Food Trends
Because we can’t just live and eat these days- nope, everything has to be trendy.
It’s cropping up everywhere now. The “new fad diet” is to not diet! It’s to eat local and real and whole foods. While I’m super happy that this is coming to the foreground and there’s a lot of interest in the concept of eating natural foods, the way that it is being discussed in much of the media concerns me. Grouping it with other trendy ways of eating implies that in a short while, the interest is going to die down and another fad diet will come along to steal the spotlight.
It’s irksome.
Anyway, I still found this article, the Top 10 Foodie Trends for 2009, to be pretty cute. The items on the list include such radical ideas as using crockpots, cooking from scratch, eating locally, reading the nutrition information, and trying out exotic cuisines from around the globe. It makes me feel uncomfortably trendy.
And a shout-out to food bloggers! According to this article you guys are the way of the future when it comes to food (but in the blogging community we already knew about that! And I’m not being facetious here. To name just a couple, I adore the heaps of recipes found every day at Biggest Diabetic Loser and the gourmet-style dishes/photos over at Choos & Chews).
What don’t I like that’s on the list? “FrankenFood”, or any processed food that has been vitamin/mineral infused or enhanced with nutrients. Those waters that have got your day’s supply of vitamin x y and z, the cereal bars that have 20g of fiber (and double the amount of sugar), the frozen meals that are “good for you” because they are loaded with protein. To me, FrankenFood undermines the notion of eating healthy with real food.
However, “Food Philanthropy” makes this list as the way that we are putting in the effort to help out those who are malnourished and in serious need of healthy eats. I was thinking about this one in particular a lot yesterday when I received a letter from World Vision. In essence, the letter pointed out the following:
– 60 million children are severely malnourished
– a child who is acutely malnourished is up to 20 times more likely to die than a child with a healthy diet
– another 86 million children are underweight
If you donate even just $40 to World Vision (and the World Food Programme) before February 9th, that donation will be tripled to feed and save the lives of children in Africa.
…I suppose that if we are giving more to starving children around the world and building awareness about these issues, then foodie trends aren’t so silly, after all.
I love trend #1 on the list, but despise #6 with a passion.
“I suppose that if we are giving more to starving children around the world and building awareness about these issues, then foodie trends aren’t so silly, after all.”
I agree, for sure. And hey, food trends are fun 😀
Your view of the world is a beautiful thing, Sagan!
This post kinda made me smile – the “trends” that you mentioned? Things that have been around for years and years. Eating locally grown food, cooking from scratch…. those are all things our grandparents did as a matter of course! Everything old is new again!
Great post, Sagan.
ha, “trends”. love that they’re getting back to the basics/classics 🙂
Wow, I’m almost trendy (BK has a rice cooker that he says I can use as a crock pot, but I’m afraid of destroying the thing that fed him in college)
And I agree with the helping others part.
Wow! So funny that crockpots, cooking from scratch, eating locally, reading the nutrition information, and trying out exotic cuisines from around the globe are considered radical…
I too recently learned about the franken food movement and totally agree with you Sagen! I think it’s buzz words appealing to people’s emotions (to be “thin” and “healthy”) and someone ends up making alot of $$$ instead of people getting healthy.
If someone could market “real” food in the same fashion we’d all be so much better off. But then that might be too trendy to eat locally and cook from scratch 🙂
VeggieGirl- I loved #1 too. Cooking at home is wonderful.
Dr. J- thanks! That’s really nice.
Bag Lady- exactly! I was giggling over it. Sometimes so-called “progress” is rather detrimental to us.
ttfn300- me too. It’s good stuff:)
Tricia- I’ve heard that about rice cookers too, that you can actually cook a ton of stuff in them. They’re handy little appliances.
Jolene- I’m nothing if not facetious:D Want to be a poster girl for real food with me?
Foodies are taking over!!
Kelly Turner
http://www.everygymsnightmare.com
Since moving to an organic farm I tend towards growing my own food. Freezing, dehydrating, and preserving are so healthy and frugal too. Most packaged foods look like toys to me. Real foods have zero marketing. 😀
Great post! I actually love dinning in. Eating at the comfort of my own home, and plus knowing what I am eating makes me feel way better. But I definitely need to jump on the bandwagon for a crockpot!
I was just reading about a new celebrity diet called the un-diet or something. I would say I think I prefer it to fad diets or diets that eliminate one food. I think it’s v. interesting that diet times are circling back to stuff like this. Eating more like your grandparents did is v. hip these days!
I’m just starting to understand how to tell when something is vitamin or fiber bulked verses the real thing that comes from real food. The best thing for me is to buy food that doesn’t have a label (fresh produce). That usually means more then the labels.
Great article! I kind of like the 2009 food trend. I really think people are starting to eat real foods and getting away from the fad dieting. Well, I hope this is the case!
I love cooking at home, but my husband gets scared when he sees the crockpot on the counter!
This year, I hope to get a veggie garden going again — the ultimate in eating locally-grown foods.
Kelly- they are indeed!
Squawkfox- you’re absolutely right, they DON’T need any marketing. Or at least, they shouldn’t…
Sharon- crockpots are wonderful:) It’s nice to go out to restaurants, but there’s something very satisfying about cooking your own meal.
Hangry Pants- it’s certainly way better than any fad diet… it just seems a little silly to compare it to those ones.
Fitness Surfer- agreed. There’s all this talk about how added fiber and protein is really essential so we need to eat (processed) foods that are enriched with it, but if we just ate real food, we’d be able to get all the fiber and protein we need.
Strongandhealthy- I hope so too! Get people more aware and all.
Dara- haha that’s funny. My sister/roommate gets scared when she sees me in the kitchen at all:D The bad part about living in an apartment is not having a garden… homegrown vegetables would be fantastic.
Fantastic!Enjoy the weekend!
Hey, sorry for the late reply to your question from my blog. My shirt’s from American Eagle. Lately, I’ve been buying a lot of pink, because I decided I needed to stop only buying everything blue—seriously, you’d walk in my closet and all you’d see was blue!
Aren’t you the sweetest? Thank you! I hate the word ‘trend’ but if it gets people eating and living well, I’ll live with it. Have a fab weekend, Sagan 🙂
Hooray for eating more whole foods, as well as for cool culinary communities! 🙂 (and thanks for the pointer to the article. very interesting!)
I love that the crockpot is making a comeback! I have two (and am getting a third–a teeny little one just for me), and I love that there are new recipes coming out.
Mark- thanks 🙂
Chocolatecoveredvegan- haha I know exactly what you mean- have had the same problem myself.
Dee- I heart your blog!
Juliet- hear hear.
Cammy- ooh photo of the little tiny one? I like miniature things 🙂
Just the thought that someone has to tell us to eat “real” food makes me uneasy. It’s too bad the world, has gotten to that place. Thanks for all the great information, it’s all stuff I truely believe in.