Having food coma moments is not the only feeling the respondents have after eating, 22% feel frustrated, and 17% report feeling sad by the time they are done eating. 1 in 5 feel that their diet is failing to meet their nutritional needs, 16% admit that their diet is unhealthy, and only 20% think that their diet is very healthy. 23% of women are especially concerned about their diet not meeting their nutritional needs, while only 13% of men share the same feelings.
The analysis revealed that 1 in 5 Americans don’t have any idea where their food comes from. 18% are unaware of the origins of their groceries, and 24% rarely or never read the nutritional labels that are on the items they purchase while shopping, with only 18% of the respondents reporting that they read nutritional labels.
47% of the respondents say that they have seen ingredients listed that they do not recognize on the labels of their favorite foods. Breaking this down by generation, 75% of Gen Z (1997-2012) respondents say that they always read the nutritional ingredients labels, 27% of Baby Boomers (1946-1964) say that they read the labels, and only 23% of Millennials (1981-1996) report reading the labels.
48% of the respondents said that they would feel more apt to purchase sustainably sourced products more often if it was healthier for them, 32% said that they would do so if it would help to improve their heart health, 26% would buy more sustainable sourced products if it would help them to manage their weight, 25% would be motivated to if they boosted their energy, and 20% said that they would purchase more sustainably sourced products if they helped to manage their stress levels.
“By examining this data, we can tell that there’s a persistent problem where people are coming across foods that involve ingredients or origins that aren’t familiar to them, which is then impacting how they feel at the end of the day,” says spokesperson Carolina Schneider, MS, RD, Daily Harvest’s nutrition advisor, in a statement. “That’s something no one should have to worry about when their health is on the line.”
42% of the respondents said that they rely on their doctor as the primary source of information on health and wellness, 35% rely on social media, and 33% rely on their family and/or friends as their primary source of health trends. Whether relying on social media is a good idea or not given that it is the largest source of negative, biased, false, inaccurate, incomplete, non-factual, and misleading opinion-based information, of those relying on social media 71% say that Facebook is the best platform, 44% prefer Instagram, and 41% use TikTok. However, even though they admit to relying on social media, less than one-third of the respondents believe that social media has had a positive impact on how they view their health.
28% say that social media had the biggest impact on people using GLP-1 medications designed for diabetes patients as an off-label use for weight loss. 37% said that they would be willing to try a GLP-1 medication to lose weight, with 48% of Millennials reporting that they would be willing to try, being optimistic but reserved 44% of Gen Z would be willing to try the off-label use of the medications after more research is conducted on it, and 66% of Baby Boomers reporting that they would not be willing.
78% of Gen Z is in favor of the new medications (pending more research) compared to 75% of Millennials. The new medications appear to be more appealing to the 53% of respondents who describe their diets as being very healthy compared to the 37% who admit to not having healthy diets. However, 45% of the respondents say that they will be abstaining from the new medications, with 42% citing hesitations/concerns over the unknown long-term effects of GLP-1s, 35% said that they don’t have a medical need for them, and 23% said that they are not able to afford them.
“It’s clear that people have a healthy amount of caution around these new medications,” continues Carolina. “It’s all about taking the appropriate steps and understanding whether this is the best course of action for a person. People want to know what these medications are, what they can offer them, and — most importantly — the necessity of having a healthy diet to accompany their use.”
