Murphy Research Releases Top Health Trends for 2022 that Demonstrate COVID-19’s Enduring Influence on How Americans Eat, Exercise and Practice Mindfulness – PR Web

Murphy Research releases nine health and wellness trends with regard to 2022

As COVID-19 rages on, it’s becoming clear that short-term adjustments to food, fitness, and mindfulness routines many Americans made in early 2020 are becoming established trends and habits

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (PRWEB) December 07, 2021

Murphy Research , a leading market research firm known for creative research design, rigorous execution and enduring insights, today released nine food, health and fitness, health plus wellness trends for 2022. The styles come from Murphy Research’s State of Our Wellness (SOOH) syndicated study , the largest and most comprehensive food, physical fitness, and mindfulness tracker in the U. S. These trends highlight the ongoing volatility caused by COVID-19, and its impact heading into an uncertain 2022.

SOOH has been continuously collecting data since 2018, with a current sample size of more than 40, 000 U. S. consumers aged 13 and older. This continuing, robust and rich data set has clearly captured the long lasting effects associated with COVID-19. The following food, fitness, plus mindfulness developments informed by SOOH are poised in order to characterize consumer health and wellness in 2022:

1. Healthy eating plus exercise will move through aspiration to action, but only among those who already cared

Despite the many challenges of the pandemic, a propensity toward healthy eating that began in 2020 has continued to grow. Since 2019, nutrition engagement offers increased from 69% of the population in order to 73%, a small but significant difference equating to approximately 11. 9 million more Americans actively eating healthier now than two years ago. But , diet isn’t the whole story. These types of newly nutrition-conscious consumers were already exercising; meaning a lot more Americans have moved through being solely concerned about fitness to engaging with both exercise and diet since the start of the particular pandemic. In other words, consumers who were currently engaged along with health actually have become more engaged, turning aspirations into real action. Looking ahead to 2022, this trend suggests that although the total health and wellness market size has not changed, the level of investment consumers are willing in order to put in provides grown.

2. Mindfulness will shift from immediate concerns to long-term wellness goals

Engagement with mindfulness grew throughout both 2020 and 2021. Between Q3 2019 plus Q3 2021, the number of People in america with the weekly mindfulness practice increased from 46% to 52%. This growth likely means a continued shift from short-term concerns, like losing weight or looking good, toward long-term goals around wellness, holistic health and living one’s values. Additionally , people who practice mindfulness invest more across all health and fitness and nourishment categories than other customers, and they are more likely to prioritize sustainability and corporate responsibility in their purchasing decisions. Food, physical fitness, and wellbeing brands that are able to successfully court these highly engaged, holistic-thinkers could experience incremental development in 2022.

3. Millennials will certainly prioritize health and wellness over work and financial success

The pandemic forced numerous consumers in order to reassess their priorities. Millennials in particular show a distinctive change in prioritizing overall health and fitness, including not only mental and physical health, but also work-life balance. Relative to the previous year, in 2020 and again in 2021, significantly more Millennials reported working out, tracking their own health and fitness routines, engaging in mindfulness behaviors, researching health topics, talking with dietary experts and following formal meals plans. No other generation showed 12 months over yr increases in all of these areas. Based on these types of shifts, it’s not surprising that will Millennials right now rank work-life balance as their fifth highest personal priority, up through ninth place in 2019. Already a trendsetting generation with a distinctive approach to healthy feeding on and fitness, Millennials are usually entering 2022 having made real and lasting investments in well being and, more importantly, shifts within priorities they are determined in order to act on. This means that Millennials will give a good even greater share of their dollars to health-forward products plus services that align with their values.

4. Exercising practices will remain inconsistent

Seasonal engagement with health and fitness has fluctuated dramatically all through 2021, along with higher highs and lower lows compared to trended pre-pandemic. Before COVID-19, fitness wedding peaked earlier in the summer and slid slowly and steadily downhill towards December. But 2021 has been the continuation associated with 2020’s roller-coaster shifts, indicating that Americans still haven’t found an equilibrium because the pandemic interrupted their physical fitness habits. This trend is true even of Boomers, who tend to be the steadiest demographic in terms of health habits. Next year will likely continue to be chaotic as fitness consumers plus businesses both try to establish a new normal.

5. Young men will get some company at the gym

As of Q3 2021, 33% of fitness-engaged Americans had gym memberships, the same percentage as prior to the particular pandemic in 2019. However, these new gym members are quite different from those in 2019. Currently, 56% of gym members are 40 or even under, compared to 46% within 2019. The particular share associated with Boomers dropped from 31% to 22%, and 55% of fitness center members today are men, compared in order to an even split in 2019. Put simply, women, Gen X, and Boomers left the gym early in the particular pandemic and haven’t returned in the same numbers. They also haven’t replaced it with online fitness, which tends to also skew younger plus male. Nevertheless, this is expected to modify in 2022 if COVID-19 becomes endemic. These groups will look to return in order to the in-person exercise they put on hold during the pandemic, yet they may find that their particular old gyms are today set up regarding the younger men that have been frequenting gyms during the particular pandemic, a potentially intimidating social mix. Which means that fitness centers and studios need to balance catering to their current members without putting all their eggs in that one basket if they hope to bring back former regulars.

6. Online fitness will overtake gym memberships but they aren’t necessarily in competition

Gym memberships may have rebounded in order to 2019 levels, but on the internet fitness participation increased even as consumers came back to health clubs, growing from 11% in 2019 to 20% within 2020, and 24% inside 2021 among fitness-engaged Us citizens. Assuming fitness center memberships stay steady, the number of Americans that participate in online health and fitness will surpass the number with gym subscriptions in the next season. However , it is not the competition. Close to 70% of those who regularly use on-line fitness are also gym members. These people are fitness trendsetters. They use online physical fitness as simply one other fitness resource, plus they actually use this at the health club just as often as they make use of it at home. On the internet fitness is a complement, not a competitor, to the gym. Nevertheless , when gym members turn to online health and fitness for guidance, inspiration and tracking, it could mean not turning to in-person staff and trainers. In 2022, gyms and online fitness brands would be wise to work synergistically. In particular, in-person brands that neglect the virtual may quickly find themselves out within the cold.

7. Women will continue to cook at home

Women changed their cooking plus meal sourcing behaviors during the outbreak more so than men, and these habits seem to be turning into enduring trends. Ladies stopped dining out early in the pandemic in addition to bridged the gap almost entirely with cooking in your own home, while males looked to other types of outsourced meals, like takeout/delivery, frozen or packaged fresh meals from grocery, in order to make up the difference. These trends started during the particular pandemic, but have continued through 2021 even while consumers have been returning to restaurants. In Q3 2021, 52% of guys reported eating out weekly or more, an increase of 12 percentage points from Q3 2020, and even higher than Q3 2019’s 49%. Only 33% of women did exactly the same in Q3 2021, an increase associated with only 4 percentage factors from Q3 2020, together with still well below Q3 2019’s 41%. While women will certainly come back to dining places in 2022, the value equation that women consider when dining out has changed for typically the long-term. They now have established shopping and additionally cooking routines, recipes, not to mention skills to be able to deal along with situations that might have been occasions for you to dine out pre-pandemic. This ongoing trend for restaurants is a boon for home-focused food brands, which are likely to see strong sales and also engagement, especially given ongoing disruption within the restaurant sector.

8. Younger consumers will double down on organic

Younger consumers happen to be driving growth in organic with regard to several years, but the pandemic continues to accelerate this trend. Across all nutrition-engaged customers, the percentage who report that half or more regarding their groceries are organic increased through 19% in 2019 to help 24% within 2020, where it has remained. However, in 2021 Gen Z reports that will 37% involving their household goods are natural, compared to 24% inside 2019, as well as among Millennials it’s 40% in 2021 vs 30% in 2019, both dramatic increases. This is likely a long-term shift that was given an extra push by the pandemic. Rather than growing out of their “foodie” tendencies, or even getting the reality check at the checkout counter, Millennials and Gen Z are doubling down on their own values in the grocery store. Expect their particular commitment in order to organic to be able to grow in 2022.

9. Millennials will say no for you to meat throughout larger numbers

More Millennials are avoiding purchasing meat and opting regarding plant-based alternatives, and one around five is eating a new vegetarian or perhaps vegan diet – 33% more than inside 2020. In Q3 2021, 55% connected with Millennials reported having bought fresh meat in the past three months, in comparison to 66% on Q3 2020, while this number buying any type of alternative meat or maybe dairy increased from 61% in Q3 2020 to help 70% found in Q3 2021. While most alternative meat/dairy purchasers also buy meat plus dairy, often the balance will be shifting, at least at grocery. In 2022, not only will buyers, especially Millennials, be looking intended for more products that fit a plant-based lifestyle at grocery and at restaurants, it also represents some sort of paradigm shift in what a “healthy diet” includes, with ramifications for meats and dairy certainly, yet also any brand in the protein space.

“As COVID-19 rages on, it’s becoming clear that short-term adjustments to food, health and fitness, and mindfulness routines many Americans made in early 2020 are becoming established trends and practices, ” said Chuck Murphy, founder in addition to president with Murphy Research. “Due in order to its continuing nature and even data set that spans the past four years, including since before the start of the pandemic, SOOH is uniquely positioned to identify these types of meals, fitness, together with mindfulness styles that are usually shaping important aspects of American culture and additionally informing a good variety for health-related manufacturers. ”

SOOH is the standard reference point for uncovering the underlying truths and developments that propel people’s foods, fitness not to mention mindfulness attitudes and behaviors. The concept to get SOOH was born coming from Murphy Research’s cutting-edge custom research together with category-leading consumer brands like Gatorade, Nike and Athleta. This work demonstrated your powerful insights derived by examining foodstuff, fitness and also mindfulness together. Today, SOOH may be the only syndicated tracker examining how these 3 important aspects of health and wellness are related. To date, a lot more than 40, 000 consumers have participated within the 30-minute SOOH questionnaire, providing unparalleled data breadth as well as depth. SOOH employs gold standard quantitative and qualitative research methods informed by decades about experience.

About Murphy Research

Murphy Research is a full-service market research firm of which understands groundbreaking research lies on the intersection of science and creativity. Based in Santa Monica, nevertheless with offices in Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Washington, D. C, the firm is known for its creative research design, rigorous execution and long lasting insights. Murphy Research offers quantitative and qualitative services to help clients with market assessment, brand strategy, product development, customer loyalty plus engagement, in addition to communications research. The firm works using leading Fortune 500 companies, like PepsiCo, Sony, YouTube, Disney, and even Google, among many others, along with emerging technology, CPG, retail, media, communications, together with financial services organizations. In addition to custom research, Murphy Research’s comprehensive State in Our Health (SOOH) syndicated food and additionally fitness system provides brand names with comprehensive and continuous data uncovering the actual facts that launch overall wellness behaviour and actions.

###