15 Wellness Trends Affecting Brands in 2017

Health and wellness is a hot topic across industries and channels lately.

Media company Well+Good announced its "2017 Wellness Trends," 15 issues that consumer goods companies should have on their radar in the coming year. 

Inflammation-fighting foods: Fighting inflammation with food is quickly becoming a major health priority. Expect to see food brands capitalizing on the buzz in 2017.

Meet "Workleisure": "Athleisure" is taking on the workplace: Thanks to athleisure, life has become a lot more comfortable. But the one place fashionable fitness clothes have yet to fully infiltrate? The office. And major brands are taking note, designing what Well+Good has termed "workleisure."

Cannabis gets seriously commercial: Retail brands now want to be your cannabis dealer, with pot-infused foods, beauty products, and other consumer goods that bottle the plant's much-buzzed-about healing benefits. Cannabidiol is showing up in skin-care brands, drink powders, sprays and suppositories.

Next-gen wellness retreats: Wellness travel has always existed, but now curated experiences developed by top-tier fitness instructors are trending. Consumers can join their yoga teacher in Cuba, or spend a week of clean eating, custom workouts and daily massage in up-and-coming destinations like Botswana.

The era of menstrual realness: We're now moving into an era of menstrual realness inspired by Kiran Gandhi's free-bleeding 2015 London Marathon run, and led by better-for-you feminine product brands that are speaking directly to young women with in-your-face, laugh-at-the-patriarchy campaigns.

Plant protein blossoms in a big way: Gone is the idea that protein has to come from an animal. Pea and hemp proteins are popping up everywhere, in increasingly delicious powders for smoothies, in nutrition bars, in potato chips—and also at trendy restaurants like By Chloe and Momofuku Nishi.

"Woo-woo" wellness goes mainstream: Crystals are increasingly celebrated as life-enhancing, whether as jewelry or in home design, by everyone from Jennifer Aniston and hip-hop stars to fitness phenom Taryn Toomey.

Collagen's boost to "It Ingredient" status: For a growing number of women, the secret to their glowing skin — not to mention shiny hair, strong nails, pain-free joints, and healthy digestion — is this fibrous protein. Think bone broth, acid-packed nutrition bars, collagen-rich powders and bottled drinks.

Nesting at home is the new going out: On social media, consumers are glamorizing their nesting habits with carefully designed bedrooms in a way that decor sites like Apartment Therapy might. Next year will be all about re-charging.

The future of fitness is franchised: SoulCycle and Barry's Bootcamp started the boutique fitness craze, but the companies using a franchise model are largely the ones scaling it. The barre scene, filled with examples like barre3, Barre Code, and Bar Method, is thriving the most.

Hyper-functional beverages are the new health tonic: Forget sugary, vitamin-dusted waters: new hyper-functional, ultra-healthy, virtually medicinal beverages are about to flood the market. Whether consumers need an energy boost, focused thoughts or quality shut-eye — there's a drink for that.

Ditching makeup for the natural look: It seems like every week, another celebrity posts a proud makeup-free selfie, exclaiming her enthusiasm for joining the #NoMakeup movement. While makeup isn't going away, authentic beauty is going to be a hot topic — for women and beauty brands — in 2017.

The social scene is sobering up: If you steer clear of sugar, chug green juice, and schedule daily workouts in your calendar, there's bound to come a time when alcohol (and the ensuing hangover) starts to lose its luster. For many New Yorkers and Angelenos, that time is now, and a tide of booze-free social gatherings is rising to meet the sober crowd where they are.

Beauty counters are getting cleaner: Women are now reading the labels on their beauty products as carefully as food labels. As a result, chic, cleaner beauty products are getting way more accessible. Natural and organic brands are sprouting up almost daily and becoming a very viable industry that's estimated to reach $16 billion by 2020.

Recovery now rules for fitness fanatics: An obsession with high-intensity workouts has led to over-training and injuries, ushering in a new let's-slow-down mentality that's will keep spreading. Tough workouts aren't fading away, but people are finally focusing on good habits, recovery classes, and self-care products to offset the physical toll.

The 2017 trends are “the most exciting we've covered in seven years," according to Melisse Gelula, Well+Good's co-founder and editorial director. "You'd be hard pressed to attend a dinner party in the next few months without one of these coming up."