefully that grocery stores are catching up. "I think this is going to become more and more mainstream," he said — just as low-fat and nonfat products have become.
At this point, however, manufacturers are having trouble keeping up with demand and some products — such as the pastas — need work. "A lot of the pastas are not quite there yet," Muth said.
The store got its start because Hedy Muth was frustrated at not being able to find low-carb ingredients, and knew others must feel the same. Dennis Muth did market research and realized there might be a niche there that went beyond Atkins enthusiasts.
So how do these manufacturers make these everyday items, customarily prepared with refined white wheat flour and refined cane or beet sugar?
Check the labels: They use ingredients made from fiber, which provides bulk but can't be digested. They use alternative flours, such as soy, flax seed, pumpkin seed, almond and oat, which have lower carbohydrate counts, fewer sugars and more fiber. They use natural gums as thickeners. They use sweeteners such as sugar alcohols made from plants, including maltitol (made from maltose, a sugar that comes from plant starches; it thickens and binds like real sugar) and xylitol (an odorless white crystal made from plant fiber) sorbitol, mannitol, isomalt and hydrogenated starch hydrolysate. Or they use sucralose/Splenda (derived from sugar).
Many labels additionally break down carbohydrates in more detail than is required by Food and Drug Administration rules, listing not only total carbohydrates and fiber content but also sugar alcohols.
Most of these products are labeled low-carb or reduced carbohydrate, although the terms have not yet been defined by the FDA. The agency may issue proposed guidelines by year's end and has ordered some companies to change their packaging.
The Grocery Manufacturers of America, a brand-name trade group, has petitioned FDA to define low-carb as 9 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams of food, a typical serving. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer watchdog group, suggests 6 grams or fewer for low-carbohydrate products, and 25 percent fewer carbohydrates than normal for reduced-carbohydrate foods. A report released earlier this month by the Working Group on Obesity, an expert panel, says consumers profess to like nutritional analysis on packaging but often don't bother to read the breakdown if a product labels itself in a particular fashion, such as "low fat."
Muth acknowledged that this cornucopia of products presents a challenge to some dieters: "Some of these products taste so good some people indulge more than they should."
Paradise Foods is at 200 Hamakua Drive, B-6, behind Safeway, in Kailua.
