6 Top Healthy Food Trends for 2014

6 Top Healthy Food Trends for 2014
6 Top Healthy Food Trends for 2014

By Jessie Price, Editor-in-Chief, EatingWell magazine

Food trends, like fashion, come and go. But healthy foods are always a good bet-trendy or not. EatingWell's editors have their ears to the ground and their taste buds on alert for the latest in smart eating choices. As we look ahead to 2014, here are the healthy food trends that are sure to be winners: they're delicious and good for you too!

1. Clean Eating Is The New Buzzword For Healthy
Interest in healthy eating continues to surge and leading the way is the craze for everything "clean." What's clean eating all about? It means eating more vegetables, less meat, less sodium, watching your alcohol, limiting processed foods and choosing whole grains. In other words: it's basic, common-sense, good, healthy eating, which is what EatingWell's recipes and eating philosophy are all about.

Don't Miss: Clean-Eating Recipes for Busy Weeknights

2. Trash Fish Is The New Sustainable Seafood
What happens to all those fish that get caught up in fishermen's nets but aren't the popular fish, like cod, halibut or salmon, that people want to eat? They're thrown back or turned into fertilizer. This year some of those underappreciated species, such as wolf eel and sea robin, will be given some well-deserved love. Chefs around the country are hosting delicious "trash-fish dinners" to showcase just how delectable these fish can be. The aim: to get Americans eating a wider range of seafood and to protect the overall balance of fish populations in our oceans.

Related: Fish and Shellfish: 6 Healthiest to Eat, 6 to Avoid

3. Cauliflower Is The New "It" Vegetable
Sure, kale chips are still everywhere you turn, but cauliflower is the up-and-coming darling vegetable of the moment. And for good reason-it's loaded with nutrients and can do all sorts of culinary tricks, from standing in for starchier, higher-calorie potatoes in dishes to turning a soup creamy and rich without any cream. Plus it's been all over the media these days-you'll even find it gracing the cover of EatingWell's January/February 2014 issue.

Related: Easy, Healthy Cauliflower Recipes

4. Say Hello To Quinoa's Little Cousin, Kaniwa!
When quinoa shows up in the grocery aisle in little boxes with a variety of seasoning blends right next to the Rice-A-Roni, you know it's gone mainstream. What's next? Baby quinoa, called kaniwa, which is similar to quinoa but smaller. It's also from the Andes, cooks quickly and is high in protein. Look for it at natural-foods stores or buy it online.

Related: Easy Quinoa Recipes

5. The Ancient Craft Of Fermentation Is Hot Again
Fermentation harnesses the power of microbes to transform the flavors and textures of food-like milk into creamy yogurt, cabbage into sauerkraut and tea into bubbly kombucha. Signs of the fermentation craze are everywhere: fermentation guru Sandor Katz's latest book, The Art of Fermentation, won a James Beard Award this year; mobile kombucha brewing stands are bubbling up at farmers' markets; and rows of small-batch artisanal sauerkrauts are filling shelves at the local supermarket. Plus, as John Grossmann reports in the January/February 2014 issue of EatingWell magazine, the first fermentation bar in the country has opened in Healdsburg, California, to serve the local community kefir waters, kombuchas and shrubs, along with traditional fermented beverages we've loved forever-a.k.a. wine and beer.

6. Community-Supported Foods Explode
By now, the trend of farms operating with the help of a community that supports the risks and rewards through a membership-a.k.a. community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares-is well documented and much loved. But new up-and-coming community-supported food businesses are launching left and right, with new offerings like weekly shares of bread, cheese and fish.

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By Jessie Price

Jessie Price
Jessie Price

Jessie Price is the editor-in-chief of EatingWell magazine. Besides her work on 11 other EatingWell books, she is the author of the James Beard Award-winning The Simple Art of EatingWell and EatingWell One-Pot Meals. She lives in Charlotte, Vermont where she stays busy growing her own vegetables in the summer and tracking down great Vermont food products when she's not working.

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