The low-carb craze is forcing fast-food restaurants and other chain eateries to rethink their menus.
Subway: Chain has an exclusive fast-food partnership contract with Atkins, offers two low-carb wraps–a Chicken Ranch and a Turkey Bacon (both 11 net carbs).
BURGER KING: Besides its new bun-less Whoppers, they recently introduced a line of low-fat sandwiches that contain 350 calories and are served on freshly baked baguettes.
McDONALD’S: Selected restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut now have posters that tell customers how to modify McDonald’s existing menu–by leaving out the bun or cheese, for example–to reduce their intake of fat, carbohydrates and calories. McDonald’s also hired Bob Greene, Oprah Winfrey’s personal trainer, to promote Go Active meals that contain a salad, a bottle of water and a pedometer.
TACO BELL: Offering a fresh-salsa alternative to cheese sauce that, with just 5 calories a serving and no fat, reduces the fat content of 15 menu items to less than 10 grams.
Blimpie: Rolling out a new line of low-carb sandwiches with one-fifth the carbohydrates of regular subs. Blimpie also offers Atkins Crunchers Chips (3 grams of net carbs), a brownie (5 grams of carbs) and Pepsi’s SoBe Lean, a low-sugar, low-carb cranberry grapefruit drink.
In N Out Burger: California’s best fast-food restaurant offers any burger “protein style,” which means wrapped in lettuce.
Pizza Hut: Considering a low-carb, crustless pizza. …
Seriously.
Bruegger’s Bagels: Testing a bagel with one-third the carbs of a regular bagel.
T.G.I. Friday’s: Has partnered with Atkins Nutritionals Inc. to offer Atkins-approved appetizers and entrees. One of the selections is called Cheeseburger Cheeseburger: two burgers with cheese, no fries, no bun (6 net carbs).
Ruby Tuesday: Chain has a Smart Eating Menu with more than 30 new items that claim to be low-carb–even a low-carb cheesecake for dessert.
Others: Chains including P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and KFC are rolling out low-carb versions of their existing menus. Even the Panera Bread chain has three low-carb breads in development.
