Best Fat Burning Foods

The number and variety of food products that advertise “less’ of something are growing to match the appetite of calorie-conscious consumers for these items. In a sense, the consumers’ loss is the food industry’s gain.

Total sales of diet and low-calorie foods were up 16.54% last year from the previous year. Although much of this increase, according to industry spokesmen, is prompted by the explosive popularity of diet sodas, light beers and light frozen entrees in other categories, there has also been substantial growth in many diet/low-cal segments, such as artificial sweeteners, cookies and crackers, desserts and toppings, sauces and dressings, fish and meats and juices and drinks.

These reduced-calorie and reduced-fat foods feed close to 70 million Americans, according to the Calorie Control Council, an association of manufacturers and suppliers of dietary foods and beverages. These are consumers who need, either for medically directed or self-imposed diets, foods low in calories and such ingredients as sodium, caffeine and cholesterol.

However, the traditional diet section labels of dietetic products are continuing to lose ground to line of no-salt, no-sugar-added canned goods, such as Del Monte’s and Libb’s light products, that are dispersed with the standard brands throughout the supermarket.

“There is less interest by the consumer and the retailer in dietetic foods as such,’ says Dan Thornton, marketing manager for Tri-Valley Growers, makers of the Diet Delight line of canned fruit products. Although still number one in the diet canned fruit category, he says that Diet Delight’s share of the total business has decreased. “Sales slackened in 1983, and our studies show us that last year the total diet fruit category dropped significantly.

However, Tri-Valley is promoting its Libby Lite line of canned fruits “fairly heavily this year,’ says Thornton. “The general public, and not just dieters, is buying reduced-calorie fruits,’ he says.

Diet line is chunky

The 1985 debut of a chunky mixed fruit variety in the Nutradiet line from S&W Fine Foods, however, has increased that company’s sales. A spokesman for S&W explains that last year’s introduction of “no salt’ kidney and garbanzo beans also played an important part in the sales success of the number three-ranked Nutradiet.

On the other hand, the Featherweight line (taken over by Sandoz Nutrition Co. in January from Chicago Dietetic) is perfectly content to be labeled dietetic. This comprehensive line of 180 products covers low-sodium, low-sugar and low-calorie products with some fiber and allergy-related items targeted to people on medically directed diets.