Hey meat guys have to have their fix too!

Chocolate again linked to better heart health

By Stephen Daniells, 17-Aug-2009

Increased intakes of chocolate may decrease the risk of a heart attack victim from dying from heart-related problems, according to a joint US-Swedish study.

More consumers in July said they are spending less on food than a year ago than said so in June, according to a monthly survey by investment firm Janney Montgomery Scott.

The firm said 25 percent of consumers in July said they are spending less than a year ago on food, up from 15 percent in June. In a note to investors, analyst Jonathan Feeney said in addition to buying more private label, going out to eat less and using coupons, the survey showed more consumers buying food at Wal-Mart and they continue to change their diet by choosing lower-priced kinds of foods.

“An increasing number of food dollars are apparently being diverted to Wal-Mart across all geographic, income and household size segments of our survey,” the report noted. For wholesale clubs, the trend has been largely stable, with higher income groups increasing their visits and low income groups decreasing their food shopping trips to places like BJ’s, Sam’s Club and Costco. During the first quarter, low income groups were increasing their club store food purchases.

Nearly half the consumers surveyed said they are spending less on food at both restaurants and convenience stores.

Specifically, the survey showed:

• Consumers are still aggressively foregoing restaurant dining, but at a less severe rate, with 40 percent to 45 percent of consumers reportedly eating at restaurants less than a year ago, compared to 50 percent to 60 percent in the three prior months.
• While the shift to store brands continues, fewer consumers in July said they were buying store brand cereal, soup, cookies, crackers and frozen entrees than said so in June. For frozen entrees, 24 percent said they were buying store brands versus 27 percent in June.
• Consumers are increasingly responding to price reductions, promotions and coupons. In July, 96 percent of respondents said they are buying food with coupons and other promotional offers, a steady increase since April when 87 percent said they were doing so.
• Consumers continue to trade down to lower priced kinds of foods with 92 percent saying they are doing so in July, about the same as in recent previous months.

Can the importance of a balanced diet be stressed enough? According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, Britainis currently experiencing an increase in the number of cases of orthorexia nervosa, a psychological condition whereby sufferers restrict the consumption of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods. They also cut out any foods which contain artificial additives, or have come into contact with pesticides and herbicides.

Ursula Philpot, chair of the British Dietetic Association’s mental health group, is quoted by The Guardian as stating: “Other eating disorders focus on quantity of food but orthorexics can be overweight or look normal. They are solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies, refining and restricting their diets according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly ‘pure’.This unhealthy obsessions with cutting out large numbers of foods or foods that contain certain ingredients may increase the risk of malnutrition” . 

In the first quarter of 2009, there were 14,319 business bankruptcies in the U.S. — a 64% surge from 2008, and the highest of any quarter in at least the past 15 years, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

While little data exists on bankruptcies specifically in the franchise field, the International Franchise Association (IFA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers found in a January study that the economic decline is taking its toll. They project that the number of franchise establishments in America will decline by 1.2% in 2009 — a net loss of 10,000 of the nearly 865,000 establishments that existed in 2008. Recession proof..hardly. Support local independent retailers!