In spite of their overly positive assessment of their own health, almost half of all U.S. adults recognize the need to change their diet in order to improve the overall healthfulness of their lives, according to new market data from the NPD Group.
Results of “The Market for Functional Foods" reveal while 8 out of 10 U.S. adults describe themselves as “extremely healthy" or “very healthy", only 1 in 5 adults have what is considered to be a “most healthy" diet, and 65% of adults are overweight or obese.
According to the repots, U.S. adults define healthy eating in terms of adding to or taking something out of their diets differently. Fifty-five percent of the 1,921 adults surveyed said eating healthy is equally adding to and taking out of their diet. Of the remaining adults surveyed, 26% said “adding something to the diet" is healthy eating, and 19% said “taking something out" of the diet is healthy.
Dieting, which is traditionally more about taking something out of the diet, is not the health or weight management solution it once was for U.S. adults. In the year ending December 2011, 21% of adults claimed to be on a diet, down from 24% who claimed to be on a diet in 2004.
When it comes to adding something to a diet, U.S. adults and children turn to an easier solution like taking vitamins. U.S. consumers also are boosting their diets with functional foods and beverages. According to the report, one-third of adults indicate strong interest in functional foods and beverages, and 1 in 4 adults are already using a functional food or beverage at least once a day.
“A huge opportunity exists to increase functional product usage among adults, and teens, who have already tried functional products at some point but are not using them on a daily basis," said Darren Seifer, NPD food and beverage industry analyst. “If the 118 million less frequent adult users could be encouraged to include just one more functional food or beverage into their diet each week, this would result in an increase of over 6 billion eatings each year."
