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Americans Are Starting

To Shape Up, Eat Healthier

By SARAH ELLISON and SHIRLEY LEUNG Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET

JOURNAL

A new study says Americans, after years of getting fatter and eating less

healthy food, are consuming more fruits and vegetables and are beginning to

lose weight.

Americans ate fresh fruit 6% more often and vegetables 5% more often last

year than they did the year before, reversing a decline, according to a

study of the eating patterns of 5,000 people over 14 days, conducted by

market-research firm NPD Group Inc. Salad consumption at restaurants grew,

driven in large part by a boom in salads offered at fast-food chains.

People also said they exercised more: Respondents who said they exercised

strenuously at least once a week rose in 2003 to 66%, up from 63% the year

before.

The percentage of those surveyed who said they are overweight or obese fell

to 55% in 2003, down from 56% in 2002. Those numbers were based on

respondents' self-reported height and weight and calculated by NPD using

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of Body Mass Index,

or BMI.

" This is a shock to me, " says Harry Balzer, a vice president at NPD and

author of the study. " I've been watching the food industry for 25 years,

and we've never seen America even hint at losing weight. "

GOOD EATS

That's not to say all Americans are on a diet. The study also said

Americans ate dessert more often in 2003 than during the year before. Pizza

consumption rose to 5.8% of all dinners, double the percentage in 1985.

Many previous studies have indicated that American waistlines are widening.

According to a 1999-2000 CDC survey, 64% of U.S. adults age 20 to 74 were

overweight or obese, up from 56% in a 1988-1994 survey. The CDC defines

overweight as having a BMI of 25 to 29.9, while obese is defined as having

a BMI equal or greater than 30. In real terms, a woman is obese if she is 5

feet 4 inches weighing 175 pounds, while a man is obese if he is 6 feet

tall weighing 225 pounds.

" One year does not constitute a trend, " says H. Dietz, director of

the division of nutrition and physical activity at the CDC's National

Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Still, he calls

the results of the NPD survey " encouraging " because it appears people are

beginning to change their eating habits. " I'm hopeful that this is the

beginning of a trend rather than just a blip in the sampling. "

NPD says it's too early to tell if 2003 was an anomaly. Others factors

could be in play, such as in a tight economy consumers take fewer meals at

restaurants, where people tend to eat bigger portions than they do at home.

In 2003, Americans on average ate 200 meals at restaurants, down 3% from

the year before when they ate 206 meals outside of the house.

Americans still aren't eating as healthily as they did a decade go,

according to NPD. For example, while Americans ate store-bought vegetables

127 times in 2003 -- six times as often as in 2002 -- that's still not as

much as in 1993 when they ate vegetables 149 times.

NPD is a Port Washington, N.Y., market research firm that studies consumer

trends in a variety of sectors ranging from food to cosmetics to apparel.

Its clients are the companies in those industries who pay for NPD's

syndicated data. NPD has conducted its Annual Eating Patterns in America

study for 18 years.

Heightened awareness of the obesity problem may be playing a role. In late

2001, the Surgeon General issued a report warning that obesity rates in the

U.S. reached " epidemic " levels and called for a " national plan of action. "

Since then, public-health officials, the U.S. government and media have

strived to raise public awareness about Americans' bulging bodies. Some

consumers have filed lawsuits against fast-food makers and food companies

for allegedly contributing to obesity rates. This summer, the Food and Drug

Administration ordered food companies to add a line to nutrition labels

showing how many grams of artery-clogging trans fats are included in each

serving by Jan. 1, 2006.

" With more and more of the population getting overweight, more people are

getting concerned about their diet, " says Brownell, director of the

Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, and an outspoken critic of the

food industry. " The market for products with a healthy message attached

would only grow in that environment. "

All of this has huge implications for the food industry, which is

scrambling to find products and marketing messages to lure consumers

worried about obesity. A separate study from Information Resources Inc.

shows sales of products whose name imply they offer healthier alternatives -

- such as Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice -- grew a

combined 6.7% in 2002, in a sluggish food market.

After the success of low-fat sandwiches at Subway Restaurants, a unit of

Doctor's Associates, burger chains 's International Inc. and

Mc's Corp. recently rolled out tastier salads, which have fueled

sales and brought in new customers. And just this month, Burger King Corp.,

owned by a group of private investors led by Texas Pacific Group,

introduced three low-fat chicken sandwiches and a Lite Combo Meal featuring

a low-fat sandwich, side salad and bottled water.

--

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and

to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may

win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on

anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12