diet food

With the hectic lifestyle that most Americans live, how does one have time to count calories and prepare healthy meals, let alone finding time to do smart shopping. Then there's the pitfall of binging on all the unhealthy food that's on display everywhere in the grocery store.

This is exactly what the 40+ Diet Food Meal Delivery Companies are banking on as they hope dieters will let them do all the work for them. There is tough competition out there and companies are looking for ways to make their plan the most appealing to the potential dieters.

We recently sampled 4 such companies' services and here is how they stack up.

Some diets promise extraordinarily fast weight loss - achieved by cutting calorie intake to (dangerously) low levels. If you're ever tempted to follow a Very Low Calorie diet, make sure you know the facts first.

Focusing exclusively on calories opens the door for all sorts of interesting processed food products.

One such product is PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter from Bell Plantation.

In the confusing world of nutrition - things are never what they seem. Two new pieces of research show how "diet" foods may not be particularly helpful for children.

Weight Watchers Australia has come under criticism for using hydrogenated vegetable oils in its branded dessert foods. Please note that this applies to mousse and custard products only in Australia and New Zealand.

This issue of "diet" food is an interesting one. The Weight Watchers plan (which is arguably one of the most respected weight loss programs) does not require any "special" foods.

So why the need for branded foods?

Sales of diet foods in the UK have been steadily declining. It seems that Meal Replacement shakes and bars a becoming less appealing. The UK market has fallen 64% since 2001. That's a significant change.

Researchers Mintel predict that the market will halve over the next 5 years (via Daily Mail)

It seems to me there is a shift toward more "natural" foods. This is a good thing. The marketers have realized this and we are seeing considerable promotion of foods with "natural" ingredients.

Shakes and bars are useful as a temporary convenience food - but they are never a replacement for whole foods.

It's not the food - it's the labels. Labeling food as "low-fat" has been a real boon for marketers. However new research has shown that if a food is marked as "low-fat" -- people tend to overeat that food.

Recently I came across a review of a particular Low Fat Peanut Butter. Such a product highlights everything that is wrong with the modern dieting obsession. It's a mentality that runs deep. Does the thought of butter make you break out in a cold sweat? Do you reach for a carton of bland "table spread" with relief?

Consumers are spending record amounts of money of diet products. In Europe, the diet food and drink market was valued at £4.6 billion (US$8.1 Billion) - and is predicted to just keep on rising. However - obesity rates keep on rising too - so what is with all these "diet" foods? The author of a recent survey blames a "credit and debit" attitude: “Because they have done something good like go to the gym or eat a diet product, people think they have earned being able to eat something like a pie or a cake. “As long as that mentality exists it is not going to affect waistlines.”

It seems that consumers are leery of pills and potions, so food manufacturers are trying to market fortified food as a health alternative. Could we end up seeing beer with health claims on the label? Beer drinkers the world over would rejoice... and knock back another pint.