According to Innova Market Insights, it’s safe to anticipate that the markets for dietary supplements and functional foods marketed toward healthy aging will continue to become more holistic, including products believed to benefit a balance of physical, mental, and emotional aspects of aging.
 
According to the results of a survey published in August, seven out of 10 consumers have said that they made changes over the past year to improve their health, and that these changes were to support a balance of physical, mental, and emotional aspects. Changes to improve physical wellbeing represented about 53% in the survey, whereas, significant numbers were present for consumers taking steps to improve emotional health and wellbeing (44% of respondents) and for consumers who said that they had sought more spiritual time (32%).
 
Nutrition that supports both physical and emotional wellbeing are thriving, Innova reports. Being able to target audiences of different generations with more specific holistic approaches will allow for new opportunities, and to create optimized products.
 
“Being aged 60+ continues to be redefined, as this age group strives to remain healthier and more active while potentially working until later in their lives than previous generations out of choice or necessity,” Innova said. “Future seniors, however, will come from Generation X and Millennials, raised in a different era to the Silent Generation and Boomers who make up the over 60s of today.”
 
Innova’s 2019 survey indicates that 76% of consumers between the ages of 26 and 55 agree that healthy aging started with what they ate and drank. 56% of this age bracket said that they had increased their consumption of functional foods and drinks over the past year. Millenials largely prefer functional foods and beverages more than their over-55 counterparts, Innova said, with about 30% preferring supplements in the form of food products, and 27.7% as beverages. Those over 55 were most likely to prefer tablets (29.7%) and capsules (26%) as their preferred form of intake of supplements in 2019.
 
It appears that the market is already speaking to the healthy aging market’s skew toward younger entrants – food and beverage launches with active health claims are seeing a growth of 11%, with some of the fastest-growing active health claims being joint health, energy/alertness, immune health, and bone health, followed closely by brain health and physical appearance via nutrition.
 
More about these findings will be presented by Myrthe de Beukelaar, market analyst at Innova Market Insights, as part of the Vitafoods Virtual Expo event, which can be accessed on Sep. 7, by registering here.