Add health to the shopping list...

Looking at the Top 10 Best New Food Beverage Products, it's not hard to see a trend. All have some health benefit (most commonly lower calories).

For the last 13 years, IRI has published its New Product Pacesetters report, an analysis that showcases the ten best-selling new food and beverage products in the US.

In 2007, IRI said health and wellness "reigned supreme" and the analysts saw the trend as a "fundamental shift" in the way US consumers perceived food.

No longer were US consumers just looking at food as a source of enjoyment and satisfaction but as a means to deliver specific health benefits.

In 2008, IRI believes functional_foods will "win big" - it will be interesting to see whether that prediction comes true.

Most interesting to me is how this flies in the face of food inflation. I suppose the cost of food is still relatively low for many (but not most) consumers and they may make up the target market for new food products.

More intriguing to me is what is happening in food portion control. It turns out our eyes can trick our appetites, so dieticians are finding ways to counter this illusion.

Over the past few years, the tried-and-true technique of food journaling has expanded online with Web sites that let you upload photos of your meal – which you snap with a cell phone or digital camera – to keep an eye on potential portion distortion. [More]

To my own horror, Jan and I have begun asking for "senior" choices simply because of the size (well, OK, the price break doesn't hurt, either). And we are no longer embarrassed to split an entree.

I mean, the restaurant more than makes it up on our wine selection.