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In today’s email:
“Healthy”: The FDA’s new definition.
Chart: Gen Z’s favorite brands.
Weekend Reads to pair with some gravy soda.
Around the Web: Measuring your sleep, a fashionable emu, why webcams improve win rates, and more cool internet finds.
🎧 On the go? Listen to today’s 10-minute podcast to hear Zack and Juliet talk about what makes food healthy, collectible McDonald’s figurines, Peloton’s next move, and more.
The big idea
Zachary Crockett
The FDA is redefining healthy food
Eating healthy is confusing. Fruit? Sure. Fruit snacks? Not so much.
As an FDA-regulated term, “healthy” is outdated. That’s why this week the FDA finally proposed new criteria for manufacturers that want to use the term on US packaging.
Back in 1994…
… the FDA released its first definition of “healthy.” It largely focused on fat content, meaning a sugary cereal could pass, but not salmon or avocados.
In 2015, the FDA told Kind it couldn’t call some of its snack bars “healthy” due to their saturated fat content. Kind argued it came from nuts.
This led to a push for an updated definition, and a public hearing on the matter occurred in 2017.
Updated rules…
… would automatically count water and raw whole fruits and veggies as healthy. Other products would have to:
Contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (e.g., fruit, vegetables, protein, dairy, etc.)” as recommended by the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Fall under limits for sugar, sodium, and saturated fats. Nuts and seeds would not count toward saturated fat limits.
Example: Cereal would need three-quarter ounces of whole grains, and less than 2.5 grams of added sugars.
Would it make us healthier?
The healthy label is voluntary, and ~5% of foods have it, perCNN. It’s unclear if manufacturers would be motivated to reformulate products to meet tighter parameters.
The FDA has also proposed slapping a symbol on healthy foods to help shoppers quickly identify them.
But the Center for Science in the Public Interest thinks it’d work better to warn consumers of particularly unhealthy foods.
TRENDING
LOL: The internet is roasting Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson for a cringeworthy TikTok he made promoting his signature Subway sandwich.
SNIPPETS
AI Day is here: Tesla is holding its second AI Day, where a humanoid “Optimus” prototype is expected to be revealed. Watch live on YouTube.
Rough week: DocuSign saw layoffs, Lyft froze hiring, as did Meta, and Bed Bath & Beyond reported a 28% drop in sales.
New York is requiring that, starting in 2035, all new vehicles purchased in the state must be zero emission models.
Peloton will begin selling its treadmill and bike models at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and aims to have products in 100+ locations in time for the holidays.
Prison time: Former eBay execs were sentenced for cyberstalking and harassing the publishers of a critical ecommerce newsletter with live insects and death threats.
Saudi Arabia plans to invest $37.8B in gaming. Meanwhile, Google is sunsetting its cloud gaming service, Stadia.
Screw text-to-image generators — Meta unveiled AI that can turn text into videos.
Amazon announced $1B in pay increases for frontline US workers, with average pay rising from $18/hour to $19+.
TripActions reportedly filed for an IPO at a $12B valuation, marking quite the rebound from “$0” in revenue during covid.
McDonald’s and fashion brand Cactus Plant Flea Market are partnering on adult Happy Meals next month. Yes, there’s a toy.
How to market a bestseller:Female Startup Club founder Doone Roisin dropped her pre-launch strategy and post-launch analysis for Trendsters.
chart
Singdhi Sokpo
What can we learn from Gen Z’s favorite brands?
While marketing to Gen Z is notoriously challenging, some brands seem to have it figured out.
Morning Consult surveyed thousands of Gen Z adults, and the data revealed some interesting findings about their preferences, including:
Gen Z loves junk food. Of the demographic’s top 20 brands, 35% are snacks, including Doritos, Oreos, and Pringles.
Gen Z is hard to please: The group’s average favorability rating is 27%, compared with 33% for all adults.
Gen Z is very online. Among the brands that Gen Z favors more than the general public are TikTok, Discord, and Snapchat.
So what can we learn from all this? The fastest way to Gen Z’s heart is probably through their belly or their iPhone.
Free Resource
Thirty practical follow-up email templates
Speaking from experience — emails can take up too much of the workday.
So, HubSpot eliminated the guesswork from a ton of potentially awkward communications, like reaching out after interviews, networking events, sales meetings, and more. Take this pack of pristine follow-up email templates.
In Australia, a sheep with “exceptional muscle” just sold for $240k.
American Airlines is being haunted by weird moaning.
AROUND THE WEB
🏰 On this day: In 2005, Michael Eisner resigned as Disney’s CEO after 21 years with the company. He was replaced by Robert Iger.
😴 How to: Tell if you’re not getting enough sleep.
🐱 Cure boredom: Popular movies and TV shows reimagined with cats. Most of the videos are in Spanish, but cat videos are universal, are they not?
🎧 Podcast: Listen to this episode of Outbound Squad (formerly Blissful Prospecting) to hear Jason Bay explain why win rates increase by 127% when a prospect's webcam is on.
🤠 Aww: An emu tries Dolly Parton’s pet fashion line.
Shower Thoughts
“It’s really hard to put a beanie hat on with one hand.”SOURCE