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American Morning
How Does Carbohydrate-free Flour Taste?
Aired July 17, 2002 - 08:57 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Fat, and how we get that way. Always a hot topic. The latest talk now is about low carbs versus no carbs. But on "The Moost of It," Jeanne Moos gets a taste of something that is more like faux carbs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pass the pasta. Have another slice of bread, supposedly all you have to lose is weight when it's carbohydrate-free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's heinous.
MOOS: Heinous? That's a term usually reserved for bloody crimes rather than bread.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Almost rubbery.
MOOS (on camera): I mean, I agree, I don't think it's the best bread I ever ate, but it tastes like bread.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does taste like bread.
MOOS (voice-over): The inventor of carbohydrate-free flour claims it could mean...
(on camera): ... the end of obesity.
DR. MATHIAS CHRISTIAN ZOHOUNGBOGBO, INVENTOR, CARBOHYDRATE-FREE FLOUR: Exactly.
MOOS (voice-over): Dr. Mathias Christian Zohoungbogbo has spent more than a decade working on carbohydrate-free flour. He has naming his creation Ros '95, '95 for the year he came up with the now patented formula and Ros...
ZOHOUNGBOGBO: Ros is my wife. It is his name.
MOOS: Imagine having a flour named after you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says, "Very important." MOOS: Dr. Christian runs a major obesity clinic in Italy. He has managed to replace the carbohydrates in flour with vegetable proteins and fiber to make everything from muffins...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So this is marginal.
MOOS: ... to bread sticks...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is very nondescript.
MOOS: ... to a sort of rice substitute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chewy or gummy.
MOOS: Just when everyone is chewing over the "New York Times" story, "What if Fat Doesn't Make You Fat," what if it has all been a big, fat lie, just when Dr. Atkins' high fat, low carb diet is back on the table, Dr. Christian is trying to bring his low and carb-free products to the United States.
(on camera): Do you use your own diet?
ZOHOUNGBOGBO: I was very, very fat, and I begin with myself.
MOOS (voice-over): Nutritionists like Julie Walsh have their doubts. For instance, about using so much fiber to replace carbohydrates.
JULIE WALSH, NUTRITIONIST: I think some people would have a little bit of gastrointestinal distress.
MOOS: For a taste test, we headed for the experts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has some crumb to it.
MOOS: At Le Madri restaurant, owner Pino Luongo analyzed the pasta.
PINO LUONGO, OWNER, LE MADRI: The color, it is scary.
MOOS: Chef Pippa Calin (ph) tried to resuscitate the imitation rice with a sauce.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's called CPR, is what it is called.
MOOS: But no sauce could revive the pasta. Our first bite was followed by stunned silence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cardboard.
MOOS (on camera): Cardboard?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wet cardboard.
MOOS (voice-over): Unsuspecting diners were diplomatic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I can see that it would be filling, even if not the taste you might want.
MOOS: But this woman, who has previously been on the Atkins Diet, appreciated the pasta.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you haven't had it in a long time, it does do the job for the pasta feel.
MOOS (on camera): Like if you had no sex for three years, I guess any sex is good sex.
(voice-over): She liked the rice. She liked the bread sticks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, this is doable.
MOOS: The carb-free products will be available at lightflour.com in the next month or two. But who knows if they'll fly?
(on camera): They don't seem to mind.
(voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN...
(on camera): Come on guys, Carbo-free bread.
(voice-over): ... New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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