Trends #1 A Gut feel!

With science telling us that a healthy gut is key to both physical and mental health, good gut food is a trend that is here to stay.

Last week I attended the excellent annual Food and Beverage Trends Summit organised by the food people https://thefoodpeople.co.uk/trends-event-2020 .
One of the trends that stood out for me was gut health. What started a few years ago as a niche market with probiotic dairy drinks, is now firmly established as an area of opportunity as well as an area of responsible/ethical food manufacture, especially when it comes to creating and marketing healthier foods.

Two years ago I remember opening a panel discussion on food trends at the NPD food&drink conference in London, with the lesser known fact that we all carried about 2kg of microbes in our gut, that held the key to a lot of our wellbeing. Two years on, science is telling us that a diverse and healthy micro biome can protect us from some of the most common lifestyle diseases and ….wait for it….can even help improve our mood!

A number of the speakers last week talked about good gut food, and in particular registered nutritionist Beth Edwards. It is worth watching her session https://youtu.be/Ln6uDO9i49g
There are two ways we can look after these lovely microbes in our gut. One way is by adding some more through probiotic drinks, live yoghurts and other raw fermented food like kimchi. The other way is by feeding them food they love, which is lots of different whole grains, fruit and veg.

We are seeing more and more products that claim they can contribute to a healthy gut. The dairy and alternative dairy sector is already booming with live cultures and new products but now the breakfast cereal sector is following suit with bacteria friendly food. Even big players like Kellogg’s are following the trend.
This year’s winner of the Grocer’s
Chefs and restauranteurs are also starting to promote such food through their menu and through their books. Some doctors and nutritionists are also trying to reach the general population to explain the benefits of a healthy gut and how the food we eat can support this.
Search for Gut under diets and healthy eating on Amazon books and you get 75 pages.

I could go on and on, but I think you’ve got the gist. This is a trend that as product developers we need to incorporate into our developments and help it to move from trend to mainstream.

Gut health is a trend that as product developers we need to incorporate into our developments and help it to move from trend to mainstream.

#trends #productdevelopment #guthealth #thefoodpeople #trendsummit