If you’ve grown tired of your spouse, partner, friends, acquaintances, and even perfect strangers playing Count the Carbohydrates using your plate as a game board, take this notion to heart: The low-carb craze is paying off for those of us happily and healthfully living a high-carb “lifestyle.”

Although I’m not an economist and I haven’t conducted a full-scale study of the issue, it’s becoming evident the prices of high-carbohydrate foods and beverages are declining in the response to lower demand.

For example, a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans of Coca-Cola (468 grams of carbohydrates total, 3.25 grams per ounce) may be had at the nearest supermarket for $2.50, or 1.736 cents an ounce, or 0.534-cent per gram of carbohydrates, or 1.87 grams of carbohydrates per cent. When I was in college a six-pack of Coca-Cola generally retailed for about three dollars.

Prices of breakfast cereals, long a source of gouging by the food marketing industry, also are declining, or at least holding steady. Last week I bought an 18-ounce box of corn flakes, admittedly on sale, for $1.50. And brand-name pasta is sitting on the shelves at 75 cents a pound.

Meanwhile, growers and processors report demand for orange juice is falling sharply as the low-carb crowd spurns the health benefits of a beverage that boasts as many carbohydrates per ounce as Coca-Cola. (Who knew?) In Philadelphia one can readily find 64-ounce cartons of premium orange or grapefruit juice for as little as two dollars.

Thanks, and keep it up, people. Soon my budget will be in synch with my appetite.

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