More great news for healthy food makers! In a nifty, new graphic taken from Reimagining Health & Wellness 2010, the Hartman Group totals up average consumer health and wellness spending and finds that average spending on wellness products has been on an upward trend since 2005.

A 20 year study recently published from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looked at the relationships between food prices, dietary intake, overall energy intake, and weight, among other factors; the authors write that “price manipulations on unhealthful foods and beverages have been proposed as a potential mechanism for improving diet and health outcomes of Americans.”

A new report from the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council of North America (CCRRC) finds that economic realities are keeping consumers dining at home. For grocery stores, this trend is a boon, boosting in-store food sales by as much as 3.2% according to the CCRRC. Additional research from The Nielsen Company affirms this finding; estimates say that as many as 46% of American households are eating out less frequently.

If you love data and want to know more about the consumers or markets for your products, you’ll be excited to learn about the new Food Environment Atlas launched this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This interesting and useful online mapping tool provides an abundance of data relating to consumer food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics.

Each year, the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) surveys U.S. adults about their eating habits in an effort to quantify the U.S. vegetarian population. The 2009 results are in and when asked about which foods respondents never eat, 3.4% are classified as “vegetarian,” indicating they never eat meat, poultry, or fish/seafood.