Some 73% of women read ingredients on food labels and 85% are trying to buy healthier foods

iVillage, the largest content-driven community for women on the Web, and Penton's New Hope Natural Media, the leading provider of information for the natural, organic and healthy products industry, today unveiled new research proving an overwhelming majority of women are more focused than ever on buying healthy foods. The study shows that women are scrutinizing labels for ingredients such as high fiber, reduced fat and low sodium and are staying away from additives such as high fructose corn syrup. The full results will be unveiled at New Hope's Natural Products Expo West (http://www.expowest.com), the largest gathering of the natural, organic and healthy products industry, in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday, March 13 from 12:30-2:00 pm PST. Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, senior vice president of marketing at iVillage and Nancy Coulter Parker, director of content and research for New Hope's Consumer Portfolio will present the findings.

"This inaugural research initiative has demonstrated the power of the iVillage community as a viable research tool and offers in-depth, marketable findings regarding their attitudes towards natural and organic foods," said Jodi Kahn, executive vice president, iVillage. "This deal allows us to bring the unique insights we already provide our major advertisers to an entirely different audience of thousands of natural products companies and gives our community a chance to be heard in the process."

"This study is chock full of information about products, health conditions, ingredients and retailing that will help enable the natural, organic and healthy products industry develop new products and rethink marketing," said Sharon Rowlands, Chief Executive Officer of Penton. "We entered into this arrangement with iVillage hoping that the two leaders – New Hope in natural, organic and healthy knowledge and iVillage in women's shopping preferences – would be able to develop new offerings to grow this industry. We achieved our goal."

The new data suggests that women's increasing concern about their own and their family's health is driving them to change their food choices and take control of their nutrition. Findings include:

* 73 percent say they read labels carefully as they are concerned about specific additives such as high fructose corn syrup
* Approximately 50 percent look for specific health benefits such as high fiber, reduced fat and low sodium rather than general claims that food is "organic" or "natural"
* 71 percent are very interested in buying healthy products at mainstream grocers - a trend that should encourage such retailers to devote more shelf space to healthy and organic products
* While 57 percent believe organic food is better for them, only 26 percent will actually go out of their way to purchase it
* 39 percent find that time is the biggest impediment to eating right, closely followed by willpower and motivation