"What are you going to eat today?"
I believe this sentence will flash in your mind at least once a day. However, the same sentence has completely different real meanings in different historical stages: before the founding of New China, it reflected the stage of material shortage, not enough to eat, not enough to eat; After the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after the reform and opening up, it reflected the great abundance of material life, the state of facing food and even the difficulty of choice, which is a kind of "happy trouble".
In recent years, with the abundance of food, the nutritional intake of mainland residents has been greatly improved, the content and quality of dietary protein and fat have been improved, and the energy supply has been sufficient. However, does the abundance of food mean that mainland residents are healthier? The answer is no. On May 13, in the "2024 China Brand Consumption Series - China Brand Consumption Season", Douyin Mall officially released the "2024 Food Nutrition and Health Trend Report", which pointed out that in the context of abundant food supply, Chinese residents have exposed unreasonable problems in dietary nutrition structure, which are mainly reflected in excessive grain intake, excessive refinement of staple grains, excessive fat intake, and excessive sodium intake, and the nutritional structure of the national diet needs to be optimized.
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022) released by the Chinese Nutrition Society emphasizes the integrity of dietary patterns and the importance of reasonable combinations
At the same time, the "2024 Food Nutrition and Health Trend Report" also pointed out that in the context of the improvement of national health literacy and the continuous strengthening of market education, the public's attention and cognition of health are constantly refined, and they have realized the importance of healthy diet. Professional and effective, back to basics, light and slow control, flavor harmony, and accessibility are becoming the innovative trend of public nutrition and health food consumption.
Today, people's requirements for healthy life are more diversified, and the demand for food has gradually penetrated from a single dinner table scene to daily life. On the premise of eating enough, how to cultivate a balanced and nutritious diet habit from daily life? How to choose nutritious and healthy foods that meet your needs? We may be able to find the answer from this report, which provides insight into the "new normal", "new ratio" and "new trend" of national nutrition.
The awakening of consciousness has prompted "fancy health" to sweep the market
The "2024 Food Nutrition and Health Trend Report" first answers a question on the basis of taking stock of the current situation and challenges of national nutrition and health in mainland China: what is nutritious and healthy food? Generally speaking, nutritional and healthy food refers to the effect of balancing dietary nutrition for the public or a specific population by supplementing essential nutrients and bioactive substances for the human body, so as to improve the health level of the body and reduce the risk of disease, but not for the purpose of treating diseases.
At the same time, the report suggests the impact of diet on health: there is a potential causal relationship between adverse dietary factors and some specific diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic diseases, and the global burden of disease study shows that unreasonable diet is one of the main causes of disease and death in Chinese. The highest percentages of attributions were high sodium intake, too little whole grain intake, and insufficient fruit intake.
Although an unreasonable diet may lead to disease, a reasonable diet also has the ability to improve and balance the health of residents. According to the report, a considerable number of residents have gradually realized the importance of eating healthily and have begun to consciously adjust their eating habits and enrich the table supply. In the past year, the proportion of active Douyin e-commerce users who have purchased healthy food has reached 60%, which fully demonstrates the improvement of the awareness of healthy eating among netizens.
Favorable policies promote the iteration of the concept of healthy eating
In order to improve people's health, in October 2016, the "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline was officially issued, putting forward the goals and tasks of the construction of a healthy China, which is the first time that the mainland has announced a medium and long-term plan in the field of health. In July 2019, the Healthy China Action (2019-2030) was officially announced, promoting the transformation from disease-centered to health-centered, and proposing a series of health goals by 2030. The Healthy China Initiative is a long-term and systematic task, and the food, nutrition and health industry is the most important part of it.
After several years of policy guidance and publicity and education, the public has established the awareness of cultivating healthy and reasonable dietary habits, and consciously purchased healthy foods to intervene in their own health status. According to the "2024 Food Nutrition and Health Trend Report", efficacy is becoming the core indicator of public concern, and mainstream consumers represented by Generation Z will pay attention to the efficacy of products when purchasing healthy foods.
The report concludes that from the perspective of dietary consumption demands, the public prefers concepts such as "green", "natural" and "additive-free", and is more receptive to health foods with "natural" attributes. The public is not completely resistant to "hard work with technology", but disgusted with hidden problems such as excessive food additives and fake and shoddy propaganda. At the same time, more and more people will consciously supplement their own lack of nutrients according to their own needs, or pursue higher content of protein and vitamins, or choose healthy foods with lower "burden" such as low sugar and low fat. The demand for "sugar and fat control" is more obvious in beverages, snacks and other categories, and there is still room for improvement in grain and oil seasoning, baking biscuits and other categories.
The report also found that people are still reluctant to give up pleasant taste buds on the basis of healthy eating habits. How to meet consumers' needs for nutrition and health, while producing healthy foods that can provide emotional value such as taste and pleasure, has become a proposition that the food and beverage industry needs to pay attention to.
New consumption forms and consumption choices have promoted the development of consumption concepts in a healthier direction, new consumption habits have been formed, and healthy products have continued to penetrate into the daily life of the people. Of course, there are still many issues that need to be improved and balanced, and they need to be further optimized.
Technology empowers and enriches healthy diet consumption scenarios
In recent years, the development of short video platforms represented by Douyin and online e-commerce channels represented by Douyin e-commerce have provided great convenience for citizens to obtain health information, reach and consume health products, and health food and the new concepts it brings are widely penetrating into daily scenarios.
Through the empowerment of technology, online channels have effectively helped healthy food penetrate from a single scene on the table to a variety of daily life scenarios. It is understood that Douyin has helped the concept of health to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people through the growth of search volume and the analysis of consumption scenarios, and the scientific and technological empowerment of the health food industry. As a series of IP activities in the food and health industry of Douyin e-commerce, it pays attention to consumers' consumption needs for reasonable diet, scientific health care, and healthy and nutritious life, and also pays attention to the business strategy and market increment of national brands to protect national nutrition.
According to the report, in order to further optimize the product form of health food and improve the consumer experience, the food industry can optimize health food from the nutrition label and packaging form of the product. The report suggests that the nutritional information of food should be displayed in a more simplified form such as icons, symbols, and text, and that the design of small sizes and individual packaging can also be adopted, which will help nutritious and healthy foods penetrate into various daily scenarios and improve the availability, accessibility, and affordability of healthy foods.
As a long-term and systematic task, the Healthy China Action requires the joint efforts of all parties in society, and it is of great significance to promote the improvement and development of the health food industry and improve the health literacy of the people. The release of the "2024 Food Nutrition and Health Trend Report" of Douyin Mall conforms to the general trend of national concern for health and nutrition, and arouses the society's continuous attention to issues such as healthy food purchase, reasonable dietary habits, and healthy lifestyles, which has positive exploration value. It is expected that the field of nutritious and healthy food will continue to build a high-quality national brand and meet the people's needs for a better life with high-quality development.
Source: CCTV