American consumers are moving toward European food products in increasing numbers, citing potential health and weight management benefits as their motivation. The shift in purchasing behavior is the concrete development. Whether the benefits driving it are equally concrete is what the trend will eventually have to reckon with.
The case for the demand turn rests on what consumers say they expect. The attribution runs to health properties and weight management, with European food positioned in the American consumer mind as the vehicle for both.
The counterargument is in the consumers' own word choice. "Potential" is not "proven." A demand shift premised on anticipated benefits is one that carries exposure to the gap between expectation and experience. That gap has not yet become the story. It could.
On balance, American consumers are making a documented choice to buy more European food products. They say health and weight management are why. The read-through is that this trend runs on belief as much as evidence, and belief is the more volatile of the two.