Healthy Food
Healthy Food
Healthy food is a term used for the foods and beverages that have high nutritional value without being overly processed, supplemented, and high in saturated fats, salt, sugar, and additives. To insure the long-term sustainability of health, the agricultural technology has remained stable for many years, yet many studies have argued that consumers overconsumption of unhealthy foods is raising the prevalence of health problems. In order to develop these foods that are more nutritious, the United States Government under The Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and other agencies, American Medical Association, and other non-governmental organizations are continually working to develop health food products. American consumers pay $226 Billion in health products each year, yet there are no standards on which these products must be graded. Healthy foods generally have higher nutritional values than their non-healthy counterparts, but many of them tend to be high in salt, sugar, and animal by-products.
In modern times, scientific research has begun to see the relationship between healthy eating and food safety. The National Restaurant Association – Institute of Medicine, Food Institute and the American Centre for Biotechnology Information are examining the current food industry standards, and are developing standards for produce and meat products to replace the loopholes and inconsistencies in the current industry standards . The food industry will need to fully recognize the shift in priorities of the American consumer, who is starting to link nutrient and energy intake with disease prevention. All these endeavours to improve food safety, enhancement, and industry standards will ultimately result in better consumer satisfaction in health foods.
The agriculture industry contributes to having a low cost for consumers who spend a lot of their money on obtaining food. The industry supplies only the most healthy crops for their customers to purchase. This has spurred restaurants and grocery stores to diversify their foods and produce with more processed foods that are not actually healthy. For example, strawberry shortcake or potato tacos. These healthy foods that are high in refined sugars are recognized as unhealthy. In fact, with food waste, restaurants throw away 40% of the food they offer to customers; this reflects what many restaurants are doing to prepare their menus to satisfy their customers. Healthy food markets, supermarkets, and grocers would continue to create foods that are enhanced with complex chemical substances that are no longer beneficial for the consumer, but are aesthetically pleasing. Healthy food markets, supermarkets, and grocers would strive to phase out not only processed foods, but other items such as fried foods, which adds not only a high cost to the consumers, but also unhealthy chemicals, byproducts, and other additives to the food.
Realizing that healthy food is an essential factor in an individual’s nutrient intake, many states are debating on the ways to improve the health in their communities and overall wellness. The Healthy Food Compact is a nationwide coalition working to create standards and standards for the food industry for nutritious foods that will benefit the entire industry. The group would like to provide a healthy foundation for the food industry. Their goal would be to create “convergence and clarify requirements for the food industry to serve more healthy foods” (Agriculture and Agri-Food Innovation Foundation, 2013). Their first goal would be to help establish standards for producing fruits and vegetables for grocery stores, and eventually eventually industry standards for the food industry. The goal is to develop opportunities and practice for testing nutritious foods within the food industry by establishing interim standards with industry leadership in the coming year. If this is successful, their goal is to establish new industry standards that provide an array of nutritious foods. The healthful meals and products would be significantly less expensive than the current food produced. By the same token, consumers could pay less money per meal than the current standards. Americans are increasingly aware of the plight of being overweight or obese. Their research shows that more than 65% of the nation’s population is obese or overweight. The current industry standards are unreliable at best, and consumers often prefer the food or have a higher quality of product that is obtainable in an affordable manner.
Several studies show that three main trends are affecting the wellbeing of the nation:
- nutrition awareness in children and adolescents;
- an increasing concern of decreasing food production; and
- an increased health concerns about foods that have environmental impact, high nutrient content and are suitable for human consumption (Wellness Institute of America, 2007).
These trends will continue to increase the overall market of nutritious foods that have a high quality and wholesome food that is cheaper than products that have low nutritional value. In order to increase the overall availability of nutritious foods, the dietary guidelines need to be modified to create opportunities to test products to determine their nutritional value. Rather than the current standards of a certain portion of food need to be adapted according to product availability. Such a change will be a big incentive to manufacturers to manufacture high quality and nutritious foods and products.
