Healthy Sales Trends in Healthful Foods

As you recover from the traditional American Thanksgiving stuff-a-thon, you may find yourself vowing to eat nothing but salad and brown rice for the rest of the year.

Americans may have become more health-conscious in recent decades, embracing vitamin-enhanced water and declaring war on trans fats. But we still scarf down artery-busting amounts of cheeseburgers and deep-dish pizza. Anyone in the food-sales business these days can feel caught in the middle: should you appeal to consumers' better natures, or offer indulgent culinary escapism -- preferably chocolate-flavored?

A number of major food companies, including Kraft (KFT Quote) and General Mills (GIS Quote), have learned that it pays to position their products as healthful or natural. The key is to make claims you can back up.

SPINS, a market research and consulting firm for the natural-products industry, recently released a study that showed sales of natural and organic products in conventional retailers (i.e. not health-food stores) grew 12% over the past year. ...