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Paleo meals grow in popularity across U.S.

GrubHub data shows cities have different dietary preferences

Operating a restaurant in Seattle, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., St. Louis, Mo., or Atlanta?

You should probably have gluten-free options on the menu.

But if your restaurant is in San Jose, Calif.; Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago or San Diego, diners will likely be looking for vegan options.

So said delivery provider GrubHub on Tuesday after analyzing the most popular healthful eating plans across the U.S., based on ordering data from 2016. 

Nationally, eating “paleo,” or the diet plan that avoids simple carbohydrates and focuses more on unprocessed protein and fresh produce, was the most popular among those seeking more healthful options, GrubHub said.

Paleo orders increased by 370 percent last year over 2015, and the diet was particularly popular in Texas (Dallas, Houston and Austin), as well as Philadelphia. 

Somewhat surprisingly, more women than men ordered paleo dishes, the delivery provider said. In fact, woman drove all the eating-plan-related selections from the GrubHub menus, no matter what the plan. 

The raw-food eating plan was the second most popular preference with a 92 percent increase last year, though none of the major markets evaluated seemed to prefer raw eating. 

The juice cleanse diet grew by 89 percent and was particularly popular in Miami and Nashville, Tenn.

Those ordering low-fat dishes increased by 21 percent in 2016, and it is the eating plan preferred in San Francisco, Boston and New York City. 

Among the least popular — but still growing — were the Mediterranean diet (7 percent), and the ketogenic diet (5 percent).

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected] 

Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout

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