Can't stay away from the cheese casseroles or salty chips? It's not just you. According to data collected by Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a company that monitors spending at more than 30,000 supermarkets across the country, sales of comfort foods have jumped in recent weeks, tracking the public response to terror attacks and anthrax.
"We saw a definite spike in sales after Sept. 11," said Ed Kuehnle, IRI's group president for North America. "Categories like snack foods that were flat to stable for the past few years showed an increase."
For Sept. 9 through Oct. 7, sales of frozen appetizers and snack rolls -- frozen pizza puffs, egg rolls and other bite-sized goodies -- were up 35 percent from the same time last year. Oreo cookies jumped nearly 18 percent -- and, no, that's not just consumers' excited response to a new chocolate-filling variety; IRI compared sales of only the original vanilla creme version.
Other products people turned to: Instant potatoes and General Mills Cheerios (both up about 11 percent), frozen pizza (up almost 8 percent), Kraft dry macaroni and cheese (nearly 7 percent), Jif creamy peanut butter (up 6). In the sweet treats category, ice cream sales rose by 8 percent. Pastries, doughnuts, salty snacks (including potato chips and tortilla chips) and soups all increased by 4 percent.
Dietitians say there's no mystery to the spike in junk and comfort food sales. "People are seeking comfort and trying to bring back good or safe memories," said Roxanne Moore, registered Baltimore dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "In some cases, one way to relieve the tension is to turn to food, especially sweet or salty foods."
Goulda Downer, a registered dietitian practicing in Washington, says she's seen firsthand the effect of the slacking off of good dietary habits. Over the last few weeks, several of her dieting clients lost their momentum and some even put on a pound or two. Most of the damage was done "at home in the evening," said Downer. "My patients were celebrating with food the fact that they made it home safely."
Washington Post November 20, 2001; Page HE03
This story highlights one of the major reasons most of us consume foods that we know are not good for us.
There is usually a stress behind the eating. In my experience willpower simply does not work very effectively for this type of problem in the long run. It invariably fails.
EFT seems to be an incredibly useful strategy to address these types of eating habits. I have recently completed a four and eight-hour class on EFT and the videos for that are available.
EFT is amazingly and consistently effective for these types of problems. It has been one of the major reasons why most new patients are now able to more consistently and easily follow our eating plan.