Beanie Babies, Tamagotchi, all-white tennis shoes, not-at-all-white tennis shoes, big t-shirts and leggings (wait, I’ve seen some of that on campus recently). At some point in our lives, we all get caught up in fads. It’s not limited to the areas of clothing or entertainment, either. Foods can also be fads – and not just certain candies or sodas. Entire genres of food can become popular and then drop out of public sight. Types of foods, exact foods, health foods, fast foods – all of these are subject to the trend-crazed populace.
If you try to monitor your eating habits and remain relatively health-conscious, you probably have experienced health trends in food before. I am a lover of breads, potatoes and sugary foods and was quite disgruntled when an anti-carb spirit became the prevailing “healthy” view for awhile.
Although the no-carb diets have now lost much of their popularity, there is still a prevailing opposition to sugar or foods that turn into sugar. Many desserts now are sugar-free or at least reduced in sugar. Whole wheat and multi-grains are in.
This is just one example of a food trend. Other foods have been on both the “good” and “bad” list at different times in the past, including eggs, salt, milk, margarine and Nutrasweet.
Currently, Americans are experiencing a national push for healthier diets. This trend affects our modern food fads, several of which are listed below. Check and see if you are a fad-follower.
Fresh fruits and vegetables: Produce is growing hugely in popularity due to its highly-touted health benefits being espoused by nutrition experts. Both fruits and vegetables have many uses: they make healthy snacks for kids, which moms like; people watching their weight use fresh vegetables as sides for their meals and substitute fruit for desserts: They’re great in a variety of ways – grilled, sauted, with sugar, with salt and in all seasons.
Yogurt: This is currently a huge trend. Everyone is eating yogurt, from the old to the young to everyone in between. It comes in a plethora of flavors; all sorts of toppings can be blended in. Low in calories and fat without skimping on taste, it’s a huge hit with health-conscious America.
Diet foods: Foods engineered to decrease your waistline, with reduced fat, calories and sugar, along with extra calcium and fiber, are also a big sell recently. If something promises that it has cut out a lot of the “bad” and included a lot of the “good,” it’s almost guaranteed to be a popular item.
Whole grains: Good-bye white bread, hello enriched multi-grain wheat bread. This is a trend that began a while ago and has now become accepted belief. Just about everyone agrees that wheat bread is healthier than white, although few could tell you exactly why. But bread was just the beginning for whole grains. They are now also included in cereals, crackers, popcorn and many other products.
Sugar-free Foods: As childhood cases of diabetes have risen, so have foods with no sugar. Juices, cereals, canned fruits, oatmeal, hot chocolate, diet soft drinks – all these and more have had sugar reduced or removed. Products that don’t have sugar now sport artificial sweeteners to make up for the lack of sweetness. Although the health benefits of artificial sweeteners have also been questioned, they continue to be a popular sugar substitute.
Vocabulary-expanding health terms: Words like phytochemicals, flavonols and antioxidants are now gracing the packaging of many foods. A lot of us don’t really know what those words mean, but they sure do look good on the box. I mean, if I don’t understand it, it must be healthy, right?
Organic food: This is another massive trend that a lot of Americans are shifting toward. Again, “organic” is just one of those words that sound healthy. The federal standard for what can be labeled as organic would probably surprise some consumers of the products, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of this food trend. Organic foods are generally free from preservatives, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics, which have all been implicated at times in complications experienced by consumers.
So, have you bought in to some of the current food trends? I’m guilty. However, even with the prevailing push toward healthy foods, I find myself inexorably drawn to some no-no’s on the approved list. But that’s OK – if I wait long enough, they’ll probably end up being trendy at some point.