Every year it seems that once Thanksgiving has been celebrated the remaining five weeks of the year fly by at a blurring pace. Our focus on the Parker Dentistry blog for the last quarter has been on 2018’s most prominent and popular trends. As a dental and wellness practice, we believe in sharing our passion for health and wellness with our all of our wonderful patients.
The more you know, the better equipped that you will be to make decisions that will have a positive impact on your health, wellness, and happiness. We’d like to take today to recap the top 12 health and wellness trends of 2018 before we switch gears and focus on 2019. Please feel free to click on the link provided with each trend below for more in depth information about each one.
Trend 1: Leading an Environmentally-Friendly and Wellness-Conscious Lifestyle
This is a trend that is fortunately only gaining momentum! More of us are becoming more educated and aware of the impact that our personal decisions have on our planet. We are learning that simple changes and substitutions can make significant differences in our health and the health of our world.
Giving up single-use plastics, consuming less red meat, eating seasonally and locally, exercising outside, reading labels, and using eco-friendly household products are a few simple efforts we can all make.
Trends 2: Turning Away from Technology
According to TIME magazine the average individual checks his or her phone 46 times a day! Another report found that 81% of Americans spend time looking at their phone while in a face-to-face situation. While screen addiction is a real thing, many of us are becoming more conscious of the amount of time we spend on our devices.
Trend 3: Green Beauty
While many of us have long cared about what we put inside of our bodies, what we put on our bodies has become equally as important. Fortunately, there is a growing number of fantastic cosmetic and wellness companies that are making eco-friendly, organic, and effective products. Brands like Burt’s Bees, Yes To, Pacifica, S.W. Basics, Fig & Yarrow, W3LL People, 100% Pure Beauty, MD SolarSciences, and ColorScience are leading the way.
Trend 4: Adding Collagen to Your Diet
Collagen is an essential component of our bones, skin, muscle tissue, tendons, ligaments, nails, hair, teeth, cartilage, vertebral discs, and blood vessels. After the age of 20, our bodies produce 1% less collagen each year. While collagen injections have been on the market for a while, this year saw a rise in the popularity of collagen supplements, powders, and bone broth.
Trend 5: To Eat or Not to Eat
Intermittent fasting has recently gained quite a bit of popularity as a pattern of eating. Studies have proven that intermittent fasting helps people lose weight, especially belly fat, and supports the body’s ability to repair, heal, and protect itself against chronic diseases.
Trend 6: We Have the Power
Buying organic, sustainably-sourced, fair trade, cruelty-free, and vegan has never been more accessible and more affordable. Through our purchases we have the power to affect what is produced and how it is produced.
Trend 7: Sleep is a Top Priority
While we’ve always known that sleep is important, many of us don’t get enough quality sleep on a regular basis. Regular sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain, anxiety, hormonal imbalance, cardiovascular disease, a weakened immune system, high blood pressure, and lapses in neurological functions.
Follow our Parker Wellness’s 10 tips to better sleep to get on trend and make sleep a top priority!
Trend 8: Eat More Fat
Say goodbye to fat-free dieting! A diet that is rich in monounsaturated fats (good fats) is very important for your mitochondria, the power plant in your cells that turns food and oxygen into energy. Good fats come from avocado, eggs, coconut oil, cheese, fatty fish, chia seeds, and nuts. These types of fats also help to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and inflammation.
Trend 9: All You Have to Do is Breathe
While meditation is an incredible practice to incorporate into your daily life, 2018 saw a rise in interest in shorter breathwork series. These shorter breathwork practices can be done anywhere and at any time and have helped relieve stress, anxiety, feelings of being overwhelmed, fatigue, and lack of concentration.
Trend 10: All Hail Moringa
Moringa is one of the most powerful natural anti-inflammatories. While it has long been used in Eastern medicine, it has only recently made its way into Western wellness. Moringa has 3.5 times more calcium than cow’s milk, 9 times the protein of yogurt, 10 times more vitamin A than carrots, 15 times more potassium than bananas, 12 times the vitamin C of oranges, and 25 times more iron than spinach!
Trend 11: Daily Self-Care
In 2018, we collectively put our foot down and embraced self-care as an essential daily practice and not a sporadic indulgence.
Trend 12: Energy Cleansing Practices
Sage, Palo Santo, rosewater, essential oils, moving meditations, yoga, bubble baths, breathwork, and holding crystals are all powerful ways to cleanse your energy and your personal space. These practices are part of taking care of our spiritual wellness.
To achieve the ultimate health, wellness, and happiness we must continue to learn and incorporate habits, practices, and lifestyle choices that are conducive to our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet. At Parker Wellness, we want to share what we learn along the way with you. The journey is all of ours.
Stay tuned for the top 10 trends of 2019!