Saying A Final Farewell To Eat Well Be Well

Low-carb manufacturer Eat Well Be Well has closed its doors for good

I'm gonna report on a news story about low-carb pretending I am a member of the traditional media for just a moment.

HEADLINE: The Low-Carb Fad Is Fading Fast
In a move that puts the final nail in the coffin of the dangerous Atkins diet, struggling no-carb business Eat Well Be Well couldn't find anyone who is still on this harmful and risky diet plan anymore so they were forced to permanently shut down their operations. This comes as no surprise considering all the controversial health problems that this ridiculous high-fat diet is believed to cause. Frankly, it's surprising that there are any low-carb business still in existence today!

You might be laughing at my little mock news story, but you know that's EXACTLY how they would report a low-carb business that has decided to shut down. It's gotta be a sign that low-carb the diet is dead, something that we often heard about right after Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2005 (they have since survived the bankruptcy and back prospering again as Collette Heimowitz said in my interview with her last year thanks to some of the bestselling high-protein bars on the market today).

But the sad part about this mock story is that the manufacturer Eat Well Be Well really has been forced to go out of business. If you go to EatWellBeWell.com right now, then you will see the following two-sentence announcement from the company:

"We regret to announce that as of January 31, 2007 Eat Well Be Well Foods, Inc. is no longer in business. No products are available for sale from us."

I heard about this today from someone who did a Google search on "Eat Well Be Well" looking for information about the company and their low-carb products and she was concerned about what happened to them.

"Did you know they have gone out of business? I am so disappointed. I loved their products. I went to the website today after reading about getting coupons on the box and learned their fate. I am going to my grocery store tonight and cleaning the shelves!"

Yeah, I noticed my local grocery store a few weeks ago had the entire Eat Well Be Well product line discounted like they were getting rid of it. Now I know why these products are going away and it's really kinda sad to think about because they really were superb for people who are livin' la vida low-carb.

Last March, I blogged about the Eat Well Be Well sugar-free whole grain products and just a few months back I told you about their sugar-free chocolate chips. But now they're gonna be gone forever. BOO HOO!

An industry insider said the reason Eat Well Be Well has gone out of business didn't have as much to do with the popularity of their products (which was at an all-time high), but rather the financiers who pulled their funding from the company altogether. They are currently discussing selling the recipes for their products to another company, but no word yet on who will purchase them and when that will happen.

You know, the more I think about this, though, this story really doesn't surprise me at all. A few years ago, the company used to be called CarbSense back when livin' la vida low-carb was all the rage by every opportunistic food company in the world. They were VERY successful and rode that tidal wave just like everyone else did whether their products were truly low-carb or a part of the garbage that flooded supermarket shelves.

Sadly, most of those products were not really low-carb the wave quickly came crashing down on anything labeled "low-carb." As a result, many of the legitimate independent companies providing low-carb products were pushed out of business--like KETO, for example--and the people at CarbSense thought they saw the handwriting on the wall. That's why they changed their name to Eat Well Be Well.

This was a contentious topic I blogged about last year with all these companies and individuals in the low-carb community jumping ship on the term "low-carb" trying to be accepted by people ignorant about what low-carb was really all about. This was something I just couldn't let pass by without comment and here's what I wrote at the time:

While others have purposely backed away from using "low-carb," I have actively embraced it with every ounce of resolve within me because it is the plan that made me skinny for the first time in my life and it is what will keep me fit and trim for the rest of my life. Why would I call it something different now? Perhaps I am being naive about my decision to use the term "low-carb," but I don't think so. If it weren't for "low-carb" being a part of my life, had I not learned more about what "low-carb" living is all about, and if the principles of "low-carb" could not be communicated to the masses of overweight and obese people who need to understand what it is, then where would I be today? 400+ pounds, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, breathing problems, or quite possibly, six feet under!

So what happens when you capitulate and give in to the temptation to dance around telling people you are all about "low-carb." You merely water down your message until it becomes so irrelevant that people stop paying attention to what you have to say because there's nothing unique about you. I think that's exactly what happened to Eat Well Be Well. While they were a fantastic company with amazing sugar-free, low-carb products, they caved pure and simple and paid the price.

In hindsight, I bet they wish they had kept the name CarbSense because it only made "sense" (all pun intended!) for the kind of products they were creating. Look on store shelves today and you still see products like Breyer's CarbSmart ice cream selling very well nationwide, so there's no reason why CarbSense could not have experienced similar branding and marketing success had they stuck to their guns with their original name. I guess we'll never know now, will we?

Speaking of CarbSmart, my newfound reader wanted to know where she could find some good high-fiber healthy sugar-free whole grain products to help her build on her nearly 100-pound low-carb weight loss. That online low-carb retail store is a great place to start and there are many other excellent low-carb stores ready to serve you with those kinds of products. Visit my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Links" blog to find a complete listing of low-carb retail stores.

With this post, I'd like to say a final farewell to Eat Well Be Well and wish everyone who helped make that company the success that it was all the best in their future careers. Maybe the lessons learned from this experience will serve the interests of other low-carb companies who may be contemplating a name change or product modification. If Eat Well Be Well is any indication of what happens when you do that, then perhaps you might want to rethink that strategy and keep doing what got you where you are today. Something to think about.

Reader-Submitted Low-Carb Recipe Initiates A Flurry Of Intrigue

The ingredients in this recipe are popular low-carb products

Just when the media thinks that livin' la vida low-carb is on its final leg, along comes a story like this one that once again lays to rest this ridulous notion and shows yet again that ow-carb living is STILL running strong!

A couple of weeks ago, the Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent printed this column on cranberries that included several reader-submitted recipes. Since the 350 million pounds of Wisconsin-grown cranberries harvested each year account for half of all the cranberries eaten across the U.S., the article was the perfect fit for a focus on this zesty and tasty low-carb fruit.

But right smack dab in the middle of all those high-carb recipes that included such low-carb no-nos as bananas, sugar, milk, white flour, apples, raisins, and orange juice, there was one singular voice of sanity that stood heads and tails above the noise coming from the cacophonous roar of nutritional refuse that was printed.

Her name is Patti Lipka from Black Creek, Wisconsin.

She deserves to be enthusiastically applauded by low-carb fans everywhere for her bold position in support for the low-carb lifestyle in this newspaper article about cranberries. In addition to providing the details about her delicious recipe (which I'll share with you in a moment), Lipka was also given prime space in the column itself to share why she is livin' la vida low-carb.

Lipka notes in the story that her son Wyatt, 13, was diagnosed as having diabetes in March 2006 and that eating low-carb foods like cranberries has now become an absolute necessity in her household.

"We love cranberries," she told the Appleton Post-Crescent. "Cranberries are very nutritious, they're high in fiber and they're low in carbohydrates."

When she started talking about how she dries her own cranberries at home and sweetens them with sugar-free Jell-O or pours low-carb chocolate on top of them, Lipka then revealed how she slightly tweaked the ingredients she used in her famous scones recipe so she can now make them low-carb.


Carbquik is a versatile low-carb baking flour used like Bisquik.

With bestselling and outstanding low-carb substitute ingredients such as Carbquik, sugar-free Jell-O and Eat Well Be Well Chocolate Chips, Lipka's scones were destined to remain a part her family's Christmas holiday tradition.

"We modified our recipes because we love them," Lipka explained.


Chocolate chips are back thanks to Eat Well Be Well's sugar-free ones

Before I share with you Lipka's fantastic low-carb cranberry scones recipe, there's more to this story. After the original article was printed in the Appleton Post-Crescent in mid-November, it seems her phone would not stop ringing from people all over the state of Wisconsin. Complete strangers would call Lipka up on her home telephone asking about what Carbquik and Eat Well Be Well Chocolate Chips were and where they could buy such products. There was no information provided by the newspaper about them in the original story.

Finally, Lipka had to call up the newspaper and tell them about the tremendous feedback she had been receiving. She explained to the paper that she gets her low-carb products from our friends at Low-Carb Central located in Hales Corner, Wisconsin (just outside of Milwaukee). It also appears the newspaper was receiving a tidal wave of phone call as well.

Long-time readers of my blog will recall that I did a highly-successful book signing at Low-Carb Central back in January where I was privileged to meet the outstanding owners Michael and Marilyn Kirtley and their wonderful customers. As it turns out, Lipka is among their faithful base of customers, according to store owner Michael Kirtley.

I spoke with Michael about the new Appleton Post-Crescent column published today and he said he was not aware of it. However, he did recall receiving quite a number of calls from new customers inquiring about Carbquik and Eat Well Be Well Chocolate Chips over the past couple of weeks in response to Lipka's recipe.

"The customers would call Patti or the newspaper directly inquiring about the products in her recipe and they would refer them to us," Michael said. " We're happy to take care of them."

Amazing! Here's a low-carb recipe that stirs up more attention in a story about cranberries than any of those other high-carb garbage recipes, with all due respect to the contributors, that quite frankly are no good for people to be eating anyway.

Thank God for people like Patti Lipka for having the courage, passion and dedication to share the good news of livin' la vida low-carb. My hats off to you, Patti, because you are EXACTLY the kind of person I want on the frontlines representing this amazing nutritional approach and I'm so proud of you for sharing your story so unashamed! YOU GO GIRL!

In honor of my new low-carb friend Patti Lipka, here is her amazing recipe:

LOW-CARB CRANBERRY SCONES by Patti Lipka

3 cups Carbquik
2 ounces butter
½ cup sour cream, regular
1 cup water
½ cup chopped cranberries
Small box cherry sugar-free Jell-O
4 ounces Eat Well Be Well Chocolate Chips
Grated zest of a fresh orange, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees.

2. Sweeten the cranberries by sprinkling half of a small box of cherry sugar-free Jell-O to the chopped cranberries. Stir the cranberries and let them sit for a while to absorb the flavor of the Jell-O.

3. With a pastry cutter, mix the chilled butter and Carbquik, then add the sour cream and water. Then mix in the cranberries, chocolate chips and orange zest.

4. Scoop out the dough with a spoon and drop on slightly greased cookie sheet in 1-ounce portions or so.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Servings: 15
Total Carbs Per Serving: 4g