2016’s best food trends are tastier than ever, and happen to be better for your health too. A lap or two around the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco mid-January proved that you don’t have to sacrifice nutrients to satisfy your hunger.

Artisanal Condiments
The small-batch creation of condiments is unavoidable these days, and in truth—why would you want to? Five Vines Ketchup has concocted the perfect blend of tomatoes, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar mixed with a magic blend of spices and seasoning to make your culinary experiences more gourmet than ever. With 12 different flavors, including Sriracha and Black Truffle—from mussels to steak, no recipe or palate will go unhappy. 

Spicy Blends
The clean eating trend powers through the New Year, with a strong spotlight on flavor. Fueled by a love for food and cooking, Whole Spice, Napa Valley has created the perfect spice blends to make each meal extraordinary, bringing spices from around the world into your kitchen.

Brussels Sprouts Are the New Kale
It’s time to ditch the kale (not really, keep eating it, it’s great for you!), and reap the benefits of the new trendy veggie: Brussel sprouts. Known to have anti-cancer support properties, support bone health and manage diabetes, Brussel sprouts also packs a cellulite fighting agent! If that’s not reason enough to swallow them whole, Brussel Bytes definitely will be. Created by Wonderfully Raw, Brussel Bytes are organic Brussel sprouts, organic coconut and organic pumpkin seeds tossed in a tasty coating of goodness. In flavors like Cheezy Herb, Chili Pumpkin Seed Crunch and Tamarind Apple, the addiction is nigh!

Soup Is the New Juice
Souperb is a line of small-batch, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free soups made with just the right balance of flavors. Extremely nourishing, Souperb uses only quality ingredients focusing on flavor and health, resulting in convenience and satisfaction.

Hidden Benefits
Brands like Lesser Evil are packing probiotics, vitamins, minerals, vegetables and fruits into snack foods. Using black beans and organic popcorn as bases, Lesser Evil incorporates healthy, filling ingredients such as chia, Himalayan salt, avocado and organic coconut oil to create nutrient-dense products to get you through the day, charged.

Hidden Garden makes Canada’s sneakiest cookies with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, and completely free of nuts! Hiding nutritious ingredients such as beets in the Red Velvet Cookies, butternut squash in the Ginger Snaps, and spinach in the Cocoa Cherry Cookies, you’d never be the wiser while satisfying that after dinner craving.

Ditch the sugar-laden popsicles and get on board with Sophie Milrom’s healthy frozen desserts, Eat Pops. With combinations created to specifically detox, restore, nourish, glow, cleanse or activate, you’ll be hard pressed in finding a reason to stop, once you pop. 

Available in Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Cranberry and Peanut Butter Chocolate, Sweet Loren’s all-natural cookie doughs are 100% whole grain, non-dairy and delicious. Eliminating the high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, it’s as clear as day that Sweet Loren’s are passionate about health and taste, but if there are any concerns a quick look through the ingredients list will soothe any worries.

Peanut Exposure
The newest craze in peanuts, Tru-Nut Powdered Peanut Butter is the best thing to happen to peanut butter. Containing around 85% less fat and fat calories, Tru-Nut is available in four different flavors, producing endless results. Mix it with water to create peanut butter or add it to a variety of different recipes!

Protein that Chirps
There’s a new protein in town, and the buzz in the market is anything but crickets. Bitty cookies transform cricket flour into delicious treats, with a strong focus on sustainability. Being more water-efficient than any other source of protein, cricket flour is the newest nutrient rich baking ingredient. With 5 g of protein to keep you satiated, Bitty Foods cookies are the perfect 3 p.m. snack.

Chirps chips turns a guilty pleasure into a protein-dense afternoon snack. Made with a mix of wholesome beans, corn, peas, chia seeds and—the ingredient of the moment—cricket flour, Chirps have 3x more protein and 40% less fat than your regular potato or corn chips.

Paleo is staying put  
Food brands are catering to the Paleo lifestyle. Primal Kitchen, for example, has introduced a line of avocado-oil based mayonnaise and dressings based on the popular ancient diet—get back to basics and feel good about it.

DIY is the new takeout
Slingshot Foods have created an on-the-go snack to make your mornings healthy AND delicious. Yogurt in a bottle, complete with a granola shot, each serving is packed with simple superfoods loaded with probiotics, protein and pizzazz. Chia seeds, almond bits and toasted oats shaken with your choice of flavored (or plain) yogurt makes it easier than ever to get your butt out of bed and your metabolism moving.

Leaning on the lighter side
Creamer is most certainly a treat, but more so a ritual. It’s difficult to swap a delicious creamy coffee for a simple Americano, and until now that seemed to be the only way to skimp on the calories. Leaner Creamer is the perfect way to not only enjoy that creaminess in the morning, but also suppress your appetite with coconut oil and an all-natural blend of Citrus Aurantium Extract, Hoodia and Green Tea Extract—all mixed with that faultless hint of vanilla.

Retro Comebacks  
Made with natural nut butters, premium certified gluten-free whole-grain oats, real butter, pure Madagascar vanilla and fresh milk, you’ll be transported back to your grandma’s kitchen table with the No Bake Cookie Company. Never using hydrogenated oils, wheat flour, preservatives, eggs, GMOs or milk with artificial growth hormones, these delicious feel-good cookies (available in a variety of flavors) are the perfect gift, and an even better indulgent treat.

Feed yourself like your grandma would—with love.  

Wellness TEA-sers
An ancient trend revived, and here stronger than ever, teas are the delicious and healing way to harness the goodness of botanical ingredients.

Sencha Naturals believe in green tea for daily wellness, so let their mints, green tea latte mixes and Matcha powder complete your green tea needs - all created from carefully selected tea from artisan growers in the Shizuoka region of Japan.

Teatonics have curated botanical blends that soothe your mind and body. Hand milled in small batches, drink your way to wellness with the power of micronutrients and antioxidants. 

Cooking, storing and cleaning sustainably 
All systems are go for green, and PaperChef Parchment products are the pinnacle of sustainability. Compostable and biodegradable, PaperChef promotes the environmentally appropriate management of the world’s forests through using FSC certified responsibly harvested forests.  For a healthy and non-messy approach to cooking, PaperChef’s line of pre-folded bags allows you to steam all types of foods to perfection while locking in and enhancing all the natural flavors and nutrients.   

Getting the Right Rear
Gunter Wilhelm's Premier ProCook collection offers nonstick cookware that provides even heat distribution as well as food safe aluminum-alloy and plasma infusions, allowing for a fat free, healthier lifestyle and easy cleaning. The collection includes a waterless pot developed with the German Culinary Olympic Team. The pot allows food to retain all full natural colors and texture, and an enormously high percentage of vitamin and mineral levels that are typically lost in the cooking process. The cookware's unique technology shortens heating up and cooking times, all while having total control with the standard fitting thermometer. 

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Nancy Trent is a writer and speaker, a lifelong health advocate, a globe-trotting trend watcher and the founder and president of Trent & Company, a New York-based marketing communications firm.  Trent & Company grew out of Nancy’s personal commitment to helping people live longer and healthier lives.  A former journalist for New York magazine, Nancy has written seven books on healthy lifestyles, serves on the editorial boards of several magazines and travels around the worc ld speaking at conferences and trade shows on trends in the marketplace. She is a recognized expert icdn PR with more than 30 years of experience creating and managing highly successful campaigns. Nancy can be reached at (212) 966-0024 or through e-mail at nancy@trentandcompany.com.  You may also visit www.trentandcompany.com.

NOTE: WholeFoods Magazine does not endorse any specific brand or product. The opinions expressed in bylined articles are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Published on WholeFoods Magazine Online, 3/1/16