DNA Diets

Diets come, and diets go. The past decade alone has seen the rise and fall of dozens of them, from the Subway diet to the Paleo diet. But the emerging DNA dieting trend may just be the most scientific and tailored option yet. 

Roughly 45 million Americans will go on a diet of some form this year, pumping over $33 billion into the industry. Overall, dieting hasn’t changed too much over the years—eat less junk food, eat more veggies, exercise more. A common frustration consumers have with emerging diets is that they seem too constrictive or general to be entirely attainable. DNA diets remove the cookie-cutter dieting approach by offering exactly what you’d think: a highly personalized nutrition plan based on your genetic makeup. 

DNA diets focus less on weight loss, and more on helping consumers achieve a balanced, healthy body for the individual. Companies like InsideTracker use a small blood or saliva sample that consumers can collect at home to identify nutrient imbalances, hormone deficiencies, and more in the body—then provides personalized food recommendations to help correct any present issues. The goal is to apply a holistic approach to health by placing an emphasis on what’s right for your body, not just trimming your waistline. This hyper-specific nutrition plan has been slowly gaining traction over the past five years, as at-home genetic testing like 23andMe and Ancestry continue to grow. As we begin the new year, DNA dieting may be one of the biggest diet trends to watch.

Whether DNA diets are the answer to decades of fad dieting in America or not, it’s a noteworthy shift in consumer thinking. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all diets—they’ve been replaced by a willingness to give up our own genetic makeup in an effort to live a healthier lifestyle.

Seeing Blue

Pantone declared Classic Blue the color of 2020. At first glance, we were unenthused, but upon further digging experts say the ultramarine recognizes public feelings of instability and aims to quell anxiety and connect people with a classic hue, especially during a stressful election year. Pantone isn’t the only one seeing blue. Bartenders are mixing lemon juice and pea flower extract to create indigo color-changing cocktails. We’ve seen an uptick in interest in ube a purple (yes, we know not quite blue) yam native to the Philippines. The yam is transformed into ice cream, donuts, and other Instagrammable delicacies. If you’re looking to try the trend you can turn your morning smoothie bowl iridescent aquamarine with blue spirulina powder. This trend is quite the departure from the artificially-colored rainbow bagels of 2016 and is a departure from over the top colors. Try experimenting with these ingredients at home or incorporating their calming tones into your next content shoot. We can’t wait to see the shades of blue that 2020 brings. 

A Trend Good Enough to Eat

The trend: The edible packaging industry is on the rise. Not only have we heard of notable brands experimenting with packaging you can eat, but PR Newswire predicts the industry will grow to 679M by 2025. 

Try the Trend: Stay hydrated with these edible water blobs from a UK startup. You can get ice cream sandwiches served in edible potato wrappers from Cool Haus. You can enjoy your 6-pack of beer in edible rings from Saltwater Brewery. Or, sip your drinks with this edible straw from Loliware. 

The benefits: Replacing one single-use item with another ultimately doesn’t solve the problem of our overflowing landfills and China’s inability to house any more of our recycling. Edible packaging breaks the mold of our perception of food containers and begins to address the issue of single-use materials in the food industry. 

The concerns: When discussing this issue with the food and wellness team, the question of cleanliness came up. How can edible packaging that gets handled during production be safe for consumption? Additionally, there is the question of if the edible packaging will have the same preservation properties as its plastic or glass counterparts. Lastly, we should be asking questions about the production of these materials and their impact on the environment. 

What’s next: Clean packaging is the next frontier of environmental food concern. Consumers and investors are beginning to devote more attention to food packaging and companies will be required to rethink food containment.

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