The Future of Nutrition: 5 Nutrition Trends That are Shaping the Industry

Nutrition trends are changing. Nutrition is changing. As consumers become more health-conscious and concerned about the benefits that different foods offer their bodies, they’re making different choices about what to eat.

Trends come and go, but increasingly, they’re overlapping from one year to the next as health-oriented trends grow and expand into new areas.

Here are five nutrition trends that are noticeable in the food industry this year.

1. CBD Edibles

CBD edibles are growing in popularity for people who see the health benefits. Whether they’re looking for a calming influence or pain relief through anti-inflammation properties, edibles are on the rise.

While vaping is popular, it still carries some lung risk because it irritates the walls of the lungs. CBD oil is not that palatable and needs to be consumed in capsule form or used on the skin. However, edibles solve the issues with vaping or oil because they don’t have either lung or taste problems when infused into tasty food.

If you’re interested in the business aspects, then this CBD distributor guide is worth considering to jump onto the rapid growth rates that this sector is currently experiencing.

2. Plant-based Burgers

Rather than being a small segment of the American market, around one-fifth of purchases on food and drink now originates from plant-based sources. This includes meat alternatives with beef substitutes making up almost half the plant-based foods selected.

For example, Impossible Foods are preparing to produce half a million pounds of meat that originates from plant life. They will serve as a supplier to several thousand restaurants across the country. If you’re not convinced, know that these are the same people who came out with the now FDA-approved Bleeding Burger.

As you know plant-based meats are all the rage at the moment, with seemingly every restaurant offering either the Beyond or Impossible burger. There’s been a lot of discussion about how the two of them stack up against the real thing. Erin whose blog specializes in grilling, smoking, and BBQ is a big fan of both the Beyond and Impossible burger and wanted to see how they compared to beef burgers when it came to taste, health, and environmental impact (as well as a variety of other categories). Want to learn what she discovered? Check her in-depth guide to plant-based meats over at Seriously Smoked.

3. Boost that Energy

Healthier diets combined with ones that provide a healthy kick of energy is an interesting combination that’s gaining some market traction. While most people worry about sacrificing taste when making the switch to eat more healthily, few people previously were thinking about combining good food with an energy boost. That’s now changing.

While clearly energy bars have a place in this market, even here there’s more of a drive for a healthier energy bar. More natural snacks that include peas or various nuts (with a warning label) are getting more popular.

4. Healthy Choices with Specific Exclusions

There’s been a clear increasing focus on nutritious food that’s marketed as “free from” something. This might be some of the obvious things like nuts or grains, as well as the growing vegan market too.

A progressively segmented food market includes many items that are now gluten-free or sometimes found to be dairy-free (along with the increasing popularity of soymilk products too). With better awareness of food allergies, shoppers are having to seek out products that exclude what’s causing them (or suspected to be causing) digestive issues. This is leading to an ongoing expansion in available food products in this previously niche market.

However, there’s also a new push for unusual grains that haven’t been available in previous years. For people who don’t have a problem with digesting grains, there’s now buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa to contend with too. Something for everyone.

5. Healthier Snacks

The push for healthier snacks is being sought particularly by millennials who want good food on the go. Providers like Perfect Bar are leading the way in delivering nutritious snack bars that don’t sacrifice taste while avoiding ingredients that are undesirable. Check out this post from our health series to learn more about Eating Healthy On a Budget.

This trend is a growing one as twentysomethings become parents and direct the same interest in healthy snacks towards their offspring too.

What trends are you seeing in the supermarket or health food stores that you didn’t see a year ago? Or, what would you like to see that’s in short supply right now? Let us know.