An American’s Food Diary
We're a month into 2021, and if one thing hasn't changed, it's all the New Year's resolutions I've been hearing - "eat healthier, change my diet," or something along those lines. With the internet providing us everything we need to know (and more) about maintaining a balanced diet, tips and tricks have become much more accessible... but that doesn't make the actual process any easier!
Let’s take a trip down memory lane—I was a kid in the 2000s, and to be honest, making unhealthy eating choices seemed to be the norm. School lunch calendars included meals such as cheese sticks, pizza, and hamburgers (or the salad bar if you wanted to be “healthy” while using five servings of ranch dressing). If your parents were super cool, you may have even gotten a McDonald’s meal dropped off to you for lunch. Basically, the well-known 80/20 rule (eating healthy 80% of the time and being more indulgent 20% of the time) didn’t exist in my mind (or my parents’ apparently—sorry Dad). I’d say my diet was more of a 30/70… problematic to say the least.
Now I know everyone may have grown up eating differently (if you did, you’re one of the lucky ones), but I know a good deal of kids who grew up in 2000s America know what I’m talking about. Looking back, it makes me wonder—would my diet have been significantly different if the internet were more accessible and social media was booming? As someone who watched the evolution of social media specifically take place, I think the not-so-shocking answer is yes.
With such an abundance of information on YouTube and Instagram, I remember the beginning of my attempt to become healthy(ish) started with finding healthy foodie accounts on Instagram. There are tips on pretty much everything, with some of my favorites being meal prep tips, nutritious snack ideas, and macronutrient-balanced meals. Slowly, my lazy, high school breakfast progressed from eating Fruity Pebbles to whole grain avocado toast and eggs. But when college came around, I simply didn’t have time to go to the grocery store to purchase fresh produce every week. Then came the rise of meal-kit delivery services such as Hello Fresh and Blue Apron—this industry has a current projection to be worth $19.92 billion by 2027. Their advertisements heavily focus on saving time while maintaining a healthy diet — a genius way to target not only college students, but any other busy adult (a majority of Americans??). I can attest to the fact that they definitely do save loads of time, as it eliminates the time needed to find a recipe, make a list, and go to the grocery store to find the items. HelloFresh is now pretty heavily advertised by influencers on all social platforms, which has definitely helped further spread the word about their brand.
As I continued my journey to becoming healthier, I started to read between the lines when purchasing certain products. In particular, I found that the “diet-friendly” snack and dessert categories had an astonishing amount of false advertising. The first instance of this that comes to mind is Nutella—remember when an infuriated mom sued the company for deceptive advertising (and won $3 million)? If you don’t, here’s a recap: Nutella had many commercials and advertisements out at the time that hinted at the product being healthy, although not explicitly stated. One of the commercials boasted Nutella’s “simple, quality ingredients, like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa.” Hmm… they conveniently left out that sugar and palm oil take first and second place on the ingredients list. What’s even more disappointing is that Nutella’s website still currently describes sugar and palm oil as quality ingredients.
But false advertising wasn’t just something I saw on TV—after turning over countless products in the “healthy alternatives category,” I found that more times than not, the ingredient lists contained chemicals and preservatives that I couldn’t even pronounce. To make matters worse, many also contained large amounts of added sugars. One of these desserts that I discovered was Skinny Cow Ice Cream—as the name suggests, this seems to be a good alternative for people looking for a dessert that you feel less guilty about. When I read the macronutrients and ingredients, I realized that although they had less fat, they were much smaller than an average ice cream sandwich from, for example Good Humor, yet still had a significant amount of added sugar. In response to deceptive “health food” packaging, many experts have similar opinions. Kyle Deppen, a certified nutrition expert in New York, said he “advise[s] his clients to have a small portion of what they are actually craving and move on, rather than keeping low-fat ‘knockoffs’ around the house.”
Through much trial and error, I learned that marketers are aware that millennials as a whole are more health-conscious than previous generations, making us an easy target for “diet food.” But with diet culture so heavily reinforced in the media, I was hyper-focused on staying healthy, no matter what. At that point, I stopped buying processed foods altogether and was strictly eating raw foods (pretty much fruits, vegetables, and meats). I even considered doing the keto-diet, which was and still is promoted everywhere. But while I’m sure my insides were loving this phase, depriving myself of a bag of Sour Patch Kids or a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s was simply unsustainable.
Around the point that I realized eating raw foods 100% of the time was unrealistic for me, I stumbled across my favorite grocery store of all times—you guessed it, Trader Joe’s. TJ’s has been deemed a “millennial heaven” with its large selection of private-label items and frequent roll-outs of unique snacks. Currently, my personal favorite TJ’s snacks are their Plantain Chips dipped in their Everything but the Bagel Dip and their Vanilla Overnight Oats (which also doubles as a great breakfast addition). Their products are so great that they actually don’t advertise their brand—yes, you read that right: $0 on advertising. With the cult-following they’ve created, their products and store environment speak for themselves; there are now Instagram influencers who have created accounts solely dedicated to Trader Joe’s products and reviews (@TraderJoesList) has great hauls if you’re interested).