Ever wondered why eating healthy is one of the toughest New Year resolutions to follow? Because changing your eating habits is not easy, it requires dedication and patience. However, with new health trends coming up every now and then, it’s a bit confusing to figure out which health trends to follow. Therefore, we got in touch with expert nutritionists Kavita Devgan and Kanchan Patwardhan, who predict which health trends will be big in 2018 and why you ought to try them.

Low-FODMAPS diet

Legumes form an essential part of FODMAPS. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The full form of FODMAPS is fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols. This diet is low in fermentable carbohydrates and is meant for people who have sensitive stomach, and suffer from irritable bow syndrome. The focus is on consuming foods like wheat, rye, legumes, fruit including figs and mangoes. The benefit this diet offers is that it helps to reduce bloating, stomach pain, flatulence and bowel urgency.

Intermittent fasting

It gives the body and digestion a much needed rest and induces important cellular repair processes, such as removing waste (toxic) material from cells. This way it helps to reduce inflammation too. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It is defined as an eating pattern where one alternates between periods of eating and fasting. The focus during intermittent fasting is on the timing of consumption of your healthy meals. The advantage that it offers is that there is no fixed period for which you have to fast and eat. You can create a timetable as per your metabolism and body type. It is an excellent way to boost your immune system and promoting the growth of neurons, enhancing memory performance.

Sleep-inducing foods

Cereal for dinner is going to be one of the big health trends for this year. (Getty Images)

With lifestyle diseases and insomnia on the rise, 2018 is going to be the year of sleep-inducing foods. Rather than popping pills to sleep (which have harmful side effects), opt for foods such as miso soup, milk and yoghurt, walnuts, oatmeal. And yes you finally have cereal for dinner.

Micro-nutrients

Cheese is an excellent source of both macro and micro-nutrients. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Over the years we’ve always considered the calorie count aka macro-nutrients (consisting of protein and carbohydrates) as the primary factor while making food choices. According to experts, by focussing on calorie count, one tends to ignore the amount of vitamins and minerals aka micro-nutrients, a food can offer. For example, most of tend to ignore potatoes and cheese because of high calorie count but the same cheese and potatoes are high in micro-nutrients.

Functional foods

Oats are one of the most common functional foods available to us. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Also known as nutraceuticals, functional foods are foods that offer health benefit beyond normal nutrition. They contain high amount of phytochemicals, which are natural, active plant chemicals that improve our health. Functional foods are also high in antioxidants. They can range from cereals, tea, oats to soy and fortified margarines.

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