Natural Grocers' Nutrition Education team, consisting of health and wellness experts ranging from Registered Dietitians to Certified Natural Foods Chefs, collaborated with our purchasing and analytics team to study consumer shopping preferences and the latest research to predict these rising and shifting trends for 2024. Give one or more of these a try and see what works for you in 2024!

“Hit the road, plaque, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more!” Saying farewell to oral onslaughts like plaque, harmful bacteria, and gum inflammation is necessary for good oral health, but may also be the key to achieving optimal whole-body health.

The right food and supplements can be brain changers

“You are what you eat.” Some variation of this phrase has been around since the 1800s¹ and we’ve all heard it countless times, but there’s a reason for its longevity: it’s true!

As we prepare to close the chapter of another year, it’s easy to define it by the bad things that happened, so instead, let’s bid 2023 farewell celebrating positive works in progress. Here are three stories of individuals and communities working together to seed hope and healing for people and the planet.

Oats have a reputation for being, well… a little boring. Humble as they may be though, humans have a love for oats. From oatmeal to oat milk, cookies, oat baths, and cereals, savory or sweet, oats will be there. Perhaps one of our most diverse and ubiquitous foods, this whole grain brings a nutritious and satiating goodness to our diets.

In November, we like to imagine that we’re all spending the month in cozy sweaters, planning our fourth Thursday menus next to a crackling fire. We dream of weather that is mostly fall sunshine, but just crisp enough to make those sweaters justifiable. And we hope it’s punctuated by moments of contemplative gray, during which we have plenty of time to sink into a comfy chair with a book.

How to best support yourself and your growing baby through diet & nutrition

One of the hardest jobs the human body has is growing another human. As beautiful and wondrous as the idea of pregnancy is, it takes a toll on the body.

Gathering maple tree sap to make sweet syrup for food and medicine is an ancient practice created by the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wabanaki people of northeastern North America.¹ From pancakes to salmon, the sweet syrup was, and still is, used to cure meats, sweeten bitter medicines, and bring a warm sugary and woody flavour to breakfasts and dinners alike.

Our modern farming system has replaced prairie grasslands with large swaths of genetically modified (GM) corn, soybeans, and other crops, in the name of progress.^{1 2 3} The fields are sprayed with increasingly more herbicides, and the yields are boosted with more synthetic fertilizers.^{4 5} Meanwhile, in a quiet corner of the country, far from the vast acres of farmland, natu

Vitamin D Deficiency Associated with Poor Metabolic Health

Largely due to our indoor lifestyles, vitamin D deficiency has become increasingly prevalent; this is concerning because vitamin D deficiency is associated with a variety of chronic diseases, including diabetes and obesity, which are associated with poor metabolic health (high blood sugar, inflammation, and increased body mass