Despite consumers making active attempts to eat healthier, the threat of obesity shows no sign of slowing down. Once confined to high income countries and households, obesity is now just as much of a problem as malnutrition in developing countries. A new report explores the contradiction between attempts to eat healthier and rising obesity levels. Ultimately, food choice is determined by sensory attributes such as taste and pleasure, and consumers will not sacrifice these attributes in favour of nutritional goodness. Furthermore, changes in people’s lifestyles mean that they find it difficult to exercise on a daily basis. As a result, shoppers are consuming more ‘bad’ nutrients and are exercising less.
Datamonitor’s survey reveals approximately 65% of Europeans and Americans made active attempts to eat healthier in 2005-2006. Rather than focusing purely on the elimination of “bad” nutrients from their diets, consumers are also embracing the concept of “positive nutrition”, focusing on the inherently good content within food and drinks. Indeed, while consumers do not underestimate the importance of cutting down on fat, sugar and salt, they also believe a healthy diet involves eating fresh food and drink (90%) and eating from a diverse range of foods (66%). Although consumers are moderating what they eat and drink with greater regularity, they still want to maintain a sense of normality when dieting. Focusing on the good nutrients in food and drink makes dieting easier and less compromising.
Although shoppers are making active attempts to eat healthier, they are unwilling to sacrifice hedonistic attributes associated with food and this attitude, in part, is driven by the widespread belief that healthy food tastes inferior. Recent media coverage on the undisclosed high calorie content of certain meals in the foodservice sector could help explain the contradiction between rising obesity levels and attempts to eat healthier.
More often than not, restaurants do not disclose the nutritional content of their food and drink. This means that even if consumers do attempt to eat healthily, they are at risk of over indulging because of a lack of knowledge about food content. The reality however, is that when eating out, consumers view enjoyment as more of a priority than health.
Related Research: Obesity, Dieting, Exercise And The Future Of Food And Drink
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February 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
It is interesting that although obesity levels are increasing, so is life expectancy. Although people are getting fatter, we seem to be living longer… there is an interesting article about this in BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7056293.stm
February 27th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
‘This means that even if consumers do attempt to eat healthily, they are at risk of over indulging because of a lack of knowledge about food content.’ It is not difficult to know what foods are good for you and which aren’t. There are so many tv shows on dieting, eating healthy, getting fit etc. this subject is constanly in the media, in magazines, newspapers etc. Even most supermarkets have simple labels on foods now to tell you how healthy the food is.
If people want to learn to be healthy and lose weight, the information is available. I put this down to laziness and unwillingness to change their lifestyle rather than plain ignorance.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I agree, but some things might be hard to understand unless you know lots about nutrition. For example, do people know how much sugar there is in orange juice, bread, yogurts etc? These are all products we consume on a daily basis adding to those extra calories we shouldn’t have. The solution is of course to be able to choose what bread etc is healthy for you- but would people know? I’ve seen so many people in this country eat sandwich after sandwich…thinking it’s healty because it has LESS mayo in it- why have mayo on a sanwich at all?? Also, it seems as if consumers are sometimes being fooled be the products- for example different nut and fruit bars- (but if you compare these to choclate ones there isn’t a big difference in calories) and crisps with LESS fat…..yes you can probably figure it out-why not have an apple instead? Because you won’t loose weight from eating crisps!!
March 7th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I think it is a simple lack of knowledge on what each food item contains. We eat so many processed food, and ‘pre packaged” meal’s that people just don’t know what they are eating. The other thing is even those that eat healthily (like some lady on a show the other week from Super Skinny versus Super Fat, or whatever it is called), she ate really well but massive portions at each meal.i read an article suggesting rather than counting calories, simply count portions where a portion is roughly the size of your clenched fist. And at each meal have 1 portion of each major food groups. The basic rule is you can pretty much eat the foods you like, just simply in moderation, and in order to keep your metabolism running high, the bets thing to do is to graze. Look at horses, very muscular animals from regular exercise and because they eat all day long but in small amounts….. Humans should be following this example.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I watched that show to, it’s very interesting and i have to agree with you Steven, portions do make a big difference.