Eat And Be Well

According to The NPD Group, supermarkets' rightful place is on the front lines of the health revolution.

Editor's Note: In its final installment, The NPD Group's Deli Shopper Insight Series, Part III discusses the increasingly important role supermarket retailers can play in directing, motivating and making it easier for consumers to make the right dietary choices.

There is a tremendous amount of time, money, effort and focus invested on the part of the private and public sectors in getting Americans healthy again. Governmental initiatives like First Lady Michelle Obama's “Let Move!” campaign, the new USDA Dietary Guidelines, and other public information and legislative initiatives are bringing increased attention to the need for Americans to eat and live more healthfully

Food and beverage manufacturers have invested heavily in developing healthier products, adopted responsible marketing practices that promote healthy lifestyle choices, and taken an active role in efforts to inform consumers on how to have a healthy diet and lead an active lifestyle. Health and wellness have also become critical components of many retailers' merchandising and promotional strategies, and retail is where many consumers are choosing — or deciding not to chose — more healthful foods and beverages.

Home, Hearth and Health

According to The NPD Group's “National Eating Trends,” over 70 percent of meals are consumed in the home. Annual meals consumed and prepared in-home per person rose from 817 in 2002 to 877 in 2010. This compares with 194 meals consumed at restaurants per person in 2010, according to NPD's CREST service, which continually tracks consumer use of foodservice outlets.

Where Meals are Obtained

Home Meals include those prepared and eaten at home as well as those carried from home and those consumed at somebody else’s home

“Since most meals are consumed in-home, retailers really are on the front lines of the health revolution,” says Joseph Derochowski, executive director for Chicago-based NPD. “While most consumers do their meal planning at home, it is at retail where the rubber meets the road and a consumer makes the decision on what their household will be eating. Retailers can play a key role in directing, motivating and making it easier for consumers to make the right choices.”

Money has always been a primary motivator for changing consumer behavior, and this applies to eating at home, too. In fact, according to a Cooking Skills and Habits survey conducted by NPD, 69 percent of all in-home meal preparers said the primary reason for preparing/cooking a meal at home is because it costs less than eating out. The average cost per person of an in-home meal is $2.37 vs. $6.49 from a restaurant, and, according to the USDA Economic Research Services, U.S. consumers never let their food costs rise faster than their incomes.

In addition to being easy on the pocketbook, another key benefit of eating at home is that it's healthier. NPD's Cooking Skills and Habits survey found that 92 percent of meal preparers believe that cooking meals at home is healthier than eating out. Consumers said that they can better control the quality and healthfulness of meals as well as the portion size when they prepare and eat meals at home. The barrier for many, however, is that eating nutritious meals is more expensive.

“Consumers don't want to pay more to eat nutritiously, and some consumers can't pay more,” says Derochowski. “Making healthier foods accessible and affordable will be vital in improving the American diet."

Mom at the Helm

Even in this modern age, Mom is still largely responsible for planning, shopping, cooking and running the household. As more and more women entered the work force throughout the 20th century, the increased pressure and responsibilities added to an already full plate have been the key drivers to changes in America's eating habits, particularly in the area of convenience. The growing need for convenience has given rise to quickly prepared meals, like frozen and ready-to-eat, along with appliances that enable food to be prepared quickly or with little or no effort. While the percentage of working women appears to have reached its peak since 2000, convenience is still at the heart of how this country eats.

Moms with children under 18 are responsible for feeding 141 million individuals. One mom prepares 290 dinner meals annually, which collectively amounts to 10.2 billion dinners prepared by moms in the United States each year. An average dinner takes Mom a little over an hour to prep, cook, eat and clean up, and afterward, she often needs to transport kids to extracurricular activities, monitor homework and get them ready for bed. It's no wonder that when putting a meal on the table, convenience may trump health.

For Mom, the first meal of the day, breakfast, starts out being about health, routine and mobility. At breakfast, she has the greatest control over what her family eats, and sets the highest priority on healthy food. As the day goes on and other needs compete for attention, “healthy” moves steadily down the list of priorities. At lunchtime, there's often limited time to eat, and speed rules, although Mom usually makes sure that bagged lunches include healthy items (whether the healthy items get eaten, however, is beyond her control). By dinnertime, convenience is all-important, and healthy is further down in the list of priorities.

The day clock's impact on healthy eating is evidenced by the fact that better-for-you foods account for more than 50 percent of all breakfasts, but much less at dinner, according to NPD.

No doubt that convenience is uppermost in Mom's mind when she's planning meals, but her goal is to provide her family with nutritious meals. An NPD report, “What's on the Minds of Moms, and How They're Coping Today,” found that among the top 10 challenges moms face in feeding their families is teaching them to eat right and make healthy choices. Among moms' top concerns is worrying about having enough money to buy healthy, nutritious foods for their families.

“Retailers can help moms provide their families with quick-to-prepare, healthy, affordable meals,” says Derochowski. “Help her with the meal planning by engaging her before she enters the store. For example, a website meal planner that is personalized to each mom's needs, tastes and budget could also serve to guide her in terms of each meal's nutritional value. It's about making her and her family's life a little easier and healthier.”

Boomers Making the Difference

In addition to moms, another demographic influencing healthier eating is that of the baby boomers. There are currently 79 million baby boomers, making up a quarter of the U.S. population. On Jan. 1, 2011, the oldest baby boomers turned 65. Every day for the next 19 years, about 10,000 more will cross tha threshold. By 2021, all baby boomers will be between ages 57 and 75. Based on their sheer numbers, baby boomers are regarded as an important generation for the food and beverage industry, and nutrition plays a critical role in the health and anti-aging efforts of this demographic.

The baby boom generation, however, isn't monolithic. One way that economists and social scientists look at its differences is to compare younger boomers, ages 43-52, with older ones, ages 53-62. Younger boomers are likely to be working, and many still have children in the household. Older boomers may be retired empty nesters. About a quarter of all adults qualify as the healthiest eaters, but there's a stark difference between older and younger boomers, according to NPD. Older boomers are motivated to diet by a sharp increase in medical conditions that require careful attention to nutrition. Older boomers are twice as likely to suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or heart disease as younger boomers. As a result, older boomers are more cautious with foods containing fat, salt, and cholesterol, while younger boomers are more likely to have the least healthy eating behaviors.

Both young and older boomers also select more nutritious foods for anti-aging purposes. This is a generation that will redefine aging and fight off its signs for as long as they can. Boomers are using nutrition to allay such common accompaniments of old age as pain, memory loss, fatigue, indigestion and declining vision. Functional foods and beverages are being consumed by this age group to improve heart health, diabetes, hypertension, and chronic pain and joint issues, as well as to increase vitality.

Changing Attitude Into Behavior

Whether they're boomers or millennials, U.S. adults across all generations understand the principles of healthy eating, according to a “Healthy Eating Strategies by Generation” report by NPD. While the majority of adults recognize the need to eat healthfully, their actual healthy eating behavior varies by generation. NPD found that while the older generations eat more healthfully than the younger generations, four out of five adults (nearly 170 million people) still have diets whose quality needs improvement.

What the generations appear to have in common is a shared understanding of what constitutes healthy eating, the NPD report found. Adult consumers across generations define healthy eating consistently and are aware of the top characteristics of healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle: exercising regularly, eating well-balanced meals, eating all things in moderation, limiting/ avoiding foods with saturated fat or cholesterol or trans fats, and drinking at least eight glasses of water per day.

“Educating consumers about the basics of health and nutrition is not where the need is, but educating them on how to live a healthful and well life is the real opportunity for retailers,” says Derochowski. “Connecting the dots for them in their daily lives by showing them how to plan, shop, prepare and eat healthfully throughout the day and week is the key.”

The nutritional value of foods is also front and center with many adults, according to the report, which draws on NPD's continual tracking of actual consumption behavior over the past three decades. Almost 85 million adults ranked nutritional value/healthful as No. 1 or No. 2 in importance as a need driver in deciding what to eat and drink; taste and price/value were in the top three for the three younger generations. For older consumers, freshness replaced price/value in ranked importance.

While many aspects of their diets could use improvement, overall, the largest deficiencies in adults' diets are insufficient intake of fruits, vegetables and dairy products, and overconsumption of total fats. Consumption of total fats is the most critical for those 54 and older.

“It comes down to consumers needing an assist to enable a healthy lifestyle,” says Derochowski. “The four Ps of marketing — product, price, place and promotion — still apply to health. All products, programs and promotions need to resonate with consumers' wants and needs in terms of health and wellness, vs. dictating to them how they should eat.” PG

Editor's Note: An error appeared in a chart that was published in the second installment ofPG's and The NPD Group's exclusive three-part Deli Shopper Insight Series in the May 2011 issue that discussed how consumers shop the deli, and the related motivators behind their purchase decisions. The correct charts appear below. PG regrets the error.