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Outer Reach is a stretch studio for sedentary lifestyles

Outer Reach, New York

New York – The studio in New York’s Tribeca neighbourhood is designed to increase the kinaesthetic awareness of busy urbanites.

Founded by fashion industry veterans Aimee Cho and Alex Drexler, Outer Reach is a holistic wellness studio that incorporates bodywork, breathing, postural alignment and myofascial release (a manual therapy technique that helps to relax contracted muscles) to tackle the physical and emotional stress that comes from living and working in the city.

While stretching is typically considered a passive, post-workout activity, the studio encourages one-to-one stretching in order to reconnect people with their bodies and optimise their everyday movements. As well as offering a programme of both individual and group classes, Outer Reach features a series of videos to allow time-pressed consumers to stretch at home.

Pushing forward the concept of Active Recovery, the studio is demonstrating how we will adopt a slower approach to wellness and optimise our bodies in years to come.

Grocery Shopii aims to disrupt meal kits

Grocery Shopii, US

US – The recipe-to-cart application helps grocery retailers energise their online offering by integrating meal planning into their existing e-commerce platform.

The B2B platform, which integrates into a retailer’s website, was created to enable better meal planning, allowing consumers to search and shop based on 500,000+ recipes. As consumers select recipes through the platform, their shopping trolley automatically fills with all the necessary ingredients. Before checking out, shoppers can review their trolley to remove any items they already have at home.

The concept is meant to bridge the gap between meal kit services and grocery shopping, while building shopper loyalty and helping retailers gain a competitive advantage. ‘Grocery Shopii is passionate about the opportunity to digitally disrupt meal kits and [the] level of support from the grocery industry is incredibly meaningful for us,’ says Katie Hotze, founder and CEO.

For more on the changing relationship between grocery retail and meal kits, read our listicle.

Atlast is taking a new approach to plant-based meat

New York – The new food company will use mushrooms to develop superior plant-based meat products.

Atlast is a spinoff from Ecovative, a biotech company that creates materials from mycelium (the root-like part of mushrooms) for packaging, textiles, skincare and apparel. The company will use mycelium to mimic the structure of meat, making it easier to develop plant-based products that replicate the texture and feel of whole cuts of meat such as steak and chicken.

The start-up is working with plant-based and lab-grown meat manufacturers to develop new food products that are more scaleable. ‘We can grow meat-like mushroom tissues in gourmet sheets with various textures and structures at commercial scale in just nine days,’ says Andy Bass, Ecovative’s director of marketing.

As we explore in our Next-generation Protein microtrend, food technology companies are pioneering new plant proteins, which better mimic animal products in taste, texture and nutritional profile.

Atlast by Ecovative

Stat: Young Britons are some of the most pessimistic in the world

Young people in the UK are some of the least optimistic consumers in the world, according to a new study by the faith-based research centre Barna Group. Its recent study of 15,000 18–35-year-olds across 25 countries, The Connected Generation, found that just 27% of young Britons feel optimistic about the future. The only country to receive a lower score was South Korea, with 26% of youth agreeing with the statement.

The research group cites political uncertainly around Brexit and eco-anxiety as reasons for British consumers’ pessimistic outlook. In comparison, the countries with the most optimistic youth included Kenya, Colombia, Mexico and Romania.

With Western consumers fraught with feelings of insecurity and anxiety, more and more are turning to Christianity in the hope of finding greater meaning in their lives.