Aspiration to a healthier lifestyle remains strong and results from our latest Grocery Eye study points to the UK population feeling healthier than last year, both physically and mentally, with healthy eating reporting as a key contributor to this improvement.
And although what consumers perceive as a healthy diet remains fairly stable over time, some trends start to emerge which could redefine the healthy food category.
It’s mainly about balance:
For many, healthy eating is all about moderation: limiting the bad foods salt, fat, sugar, ultra-processed) and increasing the good foods (fruit and veg) without compromising on taste or the occasional treat – a trend that many retailers and manufacturers are already leveraging with their ‘balanced’ ranges.
A rise in vegetarian and vegan diets:
1 in 5 credit their improved health at least partially, to a switch to a vegetarian or plant-based diet, possibly because it simplifies purchase decisions by naturally focussing on what is perceived as ‘good foods’.
A growing interest in super foods:
At the same time, shoppers increasingly looking for super foods such as high protein and gut health boosts, especially among younger generations. And again we can see this trend in supermarkets with gut heath ranges in particular expanding beyond the diary aisle.
