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Published Tuesday, May 30, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

After years of sticking with low-cal foods, we're indulging our cravings

BY CAROLYN JUNG
Mercury News

Finding yourself reaching for that second brownie? Or spreading a little more cream cheese on your morning bagel? Or wolfing down those french fries you once swore off?

You're not alone.

After years of eating rice crackers, skinless chicken breasts and salad with dressing on the side, we're rebelling -- loosening our belts to bring on the bacon instead.

Fueled by fad high-protein, low-carb diets, we're saying ``yes'' again to fatty foods such as porterhouse steaks. Fed up with the barrage of health studies faulting one food item after another, we're staging a backlash. Buoyed by a thriving economy, we're not only dining out more but indulging our cravings more.

Three years ago at Emile's restaurant in San Jose, about half the dishes on its European menu were ``light.'' Now, only a few are.

``People used to order nothing but poached seafood with fresh herbs and shallots,'' said chef-owner Emile Mooser. ``Now, they want it with hollandaise, bearnaise, you name it.'' Bob Nemerovski, who has overseen cooking classes around the Bay Area for three years, most recently as general manager of Ramekins, the Sonoma culinary school, echoed that sentiment. Although ``low-fat'' has been the buzzword on everyone's lips and hips, Nemerovski said folks nowadays are more talk than action.

``I couldn't sell a low-fat cooking class if I was giving it away,'' he said. ``We get requests for them, so we offer them. But then only two students show up and we have to cancel it. People want more substance now. They want their cake and to eat it, too.''

Moderation left behind

Eating the cake is not the problem. Eating the whole cake is. After denying themselves for so long by eating processed foods low in fat and flavor but high in sugar and calories, many people are going full bore the other way with super fatty foods, nutritionists say.

Just consider:

In a recent poll of supermarket shoppers who say they are very concerned about nutrition, only 46 percent say they are worried about the fat content of the foods they buy. That's down from 60 percent in 1996, according to the Food Marketing Institute, the supermarket industry trade group.

The number of new food products bearing low-fat or low-calorie labels more than doubled from 1993 to 1996 -- from 847 to 2,076 -- but then dropped by half two years later, according to New Product News, a publication that tracks the industry.

According to the California Farm Bureau, statewide production of full-fat ice cream jumped 13 percent from 1998 to 1999 (from about 116 million gallons to about 131 gallons). At the same time, production of low-fat ice cream suffered a major meltdown of 17 percent (from about 43 million gallons to 36 million gallons).

We're fat-friendly again, and it shows. The number of Americans considered obese soared from one in eight in 1991 to one in five in 1999, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What gives?

``As a country, we've felt deprived for so long,'' said Gigi Acker, a Los Altos registered dietitian and cooking instructor who does nutritional counseling at high-tech firms such as Cisco Systems Inc. ``People are fed up. You can only deprive yourself for so long.''

Just ask Jim and Pamela Burhans of San Jose. Jim, a 44-year-old computer consultant, and his wife, Pamela, a 38-year-old administrative secretary, swore off pizza for years. But now, it's a biweekly staple -- with pepperoni, sausage, the works.

What happened?

They gave into their cravings two years ago after passing cholesterol tests with flying colors.

``You only live once,'' Pamela said. ``You might as well enjoy it.''

That seems to be an attitude shared by many lately.

Rory Posada, a 36-year-old student and temp worker from Gilroy, calls himself health conscious and vegetarian -- except on weekends.

``Then, I'll eat scrambled eggs, pancakes, fast-food hamburgers,'' he said. ``Hey, you have to have a little freedom.''

For Bob Pearce, a 40-year-old backhoe operator from San Jose, that taste of freedom translates into steaks and pork chops and bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches with extra mayo.

``They're always finding something wrong with everything you eat,'' he said. ``If you listened to what everyone said, you wouldn't eat anything.''

Thanks to a booming economy that's making not only our pocketbooks richer but our appetites as well, we're also dining out a lot more.

Eating out is at an all-time high with Americans consuming 139 restaurant meals per person during the year ended in February 1999. That's a 14 percent increase over 1990, when Americans dined on 122 restaurant meals per capita, according to the NPD Group, a New York marketing information company that tracks consumer purchasing and behavior.

``In good economic times, people are buying more for taste and for flavor,'' said Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau, the state's largest non-profit farm organization. ``People are treating themselves more, because they can afford to.''

`What they want to hear'

But many are treating themselves to particularly high-fat, high-protein foods, much to the alarm of many nutritionists.

``The resurgence of high-protein diets is a great way to sell books and to give people what they want to hear,'' lamented Dr. Dean Ornish of Sausalito, the well-known advocate of low-fat, vegetarian-based diets. ``I'd love to tell people pork rinds and sausage are good for you, but they're not.''

While nutritionists are concerned about this new freewheeling attitude, they said they hope in the long run it does teach people that when it comes to fat, it need not be all or nothing.

``Hopefully, we are going back to eating more of what we want to eat, and realizing that rich foods can be a part of our diets,'' dietitian Acker said. ``People should eat what gives them pleasure. The key is just moderation.''

@sjmercury.com or fax (408) 271-3786.