http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0401/08/b03-30101.htm

What caught my attention (regardless of breakfast) was the last sentence
- a new place to buy Atkins bread... no longer will I have to drive 1/2
hr to the closest health food store that carries it (which, fortunately,
is close to one of the malls I frequent). Oh, of course there is the
obligatory "doesn't work" note from the dietitian, although it's a
slight change of tune - she avoids the word dangerous.

Lee

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Low-carb trend transforms breakfast marketing
Holiday Inn changes menu while 7-Eleven offers Atkins line

The low-carb mania that has transformed the look of America’s lunch and
dinner tables suddenly is infiltrating the breakfast nook.

Or, at least, how breakfast in America is being marketed.

Holiday Inn — which serves more than 25 million breakfasts a year —
plans to provide a low-carb breakfast menu. And this spring, breakfast
giant Denny’s will reconfigure its menu to promote its low-carb items —
about half of which are served at breakfast.

These moves come shortly after 7-Eleven introduced its own line of
Atkins products — complete with low-carb breakfast bars.

While January is always a boom time for the diet world, few
nutritionists can recall a diet boom with as wide-ranging a grip on
American culture as the low-carb craze unleashed by the Atkins diet.
About one in four Americans have tried a low-carb diet. Sales of
low-carb products are expected to pass $15 billion this year.

Some doubt that’s money well spent. “Americans continue to look for the
magic bullet — but it’s not there,” warns Hope Warshaw, a dietitian and
author of “Eat Out, Eat Right.” “Low-carb diets only work very, very
short term.”

But consumers are embracing them — even at breakfast. And breakfast
specialists are responding:

* Holiday Inn. On Monday, all 1,000 Holiday Inns nationwide will roll
out a “Low-Carb Inspirations” breakfast menu. While the menu is still
being developed, two initial items will be a South of the Border skillet
with 8 grams of carbohydrates and a Complete Omelet with 7 grams.

The motivation for the menu was that guests kept ordering breakfast
items with low-carb substitutions. “We’re convinced that Atkins isn’t a
fad,” says Mark Snyder, Holiday Inn senior vice president of brand
management.

Next month, all 1,300 Holiday Inn Express motels will begin promoting
carrot-walnut muffins with 9 carb grams at their breakfast bars, says
Jenifer Ziegler, senior vice president of Holiday Inn Express.

* Denny’s. In mid-April, all 1,645 domestic Denny’s restaurants will add
special menu sections denoting low-carb items.

* 7-Eleven. The convenience store chain, with 5,800 U.S. locations, this
week began selling 50 Atkins products, including Atkins Morning Start
Bars ($1.59) and Atkins’ multigrain bread ($4.69).