Food Trends 2019

Food trends are a fickle lot. No sooner do we warm up to kale, than cauliflower appears in every dish. As a decade of caramel and seaweed wanes, here are five food and beverage trends to watch:

1 – Value-added drinks. This category includes water, tea, kombucha and mixers with added ingredients to help you recover from just about anything. Energy drinks are down, wellness drinks are up.

Do they really fit the bill? It depends. Kombucha, for example, is a fermented beverage – and that’s healthy – but you need to beware of added sugars and juices. Can a sweetened drink, laden with gut bacteria producing sugar, really aid in digestion? Read labels carefully and pay attention to your body’s reaction. Value-added waters that restore your pH levels or depleted oxygen? Hocus-pocus.

2 – Plant-based foods. You’d need to live in a cave to miss this one, but there is a difference between plant-centric, plant-forward and plant-based. Not to mention plant-washing. Plant-based may be the new normal, but you need to be a savvy label reader. As always, whole foods are best.

The recently created Certified Plant Based label is an excellent way to judge a food product. This certification requires that a food be 1) free of animal ingredients, 2) 95% made from plants, and 3) has no more than a 5% additive content. I would go further and urge you to eat only whole food products, as opposed to processed plant-based products (i.e. a bean and grain based veggie burger, as opposed to an Impossible or Beyond Burger).

3 – Oatmilk. Not only for your coffee (it steams like a dream!), but any product made with oat milk is red-hot right now. You can find it in frozen desserts, chocolates and non-dairy creamers.4 – Functional foods. Anything that claims to have a positive effect on your health (other than basic nutrition) is considered a functional food; i.e. foods that aid in digestion, blood sugar regulation, calmness. While a tea with added valerian may indeed help calm you, processed cheese straws in a snack-food bag are unlikely to be a “digestive, wellness snack.”

My advice?…once again, get your nutrients in their natural package, from whole foods.

5 – Mushrooms. They are the new cauliflower! With a meaty texture and umami mouth-feel, mushrooms are the star of show in the plant-based movement. The fungi are low in calories, good plant-based sources of fiber and protein, and are significant sources of  B vitamins, potassium, copper, vitamin D, and selenium. Selenium is a mineral that isn’t prevalent in many foods. It is detoxifying and anti-inflammatory.

Most importantly, mushrooms have been found to be helpful in the following health afflictions: cancer, types 1 and 2 diabetes, heart health and immunity. One cup of mushrooms contains only 15 calories and 2.2 gms. of protein. Include them in your cooking, or find them dried or in new vegan jerky for snacking.