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Health Food Fads Move to Takeout

By Joe Barks | May 20, 2014

Chia seeds, quinoa and almond milk lead the list of healthy foods and ingredients that are trending highest on restaurants’ takeout orders

An analysis by GrubHub, an online and mobile food-ordering company, shows that chia seeds, quinoa and almond milk rank among 2014’s trendiest “health” foods that are being incorporated into restaurants’ takeout orders

GrubHub’s analysis examined a year’s worth of order data, focusing on foods and ingredients touted for their health benefits, and found that these items registered the largest order spikes in the last year:

  • Chia seeds – 140%
  • Quinoa – 110%
  • Almond milk – 110%
  • Kale – 99%
  • “Raw” foods – 59%
  • Gluten-free – 52%
  • Pressed juice – 38%

GrubHub’s analysis also looked at where these types of food trends are most geographically concentrated, with the following cities ranking highest as “early adopters” for their percentage of trending “health fad” orders:

  1. Boulder, Colo.
  2. Chicago
  3. Los Angeles
  4. Seattle
  5. New York
  6. San Jose, Calif.
  7. San Diego
  8. St. Louis
  9. Miami
  10. Austin, Texas

“GrubHub order data is an incredible indicator of new food trends,” said GrubHub Inc. President Jonathan Zabusky. GrubHub works primarily works with independent restaurateurs who can test out trends and quickly add new menu items, Zabusky noted. “Menu flexibility like this is a luxury, and it puts our restaurants at the forefront of industry trend-setting,” he added.

Besides identifying food fads and where they’re most concentrated, GrubHub’s health trend analysis also uncovered these additional insights about health food-ordering habits:

  • Gluten-free items, kale and pressed juices are the most popular health food orders, respectively.
  • Women are 44 percent more likely than men to order trendy health foods from takeout restaurants: Hemp seed (110% more common with women), chia seeds (66%), almond milk (63%), kale (61%) and quinoa (57%).
  • Trendy health food orders are 110 percent more commonly placed during breakfast than throughout the rest of the day.
  • College students are nearly 50 percent less likely to participate in these health food trends than the average diner.

About The Author

Joe Barks

Joe Barks is the Editor of Club + Resort Business magazine, working out of Wayne, Pa. (suburban Philadelphia). He has been covering the club and resort industry since the launch of C&RB in April 2005 and during that time has written cover-story profiles of over 150 club and resort properties, as well as many additional articles about specific aspects of club management and profiles of leading club managers. Barks has been a writer and editor for specialized business publications for over 40 years, covering a wide variety of industries and professional disciplines over the course of his career. He is a four-time winner of Jesse H. Neal Awards from the American Business Press, known as the “Pulitzer Prizes” for industry trade publications. He has also been a freelance contributor to many leading national consumer and business publications, and served as Marketing Manager for the Hay Group, a leading worldwide management consulting firm. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

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