Snaxshot#41: Wearable Wonka
wearables killed the F&B star
A newsletter on upcoming food and beverage trends that offers a curation of brands and aesthetics written by Andrea Hernández.
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🔮 Peek into the future:
Find Your Personal Nutritional Nirvana
Wearables Influence In Our F&B Choices
Wearable Wonkas Make, What Your Body Can Take
Oracular Spectacular, Curation of New Brands
Spoonful of News + Hear from Our Community
Nutritional Nirvana 🧘🏾♀️
From the days of Atkins diet, to Gwyneth Paltrow getting us to shill money on Clean, the Kardashians getting into posing on IG with protein powders, to the rise in keto and biohacking, we’re constantly trying to find “nutritional nirvana” —however it has become increasingly obvious, thanks to technological advances, that these “diets” or “hacks” affect every single one of us differently, based on our own genetic makeup, for example, take into consideration caffeine, before making a judgement of whether it’s good or bad, one should know that wether a single sip gives you jitters or a cup of coffee does nothing for you can be found in your DNA.
Personalization Converging Trends
In the old days, nutritionists relied on studies and averages to draw conclusions as to what may be helpful in terms of dietary health, instead of taking into account individual variability when it comes to responding to different nutrients. Personalized nutrition has been on the rise, and will come to shape the next generation of CPG food and beverage, as more individuals come to understand their own responses to certain diets and begin tailoring their nutrition based on their specific requirements, —enter the Wearable Wonkas.
It Pays To Take It Personally 💰
—According to Bloomberg, personalized nutrition market size will be worth $17 Billion by 2026, while growing at a CAGR of 16.5%
—According to CB insights, interest in personal nutrition is rising.
—Nestlé Health Science acquired Persona, a leading personalized vitamin business founded in 2017.
—Bayer took a 70% stake in Care/of, a vitamin and supplement startup that launched in 2016.
—Unilever acquired Smarty Pants, a supplement and vitamin company.
—According to Precedence, global personalized medicine market size is projected to reach over $5.7 Trillion by the end of the decade, growing at a CAGR of 11.6%
—McKinsey estimates the global wellness market at more than $1.5 Trillion, with annual growth of 5-10%
—In the United States, UK and Germany, more than 88 percent of consumers report prioritizing personalization as much as or more than they did two or three years ago.
—Investors managing $12.4 trillion in assets called for governments and companies to accelerate the shift to promoting healthier food and drink to help fix what they described as a "global nutrition crisis".
—Deloitte Global predicts that 320 million consumer health and wellness wearable devices will ship worldwide by end of 2022.
—Number of smartwatches and fitness trackers growing at a CAGR 19%
—Number of medical sensors and devices growing at a CAGR of 11%
—As COVID-19 spread, smartwatches that measure blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) became widely available, alerting people with low SpO2—a life-threatening symptom that is hard for people to detect unassisted.
—BigTech is Watching: Google’s $2.1 billion Fitbit acquisition, Peloton reportedly has their own wearable incoming after acquiring Atlas Wearables, Apple owns 1/3 of the global smartwatch market.
—According to Deloitte, out of their survey, only 10% of responding physicians said that they had integrated data from patient wearables into their electronic health records (EHRs). However, major EHR vendors are now enabling consumers to share data from their health apps with their doctors.
—Companies like Whoop, now valued at $3.6 Billion, have began focusing on complimenting their products with smart athleisure
—CGM, continuous glucose monitor markets is surging not just by uptake in diabetic, but driven by demand in performance management, from professional athletes to average consumers
—Metabolic fitness is the new term being used to describe an upgrade to average “biohacking” techniques using wearable technology.
—U.S. medical device maker Abbott is moving into making general-purpose consumer bio sensing wearables, the company is also developing a keto bio wearable.
Wearables Are Watching You ⌚
Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
In the beginning, the most common uses of tracking one’s daily habits were historically help us get fit, lose weight, and beat a personal best, track menstrual cycles, etc, but increasingly, we are using wearables to monitor our health, not just a running pace, as new hardware, software, and apps have turned these into personalized health clinics, nutritionists and fitness trainers. Bio hacking has gone mainstream, and in a way, we are becoming the first iterations of fallible cyborgs —less superhuman, more cybernetic organisms. Bio markers have become the new dictators of how we live our lives, for good or for worse, self monitoring is the new self realization.
Digital Biomarkers
Passive —simple digital biomarkers that are collected via unnoticed action from sensors integrated into a wearable, generated when using, ex:
Heart rate
Oxygen levels
Active —digital biomarkers that are collected while doing prompted actions that are captured whenever interacting with device, ex:
digitally tapping (screen time measure)
walking, running pace
facial expressions
Two Strategies Emerging
With this in mind, one could be summarized these wearables into these strategies:
all encompassing —provide guidance and way to measure biomarkers to then offer personalized solutions
focused verticals —offerings that focused on specific endpoints
An example a focused vertical would be blood glucose monitoring —measuring this in day to day lives is a good proxy for quantifying fitness, health and wellness and its extremely personalized. Enter CGM, continuous glucose monitoring, these wearables are foregoing the need for blood pricking, revolutionizing the management of diseases like diabetes, improving athletes performance, but also for those who are constantly quantifying self.
These focused verticals can also be divided by complexity tier —
Med-Tech —most invasive
injectables
Indigo founded in 2016 and based in Belgium, they have been developing a CGM injectable that will lasts 2 years. The company has raise €45 Million in founding so far.
High-Tech:
smart patch wearables
Levels founded in 2019 and based in NYC, the company has raised $12 M in funding to further develop their wellness platform designed to monitor metabolic fitness, tracks blood glucose in real-time.
Supersapiens founded in 2021, based in Europe and powered by Abbott Libre Sense Biosensor, a wearable that easily displays glucose data built specifically for sports performance, so far they’ve raised $13 Million in funding.
Ultrahuman founded in 2019 in Bangalore, India and yet another glucose tracker wearable, the company has raised $25 Million in funding so far.
Veri founded in 2019 in Finland, sensor and patches that help track blood sugar levels in attempts to help you make better eating decisions. They’ve raised $4 Million so far.
G-Wave based in Israeli, has raised $11 Million in funding so far and came to their glucose tracker tech by accident, lol.
Nix based in Boston, MA the company created a sensor that tracks your level of sweat because having Twitter remind you to “drink water bestie” isn’t enough
smart wearables
Apple Watch
Samsung Watch
Whoop based in Boston, MA its become one of the most popular fitness trackers, the company was founded back in 2012 and have raises $404 Million in funding so far.
Oura Ring another OG tracker, founded in 2013 and based in Finland, pioneering sleep performance, but now focused on overall wellness, they’ve raised almost $150 Million to date.
Circular though French based, is yet another ring tracker launched this year, that’s only differentiator is being less pricey than Oura ring? lol
Halo, Amazon’s recent parlay into this space, and they are not only selling you a wearable, but an extensive array of services, like a Peloton wearable meets a meal delivery plan and my vision down the road.. meets pharmacy.
Low-Tech:
saliva sticks
Kiss and Tell because glucose testing should be yassified.
GX Sweat from the makers of Gatorade and a pretty genius move if you are a beverage brand, let people see they need your product.
Coming to a Wrist Near You
Rockley’s provides the technology behind CGMs
recently went public and in the S-1 filing revealed plans of expanding their tech
Non-Invasive CGM monitors in smartwatches for commercial customers including
Apple smart watches
Samsung galaxy
Lifesignals
Ultimately, digital biomarkers are not just going to help revolutionize healthcare, but they will come to shape the food and beverage industry, as we continue to evolve from a reactive (adapting to change) to preventive measures, based on our own literal biological needs.
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Work It Harder
What’s measurable is manageable—right? There’s still more work to be done in bridging education gaps to help consumers know how they can put their wearable insights to good use.
Faulty information can come from users not wearing their wearables correctly—how do these go about mitigating this?
As technology has made it increasingly easy to layer on top of existing med tech competition has significantly increased, meaning there is less chance of a “one ring to rule them all”
Tech companies may also run out of superlatives
superhuman already taken
supersapiens already taken
ultrahuman already taken
Mass adoption of wearables will lead to faster changes in consumer dietary behaviors, will increasingly look for personalized options
Rise of sober curiosity may be tied to increased wearable insights
Reduced sugar intakes as people seek healthier alternatives based on monitoring their glucose intake
Health data regulation limiting
Tracking addiction, from Jennifer Aniston, to New York Time pieces, more is being brought to light on how wearables are contributing to mental distress, ironically?!
Do It Faster
“Boil the ocean” approach— not just providing wearables but the lifestyle around it that allows for growth
Apple
content platform play
wearable accessories
membership perks
Amazon
content platform play
wearable accessories
meal/food delivery plan
entry to Prime ecosystem
As technology improves there’s more opportunity for companies to take advantage of unfulfilled, low-tech tier, that is less invasive and more affordable
Gatorade sweat patch
imagine improving upon existing hangover remedy patches by being able to measure your hydration level as well, the industry itself is $2 Billion, imagine the potential ..you’re welcome
The Inventing Room 🧪
Ladies and gentlemen
Boys and girls
The inventing room
…
Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
On Demand Keto
Better than an everlasting gobstopper, Ketone IQ is the first drinkable ketone, yes you read that right. The rise in keto diets in the past decade comes to no surprise, ketones, a natural source of fuel for our bodies, often created when stored carbs are depleted, so say, after fasting, triggering our bodies to convert fat into ketones for energy, though unlike fat, they can cross the blood-brain barrier, which in turn equals fuel for body and mind. State of ketosis was a way for our ancestors to fuel up prior to us replacing it with sugar and caffeine, it comes to no surprise that almost every culture includes their own take on fasting.
Ketone levels can be measured in a number of ways and are a key biomarker to assess metabolic health, Can tech offer a Brave New World for food and beverage? Functional food and drinks have exploded in the past decade, but what does it mean to be able to actually visually see the “function” taking place? This year’s CES saw a number of companies announce their incoming wearable tech, but particularly ones that will allow you to measure your state of ketosis, see Lingo. That’s one thing Ketone-IQ shots is betting on, while riffing with co-founder Michael Brandt on false promise of Millennial pastel Instagrammable health, he said —
“We were promised the nutrition of the future, but all we got was açaí berries and marketing. Very few trendy nutrition products actually do anything objectively measurable. Wearables like Levels, Oura, etc. are changing the game by bringing objectivity into the hands of the consumers to see what's moving the needle or not.”
Ketone-IQ shots fit along these lines because it’s something that immediately shifts your metabolism in a way that's objectively measurable, so say will be picked up by the likes of Lingo, and eventually, once that tech is layered into more mainstream smart wearables, like Apple or Samsung. These shots seek to elevate your ketones to equivalent of multiple days of fasting, or extended ketogenic diet, within 15 minutes of consuming and continues to ramp for 1-2 hours with a total duration of 4-6 hours. The sensation, as described by those who’ve used it, is one of sharpness that comes aprés fasting, or similar to a runners high, both situations in which your body natural produces ketones.
Wearables now make
Everything you bake
Satisfying and delicious
Talk about your body’s wishes
…
And the world tastes good
Cause the wearable thinks it should
Other Wearable Wonkas 🎩
Here is a compilation of other companies that are crossing the intersection of CPG and wearables that represent a glimpse into what can be when wearables speed the change in consumer preference as they adjust to their own personalized biometric needs—
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myAir: Leveraging wearable insights, myAir helps you assess your “stress” level and then offers you a personalized snack bar solution, they also have a platform where you can monitor and visualize the alleged improvement.
D.velop: This is the first immunity booster that is literally putting money where their mouth is, you can purchase a test kit to see what your current vitamin D levels are, you can subscribe to their supplements (also available for kids) and use their app to track and monitor your levels.
Hologram Sciences: Recently created, they are focused on incubating brands like D.velop and doubling down on personalized nutrition, expect to see more products from them soon, they are literally, wearable Wonka.
Snaxboi Says 💬
Hear our community talk about how wearables have impacted them:
Ethan Jones —
“I've worn a CGM provided by Levels for 6 weeks now (thanks to my 2nd time participating in the Wearable Challenge). Two big takeways for me: (1) preventing glucose spikes during the day gives me significantly more energy… where I only feel the need to drink 1 cup of coffee per day instead of 3-4 and (2) the quality of ingredients really matters. Eating homemade/high quality carbs (ex: sourdough, pita bread, pasta) results in a much more controlled glucose rise that doesn't leave me feeling sluggish after.”
One month into @whoop, I stopped drinking for a year; I started seeing a gut health MD (TY @AmandaMGoetz), did low FODMAP for a month. I’ve never felt better and I eat more than I used to - I just eat the right stuff *for me*. No one size fits all. It started with Whoop!
I’ve been wearing an Oura Ring for about a month and have significantly cut down my afternoon caffeine and alcohol as both really kill my sleep score.
Definitely me. No more strawberry matcha lattes from @BobaGuys
Ha (massive spike) Rice is now cooled first after cooking before eating. In general, wayyyy less snacking, and much more keeping fasted in between meals. Definitely no eating after 6/7pm, and absolutely no alcohol
Steve Myrick
On Levels —
I’ve been wearing the continuous glucose monitor for 3 weeks. I really like knowing the impact of certain foods on blood sugar, and I’ve definitely cut back significantly on sugars and other carbs. That said, just about any food will temporarily spike me outside of the target range and lower my levels “score” significantly, so I’m no longer paying much attention to the score, just on the relative impact of different foods. I think staying within the levels target zone and going for high scores would require both significant calorie restriction and near total elimination of carbs, for me at least, which wouldn’t be sustainable.
Oracular Spectacular
A subsidiary of the Snax Television Network.
Shhhhhhhhh!!!! My favorite show’s about to start “What’s New, You Ask?”
Bloomin Drinks: In line with my predictions last year on tepache is coming for kombucha, while yelling BING BONG and fuck you?! Expect to see more tepache brands launch in 2022.
La Risa: As tequila is set to become the number one liquor in the United States, VODKA WHO?! —Mezcal has also rising in popularity and continues to become more mainstream, from mezcalerias to RTD seltzers (see Elenitas) this agave cousin is loving the spotlight.
Glonuts: Based in LA, all you need to know is that gorgeous, gorgeous girls eat glonuts.
Koyoi: In line with our first prediction ever, back in 2020, on the rise of sober curiosity, this trend has now reached Japan, from non-alcoholic beers to NA craft cocktails that are labeled as “healing”
Want more greedy snaxboi? We curate daily on Instagram.
Slow Luck: This may be Austin’s first non-alcoholic spirit, and speaking of rise of sober curious, the south is seeing their first dry bars popup from Austin to Atlanta … to New Orleans.
BJØRN: Also in line with my predictions on yerba mate renaissance fueled by GenZ's interest in cleaner ways to energize, this is a newly launched brand in Poland.
Sunday Coffee: Creative coffee subscription that’s also a lifestyle brand.
Spoonful of News 🥄
Better Booch raises $2.5 Million as the hard kombucha category grows.
Chobani knows dairy’s still king, so they’re doubling down on half & half.
In line with our predictions on “functional unwinding” category, Pepsi brings hemp Rockstar to US (previously only in Germany)
Zilch Market is Atlanta’s first dry bottle shop to open its doors.
UK’s Hip Pop launches a line of CBD kombucha because why the fuck not?
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