Your 86 year old dad and his wife may be the only two people you know who still call a simple bowl of iceberg lettuce a salad. The fact that they use an ancient combination shooting and shopping hand held appliance to add slivers of carrots and celery to the bowl is all the extras that they ever need. No organic micro greens for them. No thinly sliced snow peas are needed.
In fact, when your Dad visits your house the salads that you and your daughters prepare often go uneaten except by your husband, yourself, and the girls. Wanting to make sure that you have served something that is appealing to everyone, you have actually gotten in the habit of preparing two different salads. One with iceberg lettuce and and slivered carrots and celery; one full of organic micro greens, radishes, snow peas, and a wide variety of other vegetables that were recently purchased at a local farmer’s market.
The Generational Food Gap Is More Apparent Than Ever
Although their eating habits may be different, it is difficult to fault a generation that has been eating fresh vegetables from their own gardens long before buying local organic was ever a thing. And for a generation of parents and grandparents who never really fell victims to the fast food frenzy, it should come as no surprise that this older group has no real need for a move toward a healthier diet. They have already been eating less processed food and more fruits and vegetables that any Millennial can afford to fit into their canvas shopping bag at a high dollar organic food market.
And while you cannot blame the older generation for their eating habits that have kept them alive this long, you also cannot fault the younger generation who are trying to overcome the hand they have been dealt. With parents who have been into fast food meals for their children in between school and athletic practice, there are a number of Millennials who are victims of the fast food economy. These Millennials are simply looking for a way to avoid the rampant chronic health conditions that plague their parents. They are trying to replace iceberg lettuce with true leaf microgreens so they can eat more nutrients; they are trying to replace loads of boutique cupcake frostings with crystallized edible flowers.
Households with incomes of $100,000 or higher are responsible for 36% of the total spending on food away from home, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Much of this dining out, however, has not always been healthy. From fast foods to high fat foods that are part of regional diets, eating out is not often a healthy experience. To a generation of people who always ate at home before the phrase fast food was coined, the divide between what is healthy and sensible can be a long ways from the latest popular food trends.
Healthy Eating Food Trends Are Popular Among Millennials
MicroGreens are be defined as a tiny form of edible greens produced from very young vegetables, herbs, or other plants, but they are not familiar to an older generation who lived for years on the food rom their own gardens. And while organic micro greens can range in size from one to an inch and a half long when stems and leaves are included, these hardly seem like prize produce to in town farmers who prided themselves on the biggest tomatoes and cucumbers in the county.
It should may come as no surprise that an entire generation of older eaters are having no part of what many younger diners are now calling salads. In a time when organic micro greens are finding their way into high end restaurant menus across the nation, however, it should also come as no surprise that many Millennials are trying to duplicate these salads in their own kitchens. Trying to erase an earlier lifestyle of fast food dining and unhealthy snacking, no one should be disappointed that organic vegetables are gaining in popularity both in restaurants and home kitchens.