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Subscribe to RSSSprouts are the latest food fad to hit grocery shelves, as a new Associated Press story tells it. Both organic-friendly stores like Whole Foods and more mainstream chains are offering all kinds of sprouted stuff: sprouted whole-wheat bread, sprouted rye crackers, sprouted baking flour, sprouted brown rice. Sprouts sprouts sprouts sprouts sprouts sprouts! Everybody!
But what's trendy in food today sometimes seems to disappear by tomorrow. Last year, kombucha tea -- that sinister-looking brew containing live bacteria and yeast -- had a brief moment in the spotlight, thanks in part to celebrity guzzlers like Reese Witherspoon and Lindsay Lohan. Before that, flashy Internet ads begged us to try their one tip for a tiny belly -- acai berries. I doubt you need to be reminded of that intense national love affair with bacon. And while this year we're gulping down Greek yogurt, in 2008 it seemed like no one was interested in eating yogurt that didn't help, ah, move things along.
A decade ago, it was low-carb everything; a decade before that, low-fat or fat-free food was king, even though that didn't always work out so well. (Remember Olestra-packed chips -- and those stories of anal leakage?) And a decade before that, on a blessed day in 1982, Diet Coke made its debut. (OK, so some fads stick around -- even in spite of health warnings.)
What about you, readers? What weird food fads do you remember? Which ones do you hope will make a comeback -- and which ones do you pray are gone for good?
You can find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook, and follow Melissa Dahl @melissadahl.
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Ah, I remember wheat germ in the '80's...on cereal, on ice cream, my mother was convinced it was the next best thing! Along with Richard Simmons' workouts, we were all going to be healthy. Pork was the other white meat, and eggs went from evil artery-cloggers to the "wonderful, edible egg".
I wish Pepsi would bring back Pepsi clear. Sadly yes I do the diet soda but at least Pepsi clear tasted like Pepsi and the rest of my diet is pretty healthy.
For a diabetic like me, simple carbs are the kiss of death, and I don't see how they could be very beneficial for anyone in very large amounts. I would vote for packagin that breaks carbs down to either simple or complex.
Bacon? Ms. Dahl is obviously trolling.
To the author: You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Bacon isn't (and never has it been) a fad. Acai berries are still in many foods and still very popular. Greek yogurt has been popular for at least the last five years (slow minded news people like you just finally caught on), and the non-brand-name Olestra is still in a ton of foods. You've somehow managed to take the idea of a food fad (like Pepsi Clear, New Coke, etc) and turn it into something that means food that is still widely consumed but not talked about. Maybe you should do a little more research next time.
Why so negative and mean? The article is pretty much general interest and fluff and the author doesn't seem to mean any harm. Strange.
I wouldn't place pork products in a "fad" category. Bacon or otherwise.
"Whole grain" everything is on my list. And I still stand by it.
Um, I am pretty sure that Pepsi Clear wasn't "diet"-- it was called clear because it wasn't caramel colored. It tastes like Pepsi because IT IS Pepsi.
Bacon is not a fad. It is heaven!
Bacon is not a fad. it is natures sneaky way of getting humans to kill themselves with FLAVOUR! Delicious flavour! and considering more and more bacon products are coming out every single day ( i am surprised Fark does not have a Bacon tag) how can you say that it is gone and was a fad. i mean Brahma! that stuff was popular and everywhere when i was a kid in the 70's and i know it was big before then cause my grandma had a jar of bacon grease on the stove for cooking things with. I have old cookbooks from the 1800s with bacon this that and the other in it. how to make your own and all sorts of stuff. Bacon is clearly never going anywhere soon.
as far as fads. Fat Free is still around everywhere. Sugar free is still around everywhere. I still see ads for Acai Berry. and i still know people that are all atkins and as far as sprouts.. Have you read a cookbook. do you even know what malt is? Sprouted everything has been around since the middle ages. it is just now becoming more well known. and greek yogurt has been at walmart for years now
It was Crystal Pepsi. Not Pepsi Clear folks.
Bacon isn't a fad and I don't believe it is going anywhere. But there has been a trend where it is in everything from Chocolate to donuts. Sprouted foods are tied into the raw food movement, whether this is a fad or not I believe sprouted foods to be very nutritious.
Bacon is a fad?? Hello? Maybe you just mean that people are RETURNING to bacon after the years of trying to eat lame substitutes like turkey bacon?
I wouldn't call Kombucha tea a fad, or Greek yogurt, or Activia or any of this stuff.
Just because you, dear writer, may have walked into a healthfood store half a dozen times in your life at the mercy of advertising and sampled some of these things, and not developed a taste for them, doesn't quite give you the agency to claim they are all fads.
Some "Fads" haven't made their way to rural communities in the middle of the fatty states yet.
Juicing everything!
Wowie. One little jab at bacon and the room starts calling for blood.
I have to agree with the author on this one. Bacon has become a fad. Now, before you get all persnickety let me first say I loves me some bacon... but when I can find in my local grocery store bacon flavored ice cream, chocolate with bacon bits, bacon caramels, and frozen mac & cheese with bacon, we have gone from food to fad. (Although I will be making the bacon mac &cheese for dinner tonight).
Just because your grandmother ate bacon in 1950 does not mean it's not a fad today.
I have to go now. I'm running low on truffle salt and need to go to Whole Foods to pick up more.