Wellness is where it’s at! Consumers are constantly looking for products that help support a healthier lifestyle. Their nutritional aims, dietary preferences, and values around health and wellness have been evolving lately, however, leading to shifts in which diets are desirable and which functional ingredients are in focus.
What are the latest trends in diets and performance and lifestyle nutrition? Keep reading for our experts’ takes on consumers’ ever-changing nutritional preferences and how brands are catering to them to support consumers’ health and wellness goals.
Looking for Longevity
Healthy aging and the quest for longevity have put the Mediterranean diet back on the map. While some trendy diets, like keto and paleo, have slowly fallen out of favor with consumers, the Mediterranean diet, which has always been at least somewhat popular, has witnessed a rise in popularity recently. Given that the Mediterranean diet features many plant-based ingredients, it comes as no surprise that it’s seeing this resurgence. There’s been some evidence to suggest that following a Mediterranean diet can have positive outcomes for aging, preventing diseases, and even potentially lengthening one’s lifespan.
Right now, Gen X, Baby Boomer, and even older Millennial consumers are trying to find ways to use food to support themselves through the aging process, and the Mediterranean diet delivers exactly what they’re looking for, and it’s also more palatable, more adventurous flavor wise, and less restrictive than recent fad diets. Expect to see more Mediterranean-inspired food and beverage products in the months to come, as brands seek to introduce products that make following this diet even more attainable.
Palatable Protein
Lately, consumers have been all about upping their protein intake for physical performance reasons and for health reasons. The food industry is responding with a wave of new products that
include added protein. Among the strategies for making these products stand out is innovating with their flavors to make them feel like a treat. It’s becoming more common to see protein shakes with indulgent dessert inspired flavors, for example. Expect to see protein everywhere and in everything in the coming months – and with innovative and indulgent flavors that make consumers more excited about purchasing them.
Beverages that Offer a Boost
“Just add water” could just about sum up a number of the trends we’re seeing in the performance nutrition and diet industry. Consumers have been obsessed with hydration lately, thanks, in part, to social media trends that encourage drinking certain amounts of water at certain times of day to lose weight and improve skin health, as well as colorful reusable water bottles making a splash and becoming consumers’ latest shopping obsession.
As a result, health and wellness products that can simply be added to water have seen a surge in popularity. Indeed, powdered collagen supplements, powdered blends of “superfoods” and greens, and electrolyte mixes have all been trending lately. Consumers have been loving the ease of being able to incorporate products that support their wellness goals into water they would be consuming anyway. The key for success with these types of products, however, is ensuring that they either taste really good and mask any aftertastes or that they don’t taste like anything at all.
Energy drinks were once associated with gaming and late-night study sessions, but now they’re being associated with sports and performance. Several
new energy drink brands have emerged in recent years that position their products as being ideal for drinking before or during a workout. In addition to their energy-boosting claims, one of the reasons these products have been so popular is because they tend to adopt trendier and more sophisticated flavors than traditional energy drinks.
Productivity is one of the biggest buzzwords of 2024. Everyone is looking for ways to work smarter, not harder and to “hack” their way to a better work-life balance. It comes as no surprise, then, that beverages that offer focus, mental acuity, and other cognitive benefits are on the rise. As consumers continue to look for ways to use nutrition to improve not just their physical performance, but their mental performance too, expect to see more products like these pop up across the food and beverage industry.
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