The War on Obesity Heats Up: Big Food Drives Problem, Big Pharma Cashes In By Solving It By Thierry Malleret, economist The war on obesity is now ramping up, with new research estimating that the global cost will be a crippling $4 trillion by 2035. Telling: Novo Nordisk, the maker of obesity drug Wegovy, has seen such huge recent sales that it just overtook Nestlé…
GWI Previews Its Wellness Policy Toolkit on the Built Environment At the Wellness Real Estate Symposium held May 2 in Manhattan, 35-plus experts took the stage to discuss the future of “building well.” GWI researchers previewed their Wellness Policy Toolkit: The Built Environment. Because the $275 billion wellness real estate market is out of reach for the vast majority of people, GWI presented the case…
A small new study from the University of Victoria compared the impact of “green exercise” vs. the same exercise done indoors (in this case, a short walk). Using electroencephalography to measure the impact on cognitive function across almost all brain measures, exercise in nature proved the winner. It had a significantly bigger impact on memory, concentration and thinking speed. The researchers concluded that with growing…
China’s long, extremely restrictive lockdown was just lifted, and the return of mainland China’s outbound travel market is arguably *the* hottest topic in tourism. Finn Partners, with research consultancy Consumer Search Group, just released a study on more affluent Chinese consumers’ travel plans. First, they plan more overseas travel than their pre-pandemic pace: roughly half of them plan at least five trips this year. After…
Unriddling Happiness: Why “Gloomy” Finns Beat High-Spending Americans By Thierry Malleret, economist In the new World Happiness Report, the Scandinavian/Nordic countries—as always—dominate the top-ten list of happiest nations, with Finland taking the #1 spot again. But there are numerous countries (wealthy and highly developed) that simply don’t rank as high as one would expect. The US ranks 15th, the UK 19th, France is 21st, Italy…
GWI to Release First Wellness Policy Toolkit on Physical Activity April 14 The GWI’s new Wellness Policy Series was born out of a profound reality: the private wellness market and consumer action alone cannot bring wellness to all and address our global skyrocketing health crises. Public policy is essential to fill the gaps. The series includes seven forthcoming wellness policy toolkits (from healthy eating to wellness in…
