2020 is looking to be a year that centres on more lifestyle changing approaches than trends in their typical definition. The trends that will never fade away are the ones that are focused on real, whole aspects of food and lifestyle – not the ones that promise quick results with little effort. It promises to be a year that people are actually becoming more aware, informed and educated regarding their health and the foods they eat, rather than just following the latest health craze because it’s supposed to be ‘good for you’.
2020 will be about re-connecting with yourself and respecting what your individual body truly needs to thrive…
1.
IN – Intuitive Eating
Instead of counting calories, following an intense cleanse, or jumping on the latest health trend bandwagon, intuitive eating gets back to basics. It’s all about re-connecting with yourself and respecting what your individual body truly needs to thrive. By listening to your body (and only your body), will you know when you are hungry, when you are full, when you are satisfied and how you feel physically and emotionally.
OUT – Restrictive Diets
Think – Keto, Paleo, Raw, Juice Cleanses & Gluten-Free. Though some of the recent restrictive diet trends have a premise based on some substantiated research as to how they can benefit some people, these diets are not for everyone and all have proven to have detrimental side effects if you don’t fully understand the nutritional science behind them and making sure you are supplementing the nutrients, vitamins, protein, fibre, etc. in which these diets are lacking. Restrictive diets are also not sustainable. Feeling deprived of the foods you actually want to eat will most likely cause you to either ‘cheat’ and binge the foods you are ‘not supposed’ to eat or make you give it up all together. And let’s face it, anytime you are restricting a macronutrient or micronutrient (something essential for the body to grow, repair and develop new tissues, conduct nerve impulses and regulate life process – i.e. fats, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals), how healthy can it really be for you? People are finally starting to get smart about their health and realizing that everyone’s nutritional needs and how we each metabolize foods is unique to our own bodies and lifestyle choices – there is no cure-all or miracle diet for everyone.
2.
IN – Food Allergy Testing and Consulting
More people will be consulting physicians and nutritionists to be tested for allergies and to get a proper diagnosis of the root cause of their physical symptoms that they believe to be attributed to their diet.
OUT – Home Food Sensitivity Test Kits
Home food ‘sensitivity’ test kits started to become popular in the last few years, despite being completely unregulated and never having had any credible science to substantiate them [ref.1, ref.2, ref.3] are thankfully, on their way out. See our article on gluten sensitivity for more in-depth information about home sensitivity testing kits.
3.
IN – One-Stop Shops for Wellness
The appeal of going to only one place that offers different holistic and/or wellness modalities that we’d normally have to drive all over town for, not only feeds people’s need for convenience, but it also creates a community within each of these centers.
Millennials are a generation fascinated by self-actualization, self-improvement, community and in finding spaces that enable them to experience all these things together. According to Forbes [ref.4], millennials – now the largest generation by population – are the driving force behind the rapid growth of the wellness market, with 78 percent of millennials choosing to spend money on experiences rather than “stuff.”
What makes this a trend that’s not likely to go away anytime soon is that it’s not just the millennials that this concept appeals to. For those in the older generations that are also conscious about their health, who wouldn’t necessarily sign up for a ‘new age hippie’ wellness workshop, are coming in to get a healthy bite to eat and find themselves in a place where they can explore different wellness modalities that they would have never felt comfortable seeking out independently.
OUT – Detoxing / Colonic Irrigation
Detox has found its own mainstream definition in the form of a restricted short-term diet that usually involves abstinence from certain foods and drinks, and may also be accompanied by elaborate health and beauty regimes, like juice detox, colon cleansing and detox massages, to name a few. Detox, in the true medical sense, is used to refer to removing harmful and addictive substances, such as poisons, drugs and alcohol, from the body. But this is a far-removed concept from the modern pseudo-medical phenomenon of ‘detoxing’. In fact, most of these concepts fail to identify which kind of toxins they are even referring to, which leaves the whole commercialised detox principle open to call its legitimacy into question. [ref.6, ref.7, ref.8] Specific organs, such as the liver, kidneys, digestive system, lungs, skin, and our gut bacteria work efficiently to make sure we are getting rid of these toxins constantly and without adverse effects. The concept that we build up an accumulation of waste or toxic products is, for the majority of us, simply not true. To take it one step further, not only is there no evidence to support that fecal matter builds up in the colon, nor are the toxins from this purported build up able to seep into the blood stream, and thus there is nothing to cleanse, but colon irrigation has been found to be harmful. [ref.9] Colonic irrigation washes away beneficial bacteria that aid in digestion and elimination. It can lead to problems with elimination while putting you at risk of tearing your colon and contracting a possible deadly bacterial infection if the equipment is not properly sterilized. Colonic irrigation performed outside of hospitals is completely unregulated.
4.
IN – Self-Care
This is not a new concept by any means, but it’s something that is often neglected. Who has the time for it? You’ve heard the expression “you can’t pour from an empty cup”. It’s true and regardless of how much you try to succeed at any endeavour, only once you have taken care of yourself can you truly give your best to others, toward your career, to friends and family, to your community. How can you expect 100% results if you have only 60% to give? 2020 will see a huge shift in taking care of both your emotional health and physical well being. It will be a time where people become more in-tune and connected with their own bodies and gain a better understanding of the importance that diet, sleep patterns, relaxation, self-image and just taking some ME-time, play in overall wellness, as well as the awareness that self-care is not an indulgence, it’s essential. For more information about self-care, what it means, its benefits and self-care practices for a balanced, more productive you, read our article about The Importance of Self-Care.
OUT – Cutting Out All the ‘Bad for You’ food
Trying to police your eating habits with an “all-or-nothing” approach almost never succeeds. Eating is one of the only things in life that engages all five senses. A drastically limited diet is not sustainable and feeling deprived will most likely eventually cause you to ‘cheat’ and binge… or at the very least not enjoy your food. If you don’t have the feeling of being satisfied after you’ve eaten, even if you are full, this too can lead to over eating.
Having an occasional brownie or a piece of cake at a friend’s birthday or even a piece of your mom’s lasagna when you go to visit, does not make you a bad person, nor does it mean you have failed and you have to abandon your efforts to eat more mindfully. Allowing yourself ‘treats’ or foods that don’t necessarily fall in line with your diet rules, from time to time, will prevent you from feeling deprived and will boost the likelihood that you’ll stick with your healthy eating plan, rather than fall into a cycle of deprivation – overindulgence – guilt. Mental anguish over food can be detrimental to your physical, mental and emotional health.
5.
IN – Moringa is the New Matcha
Here we go – another ‘superfood’ that promises to cure what ails you. Well moringa, although quickly gaining notoriety, is not a new thing. Only until recently has modern science discovered its value. Moringa has been imparting a multitude of benefits across various cultures since ancient times. It was valued [ref.10] by the Romans, Egyptians, and Greeks for its medicinal impact on a range of ailments. It’s also been used in Bali for hundreds of years as part of herbal remedies, stemming from a time where people had a much better connection with the healing properties of nature. But let’s face it, a lot of things that people in ancient times thought was good for them, are now considered ‘old wives tales’, the value of which has been debunked and proven to be more detrimental than beneficial by advancements in medical research. But it turns out they were right on this one.
Due to Moringa oleifera’s extraordinary and unmatched range of medicinal benefits, it was named the “miracle tree” during the food crisis in Africa.[ref.11] Research into the benefits of moringa have been studied and documented, and it has been found to be rich in many important nutrients, including protein, vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin and iron. [ref.12] Studies have also shown that Moringa oleifera also has cholesterol-lowering effects [ref.13, ref.14, ref.15, ref.16]. For more information about the benefits of Moringa and why you should consider including this amazing food as part of your regular diet, see our article Moringa Madness.
OUT – Activated Charcoal
Charcoal is really just burnt organic matter (usually made from coconut shells, peat, or wood). It becomes activated charcoal when it’s exposed to certain gases at high temperatures during a special process. This ‘activation’ helps the charcoal bind with anything it comes in contact with. Doctors use activated charcoal to treat poisoning and drug overdoses, because it binds with the substance before your body absorbs it. But when you eat charcoal, it also binds with stuff that you don’t want to get rid of – like vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. It can also keep your body from fully absorbing any medications you’ve taken while eating charcoal-filled foods.
