Striving to improve their health, Americans today are focusing on eating better. Health-conscious choices now rival convenience as the major factor determining what food U.S. consumers buy according to the latest issue of Food Technology and in its cover story, The Top 10 Functional Food Trends 2004,referencing extensively numerous studies focusing on food purchase and consumption habits. Food Technology is the flagship magazine of the international not-for-profit scientific society Institute of Food Technologists.