Meet wellness trends with beverages and cultured products

A growing body of conscious consumers are considering their health in day-to-day decision making and their spending patterns are following. More attention is now being placed on what ingredients are in the food and drinks they consume. There is an increasing interest in functional ingredients that offer wellness benefits beyond basic nutritional needs.

Muscle health

A healthy, nutritious diet is an essential part of enabling people to live a full, active life, and perform at their best. Consumers are leveraging healthy and nutrient-dense foods to support physical, mental and emotional wellbeing¹. Muscle health is an area of functional wellness that consumers are focussing on. Healthy muscles provide the strength, endurance and flexibility for everyday movement and mobility.

Muscles attach to bones and move the bones to enable physical movement, promote stability and balance, and enhance physical performance overall. Dairy beverages and cultured products can deliver essential nutrients and protein to support healthy muscles.

Dairy provides a natural, quality protein and is easy for consumers to incorporate into everyday life. Protecting muscle mass as we age, dairy protein also contains all nine essential amino acids required to maintain a healthy diet. Globally, protein claims continue to have great consumer appeal. The desire to consume nutritious, everyday products with added functional benefits continues to grow for mainstream consumers. 

Weight management

There is a growing body of evidence surrounding the benefits of consuming a higher protein diet when attempting to lose excess weight or maintain weight loss. Studies show that high protein diets can improve the overall perception of satiety.

Since protein's position at the top of the satiety hierarchy is fairly well accepted, high protein claims should be leveraged to connect with consumers who are driven by satiety as an added value. Incorporating a serving of protein into each meal (particularly breakfast) is a great strategy for weight loss and weight management³.

Mintel’s GNPD analysis shows a growing number of weight management new food and drink products that also bear a high satiety, vitamin/mineral fortification, probiotic or prebiotic feature, suggesting that big health-related product features are becoming value-added elements in the weight management food and drink market⁴.

Stress management

Consumers are continuing to seek out products with stress relieving properties as scientific evidence that diet is important to mental wellbeing grows. Consumers are favouring convenient, functional foods and drinks fortified with health-enhancing ingredients.

Dairy ingredients such as probiotics and milk phospholipids can play an important role in supporting mental wellbeing including reducing stress and stress management. Phospholipids are the building blocks of cell membranes and are critical for the brain. Linked to cognitive function and mood regulation, consuming milk phospholipids may help encourage a positive mood and reduced stress.

Chronic stress can lead to inflammation in the body, which may contribute to the development of stress-related disorders. Milk phospholipids have been found to possess anti-inflammatory properties. By reducing inflammation, they may help mitigate the negative effects of stress on the body.