No bun intended for low-carb counters

With Americans fattening up, some fast-food chains are slimming down their menus in an attempt to draw in the increasing number of those who subscribe to the fashionable low-carb diets currently the hit of the weight-loss world.

And get this, the biggest culprit seems to be that big bad bun.

Last month, Hardee's dumped bread, high in carbohydrates, from some of its hamburgers, going lettuce-wrapped instead. Two weeks ago, local Burger Kings in Cape Girardeau and Jackson introduced the "bun-less" Whopper, along with low-carb chicken and double cheeseburgers.

There seems to be a demand for such items.

Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shop has sold a low-carb sub sandwich for months and reports it already has caught up with their regular sandwiches in popularity. The "unwich" is basically a regular sandwich wrapped in a giant lettuce leaf instead of on bread.

"It's doing awesome here," said manager Ken Butler, estimating half the sandwiches people order at the restaurant are now low-carb. "It's doing better than some of our other sandwiches. This must be some health-kick kind of town."

Butler also works at the Jimmy John's in Carbondale, Ill. "They don't do near the business with low-carb as we do here," he said. "This is getting a lot more popular, for health reasons, I guess. Everyone's trying it."

The surge in popularity of the high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet prompted a move that once would have been unthinkable in the hamburger business. Still, McDonald's and Wendy's, the other two large burger purveyors, aren't cashing in on the fad yet, though spokesmen for both chains said they offer healthy choices, including entree salads.

Another business, Blimpies Subs & Salads, offers a "carb counter menu." Subway sandwich shops are advertising their wraps with less than 11 grams of carbohydrates to customers seeking to lower their carbohydrate intake. Alone among the sandwich shops, Quizno's is not marketing a low-carb alternative, although a spokeswoman pointed out that its salads are low in carbohydrates.

'Not the healthiest way'

It's true that people who severely cut back on carbs do lose weight, said Anita Smith, a registered dietitian with Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. That point aside, she says she and other dietitians strongly encourage people to eat a well-balanced meal that includes whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

"The problem that we face is we come across as very negative when we say we don't like that approach," she said. "But it's not the healthiest way to lose weight."

No dietitian endorses eating excessive carbohydrates, she said, and she realizes people are not going to stop eating fast food.

"Fast food is a part of life in this culture," she said. "That's not something we would expect people will completely eliminate from their lifestyle. But the point of a double patty burger wrapped in lettuce with no bun, to me, doesn't sound like a solution. Healthy eating is not just a matter of taking the bun off the burger."

Lori Pettet, a registered dietitian with St. Francis Medical Center, said she also found it interesting that fast-food restaurants were "cashing in" on the popularity of Atkins, which she admitted has been successful in weight loss for some people.

Pettet said that overall, though, people can't stay with the diet and then, when they go back to eating carbs, end up gaining 20 pounds more than they had before the diet.

"It is in our nature to want carbs," she said. "Who wants the burger without the bun?"

Pettet also said that the things found in some of the food that Atkins doesn't allow are good for people, such as calcium and fiber.

Making it 'your way'

Joel Neikirk is the director of operations for Drury Restaurants in Cape Girardeau, which owns 38 Burger Kings in Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. He said they introduced their low-carb menu before the Burger King corporation announced its low-carb menu just this week. He said the low-carb items are 10 cents cheaper than their breaded counterparts.

"They haven't lit the world on fire yet," Neikirk said. "I'm moving two or three a day at each restaurant. It's not a thousand people flocking to our door saying, 'Now I can get it without a bun.'"

Besides, Neikirk pointed out that people always could have ordered the food without a bun because Burger King has always promoted itself as a food place that "makes it your way."

"But they'll catch on as people know we have them," he said.

At Burger King, the sandwiches don't get wrapped in lettuce and instead are basically put in a bowl without the bun. The bunless Whopper has 3 grams of carbohydrates, compared with 52 for a regular Whopper, according to Burger King.

Disinterested Broadway customers

Customers at Burger King on Broadway during the Thursday lunch hour didn't seem too interested in trying bunless anything.

"I wouldn't eat it," said Nicole Watton. "I like the bun. You can pick it up and that's convenient. I guess it would be OK, it's just not for me."

Randy Armstrong said he didn't have a problem with the bunless sandwich, but said it would be too messy to eat it behind the wheel.

"Fast food is about convenience," he said. "How could you drive and eat it? That's the problem."

One man just had a problem with the nature of the Atkins diet.

"The Atkins diet is bad," said Cape Girardeau resident David Ritter. "You should have a balanced diet. That's what your mother taught you."

But one of the Burger King workers, Laura Weller, said she lost 57 pounds three years ago on Atkins and she's still on it.

"I can eat all the meat I want," she said. "I was skeptical too, but it worked."

Smith, the dietitian, said the people on low-carb diets do lose weight, but then they usually go off the diet and gain it back.

"It'd be easier for us if we could tell people it killed them, but they usually don't stay on it long enough," she said. "All they do is stay on it long enough to pick up poor eating habits."

smoyers@missourian.com

335-6611, extension 137

The Associated Press contributed to this report.