Speaking of Health

Because health and diet are indisputably linked in reality and continuously proven by science, and everyone is greatly concerned about health, the concept of health-promoting foods has moved from fad status to being a cornerstone of the industry. Who doesn’t want to live to be 100+, elegantly dancing and eruditely discoursing before expiring painlessly and gracefully in our sleep? ... and snack on tasty delicacies all along the way?

Since we still associate food with other types of personal gratification beyond dabbling in the fountain of youth, it’s not surprising that taste is still the consumer’s No. 1 criteria for selecting a food. So, many future hours of product development will focus on combining the two. Based on many prototypes at this year’s IFT show, we’re getting much better at it. But reader beware. Just because healthy foods aren’t a fad, doesn’t mean that changing fashion won’t whipsaw product development direction. I mean, like, pomegranate, that’s just sooo spring of 2007... 

Many consumer whims are driven by the study du jour and how it is served up to the public. One of my pet peeves is how reporters with little to no grasp of science and more interest in generating buzz than reporting facts translate these studies for the general public. Look at recent research that investigated possible links between softdrink consumption and metabolic syndrome, “Soft Drink Consumption and Risk of Developing Cardio-Metabolic Risk Factors and the Metabolic Syndrome in Middle Aged Adults in the Community,” published in Circulation.

The researchers pointed out the study established no cause and effect link. The American Heart Association discussed how soft-drink consumption was often accompanied by an unhealthy lifestyle, and stressed that the observational study design cannot demonstrate causality. However, headlines included: “Soft Drink Dilemma,” “Adults Drinking Soft Drinks at Increased Risk of Developing Metabolic Syndrome,” “Soft Drink Consumption Might Lead to Metabolic Syndrome,” and arguably the worst one of all “Cut Out the Sodas—Cut Down the Metabolic Syndrome Risk.” You could almost hear frustrated screams from the beverage industry and nutritionists alike. In fact, many experts quickly pointed out that any panic was unfounded. My favorite came from Richard N. Fogoros, M.D., on about.com: “Indeed, I suspect that a study looking for an association between the use of plastic straws and metabolic syndrome would have shown the same thing.”

But, if history is to be our guide, a significant number of consumers will come away with the notion that the magic bullet is to stop drinking pop, or that 150-calorie sodas are just as healthy as 0-calorie ones. Or, even worse, that a 420-calorie chocolate, coffee and whipped cream mochachinisco drink is a health food, not an indulgence best followed by an hour of racquetball.