Due to the rise of conscious consumption, more and more health enthusiasts changed their perception, especially this year, regarding food, the way it’s cooked, consumed, and produced. As the year progressed, a myriad variety of diets and health trends made their way into our lifestyle. Now, as we are ready to say hello to a whole new year, here’s a list recalling the top health trends of 2018 with nutritionists Kavita Devgan and Tripti Tandon.
Intermittent Fasting
Celebrities such as Beyoncé, Liv Tyler and Miranda Kerr have sworn by intermittent fasting, which was the most popular health trend this year. IF (intermittent fasting) is not a diet. In fact, it is a different way of eating. IF can be defined as an eating pattern where one alternates between periods of eating and fasting. The focus during intermittent fasting is on the timing of consumption of your healthy meals. The most important benefit of IF was that there is no fixed period for which you have to fast and eat. You can create a timetable as per your metabolism and body type.
Fermented foods
2018 has been the year when people realised that a healthy gut leads to a healthy body. Fermented food items such as kefir, kombucha, miso and tempeh saw a rise in demand among foodies. Fermented foods are packed with probiotics — good bacteria that improves the gut health, keeps it clean and promotes healthy weight.
DASH diet
One of the major health problems of 2018, besides growing depression among public, was hypertension. And to deal with it, health experts came up with DASH diet — Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This diet emphasises on diet rich in fruits, lean proteins and vegetables, and restricts meat, salt, sugar, fat and sodium. This diet was voted as one of the best diets of 2018 by various health experts.
Local food trend (locavore or localvore)
As the modern-day eater became more conscious of his environment, the trend of local food — produced locally and seasonally or has not been moved long distances to market or has grown within 160km of consumption — made its presence felt. The idea behind this trend was that local food benefits the local economy; the food consumed is fresh, healthy and suits the individual’s biology in a better way.
Happy Foods
Depression was one of the biggest health problems of 2018. And health experts came up with an alternative way of dealing with it by focusing on happy foods — foods that are high in serotonin. According to experts, food items such as chocolate, mushroom, grapes, and pineapple are high in serotonin, and they fight low levels of serotonin in the body — which is known to be directly linked to depression.
Hara Hachi Bu
Who wouldn’t want to increase one’s life expectancy and lead a long, healthy life? Well, the Japanese surely do. That’s why they follow the principle of Hara Hachi Bu — filling up one’s belly up to 80% only. The science behind it states that overeating or being full will lead to your stomach taking a long time to process the food. This, in turn, will lead to acceleration of cellular oxidation, which in turn ages you faster. 2018 has been the year where the world discovered the benefits of Hara Hachi Bu, even outside of Japan.
Seeds and nuts
While the trend of consuming seeds and nuts has been around for many years now, it’s only in 2018 that it became mainstream. The reason being — a stamp of approval from most health experts, who consider these two foods as the ideal ‘health snack’, which can be had at any time of the day. Chia, pumpkin and hemp seeds were the favourite go-to snacking options that health buffs munched on.
First Published: Dec 18, 2018 11:01 IST
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