Ranchers
credit meaty diets for high beef prices
KINGSVILLE,
Texas (AP) -- Until recently, a lanky Texan
like Paul Genho had little interest in celebrity
doctors and their diet trends. But thanks
to the toppled food pyramid advised by gurus
such as Dr. Atkins and Dr. Agatson, red
meat sales are up again.
"Beef
is hot, beef is back," said Genho,
manager of the 825,000-acre King Ranch,
one of the country's top beef producers.
"People are sick of chicken."
Breed
bulls are going for $40,000 and live cattle
prices were recently trading over $1 a pound.
"Eighty
cents is considered healthy," Genho
said, noting that a few years ago, prices
were in the 50-cent range.
Diets
can't take all the credit for the increase.
A mad-cow disease scare closed off the Canadian
supply, so steak distributors worldwide
turned to the U.S. market, where there were
no reports of the sickness. The two countries
are the major suppliers of grain-fed beef,
which consumers prefer to grass-fed beef.
Droughts around the United States also have
thinned cattle herds, so supply is down.
"But
that gets you 2 or 3 or 4 cents on the pound,
that doesn't get you 20 or 30 or 40,"
said Gregg Doud, chief economist for the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association. ''That
comes from predominantly domestic demand.
That's steak orders from restaurants.''
Sales
are soaring for books such as "Atkins
for Life" and "The South Beach
Diet," which reverse decades of dietary
advice and say the way to lose weight is
to cut out carbohydrates in favor of more
protein, including red meat. Many dieters
say they've quickly lost weight on the diets.
But
people would be back to beef even if there
weren't a dietary license, trend analyst
Gerald Celente said. He said people are
tired of depriving themselves after two
years of a weak economy and worries about
terrorism.
"Beef
is also a comfort food," Celente said.
The
diet promoted by the late Robert Atkins
debuted in the 1970s and recently enjoyed
a resurgence in popularity. The original
"Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution"
is still a bestseller, as is relative newcomer
the ''South Beach Diet'' by Dr. Arthur Agatson.
The
theory behind such diets is that the body
too quickly converts carbohydrates into
ready energy, ignoring existing fuel stored
as fat. It's a theory that works for ranchers.
"Me personally, I don't eat a high-meat
diet; I don't think it's all that healthy,"
Weatherford rancher Cody Todd said. "But
industry-wise, it doesn't hurt any."
The
nutritional value of such diets is still
under discussion by the medical community
and the government. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture is fielding public comments
on its food pyramid -- which for years has
advocated more carbohydrates and fewer servings
of meat -- and will in 2005 release a revised
set of recommendations. Until then, a spokesman
said, it's too soon to comment.
For
now, though, many doctors say they're encouraged
by the apparent success of the low-carb
approach. They say any significant weight
loss means less risk of diabetes, heart
disease, cancers and other diseases.
But
Dr. George Blackburn of Harvard Medical
School cautioned that the typical low-carb
weight loss of 10 percent only happened
when people followed the diet, and many
people give up. Long-term, he said, people
are going to need to be taught to reincorporate
carbohydrates without gaining all the weight
back.
"All
roads to Rome come back to a balanced diet,"
he said.
That's
not what ranchers want to hear, but many
are realistic about the ups and downs of
their industry.
"They're
paying everything off, preparing for the
future," Genho said.
"Me
personally, I don't eat a high-meat diet;
I don't think it's all that healthy. But
industry-wise, it doesn't hurt any."
–Cody Todd,
rancher
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