Trust Your Gut

Food in the Age of Somatic Intelligence

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We identified Somatic Intelligence as one of the key trends for 2026 in our annual trend report, where consumers are shifting from thinking to feeling, relying on the body’s instinctive signals as the new source of truth and value in an AI-saturated world. This joint trend report with Future Food Institute explores the new somatic intelligence emerging in the food world. From gut feeling to embodied knowledge, it examines why the next food revolution starts below the mind, how intuition and visceral awareness are reshaping consumer behavior in the F&B sector. It also highlights how our tools—ChefAtlas, and Nextmenu—can help decode the online conversation among the early adopters who are returning to the gut as an epistemic organ. By combining Nextatlas’ data-driven trend foresight with Future Food Institute's systemic perspective on food innovation, it unpacks the emerging consumer movement, decodes shifting behaviors, and highlights how forward-thinking brands can reconnect to the somatic.

Key Insights
What’s inside

The next food revolution will start below the mind as the body re-emerges as a source of true trust over data. What does it mean to design food systems that reconnect health, pleasure, intuition, and regeneration?
Precognitive Engagement: Amid nutritional information overload, food choice is moving from rational evaluation to gut-led sensation, making feeling, not explanation, the new source of value.
Nonverbal Truths: As food discourse overwhelms, trust shifts from words to the body, with viscerality, comfort, and sensation acting as the final proof of authenticity.

Compelling and diverse case studies, highlighting successful business strategies and market innovations.
Important data and metrics from the analysis, and insights from each emerging from Somatic Intelligence
Critical insights to action for the food industry