Heard of stevia? if not, don’t fret, you’re in good company. 70% of Americans are not familiar with this relatively new sweetener, according to a new study by Mintel, a consumer research company.

Over the years, the quest for a low calorie sweetener has yielded varying results. Saccharine was hailed as the savior, until it was found to be carcinogenic. Then came aspartame, acesulfame K, and sucralose, each with its own story. But the big deal in sweeteners the past few years is no doubt stevia.

Stevia is a South American plant from the sunflower family, grown and used by locals for its sweet tasting leaves. Stevia extracts are 200-300 times sweeter than sugar, but contain no carbohydrates (calories). This has made stevia a possible alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners.

After being approved by the FDA in December 2008, the sweetener has found its way into many a soft drink and food as well as a stand alone table sweetener. While not considered as dangerous as some artificial sweeteners, stevia still needs more research, according to some consumer groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

However, stevia does face some challenges. Not everything tastes good with it. There is a distinctive aftertaste that works well with citrus flavored products, but not with others. Stevia is also more 3 times as costly to manufacture compared to its more established artificial rivals.

And while  6 out of 10 Americans claim they have no interest in trying stevia, Mintel is predicting stardom for this up and comer. From a mere $95M in product sales so far this year, stevua product sales could be as high as $2 billion in 2011.

What to do at the supermarket:

You’ll be seeing more and more stevia sweetened products in the grocery store in the coming years. While the processed sweetener does seems safe, so did saccharine for many years. That’s not to say stevia is harmful, but perhaps we shouldn’t  jump completely jump on the stevia bandwagon right away.

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Sodium is the new trans-Fat, according to market research firm Mintel. Here are some insights from a recently published survey:

* 115% growth in sodium reduced product claims since 2005.

* 52% of consumers are paying attention to their sodium intake.

* 22% of cosumers limit the amount of salt that they add to food, but don’t monitor the much higher amount in prepared foods.

* 26% check labels for sodium even though they’re not on a sodium-restricted diet

* 75% of people on a sodium-restricted diet said they “do not miss the salt.”

So are we going to see salt disappear from food just like trans-fat has?

Not so quickly. Read more…

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In the past year, consumers have cut back on dining out. They are clipping coupons. Shoppers are careful when spending on extras at the supermarket. And retailers are feeling the pain.

There are, however, some products that are actually experiencing higher sales compared to one year earlier.

Here are a few examples, according to a study by Mintel, a retail market research group:

* Sales of bread products have grown 7% this year, much a higher than a previously projected 2%.

* The classic American lunch – peanut butter and jelly sandwich – is enjoying a revival as well, despite a setback in the past few months due to the peanut butter / salmonella outbreak.

* Frozen meals, convenient and relatively cheap, are experiencing a growth spurt of 4.5% vs a forecast of -0.3% earlier.

Read here to learn about additional products doing well this recession.

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A bit of good news this week. 16 million less Americans are drinking sugary soft drinks now compared to 6 years ago (68% of adults vs 76%). This, from a report published by Mintel, a marketing research firm.

What are we drinking instead?
That’s the bad news:
1. 7.8 million switched to diet soft drinks.
2. 24 million added bottled water to their shopping carts. (the healthiest choice, but oh so many plastic bottles…)
3. 17 million more gulped down energy drinks. (the caffeine, the calories…)
4. 11 million additional future Olympians opted for sports drinks. (the broken dream of  enhancement…)

The study also found that 16% of Americans are concerned about high-fructose corn syrup, while 15% are worried about artificial sweeteners in diet drinks.

At the same time, an academic research report affirms what dietitians have been telling us for quite some time: cutting calories from sugary drinks may be more effective for weight loss than reducing the same amount in solid foods.

The study was  conducted by Liwei Chen, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.S., assistant professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health, LSU Health Science Center, New Orleans and published this week in  the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:

One reason for this [finding] is that the body is able to self-regulate its intake of solid food. For example, if you eat too much solid food at lunch, you’ll tend to eat less at dinner. But the same self-regulation is not there for what you drink, experts say. Your body does not adjust to liquid calories, so over time, you gain more weight, Chen explained.

Thestudy “supports what many have suspected — liquid calories don’t satisfy,” said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. “In addition, the identification that [sugar-sweetened beverages] can impact weight gain more than other liquids is an important message as Americans continue to work to lower their calories.”

more details…

What you need to know:

Soft drinks are a very lucrative market for the food industry. The raw materials are dirt cheap (water, sugar, food coloring), and the returns are very high.

The top 2 players in the US, The Coca Cola Company and PepsiCo, are well aware of shifting trends in consumer preferences and have plenty to continue to offer us from their quiver of brands picked up over years of consolidation.

What to do at the supermarket:

Here’s a radical idea. Why not skip the beverage aisle next time you go shopping?

Tap water in the US is clean, refreshing, and of negligible cost.

In fact, a family of 4 will save over $500 in grocery bills by just quitting soft drinks.

What are you waiting for?

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