Uncle Sam thinks you\u2019re probably eating wrong, and he\u2019s got some advice.<\/p>\n
Out: processed carbohydrates and added sugar.<\/p>\n
In: fat and protein, especially the animal-flesh kind.<\/p>\n
Those are some of the biggest takeaways from the new \u2014 and newly inverted \u2014 food pyramid announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month.<\/a><\/p>\n While the Make America Healthy Again movement is one of the biggest drivers of change in how we eat now, it\u2019s not the only one. Today, Explained recently spoke with Liz Dunn, author of the newsletter Consumed, about her predictions for how we will eat in 2026. Some trends are MAHA-approved (more supplements) while others would give RFK Jr. a conniption (sugar-laden drinks are going to get even sweeter).<\/p>\n Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There\u2019s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Pandora<\/a>, and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 1: What comes after peak protein will be\u2026more protein.<\/p>\n The question that I get more than any other as the year came to a close is: What\u2019s next after protein? What\u2019s the next protein? And I really feel like we\u2019re not ready for what\u2019s next yet for a few reasons.<\/p>\n One is that the supermarket has sort of reinvented itself for protein delivery. So, whether it\u2019s zero sugar yogurts, or meat sticks, or protein boosted waffles, the protein is out there, and it\u2019s everywhere calling to us, people really continue to associate protein with fitness and with strength and power \u2014 all great, positive things.<\/p>\n And maybe, most importantly, the new federal dietary guidelines up the recommended allowance of protein. So this is just going to add fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 2: Sugar-loaded drinks will get even more popular. <\/p>\n This one does seem a little paradoxical, because there is a lot of sugar hating out there, but the country is not a monolith. And so, there are a really sizable number of people who are drinking and enjoying soup or sugary fast food and coffee chain beverages.<\/p>\n Drinks like this have been around since the Frappuccino, but I think, probably, the best example of how they\u2019ve really grown is a chain called Dutch Brothers. It\u2019s a coffee chain. It\u2019s one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in America. And its growth is being driven not by coffee, but by these big, sweet, cold coffee drinks. And at the same time, we\u2019re seeing the dirty soda trend. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re familiar with dirty sodas.<\/p>\n Everybody from Taco Bell to McDonald\u2019s is experimenting with what they call beverage innovation \u2014 how to add more of these drinks to their menus \u2014 and that is for two reasons.<\/p>\n One is consumers are really tightening their wallets, and they\u2019re looking for ways to have an indulgence without maybe ordering an entire fast food meal. So a sweet soda, a sweet coffee drink is a great way to get that kind of fun pick me up without spending a ton of money. And then, on the business end, these drinks are really, really profitable.<\/p>\n They\u2019re cheap to make. You can charge a fair amount for them, and especially at a time when coffee and beef are two commodities that are more expensive than they\u2019ve ever been. These drinks make really good business sense for fast food chains. And so, I expect to see fast food chains to continue to really push them.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 3: The supplement market will see its biggest year ever.<\/p>\n So, supplements are a $70 billion market in the US.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a few reasons why this market has been exploding, and again, why I think it will really continue to explode in 2026. One is the Make America Healthy Again movement, which really buys into supplements as a concept.<\/p>\n I like to say that it\u2019s pharma, big wellness. So there\u2019s a lot of faith in the idea that the right mix of supplements in your diet could cure really anything. I mean, you may remember Robert F. Kennedy suggesting that Vitamin A was a good alternative to vaccination for measles. So, this is an example of this kind of thinking.<\/p>\n And then, social media has just been a real accelerant for this industry. If an influencer that you follow says that she swears by magnesium to help her sleep, that\u2019s probably really going to encourage you to give it a try.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 4: The grocery business will continue its V-shaped reinvention.<\/p>\n When I grew up, my family shopped at Stop and Shop; we went once a week. It was something for everyone \u2014 grocery store carried all the big packaged food brands. The prices are good, but they\u2019re not great. But they\u2019re kind of your main-street grocer.<\/p>\n Now, those mid-price grocers like Kroger, or Stop and Shop, or Albertsons, they\u2019re really losing share to discounters. So Walmart sells about a quarter of the groceries in America today. Costco, Aldi, Dollar General, all of those discounters are really growing as people are willing to sacrifice name brand groceries or having a deli counter or maybe a larger selection for really, really deep value. And then, the other end of the V is the very premium end of the market. I\u2019m thinking about places like Erewhon.<\/p>\n And Erewhon says it\u2019s going to be expanding into as many as 20 cities in the coming years. And not quite as high end as Erewhon, but also in the more premium space, there\u2019s brands like Sprouts, which is a natural fruits grocer, which is also really expanding rapidly. And so, that\u2019s sort of the other end of this V where you see people seeking really deep discounts on one end, then, on the other end of the spectrum, splurging on sort of high-end premium grocery categories.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 5: Phones will eat first.<\/p>\n Listen: It\u2019s not new that people choose where they eat in part based on the Instagramability or they\u2019re taking pictures of their food or pictures of the interiors.<\/p>\n But I was really shocked to see a recent trend report released by the online bookings platform, OpenTable, which had a little tidbit that I just thought was staggering. 77 percent of Gen Zers and 79 percent of millennials said that they consider a restaurant\u2019s Instagram or TikTok worthiness when deciding whether to eat there.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot, and I think that it will likely be reflected in the types of decisions that restaurants make if a person is choosing where they dine based on what kind of content they can make out of it. I mean, I would expect to see really sort of viral appealing menu items and, I guess, decor touches that really lend themselves to photography.<\/p>\n So this is going to continue to be a really important factor in how people think about where they\u2019re dining.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 6: Restaurants will need to adapt to GLP-1s.<\/p>\n The latest estimates are that about one in eight Americans has tried a GLP-1 drug, and we\u2019d expect to see that number grow, because they\u2019re going to be some pill based versions of these drugs coming out in the coming months. So we think that this will probably spread adoption.<\/p>\n Now, if you\u2019re a restaurant, and something like one in 10 or one in five, potentially, diners are on a drug that cuts their desire for big portions, that\u2019s something that will have to really influence how you design your menu, because restaurants need to continue to try to make the same amount of revenue \u2014 even if people want smaller portions.<\/p>\n Prediction No. 7: Big Food will be in big trouble.<\/p>\n Over the years, the big packaged food companies have really been able to reformulate their way out of pretty much any diet trend \u2014 low fat, low carb, gluten-free. There\u2019s a way to make a very profitable packaged food that fits all of those trends.<\/p>\n What we\u2019re seeing now in terms of how people are thinking about the food they\u2019re eating is that they\u2019re really skeptical of highly processed foods. And again, on the GLP-1 front, they also are just potentially eating less or, at least, a sizable share of the population is eating less.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a really new and different challenge. If you\u2019re a packaged food company, how do you continue to make profitable products that are not processed, which is sort of the whole engine of how you made them profitable to begin with. I think that there\u2019s going to have to be a real reckoning at these companies to figure out how they continue to perform for shareholders and remain profitable as these eating habits are changing dramatically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncle Sam thinks you\u2019re probably eating wrong, and he\u2019s got some advice. 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