South Beach and Duncan Hines Go Keto: Is It Legit or a Fad?

Everywhere you look, the ketogenic diet is being discussed.

From the most popular diet millennials wanted to try in 2019 to Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriquez popularizing the no-carb, no-sugar challenge, keto and ketosis is becoming more and more prevalent.  With this rise in popularity comes the good and the bad. ^{[1] [2]}

Like anything that becomes popular, some companies and brands genuinely want to help consumers while others only want to take advantage of what they deem to be a jackpot trend.

Keto in the Media: Victories and Challenges

I’m thrilled that more people are hearing about the benefits of keto, even those that lie beyond weight loss such as how a keto diet can help with schizophrenia. However, as the phrase goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Here at ketogenic.com, we have been fighting to make sure the correct information gets out to help protect this conversation and message. But it’s no easy task to keep track of all the brands pushing supposed keto-friendly products.

A great example would be keto diet pills. One of the biggest challenges of the year has been battling the fake Shark Tank keto pills that seem to be plastered everywhere we look on Facebook and Google. It’s gotten so bad that Lori and Dr. Oz had to sit down and make a video explaining that these pills are illegally and falsely using their images and names to try and con people into buying them.

We also made a video helping to clarify why these are bogus and what to look for.

This was just one example from 2019, and as we begin 2020, we have our sights set on two companies with far bigger marketing budgets.

Keto in 2020: New Products Hitting the Shelves

Exciting news has come out from two huge companies announcing they are going to be going into the keto space. But I can’t help but wonder whether these companies are legitimate in their concern for keto-conscious consumers or if they are just cashing in on keto like a fad.

If you go back to the 90s and early 2000s, you’ll remember a very popular brand called Atkins became widely successful due to the initial results people saw on the Atkins program. Soon thereafter, people wanted to literally have their cake and eat it too. Atkins attempted to provide products to allow people to do just that like the one below.

Things started to backfire as people’s results started to fade as they became more and more reliant on these products that were not well-formulated.  One of the main reasons was the sugar alcohols that were used in these products wasn’t great.

Maltitol is a sugar alcohol you’ll find in sugar-free candy. However, it’s important to understand that maltitol can cause a glucose response and tends to cause severe GI issues. Too many of these candies and you’d likely be sprinting to the bathroom. Not to mention, you can get knocked out of ketosis. Again, this is one big name brand example; don’t forget about the off-brands that do the exact same thing.

South Beach and Duncan Hines Go Keto in 2020

That being said, we are optimistic with new companies launching keto-friendly products as there is mounting pressure from the community to do the right thing and formulate products effectively. That’s the reason we created the Ketogenic Certification: to help companies and keep them accountable for their ingredients and products.

Duncan Hines recently announced that their 2020 innovation includes keto-friendly cakes. Tivity Health, the parent company to the South Beach Dietâ announced a brand new Keto-Friendly South Beach program with a menu of “more than 70 meals and snack and shakes, all of which are keto-friendly, including Homestyle Chicken & Cauliflower Rice, Sesame Glazed Beef & Veggie Bowl, and allowable, keto-friendly indulgences such as Double Chocolate Cookie Bites, and Birthday Cake Bites.” ^{[3] [4]}

While we hope both of these companies have good intentions, there certainly are some concerns that they are just riding the wave of keto and trying to capitalize on the growing market.

We have reached out to both companies for comments and more information but have not heard anything back. Once we do, we’ll be sure to update you.

Watch Out for Keto Claims that Sound Too Good to Be True

We can assure that you will be seeing more of both of these companies in the near future as both are large companies with sizeable marketing budgets. As keto consumers, it’s important to be educated on what products and offerings are legitimate compared to what products are like the Keto Diet Pills that are scamming people out of money.

As more information comes to light, we will certainly keep you updated. Regardless, these announcements ensure that keto is here to stay and 2020 holds even more promise than any year yet.