April/May 1997
Grains Dominate List of
Decade's Fastest-Growing Foods
Library
Home
E-Mail
Back
Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
Findings of the consumption study and the consumer survey were released recently by the Wheat Foods Council, the national wheat consumption promotion group that is funded in part by wheat checkoff dollars administered by the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council, the North Dakota Wheat Commission, and the South Dakota Wheat Commission.
Pasta, bagels, pretzels, sandwiches, cereal, and pizza crust grabbed six of the top ten slots for fastest-growing foods and beverages over the past ten years, according to The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based national market research company that has tracked eating habits for 16 years.
Further, grains represent the only food category (others being fruits/vegetables, meat/dairy, and fats/sweets) to record increased consumption over the past decade.
"In a quest for convenient, value-driven foods, people are turning to quick, 'one-dish' meals like pasta, cereal and sandwiches," says Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group. "It's beneficial that the foundation of these dishes - grains - are the foundation of the Food Guide Pyramid."
However, although Americans are slowly shifting their eating patterns toward the foundation of the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, fat and empty calories remain top dietary problems.
"While in-home consumption of grain foods has shown a slight increase over the last 10 years, we're still only meeting about three-quarters of our daily grain food needs - even though we get an extra half of a serving from meals eaten away from home," says Balzer. "The bottom line is that we're still consuming way too much dietary fat. Add to that the fact that carbonated soft drinks topped the list of fastest-growing food and beverages since 1987 and we've created a really lopsided consumption pyramid."
A Gallup survey conducted in conjunction with the consumption study supports NPD findings. In the survey of more than 1,000 primary household shoppers, Americans told Gallup they average 3.2 servings of grain foods a day, an increase from 2.8 in 1993, but still well below the six-to-11 range recommended by the Food Guide Pyramid. Gallup found only 12 percent of consumers said they eat six or more servings each day.
Judi Adams, a registered dietitian who heads the nonprofit Wheat Foods Council, attributes some of the daily grains deficit to the 38 percent of misinformed Americans who told Gallup they think bread and other grain foods are fattening.
"With the recent resurrection of fad diets that bash bread, pasta and other complex carbohydrate-rich foods as being fattening, we're not surprised that nearly two in five consumers still swallow this myth," says Adams. "Unfortunately, this type of nutrition confusion is steering people away from the foods they need most."
Balzer agrees, adding that his study found most people would need a couple of more servings a day to meet 100 percent of the 6-to-11 range-a goal nutritionists say is certainly attainable.
The versatility and portability of most grain foods makes it all the more easy for Americans to meet their recommended daily grain servings. "We're not talking about complicated nutrition science," says Dr. Barbara Levine, R.D., director of the Nutrition Information Center at Cornell Medical Center, New York. "Simply add a dinner roll to your meal, enjoy lower-fat crackers as an afternoon snack or have an extra slice of toast at breakfast and you will be well on your way to meeting your daily grains needs."
Levine says the evidence that supports the need for grain foods isn't hard to digest, either: pasta, bread, tortillas and other grain-based foods are naturally low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates. One gram of complex carbohydrates contains a mere four calories to fat's nine, and the body burns carbohydrates first before looking to fat for fuel, she points out.
But Levine does add one caution: "As virtuous as these foods are, we won't do them or our bodies one bit of good if we drench them with creamy sauces, slabs of butter and vats of oil. This doesn't mean we're urging people to eat a bowl of plain pasta; we're just saying 'lighten up."'
To some degree, Americans seem to be getting that message. Margarine, butter, oil, shortening, added sugars, mayonnaise and salad dressings all made NPD's list of the decade's fastest declining foods and beverages.