The Year in Nutrition: Top Trends of 2015
Nutrition Diva shares the top nutrition debates and trends of 2015.
Monica Reinagel, MS, LD/N, CNS
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The Year in Nutrition: Top Trends of 2015
As 2015 draws to a close, here are some of the themes that seemed to define this year’s conversation about nutrition.
Missing the Point
In an effort to respond to consumer desire for more wholesome, less processed foods, several huge food manufacturers launched new product lines, with mostly disastrous results. With soda sales plummeting, Coca Cola decided to go into the milk business with Fairlife, a highly processed version of milk that’s higher in protein and lower in lactose.
Although protein continues to be a buzzword and sugar continues to be a buzzkill, Coca-cola seemed to miss the fact that consumers are also looking for foods that are closer to nature, not foods that are taken apart and reassembled on a production line.
At least Coca-cola recognized that consumers are interested in reducing their sugar intake, a point that General Mills seems to have completely missed. In an effort to appeal to health conscious parents, they are moving to all natural colorants for Trix and Lucky Charms—but declined to reduce the scandalous amount of added sugars in these cereals. They further embarrassed themselves with a new high protein version of Cheerios that had only a fraction more protein but 17 times as much sugar as the original brand.
See also: The Healthiest Options for Cereal Lovers
Meanwhile, the small company that manufactures KIND bars and snacks—products made mostly of nuts, seeds, fruits, and whole grains—were called on the carpet for portraying their products as “healthy.” The company is now spear-heading an initiative to change ridiculous labeling regulations that consider nuts to be too high in fat to be called healthy.
If there’s a silver lining to all of this it’s that consumers really do drive corporate decision making. By continuing to vote with our dollars, we can actually push companies to produce more of the kind of food we want and less of what we don’t want.
Getting to the Meat of the Matter
2015 was also the year that the World Health Organization declared processed meat to be a carcinogen and red meat to be a probable carcinogen, igniting a predictable and well-worn debate. Those who believe that eating meat promotes disease heralded the declaration as scientific validation. Those who believe meat to be an essential part of the natural human diet pointed out the limitations of the analysis and its conclusions. (Some of us just tried to clarify the science.) But I doubt very much that any hardliners on either side of the debate changed their position.
Although the question over whether meat is or isn’t healthy for humans hasn’t been resolved, its role in our diet may ultimately be decided on other grounds. Valid concerns over environmental impact, animal welfare, and sustainability are causing many to cut back on their meat consumption.
See also: Balancing Optimal Nutrition with Sustainability
The number of full-time vegetarians and vegans in the US has not shifted very dramatically since the 70s. However, the number of non-vegetarians who choose meatless meals a significant portion of the time has grown by leaps and bounds. As someone who chooses vegetarian meals about 80-90% of the time, I am delighted to see the options—both in grocery stores and restaurant menus—growing by leaps and bounds.
It’s All About the Bugs
So much of the conversation about nutrition this year was about the bugs that live in our guts. We’ve known for a long time that the human intestine is host to millions of microbes and that these bacteria play a role in digestion and immune function. More recently, however, we’ve come to realize that we seriously underestimated just how influential these little critters are.
It turns out that the bugs in our guts do more than break down fiber from foods, manufacture vitamin K, and provide some protection against pathogenic bacteria. They also appear to influence everything from our mood to our body weight to our susceptibility to various diseases. Just about everything we thought we knew about nutrition needs to be reevaluated through this new lens.
See also: Artificial Sweeteners and Weight Gain: Mystery Solved?
In addition to studying how various foods and nutrients affect our biochemistry, we now need to figure out how various foods and nutrients affect our gut populations! That should be enough to keep nutrition scientists and microbiologists busy for the rest of the century! In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about this brave new world within, there’s a great little book called Follow Your Gut, by Rob Night.
You’ll also find a few books out there already offering dietary prescriptions for optimizing your microbiome, but I consider these mostly speculative. We’ve still got some work to do to figure out how to reliably manipulate our gut bacteria through diet. In the meantime, your best bet is to incorporate a wide variety of fermented and cultured foods into your diet, as well as plenty of fiber, which is the bacteria’s primarily food source.
See also: A World Tour of Lactobacillus Bacteria and Nutrition Diva’s Fiber Cheat Sheet
There’s a Fly in My Soup
Another type of bugs that got a lot of play this year were insects, which, believe it or not, are the hot new protein source, popping up in everything from energy bars to muffin mix.
Back in 2013, I wrote that “In the not too distant future, nutrition-conscious consumers might be paying extra for flour fortified with protein-rich mealworms.”
My prediction has come true! You can now buy crackers, energy bars, granola, and other foods pumped up with cricket protein. You can even buy high-protein cricket flour to make your own!
If you can get past the gross-out factor, it makes a lot of sense: Insects are quite nutritious, are humanely raised and harvested, and require very little water, fuel, land, or other resources to produce. For those concerned about sustainability, environmental impact, and animal welfare, insects may be the ultimate solution!
See also: Are Bugs the New Beef?
What Trends Are You Watching?
Was there a story, study, or product that changed your approach to food or nutrition this year? What aspect of your diet—or of the larger food system—are you most concerned about? What could you use help with in the coming year? Post your thoughts below or on the Nutrition Diva Facebook page.
Happy New Year from all of us at Quick and Dirty Tips!
About the Author
Monica Reinagel is a board-certified licensed nutritionist, author, and the creator of one of iTunes’ most highly ranked health and fitness podcasts. Her advice is regularly featured on the TODAY show, Dr. Oz, NPR, and in the nation’s leading newspapers, magazines, and websites. Do you have a nutrition question? Call the Nutrition Diva listener line at 443-961-6206. Your question could be featured on the show.