Americans love a good diet.
The majority may not like the actual dieting, but they do like diets. Americans spend billions of dollars on them, and some tend to get a bit obsessive -- latching on to fads with near-religious fervor and making them the center of their lives.
The most-searched-for dieting term in all of 2013 was "paleo diet." Given such a high level of interest, supermarkets would be expected to be filled with brands sporting caveman logos.
But take a walk through your local retailer and you won't see any such thing. Why?
The paleo diet is popular and influential. But it's also strangely invisible to many consumers and food executives. That's because paleo eating is a sort of blanket trend that covers other food movements such as high-protein and gluten-free.
In that sense, the paleo diet is less a diet than it is an approach to food, just as a concern for animal welfare is an uber trend that exists over both veganism and cage-free eggs. And the paleo diet tends to intersect with other uber trends, particularly the Crossfit exercise craze.
The caveman diet
Paleo eaters believe that humans evolved to eat specific foods -- foods that were present during the Paleolithic era. If you can imagine what a spear-wielding, group hunting, cave-dwelling early human ate, then you have the outlines of the Paleo diet.
Paleo eating is about pre-agricultural foods. Thus meat is big with paleo eaters. But not just any meat -- only meats from animals that eat grass like the ancient animals did. The sort of grains that dominate the American diet today simply didn't exist in the Paleolithic era. So grain-fed cattle, as well as breads, cakes, and cookies, are shunned. Our paleo ancestors were hunters and gatherers, not growers. So paleo eaters like the old-fashioned edible plants, i.e., root vegetables, nuts, and greens. They shun legumes.
The paleo diet is, in essence, a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet that calls for the avoidance of processed foods. If that sounds like the undercurrent to much of the food industry today, then you understand what we mean when we say the paleo diet is an uber trend.
Winners of the Paleo trend
So what foods and brands are prospering in this era because of their ties to the Paleolithic era?
Grass-fed beef
Twenty years ago, it was nearly impossible to find grass-fed beef in America -- the only folks producing it ran small organic farms. But when Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" was published in 2006 it gave a publicity boost to both grass-fed beef and the farming methods that produce it.
Today, grass-fed beef is at the core of the paleo diet. Overall sales of such meat is rising at about 25% a year. The biggest winners in this space are ranchers in Australia and New Zealand who have struck deals to import to America.
Jerky
When paleo eaters snack, they look for portable versions of the same low-carb foods they eat the rest of the time. So fruits and veggies are popular. And so is jerky. Spend any time on one of the Websites dedicated to paleo eating, and you'll find yourself overwhelmed with information about jerky.
One big winner in this is Jack Link's, a meat snack maker based in Minong, WI. The jerky maker says it's the fastest growing meat snack maker on earth, and that is probably true, particularly since it just bought its two biggest European rivals.
Other protein snacks
The paleo world is filled with gurus and leaders and influencers, all seemingly in constant war with each other. Among the battles they fight are whether or not dairy is appropriate for paleo eaters. Obviously, our cave-dwelling ancestors didn't milk cows. But leading paleo celebrities like Mark Sisson will consume dairy in moderation, whereas rival Loren Cordain thinks dairy is poison.
Americans, even the most health-conscious of them, tend to consume a lot of dairy. And so it's no surprise that among the high-protein snacks that seem to be getting a boost from paleo eating are yogurt and Oscar Meyer's P3.
Nut butters
Paleo eaters don't eat peanuts or peanut butter, because peanuts are legumes, not nuts. That's led to a surge in the use of almond and cashew butters by paleo aficionados.
The obvious winner here is Justin's. There are loads of nut-butter makers, but Justin's has managed to land distribution deals at major retailers like Whole Foods. Perhaps more importantly, Justin's handy pouches have made them popular for paleo snackers and the bring-a-paleo-lunch-to-work crowd.
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