Welcome to the Food+ Era

Whether one prefers salty, sweet, spicy, sour, or the newer-to-the-scene umami, people have historically chosen foods based on personal tastes and preferences. Now, many adults expect their food choices to provide a functional benefit while also pleasing the palate. The percentage of Americans deliberately managing their protein intake has jumped to more than 70% in recent years, leading to protein showing up in everything from candy to water. But functional food doesn’t stop at protein, with other Americans making similar efforts to add fiber, eliminate food additives, or provide greater energy and mental focus.

Nearly 1 in 8 adults is now on a GLP-1 drug, and prescriptions for weight loss have grown 587% since 2019. A new era has arrived in which Americans expect food to do more than sustain them and please their palates. ELI calls it the Food+ Era — and the "+" is different for every American: A medical outcome; A political statement; A moral conviction; A self-improvement goal; A form of relief long overdue. ELI analyzed the behavioral signals of the estimated 91 million Americans who eat functionally on a daily basis to understand the implications for brands, manufacturers, and America at large.

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In The Frame:

• 91 million US adults whose food choices are based on a personal belief system.
• 71% of Americans are actively seeking more protein in their diet, making it the #1 consumer food choice.
• Near 7x increase in GLP-1 drugs being prescribed for weight loss rather than diabetic control

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The Five Food+ Tribes that are reshaping how America eats

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Metabolic Optimizers: 35M

They are not focused on achieving a specific size or shape but rather on managing multiple conditions, such as insomnia, hair loss, and chronic pain, seeking relief through GLP-1 therapy. Many of these individuals live in places with limited access to functional medicine. Celebrity Ozempic stories are irrelevant to most GLP-1 users, who are often medically burdened, underserved, and experiencing body cooperation for the first time.

Plant-Based Optimizers: 25M

They read food labels the way others read medical instructions — because information gives them a sense of control. Progressive media figures and environmental advocates populate their influencer world. They tend not to be fully vegan, vegetarian, or even flexitarian. Rather, they choose with discernment and intention. Craft spirits sit beside the organic butter without contradiction. For this tribe, what they eat is a moral statement.

Protein Maximalists: 19M

Not the elite performance athletes one might imagine, this tribe focuses on healing ailments such as poor sleep, chronic pain, and allergies. Their keto, paleo, grain-free philosophy provides a sense of bodily agency in a life where much else feels ungovernable. This tribe is largely self- taught and trend- influenced, and it contains a meaningful, commercially underserved Hispanic component that presents an opportunity for numerous brands.

Clean Food Activists: 7M

They eat clean and hold Bitcoin. Their media choices run from Joe Rogan to Newsmax. They live by a conservative agenda that leans hard into other areas of activism, such as gun rights and neo-conservative/libertarian politics. The Make America Healthy Again movement did not recruit them, but rather gave a sense of unity to tendencies that were already there. For this tribe, clean eating is as much a political act as it is a personal wellness behavior.

Gut Health Optimizers: 5M

The smallest and yet most surprising tribe. They apply the same ingredient- consciousness to their skincare that they bring to their gut. They practice hypnosis, Reiki, and tai chi. No other tribe matches their combination of depth in alternative medicine and mainstream cultural range. Managing a multitude of health and wellness priorities, they were practicing systems thinking about health before anyone had a name for it.

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How will America’s Food+ Era impact consumerism in the years ahead?

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1. MAHA WILL ACCELERATE INTO THE MAINSTREAM — AND FRACTURE IT.

As HHS moves against food dyes, seed oils, and ultra-processed ingredients, Clean Food Activists will grow rapidly in numbers. But the coalition is unstable — libertarians, religious conservatives, crypto believers, and anti-establishment independents do not agree on much beyond institutional distrust. The first major policy fight within the movement will expose those fault lines publicly and split the tribe between those who want government action and those who want government out entirely.

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2. METABOLIC OPTIMIZERS WILL RESHAPE THE AMERICAN FOOD ECONOMY FASTER THAN ANYONE HAS MODELED.

‍35 million Americans are behaviorally primed for GLP-1 adoption. As drugs become more accessible and affordable, the downstream effects on portion size, sugar consumption, snack categories, and restaurant traffic will accelerate beyond current projections. The brands that built their business on high-frequency, high- volume consumption are already at risk — they just haven't seen it in the numbers yet.

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3. PROTEIN MAXIMALISTS WILL BECOME A COMMERCIAL BATTLEGROUND IN CPG.‍

19 million working-class Americans, with a coherent, committed nutritional identity and a significant embedded Latino cohort, are dramatically underserved by current food marketing. The brand that figures out how to speak to Palestine, TX, and Dickinson, ND, in the language of bodily sovereignty — not biohacking, not performance, but agency — will unlock a loyalty that coastal wellness brands cannot buy at any price.

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4. THE PLANT-BASED ECONOMY WILL SPLIT INTO TWO DISTINCT MARKETS.‍

The behavioral data reveals a growing divide between whole-food plant-based consumers and ultra-processed vegan product buyers. As the novelty of Beyond Meat and Impossible fades, brands targeting this tribe will be forced to choose which consumer they are actually serving — because the motivations, income profiles, and cultural identities of the two groups are increasingly incompatible, and trying to serve both will serve neither.

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5. GUT HEALTH WILL BECOME THE DOMINANT CONSUMER HEALTH NARRATIVE OF THE NEXT DECADE.

Four to five million Americans are already practicing a sophisticated, systems-level approach to digestive health that is migrating into skincare, alternative medicine, and mental wellness. This tribe is small but it is the clearest early signal of where mainstream health behavior is heading. The brands and platforms that build credibility here now will ride a wave that is just beginning to form — and the data says it is arriving faster than the category currently believes.

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About Sooth & ELI

Sooth is the predictive intelligence company decoding the 93% of human decisions driven by emotional, practical, and situational needs. Powered by ELI — Sooth's exclusive Emotional Logic Interface — Sooth uncovers hidden signals, turning audience behavior into predictive foresight. Sooth's patent-pending methodology uses artificial intelligence to cross-reference more than 100 million intent signals with data on 300 million individuals worldwide to predict buyer tendencies with 91% predictive accuracy. For more information, visit: soothbetold.com.

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