The nutrition industry industry is known for lurches and turns, rapid upticks and sudden stalls. Smart leaders in the space have an eye out for what's next, thus we've devoted an entire issue to emerging ideas, opportunities and markets.

We look at the emergence of Generation Alpha, the cohort following right behind Gen Z. We’ve been so distracted by the rapid-fire pace of change across commerce, politics and technology that we haven’t taken a long enough look at what it means to grow up in this constantly revised world. We could be missing what that means for the business of wellness. Explore the implications in “Alpha wave,” page 9.

Sobriety is nothing new, but brands are now meeting the needs of a huge market that emerged over the last few decades. Read about the role functional ingredients play in the adult nonalcoholic beverage market on page 12.

The global economy has been buffeted by a series of catastrophic events in recent years, but macroeconomic and population trends are still what drive the long-term outlook. The industry might do well to consider that long-term outlook rather than pivoting from market to market. Read more about emerging global markets in “The world’s a stage,” page 1.

We’ve also been wondering what it means for supplements when the natural and specialty channel that built the modern industry is no longer the largest channel. Parity with mass market retail has been emerging over the past decade, but now it’s here, and e-commerce will be even with both soon. Read what that means for brands in “Emerging parity,” page 17.

Deepen your understanding of all things "emerging" with our proprietary data and expert analysis.