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Mental map page 134-136: Anatomy of a Nutrition Trend - Coggle Diagram
Mental map page 134-136: Anatomy of a Nutrition Trend
Have you wondered how nutrition trends get started.
Consumers complain that health advisors "keep changing their minds." On the other hand, consumers also change their priorities when it comes to the nutrition topics they are interested in.
Felicia Busch, a nutrition consultant, believes that "there are really two different kinds of trends."
The first kind develops from a groundswell of interest. The second kind of trend occurs when a major milestone happens.
Consumers desires and needs depend on their beliefs and attitudes.
Few factors that affect public opinion are: Beliefs about what keeps us healthy and how we get sick, attitudes about our ability to control our health and eating habits, reactions to hearing or reading news stories and reading books, and talking with friends and family members about the latest nutrition trend.
Consumer surveys have shown that the public depends on the media for most of their information about health and nutrition.
Most people rely primarily on magazines (75%) and books (72%). After that they turn to health-care professionals (63%), friends or family (58%), newspapers (51%), television (49%), and nutritionists (25%).
Linda Gilbert, president of HealthFocus International in Atlanta, Georgia, is a market researcher who specializes in health and nutrition trends.
Gilbert believes that the media have a powerful influence on trends but that there is another crucial factor: repetition.
Felicia Busch agrees that the media influence what people hear and read about nutrition and health.
"People get their information from the media. And the media often depend on a few top sources. Reporters tend to "feed" off each other. A newspaper article can lead to a TV story or magazine article and vice versa."
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) in Washington, DC, has studied consumer attitudes about nutrition and health for the last 20 years.
FMI's survey data shows that the percentage of consumers reporting that they are "very concerned about the nutritional content of what they eat" was relatively stable from the mid-1980s though the mid-1990s.
Some trend watchers think the drop in concern about nutrition and health for the last 20 years.
Felicia Busch explains, "During the period from 1980 until 1995, we had to keep modifying our positions about fats as we learned more about the relationship between dietary fat and health.
Trends in nutrition come and go.
Some trends become cultural norms because everyone is doing it. Others die because different needs and interests eclipse them.
The media's interest in nutrition has also shifted more toward the subject of functional foods, meaning foods that claim to have specific health benefits.
News stories about vitamin and mineral intake, antioxidants, and specific functional foods accounted for 12% of all media discussions about diet, nutrition, and food safety.
Nutrition is still a hot topic among consumers, even though they may be less concerned now than they were in the 1990s.
Nutrition trends, like all trends, change with time. They depend on consumer needs and interests, scientific reports, media coverage of issues, and sometimes, major events.