2023 was the year of the “fad food:” pink sauce, mug cake, the ever-controversial cookies and “Pilk” (Pepsi mixed with, you guessed it, milk)... While these fads made for a fun snack or quirky dessert, they don’t exactly make for a health-focused, well-rounded diet. With 2024 now in the rearview, it’s the perfect time to focus less on the sugary fads and more on the clean eating and sustainable diets that will fuel our 2024.
We came up with a list of what we believe are the top diet trends for 2024. Whether you’re looking to slim up, boost your memory, or look out for the planet, these diets are sure to start your new year off on the right foot.
Hold the Hormones: The Organic Diet
What is the Organic Diet?
Most diets restrict the “what:” no sugar, no red meat, no this, no that. The Organic Diet cares less about the what and more about the “how:” how were these ingredients farmed, raised, or produced? Those on the Organic Diet care about the renewable and humane style of food production known as organic farming and strive to restrict as many non-organic foods from their diet as possible.
Organic farming methods produce vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, and other crops or livestock with little to no use of synthetic practices. Non-organic foods may be grown or raised using synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, genetic engineering, antibiotics, or growth hormones. Instead of using these industrialized farming methods, organic farmers use natural techniques such as crop rotation, large-tract grazing, trap crops (crops designed to pull insects away from the cash crop), and careful breeding selections to produce foods with little to know synthetic alterations.
It’s Only Natural
Organic eating has two primary benefits for dieters, making it a savvy diet to start in 2024:
- Supporting Sustainability: Organic crops are made sustainably, using natural farming methods that support the health of the soil, the livestock, and of the farmers who work the land themselves. Following a sustainable diet is a “vote” for renewable, small-business farms.
- Reduction of Pesticides: Some studies have shown that organic crops have lower levels of pesticide residue when compared to crops made with conventional methods.
If you’d like easy access to organic eating, try these meal kit delivery companies:
- Green Chef: Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic company, working with farmers to deliver organic, sustainable meal kits right to your door.
- Sunbasket: Sunbasket is a USDA-certified organic handler, meaning that Sunbasket chefs strive to use 99% organic ingredients in all of their meal kits.
Soak Up the Sun: The Mediterranean Diet
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
The Mediterranean Diet is a grouping of foods based on the traditional diets of peoples that live around the Mediterranean sea, namely the coastal citizens of Greece, Spain, and Italy.
To follow the Mediterranean Diet, a dieter’s plate should be mainly filled with vegetables and leafy greens. To pad out the taste buds, dieters can include a handful of additional foods such as whole grains, fruits, fish, olive oil, poultry, and (yes!) a glass or two of red wine.
Although it’s okay to indulge every once in a while, the Mediterranean Diet isn’t kind to cheat foods. Sugary foods (sweets, sodas), processed foods (bagels, chicken nuggets), processed grains (pastas, white breads), red meats (beef or pork), and foods containing bad-for-you fats (margarine, biscuits) should be cut out as much as possible.
Live 2024 like You Live by the Sea
The Mediterranean Diet has a few tricks up its sleeve to keep your 2024 laid-back and sunny:
- Inclusive, Healthy Eating: Many diets center around hard-to-follow habits. The Mediterranean Diet is much more food-inclusive than other diets: dieters can drink the occasional glass of wine, add heft to a meal with roasted salmon or grilled chicken, and slather it all in delicious, fatty-but-good-for-you olive oils.
- Lifestyle over Dieting: Due to the temperate weather and centuries-old city planning, folks living along the Mediterranean tend to walk more and live a more active lifestyle than the average American. To truly get into the flow of the Mediterranean Diet, dieters focus more about moving their bodies (walking, dancing, or playing sports) and a little less about the food itself.
To keep to the spirit of the Mediterranean Diet, try out these Meal Delivery companies:
- HelloFresh: HelloFresh offers a variety of pre-arranged and easy-to-cook vegetarian, pescatarian, and chicken-based meals.
- Factor: Factor’s pre-made meals are ready in mere minutes. With meal options for vegetarians or pescetarians, Factor makes it simple to stick to the Mediterranean Diet.
Keeping It (Very) Old School: The Paleo Diet
What is the Paleo Diet?
The Paleo Diet—nicknamed the “caveman diet”—is based on the foods that early humans hunted and gathered before the discovery and adoption of early farming practices. The diet is named after the Paleolithic era (2.5 million–10,000 years ago), a time when early humans ate mostly meat, fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, and seeds. Modern-day Paleo eaters restrict processed food groups such as grains, dairy, pastas, artificial sugars, and highly-processed foods (chips, donuts, etc.) out of their daily diet.
The philosophy of the Paleo Diet is closely tied to evolution. As evolution is shown to be a very slow process—in which it takes several generations for animals to adapt to their environments and pass down advantageous genes—the idea is that the human digestive system never “caught up” with the foods introduced by farming. To combat this, Paleo Dieters restrict newer, processed foods from their diet.
Old School, New Year
The Paleo Diet might be hot in 2024 for a few reasons:
- Benefits Strength and Conditioning: Chicken, red meat, fish, and pork: one of the most delicious parts of the Paleo Diet is its focus on proteins. For weight lifters, athletes, or everyday people looking to add some bulk to their plate, the Paleo Diet can be a great way to increase protein intake and lessen fat-building carbohydrates.
- Back to Basics: The Paleo Diet follows minimalism, a growing health and lifestyle trend, in which environmentally- and health-conscious people want to simplify their life and go “back to the basics.” Minimalists believe that simpler living is better for the mind and body. The Paleo Diet fits right into minimalist ideals, as Paleo Dieters revert to the simple foods that humans have enjoyed for thousands of years.
Looking to kick it old school with the Paleo Diet? Try out these meal delivery companies:
- Good Chop: Good Chop is a meat delivery service that delivers frozen chicken, beef, pork, and seafood right to your door. Customers can stack on the protein with monthly or bi-monthly shipments.
- Factor: Factor offers dietician-designed meals that can be microwaved and ready to eat in minutes. With an emphasis on protein-heavy meals perfect for bulking, Factor is the go-to meal delivery company for Paleo.
It’s Easy Going Green: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets
What is the Vegetarian Diet?
The Vegetarian Diet is fairly straightforward: vegetarians can eat any foods they like, as long as that food is not the flesh (meat) of a once-living animal. All vegetarians exclude beef, poultry, pork, and seafood from their diet, but after that, it can be a personal decision. Some vegetarians eat eggs, while others might not.
What is the Vegan Diet?
The Vegan Diet is similar to the Vegetarian Diet, but excludes all foods that contain an animal product (e.g. meat) or an animal by-product (e.g. milk). For example, a vegan would pass on a milk-based yogurt, but could eat a plant-based alternative, like coconut yogurt. A vegan diet can sometimes make it trickier to know which foods are safe to eat, as many contain animal byproducts that are less obvious to the average consumer, such as honey (from bees) or some brands of animal crackers (contains egg whites).
Be Green for 2024
Although Vegetarian and Vegan Diets are often followed for ethical reasons, these diets are beneficial in additional ways:
- Plant Power: According to Harvard, a plant-heavy diet has been shown to lower blood pressure, lessen digestive problems, prevent some cancers, and reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Environmental Concerns: Raising cattle is a resource-heavy investment. Cattle require feed, land, and water; additionally, beef cattle produce lots of methane, a greenhouse gas. Following a vegetarian or vegan diet lessens our dependency on cattle, saving valuable resources and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
If you’d like to start or continue a plant-based diet, check out these meal delivery companies:
- Purple Carrot: All of Purple Carrots meals are plant-based and vegan-friendly, making it super easy to order the meals you love, receive them at your home, and cook them in 30 minutes or less.
- Eat Clean: Eat Clean offers traditional and plant-based meal kits, making it perfect for folks who are newer to a plant-based diet and want to ease their way into the lifestyle.
No Pressure: The DASH Diet
What is the DASH Diet?
The “DASH” in DASH Diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Hypertension—better known as high blood pressure—affects nearly half of all adults living in the United States. As hypertension can lead to severe outcomes such as stroke, heart attack, and death, the DASH Diet was designed to lower the sodium levels, sugars, and saturated fats that raise blood pressure.
Dieters following DASH eat foods that contain high amounts of potassium, calcium, and magnesium while cutting out any excess sodium, sugars, and bad-for-you fats. DASH-ers typically eat foods similar to the Mediterranean Diet: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish, and some poultry, with low-fat dairy products thrown in for good measure.
Health is Always in Style
- One Goal: Unlike other diets that may be designed to lower weight or restrict specific foods, the DASH Diet has one specific goal: lower the dieter’s blood pressure. DASHers have the unique advantage of being able to track their results (i.e. their blood pressure with a digital monitor) each day, meaning that every little drop in the number can feel like a big victory.
- Healthy Lifestyle: Similar to the Mediterranean Diet, the DASH Diet is about more than food. Hypertension is physical and psychological, stemming from diet, lifestyle, stress, and social fulfillment. To fight hypertension, DASHers are encouraged to alter unhealthy parts of their lifestyle by introducing exercise, meditation, yoga, social activities, and other calming practices into their schedules.
Hit the ground running on the DASH Diet with the following meal kit companies:
- Home Chef: Home Chef allows customers to set their preferences during the ordering process, making it easy for DASHers to filter out high-sodium and high-fat meals, sticking instead to meals packed with leafy greens and lean fish.
- Nutrisystem: Designed predominantly for weight loss, Nutrisystem meal kits are a delicious way for interested dieters to kill two birds with one stone: lower blood pressure and shed a few pounds.
Stay Sharp: The MIND Diet
What is the MIND Diet?
The MIND Diet is made up of “brain healthy” foods, designed to slow or prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s in aging individuals. The diet’s plant-focused menu is believed to prevent or lessen the brain’s symptoms often associated with dementia such as inflammation and oxidative stress.
MIND stands for “Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay,” a long name that keys you into the food groups associated with the diet. MINDers follow a diet that mixes Mediterranean and DASH diets, including foods such as vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, good-for-you fats, and whole grains.
Why This Diet’s on Our MIND
- Fighting Back: Even in 2024, dementia and Alzheimer’s are little-known, life-altering diseases that affect about 10% of US adults over the age of 65. While scientists continue to study the aging brain and experiment with ways to counteract cognitive decline, the MIND Diet is a non-invasive method that older adults can use to fight back against dementia and Alzheimer’s.
- Lifestyle: Like the Mediterranean and DASH Diets, MIND dieters can do more than simply restrict their plate. Older adults who participate in cognitive tasks are less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s. If you’re going on the MIND Diet, consider making time for cognitive tasks and games such as doing sudoku, filling out crosswords, playing board games with friends, or reading.
For an easy way to follow the MIND Diet, check out these great meal delivery companies:
- HelloFresh: Packed with organic, plant-based options, HelloFresh meals are delivered fresh and ready to cook and eat in less than 30 minutes.
- Home Chef: Home Chef offers oven-ready, no-prep, and easy-to-cook meals packed with veggies, whole grains, and lean protein.
Make 2024 Green, Happy, and Healthy with Clean Eating
2024 is set to be a great year for healthy eating. Whether you’re looking to lose a few pounds, protect the environment, or just add a little spring to your step, one of 2024’s clean-eating trends is sure to help you meet your goals.
To make your New Year’s resolutions even easier, consider shopping for a meal delivery company. Ship green, healthy meals right to your home with our list of 2024’s top companies:
