Health Update: Health Update: Norwich Market traders on health and wellness culture – What Experts Say– What Experts Say.
Health and wellness culture has been slowly sweeping across the city and businesses have been adapting to the trend.
Ora Wellness Cafe started serving acai bowls, smoothies and matcha in the Royal Arcade in November 2024, and the Lions’ Den sauna at Bishopgate expanded to open a second premises in White Lion Street last December.
There are also plenty of run clubs, gyms and padel courts popping up, encouraging people to get up and move their bodies more.
Market traders adapting
Stallholders on Norwich Market have now started to notice a shift, too.
Among them is Jane Wirgman, who works at Herbs and Spices – a stall that has been running for 50 years.
“People used to come up and ask me, ‘What tastes nice?'” she explained.
“Nowadays, they come up and say, ‘What’s better for me?’
“I kind of think, why don’t you select the thing you like the taste of? Because that’s going to make you feel good.”
Callum Wiley from CJ’s Fruit and Veg said he has seen people hunting for specific wellness ingredients.
“The only real change I’ve noticed is a lot of people buying ginger,” Mr Wiley said.
“I don’t know whether it’s because we’ve been sort of stuck in – it’s been wet and windy and everyone’s trying to avoid the flu.”
Luke Stott of Sir Toby’s Beers said there has been a lot more interest in alcohol free drinks.
“We now have a whole fridge full here – before we only had around a third of this amount,” he said.
“People have also been interested in lower APVs and they seem more interested in drinking for the taste and experience rather than just to get smashed.”
LA comes to Norwich
Rabbits salad bar opened last summer and was inspired by owner Emily Esparza’s time living in LA, where there is “a salad bar on every corner”.
It sold out every day for its first two weeks and has remained successful ever since.
Speaking about what kind of food is most popular at Rabbits, and whether this has changed over time, Francis Woolf said: “Over the winter, people want to hibernate.
“They want to stay in a lot, and the market was fairly quiet, to be honest, over winter.
“We sold a lot of soups and toasties.
“But now the sun has started coming out and all the daffodils and snowdrops are coming up, people are wanting to eat more salads and healthy foods.”
Mounjaro impact
On a national level, chains have been adapting their strategy to match the healthier lean, which they have largely put down to the rise of weight-loss jabs.
John Vincent, co-founder of the fast-food chain Leon, said earlier this year that this posed an opportunity for the brand, which serves “the sort of food people on weight loss jabs want to eat”.
Greggs bosses said there was “no doubt” the drugs had led to people looking for “smaller portions”, and M&S released its Nutrient Dense range at the end of 2025, saying it was ideal for people with a smaller appetite, or those taking weight-loss medications.
Tirzepatide, better known by the brand name Mounjaro, was approved for use as a weight management medication in the UK in November 2023 and it has been sold widely by private pharmacies since then.
NHS England started rolling out prescriptions last year and the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) has revealed 11,600 locals should meet the criteria for tirzepatide prescriptions over the next few years.