While it often seems that the pandemic has lessened the global connectivity that existed pre-COVID-19, sometimes the news isn't all bad: We've recently released a new multi-country report on consumer perceptions of health and wellness that uncovers significant signs of unity around beliefs linking diet and nutrition to treatment of health conditions.

The report, Health & Wellness Across the Globe, finds that consumers in six countries tend to think of food and beverage primarily as a means to manage those health conditions that have a direct and well-established link to diet and nutrition, such as weight, digestion, food allergies, heartburn, cholesterol and diabetes.

Consumers in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Mexico and the USA are fairly united in their general beliefs about “food as medicine,” yet differences between countries do exist: In Brazil and Mexico, for example, consumers also use dietary choices to manage cancer, and German and Chinese consumers use food and beverage in inflammation-related conditions like osteoporosis. 

Finally, in India, fatigue ranks second among conditions managed with food and beverage, suggesting a strong connection between diet and vitality in this country.

While beliefs about diet and nutrition present a unifying theme across countries, another somewhat surprising macro finding from the report is that more consumers around the world reported that their health has improved than have reported it’s declined during the pandemic.

Health & Wellness Across the Globe provides unique consumer perspectives on the important dynamics shaping the global health and wellness marketplace and delivers insights into how consumers envision and enact health and wellness in the realities of the “new normal.” For more information on the report, you can download a free overview here.

Further Reading:

Article: A Global, Consumer-Centric View of Health & Wellness Reveals Aspects Unique to Individual Countries—But Also Similarities