Today's wellness consumers are looking for products that support their goals while fitting into their everyday life.

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Food and wellness brands are learning that today’s consumers want wellness to feel simpler, more practical, and easier to sustain. Rather than chasing extreme health trends or rigid food identities, consumers are increasingly prioritizing convenience, ingredient transparency, gut health, protein, and products that fit naturally into everyday life.

As a result, many companies are evolving beyond the niche audiences and wellness movements that originally fueled their growth by expanding their offerings, adjusting their messaging, and redefining what “wellness” means for a broader consumer base.

We’re seeing a shift from “biohacking” and restrictive wellness toward sustainable daily wellness. Functional foods are becoming integrated into existing rituals as consumers still want convenience but with more functionality and ingredient transparency in foods and beverages to address concerns such as muscle mass, gut health, weight management and cognitive health.

The global functional foods market was valued at approximately $329.65 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $586.06 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8.6%. This reflects growing consumer demand for foods that provide benefits beyond basic nutrition, including digestive support, protein, cognitive health, and metabolic wellness.

The functional beverage market has also seen continued growth. The global functional drinks market was estimated at $164.68 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $315.89 billion by 2033.

The wellness consumer has evolved

Broadly speaking, protein, fiber and digestive wellness remain major drivers in food and beverage innovation, particularly in functional snacks, beverages, and convenience foods marketed around satiety, gut health and metabolic wellness. Some specific areas that have seen a lot of growth in recent years include functional foods and beverages, high-protein foods and beverages, gut health-focused products (including but not limited to fiber) and upcycled foods. The health and wellness foods market continues to expand as consumers increasingly prioritize nutrition, preventative health and wellness-oriented eating habits.

This is largely driven by consumer interest in disease prevention and demand for healthier convenience foods. According to Innova Market Insights data, gut health, in particular, continues to be a consumer priority, resulting in growth of gut-focused supplements, snacks and beverages.

Jaclyn London, MS, RD, CDN, Nutrition Consultant and author, says, “Consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of products attempting to deliver a long list of disconnected health promises.” She adds, “The brands that tend to succeed long-term are the ones that stay grounded in broader consumer behavior shifts rather than reacting to every micro-trend cycle.”

Bulletproof CEO Harry Lewis, who helped see the company through a major rebrand in 2025, shares, “Today’s consumer prizes consistency over extremes. It’s not about doing more, it’s about what you already are doing, but better.”

Here are several case studies of companies who have shifted their offerings and strategies to evolve with their market and serve their customer base as their needs changed over time.

Daily Harvest—from smoothies to personalized wellness

Daily Harvest has evolved from a smoothie-based Direct To Consumer (DTC) brand into broader categories centered on personalized health goals and retail accessibility. Early on, their products were more generically focused on wellness and convenience through their subscription service delivering plant-based smoothies, soups, and bowls. Ricky Silver, CEO, Daily Harvest, says, “The mission was simple: make it as easy as possible for people to get more fruits and vegetables in their day.”

They started with smoothies, he explains, “because they were an approachable way to get a wide variety of ingredients all in one cup. Our core customer was a busy, wellness-minded person looking to maximize their time and minimize effort on making healthy decisions. From there, our products quickly proliferated into a number of food categories, but the heart of our mission has remained the same. We still use the freshest organic fruits, vegetables, grains and seeds, frozen at peak ripeness and crafted by nutritionists into the best possible recipes to make healthier eating as delicious as possible.”

However, he adds, as time has gone on, “consumers are increasingly looking for food that supports specific health goals. Consumers want those benefits from real food rather than overly engineered solutions.” To meet those needs, the company has introduced function-forward product bundles, he says, like their GLP-1 Support Bundle and the New Mom Nutrition Bundle.

In addition to providing more products geared towards specific health goals, they have also removed subscription barriers, allowing customers to make a one-off order. Daily Harvest has also expanded into retail through a partnership with Chobani, adding even more flexibility and accessibility.

While consumer needs are always developing, says Silver, “we do not view our role as needing to chase every trend. Rather, we aim to understand which consumer needs represent meaningful, lasting behavior changes, and then to deliver solutions in a way that feels authentically Daily Harvest.” The brand puts a lot of effort into soliciting feedback and conducting research on how their customers shop, what health means to them and where there may be unmet needs. “Whether we’re launching something entirely new or tweaking an existing product, we’re always asking, does this make it easier for people to eat more real, nourishing food?”

Bulletproof—from biohacking to everyday wellness

Bulletproof was born after entrepreneur Dave Asprey shared his recipe for bulletproof coffee on his blog in 2009. While originally centered on a biohacking ketolifestyle appealing primarily to a performance-driven male audience, in recent years it’s shifted from this niche, male-dominated optimization culture toward approachable functional wellness for mainstream consumers—especially women.

In 2019, Asprey stepped down as CEO of Bulletproof and became executive chairman to focus on other ventures while another executive took over day-to-day leadership. In 2025, the company underwent a rebrand emphasizing broader wellness and mainstream appeal.

Lewis, who has been CEO of Bulletproof since 2024, explains, “When Bulletproof launched in 2011, we launched at the center of the Biohacking movement, serving a highly engaged, performance driven consumer, mostly male, focused on energy, performance and productivity and optimizing a low-carb keto diet. The bulletproof coffee helped transform functional nutrition into a daily ritual for those consumers.”

“What has changed since,” he adds, “is our audience and our definition of wellness. We wanted to talk more to women who are looking for sustained energy, metabolic support, and overall wellbeing without labels or needing a definition of a tribe.” They wanted to meet these consumers where they were by offering products that could easily fit into their everyday lives. “We focused on making the brand more approachable, more intuitive, more benefit driven. We wanted to show how these products can be integrated into everyday life rather than promoting a keto lifestyle.”

Coffee has continued to be a major focus, however, says Lewis. “Coffee is an anchor because it’s a daily thing for so many. It should be working harder for everyone.” The company has created coffee varieties with added functional ingredients such as protein and creatine so the consumer can “stack” their benefits rather than having to rely on multiple supplements.

When asked about trends he anticipates, he adds, “I think simplicity will always be a premium. People want to move away from complicated regimens towards streamlined routines that fit real life. Products that deliver simple, daily routines you can easily follow are the ones you’ll see.”

Misfits Market — the rise of curated “better grocery” shopping

Additionally, the global upcycled food products market is also expected to see continued growth as consumers prioritize sustainability, food waste reduction and environmentally conscious purchasing.

Misfits Market began as a produce-rescue company and has since grown into a curated online grocery platform centered around value, ingredient quality and discovery. When the company launched in 2018 in the Philadelphia area, they became known for specializing in “ugly” produce to help reduce food waste. In 2022, Misfits acquired competitor Imperfect Foods and eventually expanded into full grocery offerings that also include pantry items, snacks, meat, seafood, dairy, coffee, fresh food, wellness products and more. With customers now prioritizing things such as protein, gut health and ingredient quality, the brand places an emphasis on balancing affordability with premium wellness. They also put an effort into supporting emerging mission-driven brands. They now ship to over 40,000 zip codes.

Their assortment of products, however, is intentionally tight and curated, she says. A huge priority is consistency. “Customers need reliable grocery items they can expect in their weekly shop because that builds trust and keeps them coming back.” To keep things fresh, the company balances those staples customers trust with new products that give them something new to try. “Instead of overwhelming customers with endless versions of the same thing, we focus on products that have a clear reason to be in the basket: trusted staples, better versions of familiar foods, products with strong ingredient or impact stories, and new items that make the weekly shop feel more exciting.”

Why practical wellness is winning

The brands thriving today are not necessarily the trendiest—they’re the ones making wellness feel practical, credible, enjoyable, and easy to integrate into daily life.

Brands fail when they chase trends too aggressively or make wellness claims consumers don’t trust. London says, “One of the biggest mistakes brands make is chasing short-term wellness trends at the expense of long-term consumer trust.” Consumers can tell when a product or campaign is built around buzzwords and trend cycles, she explains. They’ve got “health halo” fatigue and are tired of overcomplicated wellness marketing. “Brands can easily fall into the trap of chasing too many emerging functional trends at once.”

Because not all wellness claims carry the same level of scientific clarity or consumer relevance (and because customers can become skeptical when faced with too many claims), adds London, brands should seriously consider which specific trends and claims are most likely to connect with their audience.

For companies looking to create products geared towards consumer interests in specific ingredients or health concerns, brands need to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of offering products that also deliver on taste and that fit well into their customers’ everyday life. “Functional ingredients can absolutely strengthen a product’s positioning,” she says, “but they tend to work best when layered onto a product consumers already want for more fundamental reasons like taste, convenience, familiarity, or a clearly understood nutritional benefit.”