Classify people according to their dietary habits.
In the view of the majority of scientists ”you are what you eat” is something more than a trite slogan. In the face of the overwhelming amount of research confirming the strict connection between eating habits and health, no wonder that more and more people pay attention to what they put into their mouths. Having said that, the statistics concerning the world’s ratets of obesity, people having diabetes and the growing popularity of McDonald’s-like restaurants appear to be implying the opposite conclusion. Certainly, there are huge discrepancies between people’s dietary habits, but they may be classified into three major groups according to how they treat their eating: diet purists, no diet people and those falling somewhere in between these two extreme groups.
To begin with, diet purists are the most discerning and health-conscious category of consumers. They are well familiar with topics like: what saturated and unsaturated fats are, why one should eat only lean meat or how the digestive system works. They always scrutinize composistion of the product they are about to buy. Diet plays such a pivotal role in their lives that they never succumb to a glass of coca-cola or a fat, calorific piece of chicken. They include in their diet plans only the most nourishing, upmarket products, which are rich in proteins, vitamins and fibre, without excess fat or sugar. They are much concerned about eating meals at fixed, stomach-friendly time of day and eat more often in smaller portions. Diet purists constitute relatively small group.
The second group, no-diet type, constitute people who reject at hand terms like diet or healthy food. In this group can be found constant KFC-goers, ready-made food fans and those indulging themselves in sweets whenever they feel like it. Some of those consumers are not aware of the negative influence such a diet has on their health. Others choose fizzy drinks instead of filtered water or freshly-squeezed juices being fully aware of a variety of serious illnesses this diet may lead to. When choosing products they rely entirely on their taste or price, not the quality of products. They also do not pay any attention to the time, number per day or frequency of their meals. No-diet lifestyle appears to be losing its popularity.
In the third group there are people pinned down somwhere in between diet-fixated and no-diet types. Those consumers’ dietary habits are determined consciously, their meals are put in time in a sensible way during the day, whose health-consciousness is realtively high, but who are not rigid enough to be called diet purists. Members of this group are concerned about the quality of their meals, but also have nothing against a fast-food spree once in a while They will have a closer look at a product they want to buy, but will not reject it because of one or two ingredients they do not deem ”welcome” in their diet. Their diets are balanced, but not always and not in all aspects. They certainly constitute the biggest group of consumers.
To sum up, eating is an extremely complex as well as topical issue. People differ on how they perceive and administer their eating habits and each person in the world is a separate, unique diet plan. However, all of them, starting with the most ignorant, staunchest Mc-Donald’s stalwarts and ending with all-green, tofu zeals, can be classified into these three general groups.