Rethinking Wellness: Food, Oral Care and Breathing in 2026

By Amara Osei

What should be called wellness in 2026?

Three specialists set boundaries for “wellness” in 2026 on a special Glossy Beauty Podcast crossover with Modern Retail, surveying better-for-you food, protein sodas, skin care, oral care, sleep aids and optimized-breathing tools.

Glossy West Coast correspondent Lexy Lebsack joined Modern Retail senior reporter Gabi Barkho and Rachel Hirsch, founder and managing partner at Wellness Growth Ventures. Modern Retail is Glossy’s sister publication.

The Glossy Beauty Podcast covers candid conversations about how current trends shape the future of beauty and wellness industries. This crossover brings the retail question into the series: which products and categories should, and should not, carry the wellness label as the category expands?

Glossy has previously reported that consumers feel overwhelmed by the size of the wellness assortment. The publication linked a growing strategy to evocative launches and campaigns designed to “stop the scroll.” Glossy cited soda-flavored toothpaste and wellness brands turning into entertainment companies to sell supplements, fiber gummies and beauty peptides.

Barkho covers food, beverage and wellness for Modern Retail; Lebsack reports on beauty and wellness for Glossy. Hirsch’s seed fund, Wellness Growth Ventures, advances the wellness sector through investments in Cure Hydration, BelliWelli, Liquid Death, Flaus and Tia.

Where does oral care end?

Rachel Hirsch said: “We invested in Flaus, which is an electric flosser, quite a few years ago, before everyone was talking about the mouth.”

Her investment thesis treats gums as a key to health and wellbeing. Hirsch cited research correlating gingivitis with dementia, described the oral microbiome as established information that consumers may need to dig for, and pointed to twice-yearly dental cleanings as care beyond vanity.

She also rejected separating mouth care or the air people breathe from wellness, arguing that the links between those routines and broader health remain intact.

Can breath optimization qualify?

Lexy Lebsack said: “The confusing line for me [on what is and isn’t wellness] is between food and wellness, but then also between wellness and health.”

Lebsack proposed a body-based division: wellness could cover optimization outside the body, while health applies to what happens inside. She said the distinction placed Intake’s nose strips in wellness because opening the nostrils supports better breathing, sleep, exercise and overall wellbeing.

She described Intake as a new company that had taken on substantial funding for the nose strips, without specifying an amount. Lebsack also discussed L Max’s inhaler, which is said to clear the lungs of pollutants, and felt that product belonged closer to health.

Her distinction makes the category boundary more concrete. A nose strip supports a breathing routine from outside the body. An inhaler makes an internal-health claim. Under Lebsack’s framework, those products sit on different sides of wellness.

Can better-for-you candy qualify?

Gabi Barkho described a renaissance in the candy aisle. He said some brands follow a European playbook: they may use real sugar while reducing total sugar and shortening ingredient lists.

Barkho asked whether these products would replace candy or simply draw shoppers from the mass-market brands they grew up with. His practical test was straightforward: if a shopper wants candy, the lower-sugar option with fewer ingredients may take the sale.

He described the two products as very different, even while leaving the final answer open. The unresolved issue was not whether better-for-you candy sounded healthy; it was whether consumers would choose it over the mass-market alternative.

What changes for brands in 2026?

The episode offers no single standard. It sets three working tests: oral care remains inside wellness when its gum-health case reaches broader wellbeing; breath tools can qualify when they optimize an external routine; and better-for-you candy must win the shopper’s candy choice.

For brands entering 2026, the episode’s practical test is narrow: show how a product supports a daily habit, while an internal-health use stays on the health side of Lebsack’s dividing line.