The Low Carbon Diet

The Low Carb(on) Diet
MARC GUNTHER

You've probably heard of the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and the Best Life diet. Now it's time to consider Low Carbon Diet. It's good for the planet, and good for your health, your waistline and your bottom line. What's not to like?

While the impacts of agriculture and food production on global warming are complex, the Low Carbon Diet is pretty simple. You eat less beef and cheese. You throw away less food. And you try, when possible, to eat locally grown food.

This would be of no more than passing interest, except for one thing: a food service company called Bon Appetit, which operates more than 400 cafeterias in 28 states, is putting the Low Carbon Diet into practice, and it seems to be affecting the way thousands of Americans eat.

Two years ago, Bon Appetit, which operates cafeterias for Target, Cisco, eBay, MIT, Wheaton and Oberlin Colleges, among others, launched the Low Carbon Diet on Earth Day. For a day, it served no hamburgers for lunch.

More important, the company set a goal of reducing beef consumption by 10%. A year later, every site had reduced beef consumption by at least that much, and the system as a whole cut it back by 23%. Read More

The Low Carbon Diet is becoming the next flash in the diet pan. And appparently the worst possible thing you can eat in this diet is beef. While it wasn’t explained why beef is so evil, Bon Appetit has made it their goal to eliminateit from their menu. Obviously this decision wasn’t made with any real scientific basis, but the fact remains, they are out there telling people that in order to save the planet, you can’t eat beef.