Fortune magazine published an article this week on what our diets might look like in 10 years. My take-away from the piece: we’ll be straddling two worlds due by and large to technology.  On one hand it will be highly personalized.  We'll be able to select foods specific to our individual health needs.  On the other hand it will become pretty impersonal. Technology will focus on numbers and nutrients so we choose “good things” based on a score versus on an understanding and interest in the flavors and fun of good food. 

 

According to Dan Kraemer’s article, each of us develops a philosophy about how and what we eat.   Our philosophies are shaped by family, friends, television shows, celebrity spokespersons, and hopefully a doctor and dietitian along the way. Net out:  depending on who we listen to, many of us end up with an incomplete and often inaccurate understanding of how foods affect health.

 

By 2020 technology will change that, suggests Kraemer. All the interconnectivity being developed will link us with every minute piece of information that can help us understand how to eat as best as possible for our personal health needs. 

 

Lost in his predictions is the emotional “connectivity” most of us have with food.  It sounds like if we’re provided (through technology) with information on what’s good and what’s not-so-good foodwise, we’ll think logically and make better choices. That may work some of the time, but from experience, what drives our food decisions is much more complex and involved than logic. 

 

Food and eating are multi-dimensional, emotion-driven entities. They may be suited for some technological applications, but technology and information alone will likely have a small impact on many, if not most, people’s food decisions.   

 

Mr. Kraemer suggests that new technologies (be it ones we personally own or ones created by food manufacturers and grocery stores) will encourage consumers to make food decisions based on “health” first. As a dietitian that may be music to my ears, but as a food enthusiast who is also a dietitian, I sure hope our future looks juicier and less robotic than that.