Red vs. Blue: Divided by politics, united by food
- Folks in red states and blue states eat pretty much the same foods
- The bigger differences are in what they drink, not what they eat
- Residents of swing states eat more like blue states than red
Folks from red and blue states may vote very differently, but they sure don't eat very differently.
That may sound hard to swallow. But residents of red, blue and swing states have such similar eating and drinking habits that real differences are tough to find, according to a Red State/Blue State/Swing State consumer eating study conducted exclusively for USA TODAY by the research firm NPD Group, just ahead of the election.
People from red and blue mostly start the day with coffee and cold cereal. Both prefer sandwiches for lunch. And both consume gobs of vegetables and potatoes at dinner.
Oh, and no matter if you're red or blue, you're gonna mostly snack on salty snacks, fruit and, of course, candy.
We are a nation divided by politics, but united by food. Stereotypes be damned: The Republican-leaning red states aren't all biscuits and gravy, nor are the Democrat-favoring blue states all granola and yogurt.
"We seek out our differences, but we all have about the same eating and drinking habits," says Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at NPD. Most of the differences tend to be far more nuanced — like the brands of cereal we eat or the type of coffee we drink. Even then, there are some differences worthy of note — like folks from blue states eating much more fruit in any form and folks from red states drinking considerably more soft drinks.
How residents of red, blue and swing states eat matters. Consumers will spend nearly $500 billion on groceries this year and another $632 billion eating out at restaurants. For the big food makers and food sellers, the widely held belief that there's a marked difference in the eating habits of residents of red and blue states appears to be so much, well, baloney.
Not only does the NPD study quash conventional beliefs that folks from red and blue states have widely different eating habits, but it can ultimately affect the way food makers and sellers market, distribute and sell food. And, for those consumers whose politics may be widely different from the other guy or gal, perhaps there's an odd comfort in knowing, we all eat pretty darned near the same.
Eggs, bread and milk made both top 10 lists at breakfast. Salads, soup and soft drinks made both lunch lists. And chicken, salads and soft drinks made both dinner lists. For snacking, red and blue both also went for candy, gum and cookies.
Perhaps most worrisome for Mitt Romney is this: Residents of the swing states eat more like the blue states than the red states. "In this analysis, Romney is toast unless he can get the swing states to eat more like the red states," jokes Balzer. When it comes to our eating habits, he says, "we tend to run to the center."
The NPD study ranked the top 10 most frequently consumed foods and beverages by adults (18 and over) in the red and blue states. It then compared the key red and blue differences to those of the swing states. The online survey of 2,000 households in all 50 states is part of NPD's National Eating Trends database that's constantly updated.
Without exception, the two most commonly consumed items at breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for snacks were the same — though their popularity ranked slightly different.
But some consumers insist they won't vote like they eat.
"Even if I don't eat all that differently, my politics sure are different from most people who live around here," says Margaret Cabral, a veteran school teacher from the blue state of Rhode Island. She moved several years ago with her husband to the city of Tampa in the swing state of Florida.
Like most, she starts the day with coffee — but her preference is decaf. (Whatever is on sale at Whole Foods, typically.) And, like most, she also starts the day with cold cereal, but, with an eye on health, she mixes a lot of fresh fruit, yogurt and flax seed into her granola.
The one twist in her family's eating routine: Her husband, George, is the cook. That's because he was laid off from his job as a Citibank vice president several years ago, after they moved him to Tampa for the job. "He was gone in their first round of layoffs."
So, while Margaret still works as a part-time professor at a local community college, George stays home and cooks. And, yes, their typical dinners match the national convention: veggies, potatoes and chicken or beef.
Both Cabral and her husband will vote for Obama, she says. "I don't think Mitt Romney has a clue what it's like to step in the shoes of a middle class American," she says.
Then, there's Kae Sutherland, a retired human relations administrator who lives with her husband in Hector, N.Y.
She doesn't eat quite like the rest of us. For one, she's dropped the coffee at breakfast for tea. "When I went on the Atkins Diet, I turned off of coffee," she says.
She admits to sipping wine with her lunch. And at dinner, she and her husband support Meatless Mondays with veggie dishes of some sort. When Sutherland and her husband were married 29 years ago, he told her that he was a meat-and-potatoes guy. "I've pretty much cured him of that," she boasts.
Sutherland and her husband plan to vote for Obama. "I'm an old hippie," she says. "I think Democrats eat healthier than Republicans."
But the substance of the NPD study indicates she's wrong — Democrats and Republicans mostly eat alike. Here's what else the NPD study found:
-- Our eating habits become more similar after breakfast.
"Not only do we all basically eat alike, but our eating habits become even more similar the later the day gets," Balzer says. That is, our eating commonalities grow even stronger after breakfast.
Eight of the most commonly consumed breakfast items made the top 10 lists for both the red and blue states. Our eating patterns, however, became even more common at lunch and dinner, when nine of 10 items made both lists.
Unlike the blue states, the red had bacon and sandwiches on the top 10 breakfast list. Unlike the red states, the blue had hot tea and yogurt.
At lunch, the only item on the red state list that didn't crack the blue state list was chicken. And the only item on the blue state list that didn't make the red was milk.
At dinner, iced tea cracked the red state list, but not blue. And fruit cracked the blue state list, but not red.
-- There aren't many big differences.
Of more than 4,000 food and beverage items, there were only 27 significant differences. (These are items that NPD says have a 2 percentage point difference between red and blue states.)
Of those, one of the biggest differences at breakfast was overall fruit juice consumption, which was preferred by 24.2% of all blue state respondents vs. 18.6% of red states.
For that matter, while 3.5% of red state respondents preferred biscuits at breakfast, a paltry 0.6% of blue state respondents did.
-- Our biggest differences: soft drinks and fruit.
The biggest differences between red and blue states is our carbonated soft drink consumption — and our fruit eating habits at lunch.
At lunch, the big difference is in how much fruit we eat and how many carbonated soft drinks we consume. While 18.7% of blue state residents prefer fruit, that number falls to just 13.4% of the red states.
"The blue states tend to favor fruit over the red states, whether it's for eating or drinking," says Balzer.
And while carbonated soft drinks are preferred by 24.6% of red state residents, that number falls to 18.5% of blue staters.
-- Our food habits are more similar than our drink habits.
Maybe it's the temperature difference between the North and South. But one thing is clear: Carbonated soft drinks and iced tea both get more traction in the red than the blue states.
And here's one that even surprised Balzer: When it comes to alcohol consumption at dinnertime, the blue states out-drink the red. At dinner, some 6.4% of blue state residents preferred to drink alcohol vs. 4.3% of red states.
-- Swing states eat more like blue than red states.
But what about the swing states?
The best way to measure their habits, Balzer decides, was to compare the number of food or drink items that registered more than a 2 percentage point difference between the swing states and blue and the swing states and the red.
Of 27 food and drink items that fell into this category, the swing states are more like the blue states in 18 of them. In eight, the swing states were more like the red states. And in one, there was no difference at all.
"I'm ready to phone Romney's campaign headquarters and let them know they're in trouble," jokes Balzer. "It's not even close."
Here's what America eats
The 5 most frequently consumed foods and beverages by adults in red and blue states for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacktime. Ranked on percentage of meals that include the following foods:
BREAKFAST
Red states:
Coffee: 39%
Cold cereal: 26%
Fruit juice:19%
Eggs: 14%
Bread: 14%
Blue states:
Coffee: 43%
Cold cereal: 29%
Fruit juice: 24%
Bread: 16%
Fruit: 15%
LUNCH
Red states:
Sandwich: 39%
Soft drinks: 25%
Fruit: 14%
Vegetables: 13%
Potatoes: 12%
Blue states:
Sandwich: 41%
Fruit: 19%
Soft drinks: 18%
Salty snacks: 12%
Salads: 11%
DINNER
Red states:
Vegetables: 27%
Potatoes: 22%
Soft drinks: 21%
Sandwich: 18%
Salads: 15%
Blue states:
Vegetables: 31%
Potatoes: 20%
Salads: 19%
Soft drinks: 17%
Sandwich: 17%
SNACKS
Red states:
Salty snacks: 20%
Fruit: 15%
Soft drinks: 12%
Candy/gum: 9%
Cookies: 9%
Blue states:
Salty snacks: 22%
Fruit: 21%
Candy/gum: 9%
Cookies: 9%
Ice cream: 7%
Source: NPD Group