"You can never have sugar again"

A woman came by the bakery searching for a sugar-free goodie to finish off her meal at the cafe. Her motivations were more serious than the vanity of appearance; they were biological. She had been diagnosed with diabetes 3 months earlier.

Food is a necessity of life. Some people eat to live. But others, live to eat. If you are someone from the latter group who takes supreme enjoyment from good food, how do you cope with the diagnosis of a disease that warrants huge lifestyle changes?

Which got me to thinking... that people don't change unless they are forced to. Why? Because change is difficult. It's uncomfortable. Sacrifices and compromises have to be made. None of that is easy.

I applaud the diabetic woman I met today. She may be frustrated that she's not reaping other benefits by "not even losing weight"on the doctor-prescribed, nature-enforced diet, but she is learning to cope with her new life. She successfully walked away empty handed from the bakery due to our gaping lack of sugarfree pastries.

This encounter also highlighted the growing market segment of people searching for ways to reduce sugar in their diets. Panera should listen to what their customers want and invest in creating, testing, and adding new bakery items that meet the qualifications of these people. It doesn't matter if the motivation is coming from a medical base or if the person is simply a calorie counter. They're still searching for that same elusive reduced sugar/sugarfree pastry that amazingly tastes pretty good. Perhaps they could take some tips from http://diabeticpastrychef.com/ who has successfuly experimented with recipes using half sugar/half Splenda to create delicious desserts.