Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed your holiday season with friends and family and are ready to get back to your normal routine. If you have health and fitness goals for 2020 (which let’s be honest, of course you do if you’re reading this blog), it’s important to stay updated on the newest industry trends. No, we don’t mean fads like skinny teas, waist trainers, and Instagram fitness programs that promise real weight loss from 15 minute workouts every day. No, we are talking about the latest research that is informing the supplements that companies are making for athletes and general fitness enthusiasts alike. We are talking about the leading recommendations by industry experts that will support your efforts to live healthier this year. Without further ado, here are the 5 supplement trends in 2020.
Supplement Trends in 2020
1. WHOLE FOODS
We have to start with this because at the end of the day, supplements will NEVER replace whole foods in your diet. Need more potassium? Stop paying $10 for vitamins when you can spend 49 cents on bananas or 99 cents on sweet potatoes. Both foods are packed with potassium, taste wonderful, and contain a host of other micronutrients (and fiber, hello!). Unless you suffer from a food allergy that prohibits you from eating particular food groups or have a deficiency in any particular nutrient, always look to whole foods first before reaching for the vitamin bottles. Eating fresh, whole foods has been a trend for a handful of years now and guess what? It ain’t going anywhere in 2020!
2. GUT HEALTH
In recent years, more and more research has been coming out about our guts. It turns out that our gut health can have a pretty big impact on our overall health (physical, emotional, and mental health believe it or not!). There are already a million prebiotics and probiotics out there but you can expect more and more supplement companies to be getting into the gut health game in 2020. According to Natural Products Insider, “prebiotic supplement sales have doubled every year since 2016, with prebiotic and synbiotic (products that combine both pre and probiotics) supplement sales projected to surpass $1B by 2020.” Where can you find probiotics? Yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, and a number of other fermented foods. If you need something a little more concentrated, Shaklee Probiotic Complex is one of our favorite brands!
3. RECOVERY
Recovery, recovery, recovery. We couldn’t talk about it enough in 2019 so we are continuing the conversation in 2020. From CBD, to curcumin, omega 3’s, tart cherry juice, and bcaa’s, recovery is the talk of the town in the sports nutrition industry and for good reason! It’s easy in our culture to constantly be pushing for products that help us work harder for longer and keep up the grind in the hopes of getting results. But the more we learn about athletic performance and training longevity, the more we are finding that training without recovery isn’t giving us the gains we are chasing. According to a 2018 study published in Frontiers in Physiology, “Maximizing the performance capacity of an athlete is not only a matter of training. It also depends on an optimal balance between training and recovery in order to prevent maladaptation to accumulated psychological and physiological stresses induced by the training load.” So what should you be watching out for in 2020? A few things:
- Joint recovery products. Follow these links to shop two of ISN’s leading recovery supplements, Turmeric Curcumin and Omega 3 Fish Oil. Both of these products have shown to minimize joint swelling and inflammation across various studies, and improve recovery following difficult workouts.
- Sleep aids. Think CBD oil, ZMA (Zinc Magnesium Acetate), and melatonin to name a few. If you aren’t sleeping well and are training at a high intensity, you are missing out on a lot of potential muscle repair and performance adaptation.
- Pre-mixed beverages. These are great because you can get multiple recovery ingredients like BCAA’s, turmeric, and electrolytes. Some of our favorite brands are FitAid and O2 Natural Recovery. Keep your eyes peeled for ISN to take on a recovery beverage in the near future!
4. LABEL TRANSPARENCY
We are finally getting to the place where people want to KNOW (and we mean really know!) what they’re putting in their bodies. As a company, ISN believes strongly in transparency and integrity. We believe that it is our responsibility as a company to provide you with the highest quality ingredients possible, and then tell you exactly what is included in the product you’re using. That’s why you never have to ask what’s included in our “proprietary blend”…we don’t have one…ever. We have nothing to hide so we list everything in our products right on their label, clear as day for you to see. And we are so happy that the supplement industry is following suit in 2020. Expect to see more brands getting real about what’s in their products and cleaning up formulas that leave a lot to the imagination. Interested in seeing what a clean label looks like? Check out Red Leaf Pre-Workout Energizer. Everything inside our product is listed right on the label. Life is complicated enough! Choosing the right pre-workout shouldn’t be.
5. HOLISTIC HEALTH
More and more people are living into a more holistic health approach. In 2019, we saw consumers (61%) begin to emphasize their desire for improved health and wellness by taking a more holistic approach. Our health is never just our weight or 1-RM back squat. Nor is it just our self confidence and sense of purpose. Our “health” is the sum of our physical, mental, emotional and social health. When any one area is out of whack, the others also take a hit. In 2020, we can expect to see a greater push for balanced health across all four categories from companies and consumers alike. Want to know a good way to stay tuned in to the various aspects of health? Find a health and wellness blog, like the ISN blog, that keeps you updated on how to invest in yourself and improve your health whether that’s in the kitchen, gym, or in your social circle.
Take a good look at your current fitness routine and your nutrition. Take a look at the relationships in your life. Look at your current work-life balance. Perform a self-audit of each area of health in your life and see where you have opportunities to invest more in yourself. Do any of these trends sound interesting to you?
Let us know how you are going to attack your health and wellness goals in 2020 in the comments! And don’t forget to subscribe to redleafnutrition.com/blog so you can always stay up to date on the latest fitness, nutrition, wellness, and supplement buzz. Cheers to a new year of ups and downs! We have a good feeling about this one.
