Americans have a love-hate relationship with dieting and exercise. They purchase millions of diet books and invest in gym memberships and exercise equipment but the number of calories they consume continues to rise. The majority of U.S. adults and 15% of U.S. children are overweight or obese.

Medical researchers are continuing to identify significant connections between diet, exercise, and health. Diet is a contributing factor in diabetes, coronary artery disease, obesity and other ailments. Still, Americans continue to fall short in their efforts to stem the tide of these diseases with an effective and sustainable regimen of diet and exercise.

There is a significant gap between the number of adults who are dieting and those who need to be dieting. Despite a strong interest in healthy eating, Americans continue to consume snacks and sweets at alarming rates. Americans are also unwilling to forego convenience or taste for health benefits. More and more Americans are relying on fast food, shelf stable meals, and prepared foods, rather than cooking from scratch. Consumers' food attitudes are also changing, reflected in the growing popularity of low carbohydrate products, functional foods and vegetarian and organic foods.

In this report, Mintel highlights the changing nature of consumer eating habits and health, diet, population, and food preparation trends, enabling readers to gain an understanding of products and services that will have lasting traction and best serve the market.

For the purposes of this report, the following definitions have been used:

Diet

In the minds of consumers, diet is synonymous with dieting. Consumers tend to consider “diet” to mean what they are eating in relation to their weight status. For the purposes of this report, however, the terms are considered separately. Diet refers to any description of eating habits – healthy or unhealthy. “Dieting,” on the other hand, refers to a conscious effort to control or lose weight by following a prescribed dieting pattern such as counting calories, monitoring food intake, etc.

Functional Foods

Products that make distinct, written health claims. These may be foods with added ingredients like soy or calcium, or which have been enhanced through the act of processing e.g. yogurt that has added cultures to have a beneficial effect on the body. Functional foods are also those which contain ingredients added to produce a specific health benefit, as defined by the FDA, and may bear approved claims from the FDA.

Low Carb or Low Carbohydrate

Self-defined by manufacturer or marketer. Products that have less carbs than their normal carb counterparts. Includes low carb, reduced carb, etc. The FDA has not yet officially defined these terms but expects to do so in 2005.