How we’ll be looking after our health in 2026

Get more advice and expert input with exercise: read our articles on the best Pilates exercises to try (and how to know you’re doing them right), 12 fitness habits to kickstart your regime reset and digestion and exercise: the common mistakes you’re making.

In the past year, there have been quite a few monumental shifts in our health and wellbeing – weight loss jabs like Ozempic hit the headlines and our high streets, while biohacking became the latest buzzword for anyone who wanted to boost their health, fitness and performance with the latest tech and advanced supplements.

But the overall trend emerging for 2026 is that we’re taking a step back from all those extremes. We’re looking at making life easier, integrating diet and fitness more fully into our existing regimes rather than pushing boundaries or overhauling our lifestyle in pursuit of a particular goal.

In fact, this year is all about making subtle tweaks to improve your health and wellbeing rather than clearing the decks to work on a whole new you. Find out how you can slow down and still stay healthy over the next 12 months.

How we’ll be looking after our health in 2026

Count colours not calories

In 2025, we were encouraged to eat 30 different plants a week – and with good reason. People who eat 30 different plant foods every week have better gut microbe diversity than those who eat less than 10. “Higher microbial diversity is associated with better metabolic health markers and improved glucose regulation,” says Alex Glover, senior nutritionist at Holland & Barrett.

But hitting that target of 30 plants a week can feel quite intimidating. The good news is the goal for 2026 is to ‘eat a rainbow'. This means eating plant foods from every colour of the rainbow to vary your intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients – active plant chemicals that have beneficial effects on your health. It’s not a new idea, but more of us are now embracing it for its simplicity.

Priya Tew, specialist dietician from Dietitian UK, says, “Eating a range of colourful fruits and veggies removes the idea of having to count or track your plant foods, which can feel overwhelming. But you don’t have to eat a full rainbow at every meal – it’s what you do more often that matters.”

Go for diversity over quantity, so try to eat something red, green, yellow, orange, blue, purple – plus white and brown – at least once a day. “Use frozen fruit and veg for ease,” says Priya. “A bag of colourful berries or mixed vegetables can help you get a range of colours in.”

We’re finally moving away from counting calories too, focusing on food quality and variety instead. Alex says, “This approach increases nutrient density, supports gut microbe diversity and improves satiety, which often makes calorie control easier. This encourages people to eat more nutritious foods, rather than restricting themselves. It’s a far more positive way of eating to sustain your long-term health.”

Get in a pickle

Fermented foods have exploded in popularity over the last few years, thanks to their delicious spicy flavour and positive effect on gut health. Most of us already know about kimchi and sauerkraut – and may even have a jar in the fridge – but pickled foods are now having their moment in the wellbeing spotlight.

Pickled vegetables are a type of fermented food, but there are different varieties; those pickled in vinegar and those pickled in brine. “While vinegar pickling is a common method, true fermentation in brine enriches them with beneficial probiotics for your gut,” Dr Marily Oppezzo told Stanford Medicine. Vinegar pickling can actually kill off the good bacteria, but vinegar-pickled foods still have health benefits.

Some research has found consuming vinegar can reduce post-meal glucose spikes and help you feel fuller for up to two hours after eating, while other studies revealed regularly eating pickled vegetables can reduce your risk of developing diabetes. Drinking pickle juice can also help ease muscle cramps and improve post-exercise recovery – no wonder it has become so popular among athletes.

But don’t overdo it. Priya says, “Adding vinegar, salt, sugar and spices to foods makes them a lot saltier, so it is key to eat them in moderation. Add a spoonful to your plate rather than making then the star of the meal.” If you want to keep an eye on how much salt you’re consuming, try making your own pickled veggies.

Choose planet-friendly protein

Protein is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet, but our needs go up as we get older, get active or get hench. No wonder there’s been a boom in high-protein foods on supermarket shelves. But eating a lot of protein, especially animal protein such as red meat or whey protein from milk, has a significant impact on the planet.

We now know meat and dairy products have the biggest negative effect of all foods on the environment – according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, they’re responsible for 14.5% of all global greenhouse gases. But scientists have developed a way of eating that allows both people and planet to thrive.

The planetary health diet (PHD) is the world’s first diet that combines human health benefits with the sustainability of the planet. The result is a largely plant-based diet, with small amounts of meat, fish and dairy. A recent report found if everyone followed the PHD, this could save 40,000 lives a day and reduce food-related emissions.

And don’t worry that you need to eat animal protein to hit your daily goals – plant proteins can provide all the protein you need, including essential amino acids (the building blocks of muscles). A growing body of research has found plant proteins perform as well as animal proteins at building and maintaining muscle strength.

So, which plant proteins should you choose? “The best options are natural plant proteins, like beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, mycoprotein, nuts and seeds, rather than fake meat alternatives, as these can be heavily processed,” Priya says. “You can definitely meet all your protein needs on a plant-based diet, but you will need to plan your meals a bit more and focus on the variety of foods you eat.”

Needs some more inspo? Check out the hashtag #banginsomebeans to find out how to up your protein intake next year without increasing the cost.

Boost not burnout

How many times have you heard about burnout this year? It seems to be our number one health concern, but how many of us actually know what burnout is? The term is often used to describe feeling overwhelmed with stress, but experts say burnout is not the same as stress.

Dr Claire Ashley, a GP, neuroscientist and burnout specialist, says, “Burnout is the end point to a very prolonged period of stress. We can normally recover from short-term stress after going on holiday, for example, but burnout is different. You might both care too much and don’t care at all about work, other people or yourself. But you’re too emotionally exhausted to do anything about it.”

You can recover from burnout, but it can take a long time – and a lot of professional support. “That’s why it’s so important to manage our stress levels,” says Dr Ashley. “But it has to be something quick, easy and accessible, otherwise we won’t do it.”

Her first tip for 2026 is to get outside at lunchtime. She says, “This reduces levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. In turn, this can improve sleep, which is one of the first things to suffer when you’re under extreme stress.” You can tackle a negative culture at work by sharing gratitude, like positive feedback from a client, to give everyone in your team a dopamine boost and help improve their mental health.

Dr Ashley also recommends “completing the stress cycle” at the end of every day. This could be playing some loud music when you get in the car (headbanging optional) or having a shower and getting changed as soon as you get in from work. She says, “Over time, it doesn’t matter how stressed you feel – your body will learn that work is done and now it’s time to relax”.

Balance not blowout

More Brits are now drinking decaf coffee, or drinking it more often, while around a third of us are ‘zebra striping’: alternating between alcoholic and alcohol-free drinks on a night out. We’ve become a nation of moderation when it comes to our wellness, and this habit will continue in 2026, particularly with fitness.

Monty Simmons, a personal trainer and specialist in biomechanics, believes people are turning away from extreme, competitive exercise regimes like Hyrox or the 75 Hard Challenge and are now looking for natural ways to work out that fit more easily into our daily lives, with a focus on sustainability and injury prevention.

“The idea of going for a long run or doing an intense workout when you’ve had a tough day at work isn’t realistic. It can also lead to injury through overtraining,” says Monty. This mindset can actually put us off exercise, so we end up doing nothing. Instead, we should aim for some stretching and a bit of movement every day.

Monty says the idea is to find an exercise you enjoy rather than signing up for something like a triathlon to motivate you. “Start off by going for a 10-minute walk every day – everyone has enough time to do that – and when that feels good, you can start adding in more exercise,” he says. But don’t do too much, too fast; the goal is to integrate fitness into your life rather than changing your life to do more exercise.

You can find exercises to improve your digestion, weight loss or kickstart your new year here.

Overall, the goal for 2026 is to find wellbeing rituals, such as eating sustainably and exercising mindfully, to make us feel good and that we can stick to.

“When we choose healthy habits that are more manageable, we reduce the pressure on ourselves to perform and make space for consistency,” says Lina Chan, director of women’s health at Holland & Barrett. “It’s these small, steady actions – not the moments of over-commitment – that build resilience, shape our long-term health, and create meaningful transformation.” We’ll raise a glass (of 0% beer) to that.