When the year resets, there’s a slew of trend reports that come out.
I wouldn't consider myself particularly trendy. However, I do think I can give you my version of what’s hot and what’s not in 2026: The Hormone Health Edition as an evidence-based naturopathic doctor and women's health advocate with over 10 years of experience.
1. FIBRE
We have spent the last few years obsessed with protein (and protein is great--we need it!), but we forgot about other key players, especially fibre.
Fibre isn't just about digestion. It decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and certain cancers. Fibre helps with insulin resistance, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and hormone health in perimenopause and in conditions like PCOS, PMS, and endometriosis.
Most North Americans do not reach their target of 25 grams per day. So, my prediction (and hope) is that we start eating more plants to get those numbers up!
2. CALCIUM
I feel like we really dropped the ball on calcium recently.
By the time you are in your 20s, you have put on most of your bone mass. As you get into your 30s and beyond, bone density starts to decline. We talk a lot about Vitamin D and resistance training (which are both crucial for bones), but calcium has gone by the wayside. For most adults, the target is around 1,000 milligrams per day.
If you are in Canada, Osteoporosis Canada has a fantastic calcium calculator that takes two minutes to use. Go approximate your calcium intake now!
3. UNSATURATED FATS OVER SATURATED FATS
Somewhere along the way, wellness culture decided that saturated fat (the kind found in butter, beef tallow, and red meat) was a health food--it is NOT!
Saturated fat from these sources increases your risk of heart attacks and stroke, and it can worsen insulin resistance in conditions like PCOS. Science actually shows that replacing saturated fats with plant-based oils like olive, canola, and sunflower leads to better heart health outcomes--these are unsaturated fats. I'm hoping we'll also see less skepticism of seed oils this year!
4. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BASICS
I think (and hope) 2026 is the year we trade in the vibrating plates, weighted vests, and out-of-hand cycle syncing for the basics:
Most women in Canada do not even meet the minimum guidelines for exercise (150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous activity spread over at least 3 days).
If you really enjoy gadgets and apps and other tools, and they keep you on track, great--carry on! However, most of us need to simply get moving in whatever ways we can to improve our hormonal, cardiometabolic, mental, and overall health.
I recently told a patient at the Innisfil clinic: ANY exercise you do is better than none!
1. Calling all fluid retention "Cortisol Face" and "Cortisol Belly"
I want us to stop diagnosing ourselves with inflammation every time we retain water.
Cortisol is essential to life; it's how you wake up in the morning and function in stressful situations.
Fluid retention is usually simply due to and part of life--it's salt intake, heat, exercise, alcohol, not enough potassium (which comes from fruits and veg), carbohydrate intake, it's hormonal fluctuations.
2. Unnecessary electrolytes
This one is a bit concerning. I get patients at both, the Innisfil and East Gwillimbury clinics, using too much electrolytes--including patients with high blood pressure using electrolytes containing more than 500mg of salt for "energy." Yikes!
Unless you are an endurance athlete, have a specific condition like POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), or have diarrhea, you likely do not need that extra sodium. Most of the time when a patient asks, "Should I be taking electrolytes?" I tell them: "You probably need to drink water and get your nutrients through your diet!"
3. The Term "Hormone Imbalance"
This catch-all term needs to go. It is not a diagnosis. Telling someone they have a "hormone imbalance" is like telling someone their car is "making a noise." Where is the noise coming from? Is it the engine? The brakes?
Let's get specific. Is it your body and brain responding to hormonal fluctuations like we see in PMS and perimenopause? Is it PCOS, perimenopause, or thyroid disease? Let's find the actual issue instead of buying a generic detox kit to fix a vague problem. I wrote a whole blog post on "hormone balance".
Finally, there is one trend that keeps me up at night: the widening gap in health and wealth inequity.
We are living in a fragmented world. The gap between who can afford wellness and who relies on our underfunded public systems is widening. In Ontario, we have been seeing a push toward privatization for years, and it's because the scales of power leave the average person behind.
We have to remember that affordable housing is healthcare. Livable wages is healthcare. Food security is healthcare. Climate action is healthcare.
None of us can biohack our way out of a broken system or a dying planet. Real health requires community and taking care of one another. So, my biggest hope for 2026 is that we engage in more advocacy, political engagement, and community care. And, to do that, we all have to be well and feel well enough to do the work.
Hormonal health can affect so many parts of us. If you're looking for support, feel free to book in here if you're in Ontario. I talk about all of these trends on an episode of my podcast, Phase to Phase: The Hormone Health Show.
