Joanna Cosgrove09.20.10
Staving off heart disease, cancer and other life threatening conditions used to be the primary drivers for consumers adopting a healthy approach to diet, exercise and supplement use. While that still holds true for some consumers, they are being outpaced by a growing number of consumers who are less driven by disease prevention and more by the desire for improved quality of life, according to a new study from Bellevue, WA-based Hartman Group Inc.
“Increased spending on products beneath a wellness umbrella, particularly in fresh food categories, reflects what we have been witnessing for more than a decade now,” said Laurie Demeritt, Hartman Group president and COO. “Consumer understanding of wellness has moved away from traditional notions of condition treatment and disease prevention and toward attaining a better quality of life. They are looking for products and services that help them meet their wellness goals and aspirations. With virtually all consumers involved in wellness on some level, this represents tremendous opportunities for CPG manufacturers and retailers.”
The study, "Reimagining Health + Wellness 2010," declared that all consumers participate in the “World of Wellness.” Core consumers—early adopters, those most intensely involved—comprise about 13%; 62% are somewhat involved Mid-level consumers; and 25% are Periphery consumers with only some or limited involvement in wellness.
Hartman Group analysts Tamara Barnett, Melissa Abbott and Robert Hashizume found that participation in wellness behaviors is often triggered and/or intensified as consumers learn more about wellness. The Internet was tagged as the top resource for wellness information, with doctors coming in second.
The bulk of spending is on food—the central wellness tool in a consumer’s wellness arsenal, according to the study—with exercise, supplements and alternative healthcare characterized as important complementary components. “More than ever, consumers view fresh, real and clean food as the foundation for health and wellness,” the researchers wrote. “Consumers believe that a fresh, real and clean diet is the first step to treating and preventing disease, supporting vitality and mental energy.”
The bulk of spending is on food—the central wellness tool in a consumer’s wellness arsenal, according to the study—with exercise, supplements and alternative healthcare characterized as important complementary components. “More than ever, consumers view fresh, real and clean food as the foundation for health and wellness,” the researchers wrote. “Consumers believe that a fresh, real and clean diet is the first step to treating and preventing disease, supporting vitality and mental energy.”
“Whole,” “organic,” “local” and “seasonal” have become important purchase driving buzzwords for consumers in search of what the study terms “Fresh/real/clean foods.” Short ingredient lists with recognizable ingredients are also purchase drivers, and the top ingredients consumers were likely to avoid included those related to cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat and salt.
A Place for Supplements
Consumed in tandem with healthy foods, the researchers found that consumers use supplements as an “insurance policy, augmenting nutrients that consumers seek to primarily achieve through real, fresh and clean foods.”
The report’s decade of data concluded that specialty supplement usage has increased by double, while vitamins and herbals have declined slightly.
The most in-demand supplement? Vitamin D. In 2010, interest in the supplement exploded: 60% of consumers reported adding more vitamin D to their diet. “Mainstream media’s attention to vitamin D as an essential, but largely deficient, nutrient has driven awareness out from the Core to the Periphery in a very short time,” the researchers wrote. “Consumers [are] just as likely to self-diagnose and buy an over the counter vitamin D supplement, as to do medical testing and seek prescription-strength dosage.”
Regarding supplements on the whole, researchers found that most consumers “do not feel they have objective evidence of supplements’ effectiveness, but feel that no harm can be done,” a mindset that “drives many moms to give supplements to their children.”
For consumers in the Periphery and Mid-level categories, supplement use is a nod to proactive wellness, a complement to OTCs and prescriptions for treating acute issues, and a way to “prevent conditions from occurring or worsening.”
For consumers in the Periphery and Mid-level categories, supplement use is a nod to proactive wellness, a complement to OTCs and prescriptions for treating acute issues, and a way to “prevent conditions from occurring or worsening.”
In addition, Core consumers are using a range of supplements, rather than OTCs and prescriptions, to reactively address acute health conditions. For example, rather than take a statin drug for high cholesterol, Core consumers will incorporate a supplementation therapy of red yeast rice extract.
This study also conveyed an interesting paradox—despite their increased interest in supplement use, Core consumers stated they were limiting the number of supplements they take daily, with the goal of minimizing supplement use altogether because they had doubts about supplement bioavailability, and concern about long-term effects of supplements on the digestive system.
When asked by Nutraceuticals World to explain this dichotomy, the study analysts responded that some of the doubts about supplements are less about a negative view of supplements, but rather an increasing desire and belief that real food is the optimal source of nutrition.
“We find that for ‘traditional’ supplements that support overall well-being (e.g., A, C, E, B, etc.) consumers are increasingly looking to real food sources,” they said. [Food enables] consumers [to] feel they get nutrients the way they were meant to be. Because this places supplements as second best to the ‘real thing,’ some consumers are starting to ask some more critical questions about how much good supplements are doing (to what extent are they really absorbed/bioavailable?) and could there actually be harm in ingesting nutrients other than in the way they were meant to be. However, most consumers still regard supplements as an insurance policy (“it can’t hurt…”). Therefore they’ll take them; however, they may not be as vigilant in making them part of their daily routine.
“Finally, consumers are learning more about gut health and are voicing beliefs that barraging the digestive system with a variety of supplements can actually decrease the body’s ability to absorb nutrients over time.”
Despite the irony, the researchers said consumers are still interested in lesser-known, specialty supplements as a way to obtain nutrients that are meant to address targeted health issues on a sporadic basis. “Consumers are trying to fill-in on irregular occasions, rather than supplement daily with the routine ingredients they believe they could just as well get through making better food choices,” they said. “As an example, once Fosamax was taken off the market, aging but active consumers began looking for a substitute to help get them through their day.”
Consumers across the full spectrum of involvement in wellness now, at least aspirationally, articulate quality of life as the meaning of wellness. For more information about how consumers are seeking more flexible, simple ways of incorporating wellness into everyday life and well-being, log onto the Hartman Group’s webpage.
