For many, this year’s Super Bowl features a salad – and food companies are racing to react

SAN FRANCISCO – Pizza, pasta or Chinese takeout used to be the go-to Super Bowl spread for Marla Senzon’s family – until the Florida retiree began taking a GLP-1 appetite-suppressing medication two years ago.

On Feb 8 (Feb 9, Singapore time), the bowl of choice for Senzon and her husband – who used to take the weight-loss drug – will be a salad, with a light protein like chicken or turkey while they watch the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots in the biggest event in American sports.

“Everything about our eating habits has changed,” she said. “I can see myself doing it forever.”

More than 120 million Americans are expected to tune in for a showpiece which in 2026 features two teams nobody expected to reach the National Football League (NFL) championship decider.

And they will see commercials that urge them to put down the chicken wings and the loaded nachos.

Over the years, weight-loss crazes like the Atkins or paleo diets have swept the nation, only to fizzle out. But as more Americans gain access to cheaper weight-loss medication, food executives are increasingly minding those who are minding their waists.

“We view the GLP-1 trend as somewhat more long-lived and more than just a short-term fad,” Ryan Zink, chief of Colorado-based Good Times Restaurants, which operates more than 60 locations in the United States, told investors on Feb 5.

The company recently added a protein bowl as a limited-time item that will become part of its core menu in April, he said.

Roughly 12 per cent of Americans are on one of these drugs, according to analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein. For the food companies that produce plenty of highly caloric foods, that means different menu items, smaller portions or different product sizes, even for occasions when people tend to indulge, like Super Bowl Sunday.

Such is the Super Bowl’s cultural relevance that food is not the only thing it influences – NFL fashion is also becoming increasingly followed.

It has become a staple of every NFL game’s pre-show coverage – footage of players strutting their way to stadium locker rooms wearing the latest daring sartorial choices.

And a VIP fashion show on Feb 8 ahead of the Super Bowl was the latest bet by the league that indulging its players’ penchant for high-end designers is also good for the NFL’s bottom line.

A sport for decades associated with no-nonsense jocks has in recent years encouraged its stars’ new-found obsession with attire as a way to capture new fans beyond the sport’s traditional base.

Female and global supporters are particularly coveted by a league that has essentially saturated its core, male-heavy demographic.

“People who love fashion are paying attention to it. Brands are getting involved. So I think it’s opened another element to the game,” Detroit Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St Brown told AFP at the event.

NFL marketing bosses have been pursuing a broader “helmets-off” strategy, including behind-the-scenes documentaries and social media clips, that seeks to make players more relatable by emphasising their personalities and off-field interests.

Clubs regularly share footage of their players in designer outfits or attending events like an Abercrombie & Fitch fashion event in San Francisco, hosted the night before the Super Bowl.

Guests included league boss Roger Goodell and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

“Fashion is global,” San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, also in attendance, told AFP.

“Especially when you talk about the European market, a lot of the Asian markets where fashion is such a big part of culture.

“I think when you add a lot of our walk-out or entrance outfits that guys wear now, it helps reach a global audience.”

Abercrombie & Fitch was in 2025 named the NFL’s first official fashion partner and athletes have countless personal tie-ins with brands like American Eagle.

Still, St Brown added, the fun stops when game time arrives.

“At the end of the day, I’m still there to play football. It’s not a fashion show,” he said. “But I still want to dress nice and feel good.”
REUTERS, AFP