Recently IDEA Food and Nutrition Tips, a magazine for fitness industry professionals, published an article I wrote for them about twelve healthy food trends. For this post, I thought I’d share a few notes on the healthy dozen.
Gluten – Gluten-sensitive and gluten-free foods are mainstream now, to the tune of a predicted sales volume of $24 billion by 2020. This market growth is driven by those who identify as “health conscious” rather than those who suffer “from celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.”
Paleo – More than just meat and caveman-centric meals, those who follow a Paleo diet can choose items such as nutrition nut bars or freeze-dried beets. And of course, meat. In 2015, Paleo was the most-Googled search food term.
Plant-based – Danone (makers of Dannon yogurt) just purchased WhiteWave for $12.5 billion. Obviously, they believe plant-based foods to be a growing part of our diet, as WhiteWave comes with brands such as Silk, So Delicious, Earthbound Farm, Horizon Organic milk, and Vega. Are you ready to try one of the 3,500 types of seaweed?
Healthy Oils – Start reading up on smoke points, as you’ll be wanting to try avocado, coconut, safflower, almond, macadamia nut, rice bran, sesame seed, sunflower, peanut, hazelnut, grapeseed, and of course, olive oil. Less concerned with cost than a desire for organic, healthy, non-GMO, locally sourced (or traceable) ingredients, plus a wish to replicate recipes seen on cooking shows, people are demanding a variety of oil choices.
12 Healthy Food Trends. How many of them do you follow? #FitFluential #MidlifeBlvd
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Breakfast – We still love our cereal, but now we also love smoothies, breakfast bars, and yogurt. Oh, and overnight oats. Pinterest searches for overnight oat recipes climbed 35% in 2016 over 2015 numbers.
Non-Dairy Milk – Look past all those Facebook posts about almond milk for a moment, and you’ll discover that milks are now made out of a variety of nut, grain and seed. Who’s up for a shot of camel’s milk? In many ways, it’s good to consider plant-based milks over animal-based, yet take care, as not all non-dairy milks are created equally nutritious.
Healthy Snacks – Kale chips may be considered old hat by now, but have you tried caffeinated jerky or roasted chickpeas yet? Snacking accounts for over 50% of our “eating occasions,” so stock up on maple sugar pumpkin seeds and grilled watermelon with honey, mint and cayenne while you can.
Protein – It’s time we sat down and had a talk about the bugs and the bees. Well, just the bugs. The rest of the world is already crunching on spicy roasted grasshoppers and cricket chips, so maybe it’s time we gave them a try. If you want to skip the bugs, go with kalamata olive cottage cheese, washed down with a shot of protein coffee.
Energy Bars – Have you roamed the grocery store aisles lately? Shelves upon shelves of energy bars are lying there, just waiting for you to give them some love.
Seeds and Nuts – Okay, Boomers, who remembers Euell Gibbons? “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” Peanuts, pistachios, chia, hemp seeds, and watermelon seeds are all hot commodiites nowadays.
Natural Beverages – Is bulletproof coffee yesterday’s news? Maybe, maybe not. But cold brew coffee, yerba mate, guayasa, matcha, maca, chicory- or dandelion-root, fermented, sparkling, vegan, naturally flavored water, and kefir drinks are certainly today’s news. One result of the interest in more natural choices? Soda sales have dropped in the past few years by billions of gallons.
Greek Yogurt/ Probiotics/ Quark – Whether you’re Bulgarian, Greek, Icelandic or none of the above, chances are you’ve noticed that these products have displaced the “standard” yogurts of just 5 years ago.
If you want to know what quark is, or the differences between Icelandic skyr and Bulgarian unstrained yogurt, you’ll have to join IDEA, which will entitle you to a free copy of the full, 4,000-word article. Well, it will entitle you to the entire magazine, plus all their other magazines, many of which I write for. Did you know I had a secret life as a writer? Yeah, it’s not really a secret. Neither is the fact that food is medicine, so pick a trend or two from this list and give it a go.
By Alexandra Williams, MA
Photos are all by me, taken during our AmaWaterways cruise.
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