We’re breaking down my forecast of the top 5 wellness trends to watch for in 2025, and the future is looking up! This past year saw some massive shifts in the wellness industry, but I think it’s only set the stage for even bigger and better movement ahead.

My top 5 wellness trends might be on your radar, but this is the year you’re going to see them take the spotlight. And in truth, they’re more than just trends. They are powerful game-changers for health and well being, and they have the kind of impact to give them staying power for years to come.

I’m so hopeful that 2025 will be a pivot year in the world of wellness! Here’s what’s on the horizon…

1. The Year of Light

2025 will be the year we get back to ancient practices and harness modern science to work with the power of light in all of its forms. So much of our modern world gets light all wrong – we spend our days away from sunlight and our nights in the glow of blue light. But this year, that starts to change…

Zero Blue Light Technology

I’m predicting the explosion of zero blue light technology with brands like Soraa Zero Blue Lighting by Korrus Circadian. There is growing demand and massive space for these types of healthier lighting options and applications – whether for light bulbs at home or lighting on computers, phones, tablets, and beyond. The best part? Impact with little effort! Simply switch your light and you can support your melatonin production and natural body rhythms. 

Rhythms of Light

We’re going to see a return of focus to natural light — especially getting morning and sunset rays to our skin and eyes while eliminating blue light in the evenings. Our bodies were meant to work with the rhythm of the sun, and when we don’t, our circadian rhythm suffers. Along with it, our sleep. Energy. Focus. Hormonal balance.

The benefits are deep. Increased vitamin D production, decreased cortisol, and maybe most notably — deeper and more restorative sleep.

After embracing tech in all its forms, 2025 is the year of return to the rhythm of the sun. 

Red Light

Along with the sun, we’re embracing all things red light in the coming year. Hats, masks, mats, beds, and panels.

Why is red light showing up on everything? Because it’s an easy add with wide benefits:

• Skin health 
• Pain management 
• Scar and wound healing 
• Anti-inflammation
• Increased energy

Products to Know

The market is saturated with a lot of really great red light devices from reputable companies, a few of my favorites I’ll list below. I’m also including a few lesser-known ideas for light bulbs you may want to consider when transitioning to a more circadian-friendly lifestyle (light-style?!):

• Light Bulbs: Soraa
• Panels, Hats, Mats, Devices: HigherDOSE, LUMEBOX

2. Protein, But There’s More To It

While 2024 was a moment for protein, 2025 will shift the focus from simply quantity of protein to quality of amino acids that compose the protein. We’re taking the power of protein even further! Is it a complete or incomplete source of protein? And with the conversation on quality, there will be a bigger emphasis on sourcing, too. 

Complete or Incomplete: Amino Acids Matter 

Amino acids are a necessary piece in the protein conversation in 2025. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. While there are hundreds of known amino acids, your body needs 20 for structure and function. Of those, 9 are “essential” because the body cannot synthesize, or create, them. They must be consumed through food.

Complete proteins contain all 9 essential amino acids, which incomplete proteins do not. The nine essential amino acids include: 

• Histidine
• Isoleucine
• Leucine
• Lysine
• Methionine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Valine

Here’s what’s coming in 2025: Leucine-rich complete proteins aren’t just for bodybuilders. They’re for anyone wanting to optimize metabolic health and mood well-being. Leucine-rich complete proteins promote muscle protein synthesis while optimizing body composition, hormone health, gut health, and digestion.

We want to ensure most of our protein consumption comes from quality + complete protein sources. The easiest way to do this? Eat animal protein and fill in the gaps with high quality supplementation. 

After being benched in favor of plant-based and “faux” animal protein products, the rhetoric is changing. Animal-based proteins such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and animal-derived protein powders are returning as top protein choices because they contain all 9 essential amino acids in sufficient quantities to optimize mind and body well-being. And they’re highly digestible (around 90 to 99 percent), easily absorbed, and readily utilized by the body.

Yep, I’m calling it. Complete animal protein sources, rich in leucine and containing all 9 essential amino acids, will be the superior protein pick in 2025 (and beyond). But not just any animal protein…

Protein: Quality + Sourcing

With animal protein comes the big question of sourcing. And it matters. 2025 will be the year we don’t just appreciate, but expand, responsible and regenerative farming practices – environmentally conscious, humane for our animals, and resulting in nutritionally superior products.  

My Favorites

• Pasture-raised meats → Force of Nature (use code KELLY15), Pasturebird (use code BEWELLBYKELLY)
• Be Well Essentials → Leucine-rich essential amino acid supplementation with the meticulous sourcing and minimal ingredients
• Be Well Protein Powders → All varieties are complete sources of protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids

3. From Villain to Hero: A Focus on Healthy Fat

Remember low-fat everything? Thankfully, we’ve moved beyond that era. But if a lot of us were to be honest, women in particular, we’re still a little hesitant.

2025 is your year to fully embrace the healthy fats, and your body is going to love you for it. 

If not seed oils, then what?

The key to navigating dietary fat well is to know which are healthy vs. harmful. We’re rounding out 2024 with a bang after the release of this long-time-coming research article from the University of Florida linking seed oils to colon cancer.

In short, it’s time to ditch processed foods with inflammatory fats. Even (especially?!) those with the green-washed packaging claiming “heart healthy!” Trade out inflammatory vegetable and seed oils for truly heart healthy oils like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, grass fed butter and ghee, whole nuts and seeds, avocado, and other full fat coconut products to name a few. 

Fab Fats to Take into 2025

We started the 2020s with an exciting discovery around healthy fats. For the first time in 90 years, scientists uncovered a new essential fatty acid called Pentadecanoic acid (aka C15:0). Pentadecanoic acid is a saturated fatty acid that integrates into cell membranes, supporting their structure to improve cellular stability and prevent premature breakdown. Expect to hear more about this anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and immune-boosting fatty acid in 2025.

Despite a new and exciting fatty acid discovery, omega 3s aren’t going anywhere in 2025. They deserve all the usual hype and more. Research continues to affirm the power behind omega 3s to benefit brain health, heart health, hair and skin, and to downregulate inflammation. 

Fats Worth Supplementing

Fatty acids regulate hunger hormones, helping you kick cravings by triggering the release of satiety hormones, and slow down digestion. Healthy fats support brain function, hormone protection, increased nutrient absorption, and immune strength. Healthy fat consumption and supplementation will be big in 2025 and beyond. A few of my faves:

• Supplementation – Pentadecanoic acid: Fatty15 
• Supplementation – Omega 3: Omega 3 Innovations Omega Cure; WeNatal Omega 3, NOW Foods Ultra Omega or Krill Oil
• Everyday use → Zero Acres (use code KELLY), FOND beef tallow (use code BEWELLBYKELLY), and Kosterina olive oil (use code BEWELL), Primal Kitchen Pure Avocado Oil (use code KELLYSFAVORITES)

4. The Next Big Thing In Exercise…Isn’t Really Exercise!

We’ve seen major moments for the Peloton, hot yoga, group exercise, and beyond (which can all be great!), but the exercise everyone is talking about in 2025 is actually non-exercise movement. It’s everything you do outside of your formal workout. 

Strategic NEAT 

NEAT. Get to know it! Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis – and you’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the upcoming year. There will be a new focus on what we’re doing outside of the gym/on top of our workout regime. 

Why? Because increasing your NEAT has been scientifically proven to increase your metabolic rate and improve your glucose response. Turns out living a healthy lifestyle is just as much about what you do outside of that hour at the gym as it is about what you do in it. 

Increase Your NEAT

• Habit stack! Wear a weighted vest/ankle weights/wristbands for low impact daily activities such as walking, yard work, house work, etc. 
• Take a walk after meals. 
• Walk, stand, or simply fidget while on the phone. 
• Take the stairs versus an elevator/escalator. 
• Walk or bike to work. 
• Choose a further parking spot. 
• Adopt active hobbies such as gardening, pickle ball, etc. 
• Play with your kids in the yard, at the park, etc.
  

These small movements add up to make a positive and significant impact on your health when compounded over time. 2025 will be the year we worry less about hitting the gym harder and focus more on movement integration during normal daily living.

5. The Food System: Call for Accountability

From over 450,000 of us joining the Food Babe to petition Kellogg’s to remove artificial flavors, artificial colors, and BHT from all of their products (as they do in other countries!) to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. being appointed as the next Head of Health and Human Services Department, we saw the seeds in 2024 of what we’ll only be seeing a lot more of in 2025: A call for accountability in the food system.

Stanford-trained physicians like Dr. Casey Means, MD and Harvard-trained businessmen like Calley Means are leveraging their insane brainpower and growing platforms to advocate for massive nationwide change in food policy, healthcare, and beyond.

Personally, I took it down to the local level to facilitate change for a healthier future for our children at the school – writing a 6-page proposal for my kids’ school to remove unplanned sugar and hosting an at-school no sugar initiative Live podcast with Dr. Michael Goran, PhD for parents and students alike.

By demanding healthier, sustainable options and holding companies accountable, we can create a food system that prioritizes well-being. By choosing sustainable, ethical, and health-conscious food options, we support transparency, environmental responsibility, and fair labor practices – creating a food system that prioritizes people, planet, and health. Here's what to expect:

• Accountability in the food system. 
• Ethical production and policy change.
• Personal accountability by voting with our dollars. 
• Advocating for ourselves and future generations at home, at school, and beyond. 
• Supporting local, small businesses.

Regardless of where any of us stand politically, I think we can stand together for a healthier future. This means linking arms for more meaningful change like pulling chemicals from food, restricting cancer-causing pesticides, and more.

It’s a growing movement – Expect more of these impactful changes in the next 12 months!

BONUS: Dairy’s Comeback…Still a Superfood?

Dare I say dairy’s on the comeback in 2025?!

But not just any old dairy. We’re going to see a rise in the popularity of A2 ultrafiltered milk as well as lightly pasteurized dairy. While raw milk is having a moment, it may not be realistic to expect raw milk to become accepted mainstream due to issues with legal constraints, sourcing availability, and reliability of quality and safety in the handling process.

Closer-to-raw milks are on the rise – with many of the same benefits as raw milk and few of the same drawbacks as conventional cow’s dairy. A2 ultrafiltered milk is easier to digest and may be better for long-term health than conventional milk because it contains neither A1 beta-casein nor lactose. Lightly pasteurized milk is higher in beneficial bacteria and active enzymes than regular ultra-pasteurized cow’s milk.

Sixty-five percent of people have trouble digesting regular milk. While it’s widely known that lactose is to blame, it is less known that A1 beta-casein is also at fault, causing symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and stomach pain. There is strong clinical evidence – like here, here, and here – that suggests A2 milk can offer protein, mineral, and vitamin-rich health benefits without the digestive distress, discomfort, increased inflammation, reduced gut motility, and abdominal pain that’s associated with conventional lactose and A1 beta-casein milk. 

Lightly pasteurized milk, or low-temp pasteurization, is also becoming more mainstream. Did you know while I was in France, I could easily access low-temp pasteurized (or raw) milk directly from dairy farmers at the market and in grocery stores and enjoy it with no discomfort or unwanted symptoms? That’s partly because low-temp pasteurization doesn’t kill all of the enzymes that are necessary for proper digestion and metabolism of the milk. Instead, low-temp pasteurization kills pathogenic bacteria while maintaining the health and integrity of more beneficial live and active cultures.

But where can you find this type of closer-to-raw milk? My dairy brands to watch for in the New Year include Pioneer Pastures and Kalona. 

• Pioneer Pastures - Pioneer Pastures uses A2 cows to produce dairy products that are free from lactose and A1 beta-casein, two leading causes behind digestive distress and unwanted dairy consumption-related symptoms. Pioneer Pastures utilizes an ultra filtration process that concentrates protein and vitamins while removing excess water and sugar.
• Kalona - Kalona utilizes low temp pasteurization, which allows their dairy products to retain more beneficial live and active cultures than other brands. While most dairy products are pasteurized (aka sterilized) at temps around 280°F, Kalona’s are pasteurized at 145°F, which preserves the taste and structure of milk in its natural state.⁠ All of their dairy products are sourced from 100% grass-fed cows and certified organic.

In Conclusion…

From the quality of your protein to the power of light, from the de-villainization of healthy fats to the disruption of food politics, the stage is set for us to mindfully navigate the New Year – moving us toward a more healthful and vibrant tomorrow.

2025 will be a year of big change for a better future.