Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
By Lauren Giella
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
As January comes to a close, many people are still in the early stages of building healthy habits as they work toward their 2026 New Year’s resolutions.
According to a YouGov poll, “exercising more,” “being happy” and “eating healthier” are the top three resolutions for Americans in 2026. Making better choices to improve mental, physical and emotional health often starts with picking the right products and services to help and guide one along their journey.
Newsweek recently published its ranking of the 2026 Most Trusted Brands U.S., with data partners BrandSpark. The rankings list dozens of companies across 359 categories, from household goods and beauty products to grocery store chains and cruise lines.
Read More on Health
Health and wellness is a $2 trillion industry globally, with U.S. consumers spending more than $500 billion annually, according to a 2025 McKinsey study. Younger generations, especially, are interested in their health and wellness. While Gen Z and Millennials make up over a third of the U.S. adult population, they spend more than 40 percent of annual wellness spend.
Consumers are not only more interested in health and wellness, but they are also more aware of the options available to them and curious about the methods, ingredients and ethics of each product they use. For the Most Trusted Brands ranking, brand placement was based entirely on a consumer-voted survey featuring input from more than 35,000 shoppers.
John Scheer is the co-founder and chief creative officer at Herman-Scheer, a specialized design agency that works with health care and well-being brands like Olipop, Native, Bobbie and Myo.
“The average IQ of the consumer now is, as far as health and wellness is concerned, much higher than it used to be,” he told Newsweek in an interview. “As people did their own research through COVID and all this stuff, I think people started to become a lot more aware of what they're putting in their [body], how it affects them, physically [and] mentally.”
As a result, he said brands have been far more transparent about the ingredients they put in supplements, food and drinks.
“We have this saying now, things that used to be in the back of the pack now need to come front of the pack,” he said. “The brands that have the ability to translate that science into a colloquial way for a consumer to understand what it's doing to them biologically, those are the ones that win.”
To build and maintain trust with consumers, health and wellness brands rely on results. Consistent, high-quality products and services will keep users and consumers coming back for more and recommending them through word of mouth and online reviews.
Hydroxycut is one of the leading weight loss supplement brands in the U.S. It is one of the brands under Canadian company Iovate and was tied with SlimFast as the top weight loss supplement brand on the Most Trusted Brands ranking, a new category introduced in 2026.
Raza Bashir, the chief innovation officer at Iovate, told Newsweek in an interview that one of his most important responsibilities, plain and simple, is to make sure the company's products "deliver right on what they say they're going to do."
He adds that Hydroxycut's commitment to transparency is one thing he's extremely proud of because, "if people have that, then they can trust your brand [and] trust that the product is going to work."
These days, everyone’s TikTok and Instagram feeds are full of brands promising magic results. It can be difficult to determine what works and what’s just this month’s snake oil scheme. Bashir said the key to Hydroxycut’s lasting success is its “rich history of being science-based and investing in research" and its hands-on approach to selecting and vetting ingredients and suppliers.
“It’s expensive to do clinical studies [but] we’ve been doing that consistently and it works,” he said. “We've got the science to show it works. And then when people have tried [Hydroxycut's product] ... people have just gotten really good results. And I think the results are sustainable in terms of efficacy [and] they’re easy to incorporate into your lifestyle.”
With the explosion of information, especially about health care, on the internet, it can be difficult to decipher which trends are the real deal and which ones are just a fad. Brands also need to wade through the noise to determine which ingredients are safe and effective.
One of the biggest health trends of the last year is the proliferation of GLP-1s, a diabetes medication that has shown to help people lose weight. Ozempic and Wegovy, two drugs from Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, were the No. 1 and No. 2 brands in the prescription medicine for weight loss category, one of the new spots for the 2026 Most Trusted Brands ranking.
Ed Cinca, the senior vice president of marketing and patient solutions at Novo Nordisk Inc., told Newsweek that patients and health care providers trust evidence, and these two products have the scientific evidence to earn that trust.
"Trust is earned not only through breakthrough innovation, but also by ensuring that once a medicine is developed, it can reach the people who need it," he said over email. "As a leader in the GLP-1 category, we’re continuing to make it easier for people to access our authentic, FDA-approved medicines in the way that best fits their lives, expanding availability through multiple affordability options."
This year, Novo Nordisk is looking to expand access and education on its prescription products. Other companies, like Weight Watchers, Hers, Ro and Noom also offer their own versions of GLP-1 medication that is cost-effective and accessible to everyone looking to help manage their weight loss.
Noom debuted on the Most Trusted Brands 2026 ranking as the No. 2 company in the weight loss program category. CEO Geoff Cook describes Noom as a behavior change company that combines habit science with a catalyst (like a GLP-1) to produce lasting change. The company’s mission is to “empower everyone, everywhere to live better, longer every day.”
“The essence of our approach is to really try to boost a person's motivation through different means,” Cook told Newsweek in an interview. “We use rewards. When you hit your step goal, you'll receive a virtual currency reward, which you could redeem for various things.”
When these tools are paired with a GLP-1, Cook said people who have the most success in the first month with the program are much more likely to continue using it in month four.
“People have failed in their dieting many times before, before they generally come to Noom," he said. "In order to believe this time it's different, something has to actually be different. And so to take a GLP-1, even at a lower dose, what they're going to see, if they're pairing that with habits, is pretty reliable improvement in A1C biomarker, probably reduction in inflammation through C-reactive protein biomarker, and also a reduction in weight.”
With that success, motivation increases and users begin a “virtuous loop” that allows new, healthy habits to take hold and outlast their time on the medication.
Cook said the brand is constantly evolving to keep up with the latest technology and medical advances, with Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jeffery Egler, and team updating products and protocols as needed. Last year, Noom started sending out at-home blood tests to measure biometrics to understand the underlying changes to one’s health beyond what they see in the mirror.
“Noom has always been known for healthy habits, so I think this is going to be a year where we really want to extend that leadership, and part of that will be engaging in research studies of our own and with others," Cook said. “No company in the United States has more data on microdose GLP-1, especially combined with behavior change, than Noom does. We simply have a lot of scale. And major research universities and our own data science team and behavioral insights teams want to mine those insights.”
For anyone looking to remain committed to their health goals beyond Valentine's Day, it doesn't matter what method or product you use. What matters is that you can actually stick to it.
“The key is sustainability,” John Scheer said. “A lot of people think it has to be hard, otherwise it’s not working, and it’s not necessarily true...I think true health and wellness is about the long run—how can you make movement, exercise, nutrition, part of you, versus something that you feel like you have to trudge through in order to get it."
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines