2018 Health Food Trends

For the past two years, I’ve shared my predictions for health food trends for the year on Mirror Friendly. While I’m a little late out of the gate for this year, I still wanted to share some of my observations on emerging food trends from one of the biggest health food shows in Canada – The Canadian Health Food Association show (East).

Depending on where you live in the world, some of these trends may have already caught on and are more established then emerging. Or perhaps they will never see the light of day. But from what I observed at the show, I believe over the coming year or so, we will begin to see more and more of these types of products hit our store shelves – at least in North America.

Here’s my run down:

1. Vegan products

Veganism is nothing new, but what I observed at the show this year was a significant rise in the number of products tailored towards those following a vegan lifestyle. These products delivered similar flavours and textures to non-vegan products such as mile, cheese, yogurt and even meats! Companies are using nuts like almond and cashews along with coconut to create a variety of creamy, dairy like indulgences such as yogurt and butter. I got the opportunity to sample them and I have to say that they tasted amazing. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase them for myself and I’m not vegan. They were that good!

2. Bone Broth

I predicted this as a health food trend for 2017 and I think I was right. I’ve been starting to see it pop up in more and more healthier restaurants and at the show this year, I saw a lot more vendors carrying a ready-made bone broth so consumers can just heat and serve. If you’ve made bone broth before, you know it takes time so this is definitely a time saver. Given the increase in vendors showcasing their product at the show this year, this is going to be an area growing in competition and so I expect to see bone broth being carried on more health food grocery store shelves in the near future.

3. Mushrooms

Mushrooms such as reshi, chaga and cordyceps are high in antioxidants and touted for their many potential health benefits. Traditionally they have been used in teas, but at the show this year, I’m seeing more and more products with some type of medicinal mushroom ingredient. Everything from soups, coffee, hot chocolate and stews.

4. Different types of waters

Last but not least is different types of water. I think most of us are familiar with the ever popular coconut water. While there were a lot of vendors at the show carrying coconut water, what I noticed this year was an increase in vendors selling water from trees such as birch and maple. These waters are similar to coconut water, in that they deliver electrolytes and vitamins, they have fewer calories and a milder taste – they pretty much taste similar to water. The marketing of birch and maple water here in Canada makes total sense to me since these trees grow in abundance here. Why import coconut water when you can have a locally sourced similar product? Although the product is sourced locally, I expect that it will carry a higher price point so it may be slower to adopt. If you live in North America, and Canada in particular, keep your eye out for these products. Who knows, maybe in the coming years we’ll see water sourced from other plants as this seems to be a growing trend in general.

To fitness with love,

Tanya