The Nutritional Outlook Podcast Episode 42: Nutritional Outlook's Ingredients to Watch in 2026

Nutritional Outlook interviews Scott Dicker, senior director of market insights at SPINS to discuss the 2026 Ingredients to Watch. Dicker unpacks sales trends in the nutraceutical space and what they mean for product formulators and marketers. This year's Ingredients to Watch include ashwagandha, colostrum, creatine, and protein.

Read full Ingredients to Watch coverage here to access expert insights and detailed sales data from SPINS.

Watch our interview with Dicker on video here.

Sebastian Krawiec (SK): So to start, there's going to be a couple ingredients that we're sort of revisiting this year, that we've covered in the past. So one ingredient that has been getting a lot of love in the past few years is creatine, and I like to revisit it here, since SPINS data shows that within the performance category of the MULO channel, creatine grew in sales by 72%, and in a natural channel, creatine, for Energy Support, grew nearly 50% in sales. When we covered creatine in the Ingredients to Watch two years ago, a lot of the conversation was centered around changing demos for buyers of the ingredient as well as the active nutrition category more broadly. Do you find the still holds true? Or have you observed any other important factors driving interest in sales of creatine products today?

Scott Dicker (SD): Creatine is one that that, as you mentioned, we've been talking about for a few years now, and you know, it has really been a staple for decades in the gym especially. And it's a good thing that we're talking about the same ingredients for a couple years in a row, because otherwise we would have been wrong; if we're changing, if we're taking complete 180s all the time. Creatine is one that I always say has all the tailwinds on it. So it's new demographics, that's the biggest one. So, both age brackets, as well as women getting involved in it. So this really expands the pool. There's also new use cases. So it's not just for young men in the gym anymore, which, as I mentioned was the case for a couple decades.

We're seeing a lot of boost in it for cognitive support as well. You're seeing a emergence of new delivery formats, whether that's ready to drinks or gummies or chewables, like hard chews, things like that. So these are all big tailwinds. That's moving it. The virality of it is helping out as well, as far as a market awareness and “who is this for?” But there are others as well that it's being touted for things like bone health or immune health that are still very early, but could bubble up as well. But for something like cognitive health, the recommended intake is about twice what I've been used to the daily recommended intake of when you're just trying to saturate your muscles for energy and strength and power and all that fun stuff. Now you've expanded your base, expanded the potential pool of people who are going to use this ingredient, and the people who currently use it might now take more of it. So that's why there's such a big push as this is an ingredient that's been really on a rocket ship for the past past handful of years.

SK: That's super interesting. Yeah, so you need more of it for brain health. Interesting. Do you find that when it comes to products marketed towards brain health using creatine…Is it a standalone ingredient? Is it combined with other ingredients? What are you observing there?

SD: Mostly standalone right now, I there's opportunity for it to be combined with other ingredients. I would say, I'm a little skeptical of some of those, because a lot of the other nootropic ingredients are meant for more acute usage. And creatine, we know, typically, is built up over time with consistent use. I've seen some literature that a single, large dose can can help out in certain areas as well, but that's something to be on the lookout for. I'm sure there will be people that try it, but right now, it's mostly standalone, just touting new benefits.

SK: Moving on to our next ingredient. I wanted to focus on protein, particularly whey and dairy-based proteins. Your data shows a big increase in in protein sales, particularly whey and other dairy based proteins. You know, with animal based proteins appearing on the top 25 functional ingredients by dollar, four times, in different ways. And then what I'm thinking when I see this rise in protein, I'm thinking this must have something to do with the rise of GLP-1 drugs and the demand for nutritional support around that. Do you think that's the case?

SD: It's certainly one of them. So protein, we talked about creatine having all these, all these tailwinds on it, pushing forward. Protein also continues to have a health halo around it. So, we saw the new dietary guidelines just raised protein recommendations significantly. We know that people on GLP-1s are looking for added protein to make sure that when they lose weight, they're not losing muscle mass. We know people are getting more active thinking about health span more and protein plays a factor there as well. So all these things are pushing protein forward, and we see that it's across generations, it's across gender. And we do see that there's a difference in where people are looking for protein.

One of the barometers that I tend to look at is how a protein powder is doing, because to me, when you have protein enhanced options through every aisle in the grocery store and you have products that are inherently high in protein, like yogurt or cottage cheese or eggs doing really well, I would almost expect protein powders and ready-to-drinks to either level off or dip, because people have all these options. That's not the case. We continue to see it grow either in high single digits or low double digits, year after year, to show that, no, we have not yet hit peak protein.

People are still interested in it for a variety of reasons, one of which being GLP-1s. A lot of the other reasons having to do with health span, people being more cognizant of what's going in [their food], there being mixed messaging all the time around different fats or carbs; protein typically gets that health halo. So, we're seeing a lot of growth room still for protein. And then just to circle back, when you said it appears a few times on the top list, it's almost unfair to compare protein to some of these botanical ingredients with so much more of a limited use case and availability. So I always expect protein to rank high and often even the different varieties.

SK: That makes sense. I guess my observation being that a lot of the double digit growth we're seeing is also kind of specifically to the animal dairy based whey, casein proteins. Is there, you know, a particular reason why there might be particular growth of these types of proteins.

SD: It's a very interesting thing. So we saw, if you remember what, I guess was five, six years ago, when the big plant based boom happened, every type of analog there was, was becoming plant based. We also saw a big spike in plant based protein sales. Since then, we've seen that level off, not necessarily go away, but level off. And we've seen a return to whey protein, both as the top market share, which it always was, but also the top growth driver.

I think a lot of the things that were inherently true about whey; it's easier to mix, tends to flavor better as well, and as well as you know, again, a re- emphasis on dairy from certain parts of the community and its ability to really position itself in good light in that way, and we're seeing the growth though, one of the the swings that you see in response to some of those when that plant-based was having high growth is that you're seeing a lot of natural attributes driving growth there. So naturally positioned whey protein, grass fed, organic things like that, that are also able to make some of these other, you know, better-for-planet, better-for-animal label claims is driving a lot of the growth.

SK: Recently there was a Consumer Reports report stating there were higher levels of heavy metals in plant based protein products. Do you think that's a factor kind of turning people away from plant based protein?

SD: There's some sort of report or article around that topic that comes out about every year. It gets a lot of people in our industry upset about it. I do get people outside the industry come and ask me about that from time to time. But I really, I'm not sure how much of an impact that has, if it's just a just more noise, but it's definitely something out there that I know the industry always looks at some of these headlines, and maybe that plays a role. I don't have any hard data to support that one, though.

SK: Bringing up sort of a GLP-1 space earlier, I wonder if we can kind of look at it more broadly, as you know, can you talk about, you know, the opportunity of GLP-1 users and the drugs, with regard to the dietary supplement industry, in terms of acquiring and retaining new and loyal customers? Because, I mean, I'm seeing a ton of products being marketed toward this area, and it's a huge opportunity. But then is, you know, is there any concern that eventually will kind of hit a wall there, or is it more promising than that?

SD: I'm more on the promising end of the thought. I think that as people are taking GLP-1s, they are usually deciding to think more about their health. And as they think more about their health, it usually leads them to, one, make diet changes, and two, change or start taking certain supplements. I am, long-term, not super high on weight management supplements that are competitor products, although we continue to see ingredients like Berberine do very well right now. So there will be pockets of growth always. But companion products, I think we'll see a continue to see a big benefit. So that's things like protein. It's things like like products that fill nutrient gaps. So multivitamins, I think, are going to be a long-term benefit from this, greens, powders, a lot of those other in supplements, as well as things for gut health and microbiome. As we know, there's a lot of reports about gastrointestinal side effects, so I think that that area is is going to lead to people more so on it, as well as when they when consumers think that it's a medical necessity, whether it is or not, I'm not, I'm not here to say, but I think it makes it stickier that they'll be in these categories for the long term.

SK: On to our next ingredient. Another ingredient we're revisiting is ashwagandha. Ashwagandha, according to your market research, has seen 27% sales growth in multi-outlet of channel in 2025 you know, what do you think is driving the growth of ashwagandha in this moment? Like we've talked about in the past, it's not necessarily a new ingredient. It has had, you know, its spikes here and there, but 27% is nothing to slouch at. What do you attribute to that?

SD: There's a lot of adaptation to conventional so we're still seeing that life cycle play out. We like to talk about how fast the life cycle is now, but it still happens over some sort of period of time. It is being used in more and more formulas as well. I've been seeing a lot of male health formulas now having ashwagandha in it, along with stress and energy. So, when you have an ingredient that's being touted for such a wide range of health focuses, and more and more consumers are aware of it, I think the that brands always look to it as a nice one to put in their formulations and bring to market.

So, you're still seeing new brands adding it. It's interesting to watch it continue to grow. Because, it was 7-8 years ago when gummies really brought ashwagandha to the market. That was a new delivery format, but you're also seeing it happen in ready-to-drink beverages and things of that nature. So, there's a lot of use cases for it. Primary use case is still stress and mood support, and we know that that's still a large area of concern for people. So, there's still a lot of opportunity for ashwagandha.

SK: In some cases these ingredients appear in a specific health benefit formula because it's effective, but the consumers don't necessarily look for the specific ingredient. They're looking for the benefit. Is this different for ashwagandha? Are people looking for ashwagandha as opposed to the benefit itself?

SD: For most things, people lead with benefit, but then they do turn the label around, or search for it and see is there are ingredients that they’ve heard of, that they’ve wanted to try. So I still think that we lead with health focus, but the more popular and well known an ingredient gets, the more it will go to the top of the try-list for consumers

SK: One ingredient that's kind of was a surprise to me when I was looking at the data, was colostrum, which grew over 2,000% in hair, skin and nail category in multioutlet channel, and then over 200% in immune health category for the natural channel. Obviously, I'm familiar with colostrum from an immune health perspective. It's been in the in the industry for a while, but what do you kind of attribute to this current surge that we're seeing.

SD: A lot of this is enhanced distribution. When I did some of the State of Supplements work at the beginning of 2025 we had this as an ingredient to watch as potential to surge. And one of the things we always look at is what has really high growth rate in the natural channel and digital channels that has not yet broken into the multioutlet channel. And so this was on it. By the time Q1 ended, I could no longer include that ingredient because it had penetration into the conventional channel, significant [penetration]. And so a lot of it is new distribution. It's also an ingredient people are very interested in. There's this group of products that position as a “plus plus,” an all-in-one formula, where it's doing so many things: immune health, hair, skin and nails, beauty-from-within, whatever you want to call it. And so there's been a couple brands that have done this really well, brought it to market, so a lot of it is new distribution in the channel hitting new markets. So, big potential to grow, still. Not 2,000% year-over-year, but still big potential growth.

SK: That makes sense, marketing for multiple benefits, because I was curious about, the surge for the hair, skin and nails. Looking at that category, kind of overall, there is some unusual activity happening in the hair, skin and nail category of multioutlet. Obviously, colostrum had that big surge, but then you're seeing kind of flat or dropping sales of other popular beauty-from-within ingredients, with the exception of maybe some spikes in multivitamins, glycerin and glutathione. Any thoughts on what's happening here in the hair, skin, and nail space? What's changing? GLP-1 is another thing that comes to mind for me here, given this kind of concept of Ozempic face and the impacts of the drug in that realm.

SD: There's a few things happening. One, beauty-from-within is an area of health span that's being looked at, so it is still of high interest. People are shifting what ingredients, what brands they're trying, but they’re also competing with and sometimes complementary with topicals as well. So, now you're seeing ingredients that were mostly topical coming to beauty-from-within, ingredients that were typically beauty-from-within going to topical. And so that's capturing the whole market. Hyaluronic acid is a great one to think about. There’s collagen as well with collagen peptides. And so there are different ways that people are looking at this. And sometimes it's not as overtly marketed for hair, skin, and nails, and it is the ingredient that people heard of that could be multifaceted or multi-health focus. But the interest is certainly there. I'm not sure about the Ozempic face, but we do know that as part of a health span, beauty-from-within continues to be an integral part of it.

SK: Another ingredient that sort of has been catching my eye in your data is sea moss, particularly in the natural channel. SPINS data shows that sea moss grew 204% in sales, and particularly in the immune health category, sea moss grew 358% in sales. I'm familiar with micro-algae ingredients, but sea moss is kind of new to me. Can you kind of talk about sea moss and how it's performing so well in this space?

SD: This is an interesting one, and you're probably seeing it for the first time on our list, because we just started coding for it. We used to just code it under like plant algae, but we do see that this is a big trend. A lot of it is for immune health, I believe a lot of it's for skin health as well. And so, it's an ingredient people are watching. Again, it's been used in beverages as well as consumables, and it's used in greens powders. So, this is another one to keep an eye on for as we go from here. And you know, you teed it up, it's doing really well in the natural channel, so that a lot of times means: be on the lookout for potential explosive growth. I won't say I'm predicting that for this year, but it does have potential for high growth even this year, but I’m saying it's going be like creatine, in that nature.

SK: Are there any other trends that you think are worth noting, whether it's a specific ingredient or kind of an overall category that our listeners should keep an eye on?

SD: One of the categories that I'm very bullish on is I think this year is going to be a big year for testosterone. I think the doors have been kicked down for people using pharmaceuticals in conjunction with nutraceuticals, with GLP-1s. And we know that testosterone is high interest for people. We know that TRT use is up. You know, med spas are doing it now, all the time. And so I think that there is going to be a renewed focus on testosterone and in similar ways to what we've seen with GLP-1s, both in a competitor and companion standpoint. So competitor, you remember when test boosters were a big thing, and so all those ingredients that did well there, I expect to see those resurge, things like boron or fenugreek or shilajit. There are also companion products, which are products for the people who are going to be using with the synthetic [medication]. So just be on the lookout for that part of the store and the category, both from supplemental ingredients as well as companion products. That's something I'm really looking forward to be big this year.

SK: Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, I've seen a ton of, you know, innovative new products kind of marketed towards that Men's Health kind of testosterone support space, and people wanting natural alternatives to those kind of popular products you see on the infomercials or something.

SD: And if you think about it, one of the big trends that's really changing the industry is the idea of personalized nutrition. With more and more people having data on themselves, whether it's something basic like a fitness tracker or advanced blood work, a lot of people will be looking to try things out. They almost always try some sort of natural version first. But even the ones who go for the synthetic one, there will be support that nutrition and supplements can play a role in.