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According to a January 2011 Bay Citizen article, San Francisco is always a foodie town and there is one must-attend food event every year: The Fancy Food Show at Moscone Center. More than 1,300 exhibitors from 50 different countries attend to exhibit unique treats such as bacon marshmallows.

Below is a list of 2011's oddest trends:

Chipotle and habanero peppers: including in everything from miso to mayo to artisanal candies. As people bite down into hot peppers in unexpected places, this trend gives "hot chocolate" a whole new meaning.

Goat's milk: used in cheese, kefir (beverage made from fermented milk) and caramels. It's lower in lactose than cow's milk, and better for sensitive stomachs. However, because it is pungent and musky, it's an acquired taste that keeps the eater aware of the milk's origins.

Sweet potatoes: they're rich in complex carbs, dietary fiber, beta carotene, and vitamins A, C, and B6. (Vitamin B6 can benefit the body's immune and cardiovascular systems.) Besides their use in pies, they were also used in puffs, crackers, fries and chocolate truffles.

Nostalgia: when it comes to food, memory often overrides all other factors. There was an abundance of marshmallows, chocolate-flavored peanut butters and more.

Coconut water: this is not the same as opaque coconut milk or coconut cream, rather it is the fat-free, fresh-tasting and crystal-clear liquid found inside green young coconuts. In warm climates, street vendors slice off the tops and sell the bottoms with coconut water inside and a straw.

Other oddball items include: olive-oil gelato, haggis-flavored potato chips, and wasabi-infused cheddar cheese. Also check out jade-green moroheiya noodle, calcium-packed black chia-seed butter and tangy hemp-oil vinaigrette.

As published in USA Today, power salads are getting their day in the spotlight as more cookbooks, magazines and restaurants feature combinations of nutrient-rich vegetables, fruits, lean protein, nuts and other healthful foods.

Most people consume less than two cups of vegetables and fruit a day, far below the recommended four or more cups, a recent study showed. Salads are an excellent way to help you meet your daily recommendations for fruits and vegetables.

When you are creating a power salad, you want to see as many colors of the rainbow as possible on your plate. You also should include at least three ounces of lean protein such as chicken breast, beans, salmon or eggs. Your salad doesn’t have to have lettuce as the base. Try cooked vegetables or grains.

The article also included some negative comments about the flavor and nutrition content of salad dressing. ADS staff sent a Truth Squad letter to the reporter and two experts quoted within the article correcting misinformation and encouraging them to use ADS a resource for all things condiment-related.

Information from past Prepared Foods’ R&D Application Seminars presented information on consumer trends and how flavorings could play a role from beverage formulations to sodium reduction to masking and enhancing flavor. Though sodium is vital, it has been linked to serious health problems including hypertension, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and more. Despite the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommending sodium reduction, salt is not easy to replace in food systems. However, there are a number of approaches to reducing sodium in food products.

If the reduction of sodium is less than 10%, most people do not notice a difference. Salt preference is a learned behavior, and if a person reduces the sodium in their food, that reduction becomes the new normal.

For sodium reductions greater than 10%, flavor extractors and enhancers must be used. Yeast extracts, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, trehalose, certain amino acids, herbs and spices and maillard reaction products in low concentration can all help enhance the perception of saltiness.

Other ideas include increasing the food aroma; replacing sodium with ions that are similar in size such as calcium, magnesium, or potassium; or using sea salt.

1. Chip and Dip 2.0. New varieties and new flavors give us something different. It is likely that you will have hummus and falafel chips or pretzel crisps at your next party instead of the traditional chip-and-dip duo. The dips are healthier, spicier, and often served hot.
   
   


2. Small and Sensational. People are eating more substantial snacks packed with protein as meal replacements, and eating them more often. For pick-me-ups, folks grab a slider at Steak ’n Shake or a Big Mac Wrap at McDonald’s. Come dinnertime, people may graze some more, but by today’s definition, snacks may be all we need.
   
   


3. The Drink Shift. This trend is all about the “halo of health” around drinks made with fruit or antioxidants. There’s a shift in snack beverages away from colas and energy drinks and more toward teas, lemonades, fruity organic waters and carbonated fruit drinks with interesting flavor combinations. Plus, there’s the trend away from high-fructose corn syrup and back to sugar that some soft-drink makers are spinning as a “throwback” move.
   
   


4. Goin’ Nuts. Snacking habits are adjusting to talk about how good nuts are for you, with nuts and granola, nuts and fruits and smoked nuts. Unique flavor combinations offer the feeling of eating healthily: for example, cashews with pomegranate and vanilla, and dark chocolate with caramelized black walnuts.
   
   


5. Fruits: The Low-Hanging Snack. The trend here is the mainstreaming of new types of fruit, and the redefinition of locally grown to mean locally sourced. When it comes to fresh, blackberries have been in abundance, and white peaches and white cherries have given us a choice when it comes to some old standards. Fresh fruit is now the No. 1 snack among kids age 2 to 17.


6. Cruising the Bars. While it is mainstream that the granola bar is an acceptable emergency meal, bars are now offered in dairy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, organic, soy-free, cholesterol-free, and trans fat-free varieties. There are even versions specifically for women and for kids.
   
   


7. Sweet and Salty. Until recent years, the only way sweet or salty snacks mixed was when we ate something sweet then craved something salty, or vice-versa. What we’re seeing now is that the barrier is removed. We dip pretzels in Nutella and eat fruit with a side of popcorn. These tastes are filling up the new-style vending machines too, where our choices are increasing and more information is available.
   
   


8. Yogurt, Redefined. The new gold standard for yogurt is the increased health value found with probiotics. Acknowledging our trend toward global flavors, there is Greek yogurt, among the healthiest snacks we can eat. Icelandic yogurt is starting to emerge as yet another world player and new self-serve frozen yogurt shops are popping up everywhere too. Although not new, yogurt continues to redefine itself and is definitely trending up.
   
   


9. Bodaciously Bold. Bold flavors are almost becoming regular, satisfying an urge for something unordinary. How else to explain flavors such as Doritos First-, Second- and Third-Degree Burn (Scorchin’ Habanero)?

Nostalgia’s New Again. Any decent tribute to snacking has to mention the traditional snack cake. The Hostess Twinkie, the Ding Dong, the TastyKake, the Little Debbie. Anything that has lasted this long deserves a mention in the snacking hall of fame, even if it isn’t good for you. And, truth be told, we all snack on some of these from time to time.

In The Hartman Group’s polling, when consumers were asked about how they define wellness, 67 percent of respondents included "not being ill." Just as many cited "being able to deal with stress." And even more included "being physically fit" (73 percent) and "feeling good about myself" (74 percent) in their definition of wellness.



The article asks if consumers define wellness more broadly and if it makes the concept too vague to be a useful sales point for marketers of wellness-related products and services. And does this make it more difficult for brands that are seriously focused on wellness to distinguish themselves from those that have merely latched onto some of the rhetoric of wellness?

"While the notion of quality of life is very broad, consumers still look to markers of quality on a category-by-category basis, as they determine whether or not the product or service is authentic and can play a role in their wellness toolkit," responds Shelley Balanko, The Hartman Group. "Consumers are becoming more attuned to authenticity cues to discern the 'real' from the 'fake.' Authenticity is communicated through compelling product/company narratives with products containing whole, real and clean ingredients created by knowledgeable people who genuinely care."



'Fresh, Real and Clean Food’

The article states that consumers understand the source of wellness largely as a matter of "you are what you eat." As the report states, more than ever, consumers view fresh, real and clean food as the foundation for health and wellness. In part, this interest takes the form of shunning things that are bad for you. In fact the top ingredients that consumers are avoiding are related to cardiovascular health: cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat and salt.



The survey asked respondents to say how they would describe themselves based on a number of statements about shopping for food and beverages.

Findings:

• Twenty-nine percent said they're described by "I look for foods and beverages that are good for my heart."


• Twenty-seven percent said the same about looking for foods/beverages "with added vitamins and minerals (e.g., orange juice with calcium)."


• Also garnering sizable "describes me well" votes from the survey's respondents were shopping for foods/beverages "that help lower my cholesterol" (24 percent), "that are minimally processed" (21 percent), "that are locally grown or produced" (20 percent) and "that contain only ingredients I recognize" (19 percent).


• Fewer (11 percent) said they're described by "I look for foods and beverages that are labeled 'organic.'"

According to the article, while organic is still a quality cue, other cues have emerged as indicators of high-quality experiences/products. To be ahead of the curve, marketers need to communicate around the trend-leading quality cues, real and clean.



Preventing vs. Treating

The report emphasizes that consumers are more apt to see foods as useful in preventing than in treating health problems.

Findings:

• 56 percent said they're using foods to prevent high cholesterol, vs. 30 percent using foods to treat it.


• Respondents were much more apt to be using foods to prevent than to treat cancer (46 percent vs. 10 percent), high blood pressure (41 percent vs. 15 percent) and osteoporosis (27 percent vs. 10 percent).


• Excessive weight is an exception to this pattern, as nearly equal numbers of respondents said they're using foods to prevent it (57 percent) or treat it (59 percent).
   

The report says "interest in Vitamin D has exploded" this year. According to the article, it's a reflection of what can happen when consumers hear about something "from multiple sources" -- a phenomenon that can transform mild interest into specific action.



Vitamin D has been a focus in mainstream media in the past year. People have been hearing about it on Oprah, or at the supermarket checkout, or from a friend or colleague. The survey shows that 60 percent of respondents said they're adding more Vitamin D to their diets.



Degrees Of Intensity

Of course, while interest in health and wellness is widespread, it's not universally strong. Based on respondents' answers to the survey, the report classified respondents into "Core" participants, "Mid-level" participants, "Inner Mid-level" participants and "Outer Mid-level" participants in their wellness engagement. The groups differ significantly when it comes to translating intention into action. As the report puts it, "Consumers in the Periphery and Outer Mid-level tend to have more wellness aspirations than behaviors." Those in the Inner Mid-level "engage in wellness more behaviorally and less aspirationally," while the "Core consumers' participation in wellness is almost entirely behavioral."



'Marinating' in Information

Does misplaced faith in their nutrition-and-wellness savvy make lots of consumers a tougher audience for the messages of brands that are serious about wellness? The article indicates consumers have been marinating in health-and-wellness information for the past decade. Unfortunately, a lot of this information has been contradictory. Unless Core, consumers are confused by all the information available, and are resorting to intuition and pragmatism to determine what products will serve their needs. Marketers need not cut through ignorance, but rather emphasize their products' differentiators and authenticity.

According to the article, British researchers who reviewed six earlier studies on links between diabetes and the consumption of fruits and vegetables found that eating an extra serving a day of vegetables like spinach, cabbage, and broccoli reduced adults' risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 14 percent.

The article indicates the findings don't prove that the veggies themselves prevent diabetes. People who eat more green leafy vegetables may also have a healthier diet overall, exercise more, or may be better off financially than people who don't load up on greens. Any of those factors could affect how likely they are to get diabetes.

Patrice Carter of the diabetes research unit at Leicester University, the study's lead author states the data suggest that green leafy vegetables are key. The review, recently published in the British Medical Journal, looked at six studies, which covered more than 200,000 people between 30 and 74 years old, in the United States, China and Finland.

"Fruit and vegetables are all good, but the data significantly show that green leafy vegetables are particularly interesting, so further investigation is warranted," Carter said. “Green leafy vegetables contain antioxidants, magnesium and omega 3 fatty acids -- all of which have been shown to have health benefits.”

Each of the studies that Carter and her colleagues analyzed followed a group of adults over periods of 4 ½ to 23 years, recording how many servings of fruits and vegetables each participant ate on a daily basis then examining who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

According to the article, the researchers found no significant difference in diabetes risk with higher intake of vegetables in general, fruits in general, or combinations of vegetables and fruits. Green leafy vegetables stood out, however, with an increase of 1.15 servings a day producing a 14 percent decrease in an individual's risk of developing diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body's inability to adequately use insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, to regulate levels of glucose produced from food. Uncontrolled, the sugar levels rise and can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and major arteries. The chronic condition is often linked to poor diet and lack of exercise and is reaching epidemic levels as rates of obesity rise. An estimated 180 million people worldwide have diabetes.

Although there is no cure for diabetes, people with the condition can minimize their chances of getting sicker by being more active and losing weight. Some people with diabetes need medications to control their blood sugar and insulin levels -- for others, it's enough to keep a close watch on their diet.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables could have accounted for 2.6 million deaths worldwide in the year 2000.

Separate research found that in 2002, 86 percent of adults in Britain ate fewer than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, with 62 percent consuming fewer than three portions. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found similar patterns among Americans. In 2005, just 33 percent of U.S. adults said they ate at least two servings of fruit a day, and 27 percent reported eating three or more vegetable servings daily.

“These findings underscore a real change in consumer behavior as the family meal enjoys a resurgence. People are hungry for delicious, healthy meals that can be shared with loved ones around the kitchen table,” said Lucinda Scala Quinn, executive editorial director of food at New York-based MSLO and host of the forthcoming cooking show “Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn,” premiering on the Hallmark Channel in September.

The article lists these key findings of the study:

• More families sitting down for meals at home. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed enjoy a sit-down dinner at least five times per week - More than half the respondents sit down for breakfast at least five times per week.


• Magazines, websites and TV cooking shows as primary sources of culinary inspiration -  When it comes to recipes, media are more influential than word-of-mouth recommendations. Respondents cited cookbooks, recipe websites, food-focused magazines and TV cooking shows as their resources for recipes, ahead of suggestions from friends and family.


• People are actively seeking mealtime ideas - More than one-third of respondents said they use recipes for inspiration more often than they used to, and over 60 percent of respondents said health and efficiency are the most important factors when considering a recipe.


• Time-starved families share more mealtime responsibilities - Busy schedules have prompted families to divvy up everyday cooking responsibilities. Twenty-five percent of women said cooking is shared among family members and that husbands are increasingly tying on the apron.


• Forty-eight percent of those surveyed cook in larger batches to save time.


• Consumers are savvier about products they buy - Finding deals has become a source of satisfaction, and even a passion. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they’re proud of budgeting.


• Although supermarkets are the leading source for groceries, 55 percent said they shop at multiple retailers to get better deals.


• Consumers are purchasing healthier products at the grocery store - Ninety-five percent said they know what’s healthy for them, while 87 percent said they read food labels.

According to the Food Business News article, the survey showed, as in previous years, there is consistency in consumers’ beliefs that food safety is primarily the responsibility of government (74 percent) and industry (70 percent). Overall, approximately one-third of the respondents (31 percent) see food safety as a shared responsibility among five or more stakeholders that include farmers and producers, retailers and consumers themselves.

In addition, there has been a decline in basic consumer food safety practices such as washing hands with soap and water (89 percent in 2010 vs. 92 percent in 2008). The same decline also was identified in microwave food safety practices, where 69 percent of survey respondents in 2010 (compared with 79 percent in 2008) follow all of the cooking instructions.

According to the article, when asked to identify the most important food safety issue today, 44 percent of respondents identified foodborne illness from bacteria as the number one issue, a decrease compared with the 2009 survey. Notable is that 39 percent of respondents identified “chemicals in food” as the most important food safety issue, an increase compared with 2009.

The survey also showed that consumers primarily are getting their food safety information from television news programming (43 percent) and the Internet (32 percent). Information from government agencies or officials was cited by 14 percent of the survey respondents.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they were not aware of any food supply safety practices. Among those consumers who said they were aware, improvements to packaging and “standard protocols” were the top two cited.

Products mentioned include:

• Salsa as a source of lycopene, an antioxidant that keeps cells from dying.


• Hot sauce as a source of capsaicin, which can help improve blood flow and speed up metabolism.


• Horseradish as a source of glucosinolates, a substance that helps detoxify the body.

Cinnamon, for its ability to help lower blood sugar, cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

"It wasn't until fourth-quarter 2008 that we started to see these big shifts, driven largely by affluent households," Todd Hale, SVP/ Consumer & Shopper Insights, tells Marketing Daily. "These are now among the fastest users." By March 2010, Nielsen reports, store brands had a 17.3% share of dollar sales in the U.S. and a 21.9% share of units -- up 2.1 and 1.9 points, respectively, from 2007.

Also telling, he says, is the continued enthusiasm among younger shoppers, including Gen Y and Gen X. "It's the younger ones turning to store brands much more than older people." He says about half of both Millenials and Gen X shoppers say they are likely to turn to private labels, versus 41% of Baby Boomers and 35% of the Greatest Generation.

Hale says both trends speak to the major inroads that private labels are continuing to make against national brands. Fueling that growth is the continued innovation from relatively upscale retailers, such as Costco and Target, whose brands are clearly aimed at more affluent shoppers.

Other Nielsen data:

• Middle-income families (those earning between $30,000 and $70,000) continue to be the primary store-brand shoppers, while two-person households are also big users.


• Overall, heavy users of store brands comprise just 20% of households, but they purchase 46% of store brand products, accounting for 34% of total store purchases.

Branded products, however, still drive the vast majority of dollar (82.7%) and of unit (78.1%) sales. Nielsen reports that store brand average period unit sales grew by 2.5% during that period, while national brands -- thanks to enhanced promotional spending -- were able to stabilize declines and manage a growth of 0.4%.

The food industry has made great strides to make food for children as appealing as possible and less healthy products might come in bright colours, unusual shapes or with a gift or toy.

With pressure to address the growing tide of obesity, as well as measures to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to kids, both parents and the food industry are keyed into ways to encourage children to eat more healthily.

The researchers behind the new study, accepted for publication in the Elsevier journal Appetite, set out to assess the impact of restriction and visual appearance on children’s willingness to eat.

The study

• Researchers recruited 94 children aged between four and seven years from primary schools in Belgium and The Netherlands.


• Two tasting sessions took place, both involving one platter of regular fruit and one platter of visually appealing fruit cut into shapes.


• In the first session, the children were divided into two groups. Each group was allowed to eat from one platter but not the other.


• In the second session, all the children were allowed to eat as much as they wanted from both platters.

Observations

• The researchers, led by Ester Jansen of Maastricht University, were surprised to observe that previous restriction of one form of fruit did not seem to make the children eat more the next time they were allowed to. This opposed their hypothesis that sweets are attractive to children because parents often restrict them.


• They found the children were prepared to eat twice as much of the attractive fruit as they were the normal, unprepared fruit.


• The children expressed awareness that the two forms of fruit would taste exactly the same. The researchers suggest that perhaps it was not about taste, but about fun, as the visual appeal was the driver behind higher consumption.


• They also suggest novelty could be a factor.

According to the article, when children are exposed to a new kind of fruit presentation for a number of times, they might lose interest in the fruit. Therefore, in the long term, it is probably necessary for parents and food producers to remain innovative.”

Those who adhered most to diets rich in dark, leafy vegetables, poultry, fish and nuts and low in red meat, butter and fatty dairy products had a 38 percent lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease than those who followed that plan the least, according to a report today in the Archives of Neurology.

These foods may protect blood vessels in the brain, preventing tiny strokes that may contribute to Alzheimer’s, said Nikolaos Scarmeas, an associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and author of this study. There’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, which causes memory loss that can devolve into severe cognitive decline. About 30 million people worldwide have the disease, according to London-based Alzheimer’s Disease International.

“We know that these foods are definitely helpful for other conditions and diseases, and now we have this hint that they may be helpful for brain diseases,” Scarmeas said in a telephone interview. “It makes sense to follow this diet.”

The study was done by observing the participants’ eating habits rather than as a controlled clinical trial that prescribed their food, so scientists can’t make recommendations based solely on this research, he said.

Food Habits Documented

The researchers tracked subjects for four years, checking in every 1.5 years to document dietary patterns and neurological status. No participant had dementia when the study began, and 253 developed Alzheimer’s disease throughout the four years.

The dietary pattern that was linked most to a lowered risk for Alzheimer’s also consisted of oil-and-vinegar salad dressing, tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables including broccoli and cauliflower, and fruit, the researchers said.

Today’s study builds on previous research showing a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, red wine, fish and fresh produce may lower the odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease by as much as 68 percent. Scarmeas published a paper on that research, also done in northern Manhattan, in 2006.

“What they have done is try to look at dietary intake as more of a whole process,” said Claudia Kawas, a professor of neurology and neurobiology and behavior at the University of California in Irvine. “That’s really important. We don’t just take vitamin E alone; there are definitely a lot of reasons to assume these things interact in various ways.”

Exercise Not Studied

The study didn’t measure participants’ exercise, which is another factor that has been associated with lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, said Kawas, who is also a member of the Alzheimer’s Association’s medical advisory council.

“People with good diets are also more likely to exercise more,” which could have had an unmeasured impact on the study’s results, she said.

Further studies may focus more on the mechanisms by which these foods prevent Alzheimer’s, looking at changes in blood vessel health in the brain in relation to diet, Scarmeas said. Today’s research was funded by the National Institute on Aging.

“The best evidence is sort of the general things we’ve always known are useful for a healthy lifestyle: a good diet, exercise, engaging in social activities with friends and families, avoiding stress,” Kawas said. “Taking care of yourself is not a trivial thing.”

In addition, the tumours the broccoli-fed mice did develop were 70 per cent smaller, added the researchers.

If additional studies can repeat the results, and particularly human studies, it may see skin protection added to the long list of potential health benefits of broccoli and its extracts.

Benefits of broccoli

The tissue of cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, contain high levels of the active plant chemicals glucosinolates. These are metabolised by the body into isothiocyanates, which are known to be powerful anti-carcinogens. The main isothiocyanate from broccoli is sulphoraphane.

Broccoli sprouts have previously been shown to reduce blood pressure in rats with hypertension due to the presence of a compound called glucoraphanin (Grn+). Sprouts are the richest source of Grn+, containing up to 50 times more than mature broccoli.

Glucoraphanin, also known as sulforaphane glucosinolate (SGS), is the precursor of sulforaphane.

For the new study, the Baltimore-based scientists exposed hairless mice to 17 weeks of chronic UV radiation and then divided them into two groups: One groups received an extract from broccoli sprouts providing a daily dose of 10 moles of glucoraphanin, while the other group received no extract.

After a further 13 weeks, the researchers noted an inhibition in the development of skin tumours, with the incidence of skin cancer reduced by 25 per cent, and the tumour volume by 70 per cent.

Skin cancer stats

According to Cancer Research UK, skin cancers are extremely common with almost 82,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) documented in the UK alone.

The study led by Dr. Lesley M. Butler, of Colorado State University and colleagues showed the Singapore Chinese women who followed a diet full of vegetables, fruit and soy products were significantly less likely to acquire breast cancer than those who followed a diet high in meat, starch, saturated fat, and sugar.

For the study, Dr. Butler and colleagues analyzed data collected during 1993 and 1995 through in-person interviews with 34,000 women aged 45 to 74 years in Singapore including information on diet, weight, education, smoking and exercise habits and hormone use.

They compared those who used the meat-starch-saturated fat based diet with the vegetable-fruit-soy diet which was characterized by high amounts of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and bok choy for their risks of breast cancer.

During a 10-year follow-up, 629 cases of breast cancer were identified. Those who ate highest amounts of vegetables, fruit and soya products were 30 percent less likely to develop breast cancer compared to those who ate the least amounts, the study found.  

During a-5-year follow-up, the risk for developing breast cancer was apparently reduced by about 50 percent among the postmenopausal women who ate the highest amounts of vegetables, fruits and soybeans compared to those who ate low amounts.

The results were published in the Feb 24, 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.