Not so good. The audience award winner Metaplace is out of business, while the actual winners – Mint and Powerset got 1% and 0% of votes, respectively. See for yourself.

Vincent Lauria,  Lakshmi Narayanan and Todd Miner collected historical data on the past 3 1/2 years of svnewtech demos and visualized it by using Diagramic software, with the help of Alex Kouznetsov.

I simplified the spreadsheet data by:

- filtering out highly repeated keywords such as ads (you can‘t get away from them – no change since 2006), blogs, Search (no interest in 2009 compared to 6 demos in 2008, see below), Social and similar keywords.

The result?

We’ve transitioned from virtual worlds to virtual goods, are less interested in community chat and more in finance (be it social lending or accounting and fund rising), have less spare time and … may be ready for something new, not yet shown on the charts.

Mirrored from Aurametrix Blog

What is Health 4.0? To answer this question, let’s take a look at the evolution of World Wide Web.

1st Generation Web, a.k.a internet before the bursting of the dot-com bubble, was a dial-up, 50K bandwidth, built around fixed content, with static pages and framesets providing one-way web of information.  Web 2.0 – coined in 2003  – according to Netflix’ Reed Hastings “is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0”. Everybody has a slightly different vision of generations 2.0, 3.0 and beyond. What are they?

Web 1.0 “read-only”
Web 2.0 “read-write” (blogs, RSS feeds, tagging)
Web 3.0 “read-write-execute”: small apps with data in the cloud -  google vision; or a true communal media – yahoo vision
Web 4.0  when all of the above come together to form the learning self-aware Web, the era of artificial intelligence

We are now at the fork of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, focusing on usability for humans and on internet architectures for machines. Some call web 3.0 a 3D game-environment web or a semantic web. Semantic Web was envisioned byTim Berners-Lee as  a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange easily understood by computers. Semantic technologies are already out there, for example, TrueKnowledge, Zemanta, newssift, wolframalpha, nextbio…

Analogous to the Generations of the Web, everybody is talking about Entrepreuneur 2.0, Women 2.0, DNA Sequencing Technologies 3.0…  Business models for health care evolved from solution shops to facilitated networks,  transforming the organization of health care delivery.

So, what is Health 4.0? According to this blog:

Health 1.0 = content

Health 2.0 = content + community

Health 3.0 = content + community + consumer-centric commerce

Health 4.0 = content + community + working commerce models + coherence

If that’s all it takes, Aurametrix is already building Health 4.0 technologies.

CHW Health blog gives the following definitions:

Health 1.0    Disenfranchised patients, a ”Dr. Knows Best” approach.

Health 2.0    The empowered consumer

Health 3.0.   Personal responsibility becomes part of the social contract we all have with one another. Not only will consumers be given the tools and information they need to make better choices — they’ll be expected to do so. And there will be consequences for not doing so.

But consumer owned healthcare’ isn’t quite here yet, even though number of US Health 2.0 consumers is at 60 million. 10 million adults use their cell phones and PDA/smartphones to look up health and medical information, and “a growing number of patients are rating prescription drugs and treatments on sites like iGuard.org, DailyStrength.org, PatientsLikeMe, and WebMD.” See the top health web apps, the trends to watch in health 2.0, the latest industry stats and Health 2.0 updates by ReadWriteWeb.

Long Live Health 2.0! Welcome Health 3.0!  And let’s start planning generation 4.

Telehealth Monitoring Wristwatches

The first reported person to actually wear a watch on the wrist was the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). With a piece of string, he attached his pocket watch to his wrist. In the late 1800s, the wrist watch was officially invented by the Swiss watch maker, Patek Phillippe. The first wristwatch for men was designed by Louis Cartier in the early 1900s. The Cyber Heartbeat LED watch (shown on the left) won’t measure your actual heartbeat, mimicing an EKG spiking in correlation to the time. But many watch-like devices actually measuring a multitude of vital functions have been developed. Ranging in price from less than $30 to $400 and more, a variety of real heart rate monitors are available in the market. Suunto, for example, can calculate metrics like oxygen consumption, respiratory rate and training effect. On the lower end, the Omron HR-100C is easy to use and doesn’t have a lot of fancy functions to confuse novices, measuring heart rate with a chest strap and… transmitting data to the wrist-mounted display. If you want more features than the basics, reviewers recommend the Polar F11 heart rate monitor. The Garmin  305 (image on the right) has an integrated GPS antenna, so unlike most heart rate monitors, it can tell how far and how fast you’re going.

An iPhone Blood Pressure WebApp by Bit&Becker will monitor your blood pressure over several periods of time. It will also show your Max/Min and Average Systolic, Diastolic Bloodpressure, as well as your Pulse. You can export your data in CSV (Excel) Format. Current version of Blood pressure monitoring devices has now support for extreme high and low blood pressure values. And no more google ads, to keep your blood pressure low.

Animas Corporation, which is now a Johnson & Johnson company, is no longer

selling the current model GlucoWatch G2 Biographer System, shown on the right. Cygnus Inc. (Redwood City, California) is already working on second and third generation products that will overcome some of limitations of this watch which include skin irritation and calibration, meaning additional finger-stick tests redone about 20% of the time.

TeleMedIS System combining the TeleMed HC Platform developed by Karolinska and Telehealth Monitoring Wristwatch (TMW) developed by Tadiran LifeCare, connected over the Wireless Network (provided by TeliaSonera Sweden), is able to measure user vital signs by using integrated biosensors. This includes 1-lead ECG, Blood oxygen saturation level (SpO2), Pulse (heart rate)

Victorian researchers have developed a wristwatch that continuously monitors the health status of people with Parkinson’s disease to help doctors manage their treatment, Victorian Minister for Innovation Gavin Jennings said in May 19th press release. The wristwatch, which is still at the prototype stage, was introduced onto the world market by Mr Jennings at BIO2009 in Atlanta, USA.

Dreamate Sleep Inducer is a non-invasive sleeping aid wristband. This watch-sized device on a strap uses acupressure techniques to “retune the biological clock and train your body to relax and sleep by massaging key acupoints on your inner wrist”. The Taiwanese gadget provides a double-frequency micro-massage (via a vibration motor) to specific pulse points—termed the “Sleeping Golden Triangle” points in traditional Chinese medicine. The company says it helps in relieving stress, inducing sleep and is especially beneficial for people suffering from jet lag.

Health equipment manufacturers such as Omron Healthcare Co Ltd, Nipro Corp, and Matsushita Electric Works Ltd, all of Japan, have been announcing terminals to measure physical activity.  These “life recorders” are specifically designed to make it possible to accurately measure the amount of physical activity, pulse, skin temperature and motion. They also measure external factors such as atmospheric pressure.

If you wear the GoWear fit armband during the course of your day, then log onto your personalized GoWear fit online activity manager, you’ll get information about the calories you’ve burned, plus a calorie consumption calculator and tips for how to best reach your fitness and lifestyle goals. GoWear fit also measures sleep duration and efficiency – so that you can begin to understand the influence your bedtime has on your overall health

The Watch without a Face

And if you do not want the world to know what exactly you are measuring, consider design suggested by Hironao Tsuboi for an LED watch. It looks like just a metal band. Push a button, and you get the time or what you’d like to get. Don’t push the button: no numbers, no curves, no pie charts. Very simple.

The term telemedicine was coined in the 1970s by Thomas Bird. The origins of this technology date back to smoke signals in ancient times. Earliest electroni devices included STARPAHC – a van staffed by two paramedics with a variety of medical instruments including electrocardiograph and x-ray. ATS-1, the first Applied Technology Satellite was in use in 1971-1975 to provide rural health care in Alaska. Minimal television system for remote diagnosis was developed in early 70s. Applications of telemedicine in early 2000s included remote consultation and diagnosis, specialty clinical care (anesthesia, dermatology, dentistry, cardiology, psychiatry, radiology, critical care, oncology, etc), patient education, home monitoring, and continuing education.
The health care cost is rising each year, it’s already 16%-17% of the GDP. Wide utilization of wireless communications can reduce the health care cost by billions of dollars on an annual basis. Here are some examples of new developments.
Cisco HealthPresence combines state-of-the-art video, audio, and medical information to create an environment similar to what most people experience when they visit their doctor or health specialist. First Cisco HealthPresence booth was installed in January 2008.

Another California company, CardioNet provides the next-generation ambulatory cardiac monitoring service with beat-to-beat, real time analysis, automatic arrhythmia detection and wireless ECG transmission.

A startup in Redwood city, CA, works on
ingestible technology: microchip-enabled medications that provide patients with valuable information to customize their therapy. Proteus’s implantable ChipSkin™ technology adds tiny active electronics to devices that use electrical energy to deliver therapy inside the body. Similar technologies are being proposed (like a medication reminder watch by a UCLA student and the MedTracker device) or developed.

If you experience unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, anemia or GERD, you may be tested by capsule endoscopy with PillCam® family of products from Given Imaging. Vitamin-sized capsules with miniature video cameras inside will send pictures of your GI tract to a computer for your doctor to review. For GERD diagnosis, BRAVO pH monitoring system could be most useful.
Swallowable devices such Radio pill tocan monitor players temperature . Researchers are planning larger volunteer testing events this year.

This gadget is displaying your identification card, if you need it, , but is also a Bluetooth headset device and has the features of other wireless headsets. With up to 40 hours of talk time on a full charge, the Smart Badge by Iqua is easy to carry and use, is stylish and smart. Its standby time is up to 600 hours, it vibrates to alert incoming calls silently during meetings and allows 3-way conference calls.
It also has LED lights displaying Bluetooth connection, call status, and low battery indication. With supporting cell phones, this badge also allows for voice activated dialing. For full features and specification, you may find the Pdf of the product brochure here.

To be continued.

The swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is an RNA virus coding for 8 genes. The sequences of these genes from strains isolated in Texas, California, New York and Kansas can be downloaded from GenBank:

• HA encodes hemagglutinin (about 500 molecules of hemagglutinin are needed to make one virion). This protein determines the extent of infection into host organism,  bronchial epithelial cells, lungs and other organs.
• NA encodes neuraminidase (about 100 molecules of neuraminidase are needed to make one virus particle).
• NP encodes nucleoprotein.
• M encodes two matrix proteins (the M1 and the M2, which is an ion channel) by using different reading frames from the same RNA segment (about 3000 matrix protein molecules are needed to make one virion).
• NS encodes two distinct non-structural proteins (NS1 and NEP) also by using different reading frames from the same RNA segment.
• PA encodes an RNA polymerase.
• PB1 encodes an RNA polymerase and PB1-F2 protein (induces apoptosis) by using different reading frames from the same RNA segment.
• PB2 encodes an RNA polymerase.

The genome is a composite of avian flu, human flu Type A, human flu Type B, Asian swine flu, and European swine flu. A strange combination having less than 0.1% chance of being a natural event. Most of the genes, including the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, are of the same family as seen in US pigs in the last decade, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M) protein genes are more like swine flu viruses seen in Eurasia.  Other chunks of the genome came from influenza viruses carried by birds and humans. Novel swine flu isolates are resistant to the older antiviral adamantane class of drugs (M2 inhibitors), but sensitive to the adamantanes. Two anti-viral drugs on the market – Tamiflu and Relenza –can lessen the symptoms of swine flu.

Take a look at the BLAST results of 8 NA sequences coding for the protein targeted by drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). Perfect alignment to european swine flu sequences, minimal variations.  The bird viruses come second best. Taking into account that bird flu easily developed resistance to the above mentioned drugs, and that vaccine development will be a challenge, this does not sound too good.

Flu viruses are growing resistant to key weapon Tamiflu This year, Tamiflu resistance in that class of viruses has reached almost 100%, turning the tables on a drug designed to defeat resistance. A CDC team tested 1,155 A/H1N1 viruses from 45 states. They found that 142 viruses from 24 states were resistant to Tamiflu, or 12.3%. Earlier this year, 264 of 268 viruses tested were Tamiflu-resistant, or 98.5%,  reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

CDC expects we will see more deaths. From a historical perspective, this is, indeed, scary: Asian Flu pandemic of 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968 occurred as a result of influenza mutated by antigenic shift, recombination similar to the one observed for current swine flu outbreak. Missense mutations account for other milder epidemics (1962, 1964, etc). The human swine flu outbreak continues to grow in the United States and internationally. So is it going to be a Worldwide Pandemic or a Case of the Sniffles? Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Swine Flu Unlikely to Affect the Economy (time.com)
• Swine Flu: Facts, Myths and Whether to Worry (abcnews.go.com)
• Swine Flu: What You Need to Know (abcnews.go.com)
• Resistance to Tamiflu Growing (nlm.nih.gov)
• Swine Flu: Is this the Big One? (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
• Questions, answers about swine flu (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Why the hullabaloo about Swine Flu? (thegenesherpa.blogspot.com)
• CDC Readies Swine Flu Vaccine (time.com)

Economists React: Divided on Risk of Deflation

“.. More interesting is, how prices of other goods and services are reacting to the economic slump. The core rate, which excludes energy and food items, increased 0.2% for the third consecutive month. This suggests that deflation is not a concern for the US economy despite the worst recession in decades..”  UniCredit

Even with energy prices having flattened out of late, the deflation risk confronting the US economy is real. Moreover, unless there is a powerful V-shaped recovery – which we deem highly unlikely – it is going to be several years before inflation risk resurfaces. – David Greenlaw & Ted Wieseman, Morgan Stanley

While the pricing environment clearly remains soft, we continue to believe that deflation will not happen unless downward price pressures widen out beyond the Fearsome Five [new vehicles, used vehicles, airfares, apparel, hotel rates], a development that the data do not currently support. – Omair Sharif, RBS

.. the March CPI report — despite the seemingly benign core rate increase — seems to justify concerns that the price risks remain tilted toward inflation declining further if not tilting into deflation. ––Nomura Global Economics

.. do not expect a problematic deflation to take hold in the economy. Core inflation is expected to moderate to around a 1.0 percent pace later this year, which is still solidly in positive territory. –Mark Vitner, Wachovia Economics Group

With the unemployment rate and the output gap both headed for 10% and the financial system still crippled, the risk of a pernicious debt-deflation emerging is still much bigger than the risk that the Fed’s QE actions will lead to runaway inflation. –Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics

David Buik at BGC Partners pointed out that with “oil prices now stable at close to $50 a barrel, there is no near-term prospect of a further substantial decline in energy prices”.  … There will be no widespread deflation this year.

“The notion that inflation will pick up in the near-term is completely out of the picture,” said Peter Kenny at Knight Equity Markets in New Jersey. “Now we’re looking at numbers that speak to recession without the prospect of inflation.” (Guardian)

March food prices fall for 2nd consecutive month

Food prices dipped 0.1 percent in March for the second month in a row… Lower food prices are good news and bad news. They’ll help families with squeezed incomes. But they’ll probably mean lower profits for farmers and grocery stores, and falling prices signal overall economic weakness.

Consumer Price Index Declines 0.1% in March

The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.2 percent for the third month in a row. An 11.0 percent increase in the index for tobacco and smoking products accounted for over sixty percent of the March rise, with a 0.6 percent increase in the new vehicles index also contributing. In contrast, the indexes for lodging away from home, used cars and trucks, and airline fares continued to decline. The index for all items less food and energy has risen 1.8 percent over the past year.
The food and beverages index declined 0.1 percent in March, the same decrease as in February. A 0.4 percent decrease in the food at home index more than offset 0.1 percent increases in the indexes for food away from home and for alcoholic beverages. Within food at home, the indexes for three of the six major grocery store food groups declined. The largest decline was in the dairy and related products index, which fell 2.4 percent in March, the same decrease as in February, as the milk index declined 4.4 percent. The index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs decreased 0.9 percent, the fifth straight monthly decline, as the index for eggs fell 4.6 percent and the beef index declined 1.4 percent. The index for cereals and bakery products also declined in March, while the other food at home index was virtually unchanged. Registering increases in March were the indexes for fruits and vegetables and for nonalcoholic beverages. The food index has increased 4.4 percent over the past year, with the food at home index up 4.3 percent.

The index for new and used motor vehicles was virtually unchanged in March, as a 0.6 percent increase in the new vehicles index offset a 1.7 percent decline in the index for used cars and trucks. The index for public transportation declined 1.0 percent in March as the airline fare index fell 2.3 percent. This was the seventh straight monthly decline for the airline fares index; it has decreased 7.7 percent over the last 12 months. The transportation index has declined 13.1 percent since March 2008, with the index for gasoline down 39.3 percent.

Price of gas, food had wild swings in 2008: Canada Statistics

In 2008, food prices contributed increasingly to the overall growth in consumer prices. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the food price index accounted for over 60 per cent of the increase in the CPI, compared to six per cent in the first quarter.

The increase was mostly the result of a 3.9 per cent annual rise in prices for food bought from stores. The annual pace of growth in the prices of store-bought food has been increasing since 2003.

The steepest rise in prices came from staples such as bread, rice, flour, milk and eggs. Higher transportation costs from rising gas prices, surging commodity prices and increasing demand for food in emerging markets in other countries were to blame, said Statistics Canada. Still, Canada faces deflation threat

Britain is also on the brink of deflation:

The government’s key measure of inflat­ion recorded a surprise rise last month as a plunging pound, a surge in food prices and the rising cost of beer, wine and spirits allayed City fears of deflation.

After declining for the past five months, the consumer prices index was up from 3% in January to 3.2% in February. The index for household energy decreased 1.8 percent in March. .. The index for transportation declined 1.1 percent in March after rising 1.9 percent in February.
Among other CPI groups, the index for apparel turned down in March, declining 0.2 percent after rising 1.3 percent in February. (On a not seasonally adjusted basis, apparel prices rose 3.1 percent in March and were up 1.4 percent over the past year.)  The medical care index rose 0.2 percent in March and has increased 2.8 percent over the past year. The index for recreation was virtually unchanged in March and was up 1.7 percent over the past year. The index for education and communication rose 0.2 percent in March, with the education index up 0.5 percent and the communication index virtually unchanged. The index for other goods and services rose 2.7 percent in March due to the 11.0 percent increase in the tobacco and smoking products index.

The inflation figures suggest supermarkets have pushed through the steepest price rises, with “off trade” beer prices rising 6.6% compared with 4.6% in pubs.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, said: “RPI inflation is stubbornly avoiding going into negative territory, but we think it’s only a matter of time before it does.”

As falling earnings prompt a sharp decline in consumer spending, a prolonged period of deflation could push Britain’s economy into the kind of stagnation suffered by Japan in the 1990s and into this century.

Underlining the severity of the economic situation, the Bank’s labour market expert, David Blanchflower, warned today that the unemployment rate – currently at 6.5% – could be in double figures by the end of the year.

ECB’s Weber sees little risk of deflation in euro zone

‘There is no prominent deflation risk,’ Axel Weber (Central Bank Governing Council member and head of the German Bundesbank) said at an event at the Hamburg World Economy Institute.

ECB policymakers have acknowledged inflation could well fall into negative territory in the next few months but argue it should pick up again last year’s sharp falls in oil and commodity prices pass through the system.

Argentina Says Mar Inflation Up 0.6% On Mo,Up 6.3% On Yr

Argentine inflation in March rose 0.6% on the month and was up 6.3% on the year, the national statistics agency, Indec, reported Tuesday.

The figure was in line with analyst expectations of a 0.6% month-on-month gain and a year-on-year gain of over 6%.

Price gains were led by a 4.6% rise in education costs from February and a 2.3% rise in medical costs, Indec said.

Entertainment costs in March were down 1.3% on the month, according to Indec.

Spain negative inflation suggests weak euro zone number – Forbes.com

* Prices fell 0.1 percent year-on-year

* First annual price contraction in euro zone country

* Minister says does not expect deflation

Why inflation is not coming down at a faster pace in Bangladesh?

while inflation in China entered into the negative territory and that in India is approaching zero inflation, the point-to-point inflation in Bangladesh remained at more than 6.0 per cent since November 2008

Deflation or disinflation?

Current dynamics in France and the euro area are characteristic of a disinfl ationary trend, resulting in particular from a temporary correction of certain prices, particularly energy prices.Consumers Price Sensitivity Grows but with an Everyday Focus

private label products are subject to less price sensitivity than national brands. Consumers who purchase private label products have acted on their price sensitivity, noted Mark Laceky, Nielsen’s vice president, North American pricing practice, and aren’t immediately looking for additional cost savings. That may well explain the reluctance among retailers including Wal-Mart to start slashing private label prices at a time when they are clearly looking to take market share from national brands. Even retailers who have said they might consider private label price cuts as commodity costs come down after their run up in 2007 and early 2008 have suggested that widespread roll backs aren’t what they intend, as is the case with Kroger. Nielsen found that private labels are 30% less price sensitive than national brands.

The Nielsen study looked at 300 grocery and general merchandise items and found that, among national brands, price sensitivity in the recession is focused on frequently purchased product categories such as water, coffee and other everyday beverages, comfort foods including bacon and shelf-stable items including snack bars. Among general merchandise products, air fresheners were particularly price sensitive. Less price-sensitive items tend to have higher prices per unit, longer times between purchases and, in food, fall in the frozen/refrigerated and fresh categories such as eggs and milk.

Nielsen suggested that national brand manufacturers should hold the line on prices where they can, develop plans to rapidly adjust pricing if a category becomes volatile and watch carefully for signs of price erosion.

While the Nielsen study was focused on commonly bought items, it may suggest why some occasional, relatively expensive and, as they are termed, discretionary purchases such as video games have faired well in the recession. To explain the phenomenon, observers have generalized that consumers are willing to spend on affordable luxuries at home to save money on pricey activities outside such as restaurant dining. Yet, the Nielsen study suggests that consumers are engaged in a more specific strategy, looking for everyday bargains to hold down their overall spending and free money for more expensive purchases.

Long-Term Outlook: Slow Growth And Deflation. The Big Picture

As a result of rapid productivity growth, fewer and fewer man-hours are needed to produce goods and services. Estimates are that 65% of jobs lost in manufacturing between 2000 and 2006 were due to productivity growth with only 35% due to outsourcing overseas..

.. bad deflation reigned in the 1930s as the Great Depression pushed demand well below supply..

For four reasons, the deflation that started several months ago is quite likely to persist along with the recession, or at least until early 2010.

The Inflation Lie: The Silent Robbery of Americans

So next time you walk into your local supermarket and you can not afford to purchase the milk anymore, please remember where to address your angry emails and phone calls. The manager of the store needs to make money to eat just like you do so if he has to continue to pay more to stock his store with milk, then the only option for him is to pass that cost on to you or lose his business. The Federal Reserveis not helping anyone when they control interest rates to unrealistic levels, so let Ben Bernanke know how you feel.

Recession changed our shopping habits from buy to bye-bye, yet there are some things we buy more. We are using 17% more discount coupons (according to a study by Inmar, comparing the first quarter of 2009 than in the same period last year).  We are buying more food for home use. So what exactly are we buying?

1. It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

• Sweet Spread: Sales are  expected to rise 26% from 2008 to 2013, Mintel says. That forecast is higher than Mintel’s initial prediction of 12% growth for that period. Overall, sinful sweets seem to be faring well in the recession. Hershey’s, the largest North American chocolate manufacturer, increased earnings by 51.4% in the fourth quarter. The British Cadbury company, which sells both chocolate and goodies like Trident gum, found its annual profits up 30% in 2008.

2. Yogurt: The new best thing.

• Low-end Probiotic foods: Sales of Lifeway Kefir rose 24% comparing the first quarter ended March 31, 2009. Annual sales of  NXT Nutritionals’s Healthy Dairy Yogurt smoothies were up 500% compared to fiscal 2007. Newest probiotic foods include ice cream and cereals in the US; cheeses in Portugal and Hungary; chocolate fudge cereal bars in the UK; energy drinks in Switzerland and Portugal and spreads in the UK. Pricey probiotics foods, however, are becoming less popular, and some prefer to get their daily probiotics from cheeseburgers. French health food sector consultancy, Alcimed, estimates a growth rate of four per cent per annum until 2013.

3. Vitamins, the new recession-fueled eats

• Recession Has Americans Turning To Supplements. Vitamins and supplements sales rose from 8 to 10%, according to different sources (Information Resources Inc., trans world news, wlns.com).  The trend will continue, as consumers are trying to prevent medical expenses.

4.  Home-brewed coffee

• Mintel expects an increase of 6% percent in retail coffee sales

5. Bread

• From a breakfast bagel to a lunchtime sandwich to a roll with dinner, the bread market grew 7%  and a higher growth rate is expected through 2013

6. TV dinners and prepackaged side dishes

• Sales of frozen meals and pre-prepared side dishes are expected to rise about 5%.

7. Alcohol

• Liquor sales dropped 5%-10% in the fourth quarter of 2008, but sales of cheaper bottles of California wine rose 2%

Other health trends include:

· 9% of U.S. consumers have cut down on smoking and 14% have cut down on drinking alcohol or bought cheaper brands, according to a February Nielsen Co. report.

· Shoppers bought fewer organic fruit and vegetables last year while the economy deteriorated, according to the Soil Association.

· Sales of meat dropped by 13 per cent, partly due to higher prices from more expensive brands.

· Organic clothing sales grows surely but steadily.

· Consumers are moving to eliminate anything toxic from their lives, whether it involves food, relationships or other aspects, and are renewing their focus on “authentic, beauty from inside.”