Why have low-carb diets taken the American public by storm? One might speculate the strong focus on low-fat foods during the 1990s (which occasionally approached a “fat phobia” in some people) left many fat gram counters devoid of the sensory pleasure that long-standing food favorites provide. Comparing the number of fat grams per serving of individual foods became a basis of competition between food brands within many food categories. The demand for low-fat and no-fat products spawned a massive industry development effort to reduce the fat content in order to meet government regulations for reduced- and low-fat claims.
Despite this frenzied effort to reduce our dietary fat intake, the U.S. Census Bureau (Washington) estimates that the prevalence of U.S. adults aged 20-74 who are overweight and obese today stands at 65%, and is projected to reach 73% by 2008 at the current rate. Some experts are holding the high-carbohydrate, low-fat regimen recommended by the Food Guide Pyramid as one of several factors responsible for the problem. The other widely-hypothesized culprits are larger food portion sizes in single-serve packaged foods and in restaurant fare (which correlate with increased calorie consumption), as well as increased physical inactivity at all ages.