Just when you got used to goji berries and wheatgrass shots, it’s time to introduce you the new food trends of 2017. American nutritionists have listed the next health trends and concepts which has the potential to become a hype sooner than we think. Surely I don’t want to keep this away from you my dear friends.
1. Moringa
Move over Kale. It’s time for Moringa Oleifera. This tree, originally from Haiti, gained lots of attention from trend watchers due to its high nutrition value. The leaves contain lots of calcium, potassium, proteins and vitamin A, B, C, D and E. The trees grow in tropical as well as lower temperature climate, they produce leaves throughout the year which are edible. Leaves are eaten dry or cooked, without loss of nutrition. It’s hard to get your hands on fresh leaves, as they perish easily. Therefore look out for the powdered version to add to your smoothies, juices and tea.
2. Regenerative Agriculture
A concept that gains more followers, is regenerative agriculture. Hereby the practice is organic farming in order to create healthy soil or to regenerate unhealthy soils to recover harvest. One way is to let cattle graze soil, because their manure will function as a natural fertiliser.
The coming years you will learn more about meat from your local farmer coming from grass-fed cows, these are from regenerative agriculture. If this really will happen in reality, time can only tell. What we know is that this should be regulated whether the steak on your plate does really coming from grass-fed cows.
3. Simple ingredients
Do you sometimes don’t understand food labels on your ingredients? There’s good news for you. Food scientists keep experimenting on improving and replacing nasty artificial ingredients with natural ones. This means your food will contain more and more ingredients which you understand and can pronounce properly. Manufacturers are not only looking for a replacement of sugar, but also changing the flavor profile. There’s a biotechnology company trying to remove the bitterness from cacao beans by adding mushrooms, to produce chocolate with less sugar.
4. Juice of plants
This trend is not totally new. We are all familiar with coconut water and aloe vera drinks which are today available in most supermarkets. But what about maple water and cactus water? Yup, this is what we can expect according to trend watchers. Market research company Technavia stated the profit of coconut water in the US alone has increased with 27%. And that’s not without a reason. Juice or water of plants don’t only have more taste than regular water, but it also comes with healthy benefits, aside from hydration. Aloe vera juice claims to aid weight loss and a better digestion and cactus water contains antioxidants.
5. Hello jackfruit
More people choose to eat less meat because of health considerations or animal suffering in the bio industry. Therefore food scientists experiment with alternatives. There are for example burgers made of proteins from yellow peas and there’s a molecule named ‘heem’, which makes plants taste like meat. However from all meat substitutes, jackfruit has the most potential to go mainstream according to food experts. Jackfruit is a giant fruit with a prickly peel. The fruit comes from trees growing in South America and Southeast Asia. The meat has a hearty taste when cooked. You can make great ‘steak’ from it 😉
6. Spirulina
We rather don’t see artificial coloring in our food don’t we. Therefore red and yellow breakfast cereals are often substituted with natural herbs such as turmeric and paprika. It’s a lot more difficult for blue and green grains, you would expect. Well actually we learned that Spirulina, a blue colored algae, is now being used as a natural coloring. The blue algae is also considered as a superfood. You can find them in your local health store, or as energy shots or smoothies in health and hipster cafes.
