NEW YORK, July 6, 2005 -- "Low carb" was the most sweeping diet storm of recent years, but word of mouth and peer recommendations tracked among hundreds of the most influential health and nutrition enthusiasts suggest a more traditional approach to weight management is gaining ground: portion control.

According to BuzzMetrics, the leader in word-of-mouth research and planning, online discussion of portion control among 500 leading Nutrition Influencers rose from 12 percent of all conversations in the fourth quarter of 2003 to 20 percent in the first quarter of 2005, after peaking at 23 percent in the third quarter of 2004. Tracked across nearly 100 online nutrition forums, community message boards, health Web sites and blogs, the Nutrition Influencer segments driving the most discussion around portion control are self-proclaimed dieters and community-sanctioned nutrition experts.

"If the past decade has demonstrated anything, it's that grassroots diet trends not only percolate and spread to general consumer populations, but dramatically impact the food and health industries that cater to them," said Alison Kalis, Senior Analyst, BuzzMetrics. "While the data show the most passionate consumers have embraced portion control, a key question for food and nutrition companies is whether the larger population will. Buzz among the hundreds of thousands of online consumers who interacted with the Nutrition Influencers over the past six quarters suggests the issue is resonating slightly, though a storm like low-carb has yet to materialize."

Customized Diets Most Linked to Portion Control
Among all 308,442 consumers tracked across the leading health-and-nutrition forums in the first quarter of 2005, personally-devised diets were mentioned the most (33 percent) among all conversations linking diet to portion control. Among the commercial diets most linked to portion control were Weight Watchers (27 percent) and Jenny Craig (14 percent). Commercial diets with significantly less linkage to portion control were Atkins (three percent) and LA Weight Loss (one percent).

"It's interesting to note that consumers who believe portion control is the key element in weight loss often move away entirely from commercial diet plans and devise customized plans," said Kalis. "Still, some commercial diet companies like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig do receive significant praise and endorsements for teaching portion control. They should study consumer conversation and recommendations in order to harness the drivers of that evangelism and extend it to other nutrition and dieting segments."

NutritionBuzz Influencer Panel
These findings are from the latest NutritionBuzz TrendSpot Report (Q1 2005), based on BuzzMetrics pioneering Influencer Panel research methodology which tracks the hundreds of thousands of individuals who most effectively spread buzz and start trends among millions of other consumers.

Through its Discussion Miner technology, BuzzMetrics identifies the most influential consumers, segments them into Influencer Panels, and then measures the impact of their public commentary in the marketplace across a range of topics. The system retrieves hundreds of millions of natural discussions from blogs, chat rooms, listserves and product feedback sites among other consumer-controlled channels. BuzzMetrics Influencer Panels enable marketers to identify how the most engaged consumers are talking, and what issues will influence them in the future - usually by several months.

Press Contact: Sandra Parrelli; Sandra.Parrelli@nielsen.com; 646-654-7772

Sales Inquiries: sales@buzzmetrics.com; 1.877.999.7335

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