The Farmer File: Breaking Bread

But here in Collier County, purist purveyors insist too many people have the wrong idea about carbohydrates and how to avoid them.

Atkins advocates, sugar-buster zealots and others are using a scorched-earth policy to rid their digestive tracts and maybe the entire planet of every remnant, every smidgen, every jot and tittle of carbs.

I think I saw a guy in a Publix in Naples spanking a package of powdered sugar the other day, scolding, "Bad sugar, bad, bad sugar," as sugar puffs escaped at the seams. Maybe it was just a carb-starved dream.

The Wheat Food Council says consumption of wheat flour has dropped about 10 pounds a year per person since 1997, while obesity flourishes.

Eating too much is the problem, the wheat industry says. Americans reportedly eat 300 more calories a day than we did in 1985. Can you say, "Super size it?"

Still, 25-plus million of us are Atkinizing, inhaling sky-high mounds of bacon, Big Bird-sized eggs and Green Bay Packer stadiums full of cheese, while picking on carbs like lint on a lapel. Americans are unwrapping their veggie wraps.

Obviously low/no carb diets work for some people. And the trend is so worrisome to the National Bread Leadership Council that it held a summit last week to deal with bread-bashing.

The doughboys are fighting back, with plans for some low-carbohydrate bread products and an effort to make us feel better about bread.

As everyone knows, this is National Bread Month. I'm amazed that our local Walgreens aren't ablaze in bread-colored lights, drawings of happy loaves, Kaiser rolls, ryes of all nations and life-size cutouts of Wonder Bread Woman.

The nanny-like North Dakota Wheat Commission reminds us that bread brings families closer and helps commemorate life's milestones, such as weddings, funerals and school lunches. I made up the school lunch part.

A couple of bakery owners in Collier County have a different slant on our national bread crisis.

"We're here to provide the much-requested treats for customers after they're on Atkins for awhile," says Rhonda Ruckman, of the Doughmonkey on Marco Island. "They lose some weight, then come in with cake or cookies in mind."

Rhonda, a trained pastry chef, says if she wanted to sell health food, she'd be in that business.

Irene Gueit, owner of the French Bread Oven on the East Trail in Naples, says people get fat by eating the wrong kind of bread.

"American bread is full of sugar, shortening and bleached flour," Irene explains. "We make French bread, rye, whole wheat, multigrain, with no sugar and no shortening. It's healthy, in moderation."

She says most fat people eat too much bad food.

"Some come in the bakery and say, 'I'm dieting, should I buy cake or croissants?'

"I tell them to buy dark rye bread."

Next week, battling the anti-carb craze by our other major food group --- beer.

Don Farmer is a former news anchor for CNN and a former correspondent and bureau chief for ABC News. E-mail him at marcodon1938@yahoo.com