Trends on Healthy Eating: Americans' Eating Habits - Essay Example

Healthy Eating Recent evidence suggest that Americans are consuming fewer calories and are cutting on fast food, fats and cholestral.According to U.S department of agriculture, an average of 118 less calories per day were consumed in the 2009 to 2010 period compared to four years earlier (qtd in Beck and Schatz 1).Moreover, more people reported cooking their own food at home and eating less at restaurants, and reading nutritional labels (Beck and Schatz 1). The American Dietetic Association’s (ADA) has also supported this position in its survey, which shows that Americans are eating more healthy foods like vegetables, fish, chicken, and whole grain foods. The survey also found out that the amount of foods they eat containing trans fats is on the decline(Beck and Schatz 1)Why could the trend be shifting to healthy foods as opposed to the fast foods? One reason driving the shift could be greater public awareness and pressure on those who manufacture food stuff and even on restaurants to produce healthier foods. Another reason could be because of chance in lifestyle habits (Beck and Schatz 2).Consumers nowadays are tracking calories and nutrients they consume using their Smartphone’s applications, and these apps can help them choose healthy food say at restaurants, according to Susan Ryskamp, nutritionist at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor (qtd in Beck and Schatz 1). Moreover, number of meals people eat in restaurants has gone down, according to NPD, a market research firm (qtd in Beck and Schatz 1). Government policy could also be contributing to change in trend on healthy eating. The Affordable Care act require restaurants and food manufacturing firms to provide more information about the food to help people make better decisions in encouraging this shift (Beck and Schatz 2).Some restaurants now print calorie values on their menus, which helps customers make informed decisions. Recent actions by the government also seem to contribute to the shifting trend to healthy eating (Beck and Schatz 2). Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been giving advice to grandparents on how they can encourage their grandchildren to eat healthier food. This is definitely contributing to the shift to healthy food eating (Beck and Schatz 2) In addition, increased consumer interest in health and the quality of the food they eat is also driving the trend on healthy foods. Consumers nowadays are keen on the product quality itself, which includes the physical food product and its description, and the process by which the food was manufactured (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 2). For example, the consumers want to know whether pesticides were used or was the food produced organically (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 2).Health has become a concern of many consumers and therefore is becoming as important as the taste of the food. Consumers will go for healthy food just as they will choose a tasty food (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 2).In addition; consumers are also attaching increased importance on how the food is produced. For example, some consumers are keen on production that does not involve use of GMOs (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 2).This shows that quality of food is driving the trend on healthy food eating. Consumer’s food choice also involves the cost they have to pay for the food. Price perceptions and willingness to pay is driving consumers to healthy eating habits (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 3).Cooking healthy food at home may be cheaper than eating at restaurants for instance. With hard economic times, people cut on money they buy food at restaurants and cook themselves (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert 3). This leads to them consuming more healthy food compared to if they had eaten at a food outlet (Brunso, Fjord and Grunert). Nevertheless, vegetables and fruits are comparatively cheaper, leading to more people consuming them in the recent days. There are also some psychological aspects to the changing trend in food habits, to healthy food. Very few food and flavor choices are inborn (Scot-Thomas 2). Most are learned through experience with food and via eating and involves associative conditioning to aspects of say a child’s eating atmosphere, especially the social environments and physiological consequences of eating (Scot-Thomas 2). As people are becoming more aware of the environmental impacts of livestock rearing, they are increasingly choosing to consume less of say meat in their diets (Scot-Thomas).For instance, Scot-Thomas says that most Europeans consider a steak meal over a stir-fried locust even though they are considered environmentally friendly and have more nutritious value. People’s psychological perceptions are therefore contributing to the shifting eating habits of most people to the healthy eating habits (Scot-Thomas). There are several food items offered in restaurants that are considered healthy. To improve the nutritional measure of their menus, several food outlets have created healthier menus to appeal to their ever increasing number of healthy food consumers (Fleming 1).Restaurants are increasingly offering foods that are less in calories and fats. They are now offering foods like kale lolies and chia pods (Fleming 1).Chia is an ancient grain which is flavored by vegan raw foods. Another example is egg white crisps which contains proteins, half the fat of regular crisps and less carbs (Fleming 1). Savoury yoghurts is also another example of healthy foods being sold in restaurants. Carrot, tomato and beetroot yoghurts are increasingly becoming famous among healthy food eaters (Fleming 1).Health chocolate cannot be left out. Wellness Cacao and IQ suoerfood chocolate are increasing becoming common(Fleming 1). Even though organic foods are a bit expensive, and it is not easy to find restaurants offering purely organic food, there are some outlets which do. Nevertheless, retail certification to be allowed to sell organic food is a demanding process (Hoye 1).Examples of organic foods being sold in restaurants include baked apple with raisin-nut stuffing, Roasted duck legs with winter vegetables and Pumpkin soup with pepitas (Hoye 1).Very few restaurants are authorized t sell pure organic foods. The question in people’s minds perhaps is that, is this trend profitably for restaurants that have begun selling healthy food to their customers? According to National Restaurant Association, customers interest in healthier food is growing and 78 percent of restaurants under the quick-service category are seeing orders for healthy food like entrée salads going up (Zelman 1).Restaurants like Mc Donald’s, with 13,000 franchises serving 23 million people every day, is one of those restaurants now offering premium salads, considered a healthy food. McDonalds sold 300 million salads in the U.S which is equivalent to 600 million vegetable servings in 2005, according to Cathy Kapica, the global director of nutrition at McDonalds (qtd in Zelman 2) Subway is also another nutrition success according to Zelman. Subways annual sells were estimated to have grown by almost half in 2005 according to the company’s spokesperson. Fogles low fat, and turkey, both considered healthy food were the leading sellers (Zelman 2).According to Zelman, if consumers buy more healthy food options, restaurants will keep selling them. The reverse is true as well and therefore, restaurants have nothing to lose by opting to sell healthy food (Zelman 3). Some health experts think that restaurants should offer more healthy food options for consumers. They believe that there are not enough fruits, vegetables, or cereals being offered, but that if consumers start eating more of these items, hence demands more of these foods, restaurants will definitely provide them in their menus (Zelman 3) It is common knowledge that healthy eating is important to every individual because balanced diet provides nutrients to the body. Nutrients are very vital for the normal functioning of the body as they strengthen ones bones, muscles, and the tendons and play an important role in regulating the body processes (Zelman 3).Apart from lowering the risks of developing a range of chronic diseases like heart diseases, and diabetes, healthy eating also helps those who have these diseases already to lead comfortable lives. The importance of healthy eating can therefore no longer be over looked (Zelman 3).The amount of resources spent on treating these chronic diseases could be used to for other purposes that could better lives. Therefore, the emerging trend in healthy eating is welcome, and every concerned party should make efforts to ensure that the momentum is sustained and even increased (Zelman 3).Healthy eating should soon become part of life, and not a choice that a person has to make. Works cited Read More