A healthy diet is an essential pillar for physical and mental wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic has become another driver for balanced diet trend to maintain a strong immune system. Against this backdrop, an analysis of GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform, which identifies and tracks the emerging consumer trends, pain areas, new fields of innovation by top contributors, has revealed ‘Keto Diet’ as the most discussed health and wellness (H&W) diet trend among the redditors in the social networking platform ‘Reddit’ during the first half (H1) of 2021.

Smitarani Tripathy, Influencer Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, lists the top five health and wellness diet trends among redditors in H1 2021.

1. Keto Diet | 3,910+ redditors

Ketogenic or Keto diet has become increasingly popular across the world as a weight-loss regimen. This diet includes food items with high good fats, protein and low-carb. Redditors have shared various recipes on keto diet, which not only deal with weight management but also help people with diabetes, epilepsy, autoimmune disorder, acid reflux and hormonal imbalances.

Ms Tripathy explains: “Keto diet saw 15X jump in discussions volume, largely due to the growing interest of clinical use of keto diet as it has the potential to reduce risk factors linked to COVID-19 such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension.”

2. Gluten-Free diet | 2,050+ redditors

Gluten-free diet has emerged as the second most popular diet trend with 26% share of redditors discussing about it. The discussions about gluten-free is majorly focused on its health benefits as this diet plan is considered as one of the essential diets to help people with celiac disease. Other health benefits of this diet include reduce chronic inflammation, ease digestive symptoms, and weight loss.

3. Intermittent Fasting | 850 redditors

There is a 50% growth in the number of redditors discussing about this diet trend in H1 2021 over H1 2020. Most of the redditors are discussing on how different types of fasting are helping people to lose weight, cellular repair, improving insulin sensitivity and gene expression, which are related to longevity and protection against some diseases.

4. Paleo Diet | 450 redditors

This dietary plan includes foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish and meat. The sentiment of redditors is positive for this diet type as it has the potential to reverse heart-disease and diabetes due to presence of low-fat items in its food.

5. Rawfoodism | 300 redditors

The number of redittors discussing on rawfoodism grew by 150% in H1 2021, when compared to H1 2020. The discussions reveal that this diet not only improves the overall health of the person, but also helps reduce impact on the environment.

Ms Tripathy concludes: “GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics platform allows businesses to understand brand sentiments, product led conversations, buzzing trends over Reddit by using a combination of AI and human based analysis that curate content and displays only what matters to you.”