Food Trends

As someone who cares about food and food trends, this was interesting.

I don’t know if I agree with this definition of food trends, it seems too strict: “There’s a fine line between a trend and a fad. Trends are longer-lasting and more impactful. They stay on even after it stops being the thing that Bon Appétit and every other food publication writes about. Think about extra virgin olive oil—with the gourmands it hit big in the late ’70s, early ’80s, and it trickled down to everyone else in the ’90s. It became the “thing.” Now it’s not a trend, nobody really talks about it. But it’s the default oil. It becomes a part of your eating culture. Trends do that. Fads don’t. Fads are the Cronut of the season.”

This is definitely interesting: “The difference now is that the 21st-century food media is an unprecedented food creature in its breadth and its scope and its speed. The Cronut is the most beautiful example. It went from an item to a food trend—or fad—instantly, and it was entirely because of the media. The speed of trends, the cycle of trends, and the volume of their impact is exacerbated by the food media.”

And this is so true: “How closely tied is health with food trends?
The line bleeds again—you can get chia-seed cupcakes and burgers with kale on them. But health trends are the most powerful food trends. When you see the mania around health and food in North America—”What should we eat? What’s the best thing to be eating? I only eat goji berries, I only eat chia seeds, I put it in this. You want as many antioxidants as possible. You want as few antioxidants as possible. Eat as much butter as you can. Eat no butter. Eat only natural fats”—it drives people crazy, but it drives sales. The power of someone like Dr. Oz to say something like, “Eat blueberries, you’ll live longer,” is going to sell a shitload of blueberries. Then people are going to take note of that and put blueberries in whatever the hell they can. Blueberry Doritos. Blueberry-flavored 7-Up. There was a product called Cherry 7-Up Antioxidant. They put a little bit of cherry juice in there and yeah, legally it has antioxidants. But it’s a can of diabetes. It’s not going to save you.”