A bite of health trends for 2016

This year, we’ve been bombarded with so many diet trends it’s hard to keep up – low carb, no carb, high fat, bone broth, fermented and whole foods. It’s tough to tell fork from knife amidst the sheer number and diversity of health movements. But the common denominator we’re excited about is a shift away from processed foods, towards fresh, organic produce.

Superfoods, including goji berries, chia seeds and avocado, have had their time in the spotlight, with fermented foods, namely sauerkraut and kefir, gaining notoriety too. Proponents of high protein and stomach-healing diets have also put forward bone broths and gelatine as the cure for diet woes. Ancient grains, such as quinoa and Teff, were more prolific this year than ever before and hyperlocalism (only buying foods within a certain radius from where you live and eat) continued to gain popularity.

As conscious eating gained more momentum this year than ever before, restaurants and grocery stores have kept up. Gluten-free, sugar-free and low-carb options are peppering menus, mostly accompanied by the source of the ingredients (preferably farm-raised, free-range or organic).

Major retailers have taken advantage of the new wave of health-obsessed eaters, offering convenient ready-made meals and ready-prepared vegetables (zucchini noodles and cauliflower rice, amongst others) for those in pursuit of a wholefoods lifestyle, without the time and energy to prepare meals.

But with the proliferation of new, improved diet trends comes the inevitable pendulum swing. And although the trends might change there are a few things that are constant. Here’s a round-up of the new-generation diet principles that will stick:

1. Smaller portions, more often – or ‘grazing’. The elimination of food groups altogether isn’t encouraged, but a full, happy life, fuelled by real food is.

2. Whole foods. One thing every modern eating movement has in common is a closer assessment of what’s on our plates – a shift in consciousness to truly analyse the source of our food, how it’s produced and what we’re getting out of it. Factory farmed meat is not trendy, but everything organic and local is.

3. More veg. If you feel guilty about leaving a mountain of broccoli on your plate (in favour of macaroni cheese) when you were five, forget the guilt – vegetables are having a moment. They’re being eaten in every way imaginable – mashed, with spiced cinnamon butter, or as chips and spaghetti – and the one thing all diet trends have in common, is that they’re giving veg the thumbs up.

4. Ingredient awareness. This includes a more conscious and deliberate approach to back-of-the-pack browsing. If sugar is listed as one of the top three ingredients, it’s a no. Then there’s carb, protein and salt content. Whatever your enemy of choice, all new diet trends share the desire to know what’s inside.

5. It starts with condiments, and ends with stock and bone broth. Cooking and preparing food at home isn’t just cost-effective, it gives the maker complete control over ingredients, and rules out additives. Make it at home and, chances are, the final product won’t have a list of forty-five additives.