Healthy Food Trends

The emphasis on healthy food trends is growing. As people seek to live healthier, longer lives, they are often eager to try newer trends.

It's no secret that living a healthy lifestyle involves choosing nutritious foods, exercising, and finding ways to eliminate at least some stress from your life. The Department of Health and Human Services released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 2005, which states the following: "Promoting good dietary habits is key to reducing the growing problems of obesity and physical inactivity, and to gaining the health benefits that come from a nutritionally balanced diet." Weight loss fads often throw nutrition out the window, however. Dieters are sometimes so focused on losing weight that they are willing to try diet aids and products that aren't exactly healthy.

While these folks might experiment with weight loss pills and fad diets, others look for more healthy food trends. Fortunately, grocery stores and even restaurants are getting with the program, offering more healthy food choice alternatives and broadening the availability and selection of a variety of foods.

While traditional foods like fruits, vegetables, salads, soups, and lean meats remain popular food choices for the health conscious, more exotic foods are on the menu as well. Foods like blood oranges, goji berries, and red rice are just some of the flavor-filled offerings ready to grace your table. As you move along your local grocery store's aisles, you'll still see shelves stocked with those 100 calorie snack packs, but you'll probably notice a wider variety of snack choices. What other healthy food trends can you expect to see this year?

• Homegrown - While you may want to visit your local farmer's market to get locally grown produce, you might also be able to find it in your local grocery store as well. Foods grown from nearby farms are finding a market for their produce without having to ship across the country. Ask your grocer what local foods are available in your store.
• Organic choices - With so much focus on green living, foods that are environmentally friendly are becoming much more popular. People want to know where and how their foods are produced. Organically grown food choices can often be found in even small grocery stores, while larger grocery chains offer larger selection choices.
• Friendly bacteria - Not all bacteria is harmful, and the news is filled with information on probiotics. Friendly bacteria, which can help with digestion, is often associated with foods like yogurt, but this "good bacteria" continues to be added to a variety of other foods as well.
• Food safety - Not only is the type of foods we choose important, but the safety of those foods is just as imperative. With reports of tainted foods in the news, the issue of food safety is becoming a major issue that continues to be addressed.
• Lower sodium levels - It's no secret that healthier living includes watching salt and sodium intake. Food manufacturers are beginning to listen as well, as they lower the sodium in many processed foods.
• Natural sweeteners - A wider selection of natural sweeteners is becoming increasingly available as well. One such sweetener is the ultrasweet stevia.
• Whole grains - No longer are consumers relegated to limited whole grain choices. There are numerous new choices available in grains that might have been virtually unknown until now. Millet, quinoa, and teff are just a few of the more exotic whole grain choices on the market.

While most of these trends are good news to consumers, there are other trends that aren't so welcome. The state of the economy has the majority of people watching their budgets carefully. Unfortunately, along with fuel prices and other rising expenses, food prices are also on the rise. The more exotic food choices often bear a hefty price tag as well, making it difficult for consumers to add those items to their grocery list. Still, healthy food trends continue to be at the forefront of health conscious consumers, and manufacturers watch those trends carefully as they try to meet the needs of the public.

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