January health trend insights

Alastair Lockhart

Thu 20th Jan 2022

january-health-trend-insights

With the excesses of Christmas and New Year behind us, January is a month when shoppers often seek healthier choices.

Many choose to cutback alcohol consumption and, particularly over recent years, we’ve seen a big rise in vegetarian and vegan food choices.

In our January Shopper Panel, we asked questions relating to Dry January and Veganuary, as well as shoppers’ broader attitudes to general wellbeing.

65% of shoppers report trying to be healthier in January, peaking among young families (70%).  Our data shows that many shoppers are planning to live a healthier lifestyle in 2022 compared to 2021, with 38% expecting to exercise more frequently and 39% expecting to eat healthier.

Despite the hype, only 9% of shoppers are taking part in Veganuary this year. Shoppers with young families are most likely to get involved (18%) followed by under 35s (16%). While the total proportion of strict vegans in the UK remains small (3%), 7% report themselves as vegetarians and 10% as flexitarians, while 25% say they have cut back their meat consumption in the past year. One-fifth of shoppers expect to eat meat less frequently in 2022 than they did in 2021.

We find that 15% of shoppers are participating in Dry January, with Gen Y/Z and young families most likely to get involved – 23% of both groups participating.

If you’re interested in the full findings of our research and highlights from our online and store audits, please get in touch.