HEALTH FOOD

"The restaurant industry is one of the most dynamic entrepreneurial components of our economy, continually introducing new products and innovative concepts over the past four decades. How this industry grew over the past 40 years illustrates what is possible for the Wellness Industry over the next decade.

Baby boomers today spend more than twice as much dining out as did the generation of their parents.

Think for a moment what would happen if baby boomers could choose restaurants that served healthy cuisine that could actually make them younger or could slow down the effects of aging in the future – cuisine like Silk soymilk or Gardenburger meatless patties, or just ordinary cuisine prepared without the addition of heavy creams or saturated fats.

Boomers would flock to such restaurants, as evidenced by the fact that such health-food restaurants already exist in almost every city, and most upscale establishments have added one or two healthy or vegetarian entrees to their menu. Instead of being considered fringe-type food or something grudgingly added to restaurants’ menus, by 2010 healthy cuisine will be almost universal. Whereas today people choose restaurants mostly based on taste, price and convenience, millions will soon choose restaurants based on the healthiness of the cuisine or how they will feel afterward.

Today, on hearing this prediction, you might think that consumers would never flock to healthy cuisine because it costs too much to prepare – yet history proves that advancing technology drives prices lowers and lower in response to consumer demand, especially in the food service industry. There will be widespread consumer rejection of restaurants perceived to serve unhealthy food. All types of restaurants will be embracing a healthy menu, and the term ‘health food’ will soon become as meaningless in describing the type of food at an establishment as the word ‘restaurant’ is today. There is nothing more delicious that food in its natural state but our taste buds have been chemically altered by processed food companies for so long that most of us have been unable to appreciate them.

Consumers everywhere will soon understand that there is a monumental connection between the food they consume today and the way their bodies will feel tonight, let alone tomorrow. The ‘professionally beautiful’, those who literally make a living on their looks, already understand part of this relationship as they navigate through the menus at exclusive restaurants. As you look around, from your nightly newscast to the advertising and packaging that affect and shape our thoughts, you can see that everyone will soon embrace the age-old wisdom of Hippocrates: ‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.’ "

Hear more about how the wellness revolution will impact on the health food industry at The Paul Zane Pilzer Seminar, touring Australia and New Zealand in September 2003.

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