The U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates the average American eats about 100 pounds of added sugar a year, up 30 percent since the 1980s. While sugar has long been a staple of the American diet, the proliferation of sugary sodas, snacks and packaged foods, coupled with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, has created a dangerous duo that is packing pounds around the American waistline and adding to the increased incidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many other afflictions.
Introductions of low or no sugar products have doubled in the United States and nearly tripled worldwide based on consumers’ increasing quest for health and wellness (Figure 1). But an internal struggle persists. At the same time that consumers are trying to eat healthier, there exists a continual desire for indulgence and sweets that may, in part, be rooted in humans’ evolutionary instinct to consume fuel in the form of sugar when food was scarce. In essence, this relates to a common observation surrounding carbohydrate cravings.
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Research conducted by The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) in 2005 reveals this struggle between the American consumer and their sweeteners and highlights some emerging dichotomies and opportunities.
Sweetener Usage
New research from NMI’s annual Health & Wellness Trends Database™ indicates that over half of consumers (56 percent) report using table sugar (processed sucrose from sugar cane) on a regular basis, as an added ingredient or as part of food or beverages. Other consumers are taking a more “natural” route, with 36 percent using honey and 14 percent using raw, unprocessed sugar. And 44 percent of consumers prefer foods with no sugars added. Interestingly, only 13 percent state they use high fructose corn syrup or consume foods or beverages with it as an ingredient, although high fructose corn syrup is an extremely common component of many conventional consumer packaged foods and beverages. Hence, there exists a significant lack of knowledge and awareness of this particular sweetener and its widespread applications.
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Perhaps some consumers are unaware (or indifferent) of the types of “sugars” present in their foods. Part of consumers’ high sweetener consumption may, in fact, be due to lack of monitoring behavior (or the fact that other ingredients are more important). How closely are consumers really looking at ingredient labels?