At the 45th Natural Products Expo West, Jeffrey Bland, PhD, founder of Big Bold Health and a pioneer in functional medicine, reflected on more than four decades of progress in the natural products industry and where it’s headed next.

A trained nutritional biochemist, Bland has long advocated for elevating the role of nutrition science in standard medical practice. He believes the industry is entering a pivotal phase defined by clinical validation, measurable outcomes, and personalized health strategies.

Over his 30-year career, Bland has contributed to hundreds of clinical studies and helped develop numerous products grounded in measurable outcomes. Key to this process, he noted, is identifying meaningful biomarkers that can demonstrate how nutritional interventions impact the body.

That scientific focus will culminate in an 850-person, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigating the effects of Tartary buckwheat sprouts on immune aging and longevity, Bland said. Expected to conclude in mid-2026, the study aims to provide robust human data on how targeted nutrition can influence immune resilience, an area Bland believes is central to reducing chronic disease risk and supporting healthy aging.

Looking ahead, Bland believes the industry must move beyond unsupported claims toward demonstrable clinical value. For Big Bold Health, that means continuing to invest in rigorous research and applying those findings to both product development and consumer education.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay current with all our content.

At Natural Products Expo West 2026, Scott Dicker, senior director of market insights at SPINS, discussed dietary supplement industry trends, highlighting strong growth in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce, with the natural products channel posting the strongest in-store growth. At the same time, Amazon remains the fastest-growing channel overall.

Unit sales in natural retail are rising even faster than dollar sales in many categories, a positive signal for long-term category health.

Active and Performance Nutrition

The active nutrition segment has now led supplement category growth for five consecutive years, Dicker noted, with protein products appealing to a broad range of consumers.

Creatine stands out as one of the category’s most notable success stories, and Dicker expects momentum to continue. Historically associated with male gym-goers seeking muscle gains, creatine is now reaching a broader audience, including women. New delivery formats such as gummies and beverages are emerging, and additional indications like cognitive health are offering new directions for brands.

As competition intensifies within the creatine market, brands are exploring new ways to differentiate. Dicker pointed to premium positioning strategies, including sourcing claims and certification labels, as well as formulation innovations. Common ingredient pairings, such as creatine with protein, collagen, colostrum, or HMB, are becoming more common, while alternative forms could re-emerge as companies look for new ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Beyond creatine, Dicker highlighted several important trends in performance nutrition. Hydration supplements continue to grow rapidly, even as traditional ready-to-drink sports beverages flatten. The category offers a tale of two nutrients, he noted. Low- and no-sugar formulations remain on trend, along with high-sodium recovery products, which reflects a shift in perception from a once-vilified ingredient to a functional nutrient.

Energy and pre-workout products are also evolving. Brands are experimenting with different caffeine levels and stimulant strategies to target specific usage occasions throughout the day. Some products are reducing caffeine levels to create more moderate options, while others are exploring alternatives such as paraxanthine. At the same time, brands are layering additional functional ingredients, such as nootropics or protein, to differentiate formulations.

Hormone Health

Looking ahead, Dicker said one of the biggest emerging themes for the supplement industry will be testosterone and hormone-related health. The growing use of GLP-1 medications and other medical wellness treatments has increased consumer comfort with pharmaceutical interventions and medicalized wellness approaches. As a result, interest in hormone optimization, including testosterone therapy, is rising.

This shift could create opportunities for both companion products designed to support people using hormone therapies and natural alternatives aimed at supporting healthy testosterone levels. Nutrients such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and boron may see renewed attention as consumers explore different ways to manage hormone health.

Overall, Dicker suggested the supplement market remains dynamic, with strong growth fueled by evolving consumer demographics, new functional benefits, and ongoing innovation in ingredients and delivery formats.

In this podcast, Mary Phillips, Sales Director at Indena USA, discusses an evolving healthy aging market that’s shifting focus from living longer to living better. She explains how consumers are embracing a more informed, proactive approach to longevity, focusing on cellular health, energy metabolism, and emotional resilience alongside physical performance.

Indena’s portfolio of clinically backed ingredients includes Quercefit (quercetin phytosome), Meriva (curcumin phytosome), Ubiqsome (CoQ10 phytosome), and Enovita (grape seed extract), which can support multiple hallmarks of aging such as inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function.

Phillips also highlights the growing scientific understanding of “cellular crosstalk,” where nutrition influences key biological pathways tied to longevity. Her advice to formulators: lead with science, prioritize bioavailability, and communicate authentically.

The vertically integrated supplier offers a range of standardized extracts derived from plants indigenous to the Mediterranean basin.

In this podcast, Violetta Insolia, Business Development Manager at Bionap, discussed scientific collaborations the company has entered with universities around the world to validate its ingredients.

Most recently, the company has launched ODILIA, a powder extract obtained from Opuntia cladode juice standardized in polysaccharides and piscidic acid.

Insolia discussed the Bionap’s approach to innovation and R&D, and reviewed the company’s commitment to sustainability and upcycling.

The company’s enfinity paraxanthine and PEAK ATP are stirring up the market for cognitive health enhancement.

Nootropics have continued to gain in popularity. In this episode, learn what nootropics are, why there’s so much attention on cognitive health and mental energy, and TSI Group’s branded ingredient solutions: enfinity paraxanthine and PEAK ATP.

Shawn Baier, VP of Business Development at TSI Group discusses the health benefits, clinical evidence, formulations, stim vs non-stim energy, and more.

With rising interest in healthy aging, more people are looking for clinical research that supports products designed to help them live healthier for longer.

The coenzyme NAD+ is essential to the body's metabolic processes, but it declines with age, so supplements that boost NAD+ have garnered considerable attention in the scientific community.

ChromaDex, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq, offers the consumer product brand Tru Niagen. This patented form of nicotinamide riboside (NR) is a precursor to NAD+.

Tru Niagen sales totaled nearly $70 million last year, accounting for the majority of the company’s $83.6 million in revenue.

In this interview, ChromaDex CEO Rob Fried discusses NAD+ and emerging research, the company’s evolution to become a consumer-focused nutraceutical, the future of aging, critical challenges in today’s dietary supplement market, and more.

Spoiler alert: Fried is calling for more accountability and collaboration to enforce quality standards and establish greater trust with consumers.

In addition to being CEO of ChromaDex since 2017 and the founder of Tru Niagen, Fried is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning motion picture producer. Before his combined 7 years in the health industry, he held senior roles at entertainment companies Savoy Pictures (CEO), Columbia Pictures (Executive Vice President) and Fried Films (founder, CEO). He has also founded and served as CEO of internet companies Feeln (now Hallmark Movies Now), WHN (a leading e-commerce service provider), and Healthspan Research LLC.

In 2017, Fried led ChromaDex’s acquisition of Healthspan Research LLC, a consumer company offering Tru Niagen products, and raised funds with Horizon Ventures to offer Tru Niagen direct-to-consumer. He holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Loren Israelsen from the United Natural Products Alliance shares insight on how agency priorities might change and how businesses can prepare.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is in process of a massive reorganization designed to streamline operations within a unified Human Foods Program (HFP) to largely replace the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

What does this mean for the dietary supplement industry?

In the proposal, now under review at Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs (ODSP) will report to a newly created “Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation,” (OFCSDSI), which FDA said “will work to modernize and strengthen oversight of food chemical safety, advance dietary supplement safety, and enable the Human Foods Program to support and effectively regulate food ingredient innovation.”

As the agency’s first Deputy Commissioner of Human Foods, Jim Jones is a 30-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a deep background in chemical safety. Jones and his staff met last December with several major trade associations representing the supplements industry, including Loren Israelsen, founder and president of the United Natural Products Alliance.

I talked with Loren recently about FDA’s restructuring and how priorities might change under an overhauled Human Foods Program with new leadership.

— Sean Moloughney, Editor, Nutraceuticals World, nutraceuticals@rodmanmedia.com

One of the biggest challenges for dietary supplements has been proving that products actually work.

The traditional model for clinical research is expensive, slow, and not representative of diverse populations. As its name suggests, the company Radicle Science aims to address those concerns with a much different approach, leveraging new tools and technology.

For this podcast we talked with founders Pelin Thorogood, executive chairwoman, and Dr. Jeff Chen, CEO, to learn more about their work and overall mission.

If you’d like to offer feedback or suggest a topic, you can email us at Nutraceuticals@RodmanMedia.com