[Jihye Choi's Trend] People Who Protect Their Health with Joy: Healthy Pleasure

This is an anecdote from a class. While teaching trends, discussions about brands naturally fill the class time, and sometimes I learn about trends from the students. One day, while covering the topic of health and dieting, I heard that students these days often buy protein snacks at Olive Young. Although I had heard that Olive Young is dominating the domestic H&B store market, it was new to me that it is known as a hotspot for protein snacks. Here’s the background: due to the explosion of interest in health caused by COVID-19, many people are eating snacks made of protein. The problem is that the higher the protein content, the less tasty the snack tends to be, but most of the protein snacks sold at Olive Young are said to be delicious.

The key point here is that people eat protein snacks for health but do not give up on taste. Instead of enduring pain or restraint for health and dieting, people are pursuing tasty, enjoyable, and convenient methods?these are the so-called Healthy Pleasures. ‘Healthy Pleasure’ is a newly coined term combining health and pleasure, carrying a double meaning that includes the guilty pleasure of enjoying something while feeling a bit guilty.

A representative phenomenon is the health functional food market. While the quantitative expansion of the health supplement market is noteworthy, the qualitative changes are even more interesting. For example, the forms of supplements are diversifying. Beyond pills, there are jellies, powders, teas, and various ways to consume them. In fact, this phenomenon is commonly seen in advanced countries where the health supplement market has long been developed, and it is a qualitative change accompanying the growth of the domestic health supplement market. The taste is also improving. Health supplements are no longer something people reluctantly consume for health but are becoming products people eat because they taste good. Accordingly, small and medium-sized food companies that differentiate themselves with unique flavors or attractive packaging are gaining attention. For example, ‘Sanyangsam Honey Jar,’ which mixes sweet honey with wild ginseng, and ‘Fig Collagen,’ differentiated by its unique fig flavor, attract attention by emphasizing taste. ‘Nimom Naemom Vitamin Jelly,’ designed as cute round apple-flavored jellies in charming boxes, has won design awards and brand awards, becoming a hot topic.

Healthy Pleasures also enjoy dieting. Eo.Da.Haeng. Da., an acronym for “If you have to diet anyway, let’s diet happily,” is the philosophy that dieters nowadays pursue. Instead of strict diets that often end after three days, diet management that satisfies both health and taste is essential. They look for various low-calorie diet foods beyond just chicken breast and sweet potatoes, such as tofu noodles replacing flour, alternative meats instead of meat, and oat milk drinks instead of milk. From street foods like konjac tteokbokki and chicken breast dumplings to desserts like chocolate-flavored protein brownies and strawberry-flavored sugar-free ice cream, low-calorie diet foods infused with worldly flavors are warmly welcomed by Healthy Pleasure followers.

Mental care must also be healthy and fun. Instead of serious counseling, people choose “fortune-telling for fun” that can be accessed casually. From daily horoscopes to love luck, wealth luck, and job luck, fortune-telling content originating from social media is popular. Rather than seriously predicting their future, Healthy Pleasures lightly gain advice and comfort?this is their unique “healing method.”

Traditionally, the main target of the health market was considered to be the middle-aged and older generation. For them, health was synonymous with “absence of disease.” However, for the MZ generation, health means “how satisfied I am with my current physical and mental state,” that is, life satisfaction. According to a survey conducted by the research firm Open Survey on 1,000 adult men and women in Korea, when asked “What does a healthy life mean to you?” a 25-year-old woman answered, “Exercising three times a week, drinking moderately, socializing appropriately with friends, and being able to enjoy hobbies or go out on weekends.” This means that health is related to everyday satisfaction or happiness.

The MZ generation is the first generation poorer than their parents and at the same time skilled at pursuing their own happiness. In an era of low growth, they have learned survival strategies by figuring out what to choose for happiness within the given environment, and as a result, they have started actively investing in health. For them, managing health is another way of loving themselves. This changed perception of health among the younger generation is expanding the base of the Healthy Pleasure-related market. The Healthy Pleasure trend will be an important turning point that changes the paradigm of health in 2022. We hope that the values of those who shout “Enjoy health management!” will become the starting point for creating a healthy Republic of Korea in 2022.

Choi Ji-hye, Research Fellow, Consumer Trend Analysis Center, Seoul National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.