During “This Challenging Time” may people’s usual food concerns gave way to more immediate priorities: stocking up on staples like proteins, milk, canned goods and the like. (Count me in – I bake our bread and I’m one of those who found it hard to find yeast and flour.) Right after sheltering-in-place (SIP) began, our attention went towards all things comfort: in our food, our home, our down time, everything.
The International Food Information Council (IFIC) conducted their 2020 Food & Health Survey of adults, ages 18-80, in mid-April, during the pandemic. More than 8 out of 10 of us changed how we ate and prepared food in response to COVID-19. People under 35 made the most changes – but not all changes were good ones.
Here are other survey highlights about how we see food and health right now:
We’re eating better – or not.
More than 1 in 5 say they’re eating healthier, but there’s another group, about 1 in 7, who felt they were making less healthy choices. 
We’re cookin’!
About 3 in 5, were doing more cooking at home. Not a surprise, since most restaurants were closed. Grocery stores continued selling their prepared foods at a pretty good clip, however, so cooking at home still was still able to be avoided by some.
You can bet that people working from home and now forced to produce 3 meals a day, probably relied more on help from the prepared foods section of the supermarkets. Supermarket sales in almost all sections of the store were way up.
Got kids? You got snacking!
More than 3 in 5 (41%) parents with minor children were snacking more than they normally did, vs less than 3 in 10 parents with grown children. With more kids at home all day, it figures that there will be more snacking going on, and parents serving snacks are probably more likely to join them. Even so, about 1 in 4 said they were now snacking multiple times each day.
What worries us more about food now?
- More than half had concerns about eating food away from home or eating food prepared outside the home. Roughly half of survey respondents were at least somewhat concerned about either eating away from home or food prepared away from home (take-out, restaurant deliveries, etc.). This was somewhat more so for African-American and Hispanic consumers than for whites.
- Put into simple language, people want to know if the person/persons who made this dish I brought home were careful about proper food safety when they made it.
- “Food handling/food preparation related to risk of COVID-19” had never been asked in this annual survey, but it became the number 1 concern for consumers, knocking off the top 4 food safety concerns of 2019. On the home front, we’re also washing our fruits and vegetables more.
What worries us less?
- Food-borne illnesses from bacteria.
- Chemicals, carcinogens, and pesticides in food.
These were still concerns, but issues related to COVID-19 knocked them off most people’s “top concern” list. It’s consistent with the huge increase in purchases of items like canned and frozen vegetables – foods that people know are safe and have a long shelf life.
Health vs. Weight: Which Matters to People More?
Health mattered a little more than weight but not much. Most participants valued both equally, but women and overweight persons put slightly more priority on weight.
More “style” in our eating!
A consistent trend the past few years is following some form of eating style. Nearly 3 in 5 persons reported trying some type of diet or eating style. Top reason: to try and lose weight.
Top eating style for 2020? Intermittent fasting. It bumped last year’s “clean eating” from first place. Keto/high fat dieting was third.
The survey offered hope, though. “Nearly 6 in 10 place more emphasis on their overall health now in comparison to how they made decisions a decade ago.” Healthier weight will follow – another “two-fer”!
Cut-To-The-Chase Takeaway
We CAN and DO make changes to how we eat – if we’re motivated. Let’s not lose sight of that. Instead of our motivation coming from fear, let it be wanting to feel better. And knowing we deserve that.
