Six Emerging Health Trends You Might Not Be Working On Yet

Three Evolving Trends

You may already be working on gut-health, protein and maybe even adaptogens for stress-relief – but they are evolving fast:

Gut health and the biome are broadening their scope

Gut health is no longer just yogurt and probiotics. It now includes prebiotics, postbiotics, fibre diversity, and links to immunity, mood, and even skin.


Implication

The opportunity is broader product integration including gut-friendly cereals, drinks, and even confectionery. Education matters because many consumers don’t fully understand the differences yet.

Protein’s role is growing and becoming more sophisticated

Protein demand is growing, partly due to increasing use of GLP-1s and the need to protect muscle.  Consumers are starting to question type (plant vs animal), bioavailability, and processing.

Implication

Marketers should pivot to cleaner sources, amino acid profiles, and functional benefits (e.g., satiety, recovery, repair, adjacent to GLP-1 medications), rather than just grams per serving.

Mood-foods are expanding into mental wellness & performance

There’s rising demand for products that support stress reduction, focus, cognitive performance, memory and sleep often via adaptogens, nootropics, or functional ingredients like magnesium.


Implication

This is a branding challenge as much as a formulation one. Claims need to feel credible but not medicinal. Formats like drinks and snacks are leading here.

Beyond these trends it is becoming increasingly apparent that health requirements from FMCG are diversifying beyond broad ‘better for you’ messages. Claims increasingly need to be specific and credible.

How To Proceed?

Well, obviously you could sit, wait and see which evolve into mega-trends. But that would leave you running to catch up. Not a great plan?

Or, you could go and talk to consumers, like you probably did about GLP-1s a year or so ago. But consumers will probably look at you blankly, because these are weak signals – not full-blown trends yet. Probably a waste of time?

Or, you could invest in science now – and potentially generate a load of IP that no one will ever care about? Ironically, possibly the worst plan of all – because zombie-projects will just keep soaking up resources!

So what would we propose?

A short, sharp, consumer-need focused exploratory sprint – with a tight budget and very limited time-remit …

Do (my) consumers have a need?

Data-driven clue gathering and expert interviews to understand the challenges being experienced by potential consumers – followed by empathy-building immersions

Outputs

An actionable brief to innovate against and clear KPIs to design solutions against

Is there science we could use?

Consumer-challenge focused tech-scouting exercise to identify potential technologies – followed by a multi-functional brainstorm to generate potential solutions

Outputs

A bank of consumer-need-driven ideas, along with enabling technologies to deliver them.

Which claims will consumers buy?

Claims-focused proposition crafting and stimulus generation – followed by evaluation and creative co-creation with the target consumers who’d most benefit

Outputs

A pool of high-potential, consumer-optimised propositions with clear KPIs – ready for targeted R&D