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Low Carbohydrate Chart
There has been a lot of talk lately about the tendency away from low carb diets. Much of that talk has been based on surveys conducted by Opinion Dynamics. Since mid-2003, Opinion Dynamics has conducted 1000 telephone interviews regularly with random adults throughout the US. During the week of January 10, 2005, the 1,000 respondents were asked whether they are currently on some kind of low-carb diet. The results were somewhat surprising. In contrast to the declining numbers of people on low carb diets of the past surveys (October & December, 2004), the number of people on low carb diet rose to 15% in January from 6% in December. Here are the results in chart format since December 2003 for the Opinion Dynamics surveys.  Low Carbohydrate Chart - Reasons for Trend ChangeThere are several possible reasons why the results are dramatically different from December 2004 results. For one, Opinion Dynamics changed the wording in the January 2005 survey: in the past surveys, the primary question was worded as “Are you currently on a low-carbohydrate diet, such as the Atkins or South Beach diets?” The reference to particular diets was removed for the January 2005 survey. For one, the results can mean that the newer low-carb diets have gained followers at the expense of both the Atkins diet and the South Beach diet. Also, according to Opinion Dynamics, their prior research has shown that former low-carb dieters tend to be very loyal to the diets, and that many have intentions to restart the diet in the future if they have stopped following it. And New Year would be a likely time for this to occur.
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