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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue new guidelinesabout how labels may tout the calories, fats, and carbohydrate content of foodproducts, clarifying vague terms such as "net carbs."
An FDA spokesman says the agency has received six petitions asking it tocreate regulatory definitions of the terms low, reduced, andfree for use with carbohydrates on food product packaging, much as ithas done for fats andsugars.
The initiative is part of the agency's strategy for dealing with theobesity epidemic, announced last March, which includes changing nutritionallabeling requirements and a voluntary program for restaurants to providediners with nutritional information to help them make healthier choices.
FDA planned to publish draft rules on carbs by the end of 2004. The publiccomment period and review of those comments can stretch out the rule, makingthe process take up to a year. Final language on carbohydrate labeling likelywill not take effect until 2006, at the earliest.
CHANGING TERMS
Perhaps in anticipation of the FDA's move, "net carbs" willdisappear from labeling and marketing of the Atkins diet. Coined by Atkinspromoters in 2001, net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber andsugar alcohol grams from total carbohydrates.
Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., now says that the term is"imprecise" and will be replaced with the phrase "net Atkinscount" beginning next year.
The new language will reflect a recalculation of carbohydrate content. Itwill shuffle the values of many food products and likely will result in Atkinsdropping some products as no longer fitting within their dietaryguidelines.
Terms such as "net carbs" and "impactcarbs" "are really not giving you the full picture because thereis no regulation or consensus definition of what the terms mean," saysLona Sandon, RD, of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
The concept "is basically saying that fiber doesn't affect bloodsugar, therefore there is no impact, so we can take out those grams of fiberthat contribute to total carbohydrates," Sandon says. "Thenvarious sugar alcohols are added to products, and they have no or a very smallimpact on glucose, so we can subtract those because they really don't make adifference in what happens to your blood glucose.
"Once you subtract those two things out, you're left withcarbohydrates that have a net effect or an impact on raising your blood sugarlevel," says Sandon.
The only problem is that people don't eat that way. "We don't eatsingle foods, we eat foods in combination and that affects our bloodsugar," she says.
"I think the Atkins folks have realized that other food componentsaffect your blood sugar response besides the carbohydrates themselves,"says Sandon. "The amount of protein or the lack of protein in a meal,the amount of fat, or the type of carbohydrate itself affects the overalloutcome." 
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