The predictions are in! Food retailers and marketers have weighed in on which foods and flavors will be in the spotlight in 2025. But are these trendy items healthy choices? Let’s take a look!
A Tour of Asia. Korean kimchee, Thai chili-lime, Indian masala, Chinese Sichuan, and Middle Eastern za’atar are just some of the Asian flavors turning up in packaged foods with increasing frequency. You’ll find them in everything from main dishes to snacks. Additionally, the National Restaurant Association lists Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipino dishes as three of the most popular cuisines of the year.
The healthfulness of foods containing these flavors depends entirely on how they are used. If the actual kimchee, chilis, lime juice, or spice mixes are used in a generally healthy dish like a stir-fry, they are likely a good choice. If they are used as flavorings on chips or non-whole-grain crackers, they are not. Watch out for high sodium and/or saturated fat content in prepared and packaged foods. (A daily value of 20 percent or more per serving on the Nutrition Facts label is high. Five percent or less is low. Don’t forget to consider how many servings you’ll be consuming.)
Trying dishes with flavors from different cultures is a great way to increase the variety of your dietary intake.
Turning Up the Heat. Hot, spicy food has been gaining popularity for some time now, but trend spotters see a change emerging. Rather than challenging themselves to see how much heat they can tolerate, consumers are looking for flavor. The types of spices and peppers available in the marketplace are expanding. Hot oils and spreads are more available than ever, and hot (chili-infused) honey is increasingly offered on cheese trays, as a pizza topping, or as a drizzle on ice cream or waffles.
It’s getting easier to find fresh, frozen, dried, and ground chili peppers such as serrano, jalapeño, poblano, long hots, cayenne, habanero, and even less common varieties like arbol, Calabrian chiles, guajillo peppers, and hatch chiles. They get their heat from a compound called capsaicin, which is concentrated in the membrane surrounding the pepper seeds. Capsaicin has been studied as a weight loss aid, appetite suppressant, and anti-inflammatory. Experiments in rodents have shown some promising results, but studies in humans, for the most part, have not.
One area where capsaicin is helpful is topical pain relief. It is available in pain patches, creams, lotions, and liquid roll-ons to treat pain from arthritis, diabetic neuropathy, neuralgia, sore muscles, and backaches. Some people experience nausea and vomiting as a side effect of these topical treatments. Oral capsaicin, whether from foods or supplements, can irritate the lining of the stomach and intestines. This can worsen acid reflux, cause diarrhea, or result in stools that burn as they leave the body.
If you like it hot, enjoy the expanding availability of fresh peppers, dried peppers, powdered spices, and chili-infused products. Just make sure the heat is not paired with too much salt, and keep in mind that, as natural (and delicious) as it may be, honey—including hot honey—is sugar and should be used sparingly.
Briny Goodness. Acidic, briny, and fermented foods are expected to continue their upward trend. The Korean spicy fermented cabbage, kimchi, is popping up in markets and restaurant dishes. You’re likely to see a wider variety of familiar choices like olives, pickles, sauerkraut, and pickled veggies, with small batch, artisanal products joining the mix.
Eating these zesty, tangy fermented foods nourishes the beneficial microbes that live in your gut. In a small randomized controlled trial, a 10-week diet rich in fermented foods including kimchi and other fermented vegetables enhanced the diversity of gut microbes and decreased inflammatory markers. (Note: not all pickles are fermented. It takes several weeks for brined pickles to ferment.)
Brine is a solution of water and salt, so watch your portions and intake frequency to keep your sodium consumption in check.
➧ Check labels. The healthfulness of foods containing different flavors depends on what else is in them. Choose dishes and snacks lower in sodium and saturated fat.
➧ Branch out. Sample new foods from different cultures.
➧ Focus on flavor. Find healthy foods you enjoy, rather than eating foods just for their perceived healthfulness.