Women’s Health in APAC: Achieving optimal wellness through nutrition

Women are increasingly prioritising their health and embracing holistic, long-term solutions and trends to take charge of their wellbeing.

Various factors including culture, environment and attitudes towards lifestyles, concerns about ageing and long-term health, as well as habits in parenthood, have contributed to this growing focus on health. This has given rise to trends in personalised care and self-care, offering businesses significant opportunities. Additionally, the breaking of traditionally taboo topics such as menstrual care and menopausal health has helped boost consumer demand.

While supplements have traditionally addressed women's health due to their targeted and concentrated nature, there is also a rising recognition in the potential of functional foods. This offers an opportunity to incorporate beneficial ingredients into everyday diets to complement a holistic approach to supporting women's health.

Asia-Pacific region is at the forefront on top of traditional supplements

The Asia-Pacific region is leading the way in recognising the importance of nutrition in functional foods, in addition to traditional supplements. Furthermore, it is at the forefront of developing functional foods tailored specifically for women.

For example, Chinese dairy giant Yili offers powdered milk tailored to adult women. These include a range with high iron and calcium, low-fat milk and fortified with probiotics, and another range, featuring red ginseng extract, emphasising beauty and energy benefits.

According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey, 37% of Chinese female consumers choose natural or traditional remedies for women’s health issues, and 29% of Indian females seek alternative medicines. While in Europe, response rates stand at 27% and 12% for these respective options.

With this in mind, there is potential to incorporate botanicals and traditional herbs, widely acknowledged in traditional Chinese medicine or Ayurveda, catering for markets such as China and India.

Nutritional implications for women's health across the life stages

Nutrition plays a crucial role in promoting wellbeing for women by addressing needs across different life stages with specific nutrients and botanicals, which can offer support in both preventive and treatment contexts.

Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey found that women overall prioritise clean labels and avoid sugar showing very similar preferences across age groups, apart from those over 60, exhibiting distinct preferences, seeking to enrich their diet with additional nutrition as a priority.

Notably, for women aged between 45-59, a demographic relevant to menopausal care, there is heightened interest in seeking out specific ingredients and nutrition labels. Within this age group, there is also a higher preference to address health concerns with natural treatments, including supplements and traditional solutions.

This is in contrast with the waning interest in prescription medicine within this group since 2020, indicating the potential for functional nutrition. For instance, soy-based foods and phytoestrogenic botanicals such as black cohosh and red clover can help alleviate menopausal symptoms.

Other common nutrients and botanicals targeting women’s life stages include Siberian ginseng and ginger to support hormonal balance for menstrual care, and diets with folic acid, calcium, and omega-3s during pregnancy and postnatal care. Hormonal changes during pregnancy and menopause affect weight, which is an area of focus, while digestive health and metabolic syndrome are influenced by hormonal fluctuations and can benefit from prebiotics and probiotics.

Additionally, women are also more predisposed to conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, joint pain and cognitive issues later in life. A balanced diet with whole grains, lean proteins, and essential nutrients can help to manage them. Stress and anxiety, more prevalent in women due to hormonal factors, can find help in antioxidants and omega-3s.

Growth in women’s health dietary supplements in the Asia Pacific region is experiencing a rapid acceleration, with a significant increase of 10% in 2023. Millennials and Gen Z women exhibit a higher level of concern for women’s health compared to other generations. They are more open to understanding and proactively managing their bodies to address women’s health issues.

When it comes to younger women in the region, health and wellness concerns among this group stem from prolonged sedentary lifestyles. Their primary focus lies in managing vaginitis, irregular periods and urinary health issues caused by imbalanced lifestyles and other internal stressors.

This shift has led manufacturers of women’s health supplements to broaden their focus in addition to targeting menopausal women, to also encompassing a younger demographic. Areas such as vaginal microbiome balance, migraines and menstrual cycle care are now integral aspects of this evolving landscape.

Overall, there are opportunities to adopt a holistic approach in targeting women of, and beyond reproductive age, by addressing specific nutritional needs related to bone health, digestion, hormonal fluctuations, skin and hair health and weight management, all of which are common and often interconnected concerns. Importantly, the crucial goal for businesses is to ensure transparency in communicating benefits that resonate with these consumer groups, rather than overly labelling towards a woman’s specific life stage.