These Are The Biggest Health Trends In Canada For 2020

We’ve seen huge cultural shifts in our understanding of health and wellness over the last decade and I expect nothing different as we head into 2020, These Are The Biggest Health Trends In Canada For 2020!

Our understanding of healthy eating

• One of the primary threads we have seen in the past 10 years is our approach to food and healthy eating. The idea of what constitutes a healthy diet has changed dramatically in the last decade. Not many people ate Greek yogurt, kale or quinoa back then.

• We’ve moved from being hyper-focused on counting calories to how to read labels and choose the right foods based on a much more extensive nutritional profile. How many calories are coming from carbohydrates, sugars and saturated fats? Does this meal contain enough fibre? Should you eat all that gluten? Is this product loaded with artificial sweeteners?
• Ten years ago, we told people to look for hidden artificial trans-fats in their foods. Of course, both the U.S. and Canada finally banned trans-fats in 2018. But before then, supermarkets were filled with products that had trans-fats, and many people didn’t even know what trans-fats are.

Adopting holistic health practices

• We have seen so many holistic health practices, such as meditation and yoga, gain more popularity. It has changed our understanding of how to stay well.
• The CDC found that between 2012 and 2017, the number of Americans who meditate has increased nearly 4-fold, and more than 35 million adults reported they’d practiced yoga in the last 12 months.

Breaking the stigma of chronic illness

• We have witnessed how people have become more open and willing to share intimate details and offer guidance to living with chronic illnesses, including ones that have typically come with a lot of shame such as mental health disorders.
• 44 percent of adults in Canada are living with a common chronic health condition.
• Someone who is willing to speak out about their challenges can remind viewers who are struggling in silence that they are not alone. It’s a powerful gesture.

Digital media and smartphone addiction

• Of course, not every change has been positive. The development of technology has moved at a rapid pace over the last decade and that’s taken its toll on our physical and mental health.
• Some people spend as much as half their day interacting with technology. That means you’re either sleeping or staring at a screen.
• While these technologies help us all stay connected, nothing compares to real-life interaction, because research finds that lack of social interaction is a factor for poor physical and mental health.

Predictions for the future

• Just like fashion and politics, health trends and interests go in and out of vogue.

Personal health tech

• It’s exciting how many technology companies are starting to take on the health game. In the future,  we will see a world where you will have the power to fully take control of your own health through technology. There will be a personal tech that allows you to check your blood sugar, blood pressure, and even access your medical records. This will make us all smarter and more informed patients.

Better and healthier food

• We’re already seeing remarkable changes when it comes to food. Consumers are demanding more from their food—real transparency, better quality, less chemical, healthier options.
• We’ll see more people sticking to a plant-based diet, whether it’s for reasons that have to with health, finances or the environment.

I'd love to hear from you, what do you think the biggest trends will be in 2020?