Battle of the Bulge

Blared an ad in the New York Times:

A BACARDI CUBA LIBRE HAS LESS CALORIES THAN A LAMB CHOP. In Los Angeles, a beer ad urged: DON'T GO TO WAIST DRINK REGAL PALE. In New York. Minneapolis and five other cities, Stouffer's restaurants offered special low-calorie lunches; the Pennsylvania Railroad had a 470-calorie "Streamliner" on its dining-car menus. Domino Sugar asked a "diet-conscious public to recognize that three teaspoons of sugar actually contain fewer calories than half a grapefruit . . . or an apple ... or even three small tomatoes."

All over the U.S. last week, millions of Americans--male and female--were locked in the battle of the bulge. A recent Gallup poll showed that 34 million Americans admit to being overweight; the American Medical Association has described obesity as America's No. i health problem, noting a far higher death rate among the overweight. Result: a boom in diet charts, low-calorie foods, and a new, "nonfattening" sales campaign by the U.S. food and beverage industries.

The Magic Words. For years some food companies have made salt-and sugar-free products for diabetics and other special dieters. But the reducing craze has become so widespread that more than 80 canners now turn out some 60 different low-calorie foods, ranging from applesauce and peanut butter to French dressing and puddings. About 80% of U.S. supermarkets have added dietetic departments featuring low-calorie foods. Their sales total some $25 million a year, and within a decade, the industry thinks, volume should hit $140 million. Said one Seattle chain-store manager last week: "All you have to do to sell an item to a housewife now is put the magic word 'nonfattening' on it."

One of the biggest lines of low-calorie foods is made by Mrs. Tillie Lewis' Flo-till Products, Inc. of California (TIME, Nov. 19, 1951). A year ago she brought out a complete line of low-calorie foods sweetened with saccharin and pectin instead of sugar. The products--ten fruits, four salad dressings, three jellies, four puddings, four gelatins, a chocolate topping--did so well (1953 sales are estimated at $8,000,000) that Flotill will soon add a low-calorie liquid sweetener, ketchup, maple syrup and soup.

Beautiful Chart. New York's Dorset Foods, Ltd., a canner of poultry and meats, last year introduced five low-calorie soups, recently added a line of "substance" low-calorie products, including beef stew, chicken fricassee and a chicken-vegetable dinner. Dietetic Food Co., Inc., which started producing foods for diabetics 26 years ago, now has a full low-calorie line, including candy, desserts, chewing gum and a new ice cream. Sales of high-protein foods, like meat, are up; protein-bread makers are also cashing in on the bonanza. Said an official of Ralston Purina, makers of an old reducing standby, Ry-Krisp: "Our sales chart is something beautiful to watch."

The most sensational growth has been in low-calorie soft drinks; sales rose from zero to 5,000,000 cases in one year. Pioneer in the field was Kirsch's Beverages, Inc. of Brooklyn, which started producing No-Cal ginger ale last year, aiming at an annual market of 100,000 cases; instead, Kirsch's sold half a million, added four other flavors, and this year expects No-Cal sales to top 2,500,000 cases. More than 50 companies are now in the field.

"Ideal Food." The new emphasis on the U.S. waistline has forced some food producers into hasty counteraction. Dieting has already helped cut per capita consumption of wheat flour from 157 Ibs. pre-war to 130 Ibs. a year, and the worried American Bakers Association is spending a good part of its $1,000,000 advertising budget to plug bread as a reducing food. Annual potato consumption dropped from 132 Ibs. per capita in 1939 to 104 Ibs. last year.

Among the hardest hit has been the beleaguered dairy industry. A dairy-association survey showed that: I) at any given time, about one-quarter of the U.S. population is on a diet; 2) the first thing dieters are likely to give up is milk products. Per capita consumption of whole milk and butter has dropped 19% since the war. But consumption of low-calorie skim milk and nonfat dry milk has risen as much as 136%. To fight the diet menace, the dairy farmers will spend between $6 million and $10 million in the next year, touting milk as the "ideal food" around which to build a reducing diet.

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