As we all become more conscious of what we eat, it helps to keep on top of new ideas and trends. It doesn’t mean that you should automatically adopt every one that comes along. You must do what’s right for you, not everyone else.
But by staying informed, you’ll sooner spot new ideas that can help you reach your weight loss goals. And you might discover some new taste sensations along way too.
1. Real Meal Deal – Hot on the heels of trends like the paleo diet, people are starting to care more about what’s not added to food than what is. Instead of exhaustively checking ingredients and nutrition labels, shoppers are choosing more whole foods without added ingredients.
Processed diet foods, with their artificial sweeteners and long list of difficult-to-pronounce ingredients, are on the decline in favour vegetables, whole grains and lean protein.
2. A Snacking Evolution – For anyone trying to manage their weight, “Snacking” used to be a four-letter word. Now it’s more often a part of their balanced daily eating habits. Three square meals, and their large portions, are losing popularity in favour of ‘smart’ snacks that offer the right nutrients, fibre and/or protein and healthy fats.
3. Drink to Your Health – Knowing that many of the empty calories they consume each day come from sugary soft drinks and juices, consumers are shifting their drinking habits towards smoothies, fresh-pressed juices and veggie drinks. Vegetable smoothies are the fastest growing product category at Jugo Juice.
If you are a green tea fiend, check out matcha tea. Why? It has ten times the antioxidants of normal green tea.
4. Ingredient Consciousness – In addition to choosing more whole foods, shoppers are choosing foods that are good for the earth as well as themselves. ‘Organic’, ‘locally grown’ and ‘humanely-raised’ are increasingly important factors in our choices of food.
5. Some Things Never Change – If there’s one disturbing ‘trend’ it is the one that’s most persistent. Nutrition experts and studies, like one done recently by Agri-Food Canada, confirm that price, taste and convenience continue to be the top influencers of the foods consumers choose. But, in the ‘goods news’ category, nutrition is now in fourth place.
To learn more about the right food choices for better nutrition and more sustainable weight loss, visit a Herbal One Centre near you and talk to one of our nutrition specialists.
Sources:
www.self.com
www.calgaryherald.com