It is no secret that food content has a large and growing presence in digital media . Just enter Instagram to get lost in the barrage of food posts from multiple curators, ranging from those related to weekend dinners, to influencers whose colorful and colorful content reaches millions of potential consumers.
Social networks have made possible the creation of a stream of content curated by algorithms where each user has access to personalized , almost unique publications . This means that each new content, including food content, can be tailored to the consumer based on their interactions with other posts – a plus for many. However, this explosion of food-related information is also creating a problem where digital media is blurring the lines between what is the spread of ultra-processed food and what is “organic” or real food.
On the Internet, as well as in real life, it is quite difficult to differentiate between what is false and what is real, and the same thing sometimes happens to us in the supermarket. And that’s how the real food trend, or Realfooding, was born. A food movement that is taking Instagram, YouTube and Twitter by storm . Many are the profiles that are touting its benefits, but Carlos Ríos and Futurlife21 are two of the most prominent influencers in this new social revolution in Spain, which advocates eating real food instead of ultra-processed ones.
According to Carlos Ríos, founder of the RealFooding.com website and star promoter of this phenomenon, natural and healthy products are those that are not processed or are minimally processed, and where the quality of the product has not been negatively affected during this process. , whether industrial or artisanal. It is about consuming unprocessed products, which do not contain high amounts of additives, such as artificial preservatives, sugar, salt and other additives. For this young nutritionist from Huelva, a well-processed product has been minimally modified and retains the healthy properties that make it safe, durable and appetizing or convenient to eat.
According to Ríos, the objective of the phenomenon is to eat only “real foods” and no more than 10% processed foods, in order to completely eliminate processed foods from the diet. The ideas of these influencers are not at all crazy, and there are more and more studies that indicate the relationship between overweight, diabetes and other types of cardiovascular diseases with ultra-processed foods.
If this revolution towards real food continues, what Ríos defines as “the defense and dissemination of real food, real food”, there is a very tangible possibility that all kinds of food companies, whether they are FMCG empires ( the English Fast-moving consumer good s), clusters of F & B ( food & Beverages ) or food retailers face a drop in income unless they start to restructure their business models and change the way they do their products adapt to a client increasingly aware of their health and wellness.
On the other hand, RealFooding is established as a great opportunity for those brands that want to offer genuine and healthy products within their catalog. This is what the American company Dave’s Killer Bread has done, which makes fresh bread, without refined flours and using only organic whole grain with high fiber content and through an artisanal fermentation process. In Spain, the new “bread law” also aims to create a quality framework for brands regarding the production of this product for daily consumption and to give greater security to the buyer at the time of consumption and purchase. Another company that has changed its brand philosophy is AlfezWhile most brands produce hummus that often includes toxic preservatives such as potassium sorbate, the brand available at Carrefour prepares an organic hummus using a squirt of citric acid to serve as a preservative and olive oil as one of its ingredients. main.
In short, eating real food means going back to the foods and recipes of a lifetime, those that our grandparents made. In this context, brands have to realize that, if they want to stay afloat in the future, they will have to start looking from the outside to the inside and adopt the demands and demands that the consumer makes of them. The Real Fooding we can always know what you are eating, their origin and composition. Eating fresh and processed products in a healthy way is the added value to the simple daily habit of eating, and one of the main pillars and foundations of this social movement that is far from being a simple passing fad.
