Health and wellness is a topic avidly discussed on the Social Web with many individuals passionately discussing everything from daily exercise rituals to health tonics.  As we begin the summer season and many are nervously trying on beachwear, Visible teamed up with Pivot to create an infographic summarizing the top trends buzzing on social channels.

Predictably, two of the major topics being discussed online revolve around food and working out.  For the purposes of this quick study, we saw more than 500K conversations over the past 3 months that were about food and workout related topics.  Prominent discussions covered typical topics like body (23%), diet (22%) and exercise (15%).

Digging deeper, we uncovered the following insights:

• The most popular health and wellness trends being discussed on social channels include Monsanto, fermented foods (i.e.Greek yogurt, kefir, Kombucha), personal trainers, gluten free, GMOs, the Paleo Diet and juicing.
• Social media channels, especially Facebook, have become a major hub for discussions about Monsanto’s business practices, especially regarding genetically modified food.
• During analysis, a hashtag popped up repeatedly: #Fitspo.  Fitspo (or Fitspiration) is a term used to describe something that inspires people to be fit, and is often used as a hashtag in social media.  Individual pages (often blogs) that are dedicated to Fitspo frequently incorporate pictures, testimonials, recipes or exercise/meal plans to help people get in shape.
• A brand called Slimbliss is capitalizing on the Fitspo trend in social media, and appears in nearly 20% of #Fitspo posts.  Slimbliss is a 100% organic herbal tea company which claims that it assists with weight loss.
• The Paleo Diet has been discussed in the media and this is reflected on social channels as well.  Interestingly social discussions seem to focus on lamenting all the foods that you can’t have while you are on this diet.  However, those discussing the Paleo Diet seemed to be happy with it overall (73% positive sentiment).
• People are turning to health apps on their phones to help them stay on track.   86% of those using health apps are happy with them.  Two of the more generally popular Health Apps are MyFitnessPal and Nike Training Club

Guest post written by Mark Brandt, Director of Research and Analytics, Visible Technologies