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Baby Boomers Change Food Habits to Fight Feeling Old
By Janet Helm, Chicago Tribune via Detroit Free Press
March 14, 2008
Ray Gordon, 59, of Highland Park, Ill., does the grocery shopping. Better eating habits helped him lose 30 pounds and lower his blood pressure.
Chicago attorney Ray Gordon looks at food in a whole new way.
At 59, he has taken over the responsibility of grocery shopping and cooking, a role his wife had for 30 years.
"The kitchen is now my domain," he said. "I enjoy cooking. It's like a hobby."
This transformation was spurred by rising blood pressure and cholesterol levels that landed Gordon at Northwestern Memorial Wellness Institute. After identifying his "food personality," working with a dietitian and exercising for the first time in his life, he dropped 30 pounds and lowered his blood pressure enough to scale back on medication.
"I never used to think about my meals or what I was eating," he said. "I knew I had to make changes."
Gordon is typical of other baby boomers who are getting their act together when it comes to what they eat. They are taking their health into their own hands and changing the American foodscape along the way.
Born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers have driven some of the most powerful cultural shifts in our nation's history, and that includes food, said Michelle Barry, an analyst with the Hartman Group, a market research firm in Bellevue, Wash.
This huge demographic is behind a majority of today's food trends -- everything from nutritionally enhanced foods and functional beverages to fresh local produce and artisanal foods.
"This generation is redefining what it means to have quality food," Barry said. And, she added, they're investing the time to become more knowledgeable about food.
Aging boomers approach food with a sense of optimism and hope, and view it as a way they can help control their future, she said.
Nearly 80 million strong, this generation may have grown up on meat loaf, mashed potatoes and tuna casserole, but now they're seeking foods that can help them stay young, or at least feel young.
Boomers have traded in their Tang for orange juice fortified with ingredients that can lower their cholesterol. They've ditched their beloved Pop-Tarts for high-fiber flaxseed cereal and said good-bye to Tab for acai berry smoothies and green tea.
"The boomers do not view themselves as 'old' like their parents tended to at this age," said Matt Thornhill, president of the Boomer Project, which collects marketing data.
But today's boomers are not looking for the fountain of youth; rather, they seek the fountain of vitality, he said. "They accept that they're no longer 25, but they want to be the best they can be at 50 or 60."
As luck would have it, there's no shortage of advice on what boomers should eat to stay vital and fit. In fact, an anti-aging diet movement seems to be sweeping the nation: Bookstores and grocery stores are filled with how-to tomes and foods promising to keep your mind sharp, arteries clear, bones strong and joints pain-free.
A major champion of this movement is Dr. Michael Roizen, creator of the RealAge program and coauthor of the new book "You Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty" (Free Press, $26).
His approach is based on research suggesting that your food and lifestyle choices can add years to your life. For instance, one recent study found that people who eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, drink moderately, exercise and quit smoking live on average 14 years longer than people who adopt none of these behaviors.
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