In 2014 there is a good chance you might have spent time hanging upside down in a zero-gravity yoga class, obsessively tracking your steps with a fitness tracker wristband, or drinking one of the following: kombacha, butter coffee or anything to do with a coconut.
We track the health trends that made us take notice in 2014, from the good, to the bad, and the little bit weird.
Oil pulling
Oil pulling, an ancient Ayurvedic practice of swilling cold-pressed oil around your mouth for 20 minutes before your morning bowl of cereal picked up speed this year with celebrities such as Divergent’s Shailene Woodley professing their love for it . Benefits of the practice are said to include improved oral health and whiter teeth. The idea is that the longer you swirl the oil around your mouth, the more likely it is to pick up nasties such as toxins and impurities before we ingest them.
‘Ugly produce’
Think of it as a body image campaign for fruit and vegetables, 2014 was the year of ‘ugly produce’. French supermarket Intermarché went viral in July with its ‘Inglorious Fruit and Vegetable’ campaign which sold all of the misshapen – but perfectly fine to eat – produce that wouldn’t normally make the stringent supermarket cut. The produce was sold for a cheaper price than the more genetically blessed kind, and the campaign was a success with a 24 per cent increase in traffic to the supermarket. All of the ‘ugly’ produce was snapped up. In Australia Harris Farms were inspired by the French campaign and started a similar concept with their ‘Imperfect Picks’ campaign. It aims to reduce food wastage and to take more of farmer’s crops.
Butter in your coffee
Forget milk (and sugar!) in your coffee, the big health trend of 2014 was putting a chunk of butter in your coffee, which, according to fans makes for a delicious and creamy concoction. The concept was created by US based entrepreneur David Asprey who says that butter coffee – which Asprey coined bulletproof coffee – is ‘brain food’ that keeps you alert, as well as full from the saturated fats. Cafes in Melbourne and Sydney have started selling butter coffees for around $8 a cup.
Tracking
Wristband to track your daily movements and help you achieve your fitness goals.
When comedic author David Sedaris wrote of his obsession with his Fitbit in The New Yorker – a wristband that tracks your steps, calories burned and sleep – he tapped into a familiar anxiety: the idea that if you’re not tracking how many steps you walked that day, well what’s the point? Sedaris isn’t alone, according to a research report by Juniper Research, almost triple the number of fitness trackers will be in use by 2018 – a cool 60 million of them.
Fermentation
If 2014 was anything it was the year that people couldn’t get enough of putting things in jars. Pickling, fermenting and preserving gained popularity in 2014 – whether it was artisan pickles, homemade sauerkraut or virtually any vegetable you fancy. The health benefits of fermentation include improving digestive health.
Non-dairy alternatives
Almond, soy, rice, oat and quinoa milks are among those vying for the (non) dairy dollar. Ibisworld reported that the almond and soy milk industries have achieved a 5.9 per cent growth between 2009-10 and 2014-15, and Coles reported a 40% increase in the sales of almond milk. A number of local cafes now stock almond milk as an alternative to cow (and soy) milk, or you could make like Gwyneth Paltrow and make your own.
Camel milk
If you weren’t drinking almond milk this year, perhaps you might have tried a camel latte? Lauded as the superfood for 2014 (though it has been drunk for years in countries such as North Africa, the Middle East and Asia), camel milk – said to taste “salty” – is considered a health tonic because it is higher in vitamin C than regular milk and rich in iron and B vitamins. Demand for camel milk is growing because of its alleged positive effects on diabetes and autism.
Kombucha
Not exactly the kind of cuppa you have with a bikky, kombucha is a fermented drink that is created by adding live bacteria and yeast to a mix of sweetened black or green tea or fruit juice. Long favoured by celebrities, health nuts (and drunk for centuries in Asia) it’s sold in bottles in the health food aisle and predicted by Whole Foods magazine to reach sales of $500 million by 2015. Touted health benefits have included everything from anti-ageing to arthritis, and its probiotics it gives a boost for overall health.
Lean and green
Green juices continued to be the drink of choice for the stars with the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Julianne Moore snapped clutching bottles of green potions. This year super chef Heston Blumenthal lent his name to Breville’s fancy smoothie making blender, The Boss, while green juices (preferably served in a jar) made their way onto café menus all over the country.
Anti-gravity yoga
Not content with ordinary downward dogs (boring!) yoga upped the ante in 2014 with the rise of anti-gravity yoga and, erm, naked yoga. The latter is fairly self-explanatory, prone to giving quite alarming visuals and took off in New York. The former requires clothes and also yoga moves while harnessed into a silk hammock suspended from the ceiling.
Coco for coconuts
In 2014 we asked ourselves, was there anything that coconuts and all of its forms – oil, water, milk, the whole thing – could not do? Coconuts continued their reign, and coconut water became a billion dollar industry. Health claims on coconuts include helping to lower cholesterol, aid weight loss and to help kill bacteria. It also makes for a rather good moisturiser and hair mask.
Celebrities with lifestyle websites
Celebrities wanted to get on-board the Gwyneth Paltrow style Goop train this year with Blake Lively launching her haute-boho lifestyle website Preserve which blends philanthropy with ecommerce (i.e.$18 jars of pickles). Meanwhile Reese Witherspoon announced her plans to launch a lifestyle with a Southern twist website in early 2015.
Raw food
Whether you tried a raw, vegan ‘cheezecake’ or bought a spiraliser to make raw zucchini ‘noodles’, raw food was a big health trend in 2014. Raw food devotees don’t eat any food that has been heated over 30-45 degrees celcius believing that doing so removes the enzymes and nutritional good stuff out of what you’re eating.
