The holiday cycle of indulgence starts at the end of October with Halloween candy, kicks into high gear at Thanksgiving and continues through the end-of-year holiday season and its associated parties. The cycle concludes with the new year, when Americans return to the normal rhythms of life, often with resolutions to be healthier that include losing weight.

Nearly 2 in 3 Americans (63%) say that improving their diet is “frequently” one of their New Year’s resolutions, according to a recent Harris Poll survey. (Feeling holiday mercy, we didn’t ask how often they achieved that goal.) Regardless, more than 4 in 5 (84%) of Americans told us maintaining a healthy diet is important.

What does that look like? Majorities of Americans have recently or plan to soon drink more water (71%), exercise more (61%), and make healthier dietary decisions (51%). Specifically on food choices, majorities said they were eating more fresh produce (56%) and reducing sugar intake (54%). Three in five Americans (60%) choose food based on its nutritional value, according to our poll, while a slim majority (53%) indicated that healthy food tastes as good as the unhealthy snacks that have fattened us up.

What does this mean for marketers? We identified three trends that can help them reach health-conscious Americans as they emerge from the holiday indulgence cycle and expand their efforts to reduce their waistbands.

Some Americans are more health-conscious than others

Whether because they’re reacting to societal pressures around beauty standards or simply that they’re smarter than men, women tend to be more health-conscious. A solid majority of women (57%) said that they have recently or plan to make healthier dietary decisions, for example, while a minority of men (46%) said the same. Women were also significantly more likely than men to improve their diets by reducing processed foods such as prepackaged snacks (52% versus 41%) and/or drinking more water (52% versus 39%)—two important ways to improve dietary health. Men (52%) were also much more likely than women (42%) to say that healthy food doesn’t taste as good as unhealthier choices.

Millennials, aged 28-42, seem to be the most health-conscious generation: They were most likely to say that weight loss is a frequent New Year’s resolution (74%) and were also most likely to make food choices based on nutritional value (65% versus 60% of the general population).

How to reach these groups? We asked which claims would be most likely to convince respondents that a specific food was healthier than other choices. The top answer for women was “no sugar added” (which 49% cited, versus 38% for men). Millennials find “all-natural” the most appealing (50% versus 43% of the general population) and were also much more likely than any generation to see “organic” as a selling point (37% versus 31% generally). 

Health-conscious Americans see things differently

As noted above, all Americans embrace broad concepts for improving diets such as consuming more fresh produce and reducing sugar, as well as things like eating less processed foods and drinking more water (both 46%). Those who are working to improve their diets were also much more likely to cite more specific approaches, however: 47% said they plan to or have recently reduced carbohydrate consumption (versus 21% of those who are not focused on improving their diets), 42% said they were reducing caloric intake (versus 18%) and 34% said they are tracking their eating habits (versus 12%).

In terms of messaging, top pitches that especially appealed to those focused on making healthier dietary decisions included: “no added sugar” (55% versus 32% of those not focused on healthier decisions), “all-natural” (53% versus 32%), “good source of nutrients” (53% versus 30%) and “low sodium” (50% versus 26%).

Tapping the meal kit boom

The $10 billion meal-kit delivery market is ballooning faster than Americans’ waistlines and is projected to grow at a compound rate of 10.7% annually through 2030. While nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) say these services are a luxury, the groups upon which we have focused do see them as a path to more healthful eating. Most women (54%) believe they make healthier eating easier, for example (while only 47% of men agree). Millennials are the generation most likely to see meal kits as a good way to be healthy (63%, fully 7% higher than Gen X, which is the next most likely). And a solid majority of those focused on making healthier decisions (58%) agree as well.