Top food trends
Remember cake pops? They went from virtually nowhere to everywhere last year. And vegetable chips…especially kale. Well those trends are soooo last year. Not that they are over but they are kind of like day-old cookies: not quite so hot-and-fresh anymore. I took a little tour of the internet and read a lot about what new food trends are happening in 2013 (Canada and the US) . Below are the most common items I found on various lists.
So what’s new?
Quinoa
Once you learn to pronounce it correctly (keen-wa), you may learn to love this light, crunchy whole grain. This gluten-free grain packs 8 grams of protein in a cooked 1-cup serving. I cooked it for the first time this month for my family – no sale with the teens – but I will try again with a little more added flavour. There are millions of quinoa recipes on line!
Gluten-Free Everything
It was last year’s trend, too, but gluten-free is still surprisingly hot. Gluten-free products now have their own section in most supermarkets. Generally people who follow a gluten free diet have celiac disease. Celiac is an inherited autoimmune disease. The symptoms are triggered by "gluten", the name given to certain proteins in wheat (including spelt and kamut), barley, rye, and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). In celiac disease, the body's immune system responds abnormally to gluten. Currently the only treatment for celiac disease is to continually maintain a strict gluten-free diet. Some people avoid this protein for a variety of other reasons, such as they believe being gluten-free to have some nutritional value. Some say avoiding gluten will help alleviate stress. The good news: there are lots of other grains, and delicious recipes for gluten-free meals and desserts.
Elimination Diets
It’s not just gluten people are avoiding. Gone are the old days of people following doctor-authored, best-seller diets. Incoming trends are “elimination diets” or "cleanses" whereby people are banning whatever ingredients they feel may be doing evil to their bodies. Speak to Jean - she makes up her own cleanse.
Organic Food
While scientists continue to debate whether organic food is healthier or not, consumers seem to have made up their minds. People are also choosing organic because it is one of the few guarantees that produce, meats and other products are created without using synthetic pesticides or herbicides, genetically modified ingredients, antibiotics or growth hormones.
Breakfast
Eight out of ten adults say they eat breakfast—which is good news, since breakfast eaters tend to be healthier and less likely to eat more empty calories later in the day. And from our SA profiles it seems eggs and smoothies are a popular breakfast
favourite. Not only that, our favourite breakfast recipes are becoming mainstream dishes during the rest of the day. Who doesn't have pancakes/waffles for dinner sometimes? .
Goat
Yes, goat. It was on a few lists! And a little digging found that it is the most-consumed meat in the world (nearly 70 percent of all red meat consumed globally is goat). However, on the wave of the goat cheese, goat milk and goat yogurt comes the inevitable appearance of goat meat. There are now complete cookbooks devoted to goat!
Slow Cooker, Year-Round
In the last 10 years, Grandma’s crock pot has made a comeback and with it, all of her classic comfort food recipes. Slow cookers have become the hot wedding gift and now people are using them year-round for everything from breakfast (check out this oatmeal recipe from cooksmarts.com) to dinner. Try the Ginger Garlic Slow Cooker Meatballs from healthcheck.org.
Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is trendy right now, but it does live up to its nutritional hype. Greek yogurt provides "a good dose of protein and is an important source of calcium, potassium and phosphorous."
For Health Check dietician Carol Dombrow’s take on health food trends and a list of the top 50 healthy foods read her article from the Huffington Post.
Remember cake pops? They went from virtually nowhere to everywhere last year. And vegetable chips…especially kale. Well those trends are soooo last year. Not that they are over but they are kind of like day-old cookies: not quite so hot-and-fresh anymore. I took a little tour of the internet and read a lot about what new food trends are happening in 2013 (Canada and the US) . Below are the most common items I found on various lists.
So what’s new?
Quinoa
Once you learn to pronounce it correctly (keen-wa), you may learn to love this light, crunchy whole grain. This gluten-free grain packs 8 grams of protein in a cooked 1-cup serving. I cooked it for the first time this month for my family – no sale with the teens – but I will try again with a little more added flavour. There are millions of quinoa recipes on line!
Gluten-Free Everything
It was last year’s trend, too, but gluten-free is still surprisingly hot. Gluten-free products now have their own section in most supermarkets. Generally people who follow a gluten free diet have celiac disease. Celiac is an inherited autoimmune disease. The symptoms are triggered by "gluten", the name given to certain proteins in wheat (including spelt and kamut), barley, rye, and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye). In celiac disease, the body's immune system responds abnormally to gluten. Currently the only treatment for celiac disease is to continually maintain a strict gluten-free diet. Some people avoid this protein for a variety of other reasons, such as they believe being gluten-free to have some nutritional value. Some say avoiding gluten will help alleviate stress. The good news: there are lots of other grains, and delicious recipes for gluten-free meals and desserts.
Elimination Diets
It’s not just gluten people are avoiding. Gone are the old days of people following doctor-authored, best-seller diets. Incoming trends are “elimination diets” or "cleanses" whereby people are banning whatever ingredients they feel may be doing evil to their bodies. Speak to Jean - she makes up her own cleanse.
Organic Food
While scientists continue to debate whether organic food is healthier or not, consumers seem to have made up their minds. People are also choosing organic because it is one of the few guarantees that produce, meats and other products are created without using synthetic pesticides or herbicides, genetically modified ingredients, antibiotics or growth hormones.
Breakfast
Eight out of ten adults say they eat breakfast—which is good news, since breakfast eaters tend to be healthier and less likely to eat more empty calories later in the day. And from our SA profiles it seems eggs and smoothies are a popular breakfast
favourite. Not only that, our favourite breakfast recipes are becoming mainstream dishes during the rest of the day. Who doesn't have pancakes/waffles for dinner sometimes? .
Goat
Yes, goat. It was on a few lists! And a little digging found that it is the most-consumed meat in the world (nearly 70 percent of all red meat consumed globally is goat). However, on the wave of the goat cheese, goat milk and goat yogurt comes the inevitable appearance of goat meat. There are now complete cookbooks devoted to goat!
Slow Cooker, Year-Round
In the last 10 years, Grandma’s crock pot has made a comeback and with it, all of her classic comfort food recipes. Slow cookers have become the hot wedding gift and now people are using them year-round for everything from breakfast (check out this oatmeal recipe from cooksmarts.com) to dinner. Try the Ginger Garlic Slow Cooker Meatballs from healthcheck.org.
Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is trendy right now, but it does live up to its nutritional hype. Greek yogurt provides "a good dose of protein and is an important source of calcium, potassium and phosphorous."
For Health Check dietician Carol Dombrow’s take on health food trends and a list of the top 50 healthy foods read her article from the Huffington Post.
