Did you know that about 14% of Americans go to restaurants three or more times a week, according to Statistic Brain? Food is always an interesting aspect of the American lifestyle to examine. It’s something we all have experience with, and food availability and trends can impact everything from our health, to the economy. If you tune in to food talk radio stations, there are several interesting food trends and stories right now. Here are three that might interest you.
1. Raw Food Talk
The raw food diet involves, as you can imagine, not eating cooked food. According to dieters, anything cooked above 115 degrees Fahrenheit loses important enzymes, and adds toxins. Is there any truth to this claim? Yes and no. Though it’s true that heating foods can sometimes break down valuable nutrients, in many cases the enzymes would be naturally broken down by your digestive system before you could absorb them anyway. Partial raw food diets, though, can be a good way for people to incorporate more high nutrient food items into their diet.
2. Pumpkin Makes Big Waves
According to food talk shows, pumpkin is becoming a bigger autumn flavor than ever before. It’s difficult to go to any store now and find a menu or shelf lacking the ubiquitous “pumpkin spice”. Kavita Kkumar of Consumer Central writes that pumpkin is the new “it” food, now composing a part of everything from beer to lattes. In fact, Nielsen Ratings discovered that pumpkin flavored products grew by 19% in the last year. Kkumar thinks the rise could be attributed to Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte, a seasonal beverage that has grown wildly popular since its inception.
3. Everyone Wants to be Chipotle
According to international restaurant consultants Baum+Whiteman, the hybrid “fast casual” dining is the way to go right now. This is qualified as restaurants that sacrifice the service you would expect from a restaurant in order to get the speed of a fast food joint, but provide the freshness that wouldn’t be available at the latter. Chipotle is one restaurant leading the way, with everyone else angling for a piece of the pie. Sports talk 990 reports that fast food companies like McDonalds and Domino’s are shaking up their menus in order to appeal to these demographics.
What food trends are you seeing right now?