How prevention is driving current trends in nutrition and wellbeing
Personalization is gaining strength across industries. In terms of health this has meant a shift towards data driven prevention. Read on to find out which technologies and solutions are winning out in the marketplace
Trends in Health
Rising healthcare costs as well as a rapid rise in lifestyle related chronic diseases across age groups have meant that nutrition is becoming a lever to pull to slow down this worrying statistics. Whilst governments are drafting policies and thinking about how they can get people moving and make healthier choices, consumers are taking it upon themselves to improve their health using the data they can get access to held on their smartphones. Prevention also known as disease prevention are lifestyle habits that have been proven to reduce or at least slow down the onset of chronic diseases. This could look like meeting your 150 minutes of exercise per week, or meeting your 5-a day.
However advances in technology have meant that consumers can take enhanced steps to make sure their health is optimized. This could mean having optimal levels of Vitamin D, a hormone commonly associated with heart health, or the right ration of omega 6:omega 3 to reduce inflammation, commonly associated with chronic conditions. Instead of going to the Dr,consumers can take charge of their own health by monitoring their own health and nutrition status.
Trends in Nutrition and wellbeing
The Industry continues to grow and evolve, with this year already seeing a wave of closures as well as investments. The most notable investments to date have been in Food as Medicine, Metabolic health, Smarteating, Sports nutrition, DNA, and Gut health (Qina platform data). Among these, metabolic health has received the most attention, which coincides with the alarming rise in obesity and diabetes.
We believe that we are at a crucial milestone in health and nutrition. Increased consumer awareness of the direct impact of food on health, affordable technologies that provide data, combined with education and coaching, have the potential to change this trajectory.
While prevention is a key driver in personalized nutrition, other trends go hand-in hand which will be described next.
Trends Driving the Industry right now
Trend #1: Big Tech Enters Personalized Nutrition
Big tech companies such as Apple and Google are making significant strides in the field of personalised nutrition. This has been long time coming, but we are starting to see real evidence of this now. For instance, earlier this year Apple partnered with Albertsons Health to provide consumers with personalised shopping lists and product recommendations based on their physical activity data. Meanwhile, Google has launched Google Health Connect, which provides detailed healthcare recommendations through selected healthcare apps. Two companies LifeSum and MyFitnessPal, both offering personalised nutrition recommendations and weight loss programs have joined the Beta program. This move towards big tech entering personalised nutrition means that healthcare and wellness are merging at a rapid pace, providing deeper insights into how day-to-day lives impact long-term health.
Trend #2: Blood Beyond Clinic Borders
Home blood collection is becoming increasingly popular, giving consumers an opportunity to provide venous-grade blood samples from the comfort of their home.
Our data shows that there has been a 33% increase in companies offering metabolite testing.
There are 2 metatrends we see here. Firstly DIY blood draw companies such as Tasso and Drawbridge health with their Onedraw device teamed up with Onegevity back in 2020, but this trend seems to be only taking off now as more players come onto the market, plus the device just received a CE mark in the EU . Advances in the technology means that a wider range of metabolites can be measures from a single sample such as lipid profiles, metabolic panels and blood cell count, but the biggest benefit is without a doubt the consumer experience.
The second metattrend is that DIY kits are moving into retail and into the home. This has meant that testing meatbolites is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable through dried blood or urine.
DIY kits for medical care, such as thyroid, cholesterol and iron tests, once only available through your Dr, now available through the mail or on the shelf. The availability of testing services directly to consumers at home is being supported by healthcare professionals, leading to increased adoption among consumers and driving down healthcare costs. However, more research is needed to understand the impact of this trend on behavior change.
Trending companies that have recently made headlines include: Letsgetchecked with its $20million investment round, Thriva's recent partnership with Superdrug and Myhealthchecked´s partnership with Boots.
The Qina take: Companies need to stay abreast of new innovations in blood draw technology and gain a clear understanding of how customers are using these devices and technologies to gain insights into their own health. We believe that this trend needs some regulatory oversight as blood test results can sometimes require some contextual information. For example Ferritin levels rise with inflammation, which means that an individual without adequate understanding of influencing factors may misinterpret and act on the results without speaking to a healthcare professional. It does not appear however that there are any plans for regulation in the near future.
Trend #3: Food as medicine
After COVID, consumers are increasingly interested in food and nutrition. This has led to the rise in popularity of meal planning and shopping apps. Whilst the trend apeared to dwindle a bit as consumers fell back into old habits, based on our data Meal planning and recipe platforms have for the first time overtaken supplements as the most added service in personalised nutrition companies. Consumers are now more used to going to apps for inspiration, product discovery, and to help them reach their health goals. This shows that The Food as medicine trend is going strong with companies such as Nourished, and partnerships like EatLove and Sun Basket and Verdify leading the way. Increasing reimbursement is driving the trend, and the main culprit conditions *Obesity, Diabetes, Metabolic health) remain unchanged based on our QinaVer data.
A second trend here is that we are increasingly seeing smaller companies providing personalised foods. Companies such as Dutch-based Mixmasters are mixing up how consumers, practitioners and even larger companies can play in the Personalised nutrition space by developing beverages, nutrition bars and mixes.
Trend #4: FemTech is expanding Beyond Menopause & Fertility
Femtech is expanding beyond menopause and fertility tracking into medical conditions such as thyroid disease and PCOS. Startups are taking a more food-based approach, which is important for companies looking to develop nutritional bars or beverages. Companies need to stay abreast of new startups entering the space, their positioning, and analyze their offerings.
The Qina take: It was only going to be a matter of time before Femtech founders would realize the full potential of solutions by including nutrition. That moment has now arrived and companies should get ready for more digital therapeutics, apps and products as complimentary services to launch soon.
Trend #5: Weight Loss Goes All Medical
The weight loss industry is underoing a major transformation with in our view splitting into two camps. One camp are consumers paying attention to their overall health and looking for holistic solutions. The other camp, as Metabolic health is worsening across the globe, more consumers are looking for quick solutions. The GLP-1 drug (Ozempic) has taken the market by storm, providing a quick fix for those looking to lose weight. Weight Watchers that has been obviously observing this shift and started closing weigh-in clinics whilst has invested in Sequence a digital platform clinics that can prescribe obesity drugs. Jenny Craig a popular programme and packaged food brand is also closing its door after 4 decades. More medically focused companies such as Allurion have expanded globally with their balloon device and app providing behavioral change coaching and access to dietitians. Noom started offering a new service offering GLP1 drug therapies and coaching to employees.
The Qina take: These new developments have shifted the entire industry from daily points to metabolic scores and into unknown territories. We don't know what the effects are for this approach in the long term, especially where individuals do not have to change their behaviour. However, if we truly believe in a Personalised approach we need to meet the consumers where they are at and map out a journey that may require the inclusion of apps, devices, wearables and yes even drugs. This trajectory of metabolic diseases is not good and we need all solutions to be available to support consumers to get their health under control.
Trend #6: A Genetics Comeback?
New DNA startups are emerging, indicating a shift in the segment after a period of stagnation. Based on our data, most companies that have included DNA have been based on Epigenetics which is more in the Longevity and lifespan domain.
Based on our data there has been an increase in companies who have acquired a DNA tag.
The Qina take: The increase in DNA related services could be because epigenetics is becoming more popular in the Longevity and Lifespan sphere. However, we wil hold our thoughts until the end of the year to see how this trend pands out.
Trend #7: ChatGPT Everything
Personalized nutrition brands are integrating ChatGPT to improve the customer experience and simplify product information at a rapid pace. This trend is expected to continue, making expert information more accessible. Newcomers such Nara and Simple are health coaching apps that use conversational interfaces to provide instant answers. Personalized nutrition SaaS company Suggestic has developed an entirely new service which makes setting up a ChatGPT4 app within a matter of months accessible to the masses.
The Qina take: There are already growing concerns about the fast development and advances in using AI, and we expect to see more regulators express concern and develop guidelines around data usage. We acknowledge that the cat is out of the bag though, and it is up to companies to be transparent and be held accountable to the advice and recommendations their solution spits out. There have already been too many cases of ChatGPT4 hallucinating and making stuff up (including references). To us that is not ok, especially if we are dealing with people's health
Trend #8: Metabolic Health
The topic of metabolic health has been enjoying the limelight for some time now, however it seems that we are getting ever more desparate as the numbers are certainly not going in the right direction. It´s all hands on deck in terms of the industry and it looks like industry players are rolling up their sleeves to address this worrying trend head on. Using a LLM approach, our QinaVer data shows that Glucose, Blood sugar and the microbiome were the most mentioned keywords from our data sources.
Nutrisense is a US based company that provides a subscription programme aimed at weight loss which includes a CGM, access to a registered dietitian for a month, a private community and meal suggestions. Nutrisense raised $25million bringing its total funding to $31 million. In addition, Levels also received $7million to develop its system to imporve metabolic health of athletes and those with metabolic disorders.
Nutrisense is a US based company that provides a subscription programme aimed at weight loss which includes a CGM, access to a registered dietitian for a month, a private community and meal suggestions. Nutrisense raised $25million bringing its total funding to $31 million. In addition, Levels also received $7million to develop its system to imporve metabolic health of athletes and those with metabolic disorder.
The second metatrend we see is the increasing integration of CGM data into wearables. Whilst Super sapiens was the first in 2021, this trend is picking up fast, and just this year we have witnessed Cronometer a food tracking app integrating with Dexcom, which means that users can see how their food intake is directly linked to the blood sugar responses. Garmin has integrated with Dexcom and Huwawaei have just announced the release of their glucose sensing watch. Just last month sleep tracking wearable Oura has partnered with January AI, Veri and Super sapiens to share CGM data with their users. Furthermore Abbott is is about to launch their Lingo sensor which is aimed at healthy individuals together with their own app.
The Qina take: This trend means that metabolic is going into the mainstream. Despite a lack of evidence for CGM use in healthy individuals, consumers are going there anyway. Startups are also contributing to the evidence base by conducting research themselves which may pave the way for further reimbursement, new services and partnerships. We think we are at the beginning of a health revolution, prviding that these devices are accurate, reliable, accessible and of course affordable.
Trend #9: What "Supp" with One-a-Day?
The personalized nutrition supplement space is also undergoing some changes. As more consumers have become tired of their multiple pill packs because of all the (plastic) waste, they are looking to alternatives. We have spotted a trend towards 1-dose nutritional supplements. For example, well-known UK brand Nourish has been 3D printing their supplements for a while, but other players are entering the space. Most recently Flore partnered with DSM to create a personalized 1-a day multivitamin capsule based on a the prescription of a healthcare professional. And Vitaminlab received a Series A (with DSM joining the round) to create their personalised powdered supplement using a survey and their prorietary algorithm. Even in Asia, personalised nutrition supplements are growing with companies such as Youvit.
The Qina take: Is it time to move on from the gummy?, we think not just yet however overall, these trends indicate a shift towards a more holistic approach to health and wellness, with personalised nutrition playing a significant role in achieving this goal. More importantly, healthcare professionals play an increasing role in ensuring that supplements are taking responsibly and as part of measurable health goals and outcomes. For companies who are only getting onto the bandwagon now, they need to be aware the consumer preferences have already moved on before investing heavily in pill pack options.
Conclusions
This year has posed significant challenges to the industry with still a possible recession looming. Despite this, interest in the industry continues to grow and evolve and we will continue to track to see how these trends will play out.
References
Verdify
Nourish
References