This week:
The US government just flipped the food pyramid upside down: protein and fats in, refined carbs out.
WHOOP lands Ferrari as F1's latest human performance laboratory
And 50+ market signals across funding, M&A, product launches, and expansion.
Source: CNN
New US Dietary Guidelines: A Paradigm Shift
On January 7, the USDA and HHS released the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in decades with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 - USDA Press Release
What Changed:
Protein - From Afterthought to Foundation
Before: ~0.8g per kg bodyweight, no meal-specific guidance
Now: 1.2–1.6g per kg bodyweight, prioritized at every meal
For a 75kg adult: jumped from ~60g/day to 90–120g/day recommended
Fats - From Enemy to Ally
Before: Low-fat everything, saturated fat capped at <10% of calories
Now: "Ending the war on saturated fats" — full-fat dairy, butter, beef tallow, olive oil all endorsed
Whole eggs back in, no cholesterol limits
Carbohydrates - From Base to Background
Before: 45–65% of calories from carbs, grains as pyramid base
Now: Refined carbs explicitly discouraged, whole grains moved to bottom of inverted pyramid
No specific carb floor — protein and fats can fill the gap
Added Sugars - From "Limit" to "Avoid"
Before: <10% of daily calories (~50g for 2,000 cal diet)
Now: "No amount of added sugars is recommended or considered part of a healthy diet"
Children under 4: zero added sugar recommended
Dairy - Full-Fat Rehabilitation
Before: Low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt, cheese
Now: Whole milk and full-fat dairy products endorsed
Ultra-Processed Foods - First Official Warning
Before: No explicit guidance
Now: "Avoid highly processed packaged, prepared, ready-to-eat foods" + "avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks"
Why This Matters for the Wellness Industry:
This is a tailwind for the entire real-food, functional nutrition, and metabolic health ecosystem. The guidelines validate what longevity clinicians, sports nutritionists, and biohacking communities have been saying for years: prioritize protein, embrace healthy fats, and eliminate processed foods. For operators in the wellness space, this creates:
New program opportunities > protein-forward meal planning, metabolic health coaching, and nutrition education aligned with federal guidance
Product positioning > brands emphasizing whole foods, high-quality protein, and minimal processing now have federal validation
Institutional demand > school meal programs, military nutrition, SNAP benefits, and corporate wellness programs must now align with these guidelines
Consumer awareness > the "eat real food" message reaching mainstream audiences accelerates demand for premium, clean-label products
The inverted pyramid puts protein, dairy, and healthy fats at the top!
Whether you agree with the politics or not, the commercial implications are clear: the market for metabolic health, functional foods, and whole-food nutrition just got a federal stamp of approval.
WHOOP x Ferrari: Sport Is Moving From Marketing Channel to Product
Scuderia Ferrari has announced WHOOP as its Official Health and Fitness Wearable Partner from the 2026 Formula 1 season, with an ambition to extend their "data-driven approach beyond the car."
WHOOP devices will be rolled out across the entire Ferrari organization (drivers, pit crew, engineers, and support staff) to monitor sleep, stress, recovery, and overall wellness. This extends Ferrari's long-standing data culture from the car to the human performance layer.
The partnership is positioned as a shared R&D effort. Ferrari's medical team will work directly with WHOOP's Performance Science group, led by Dr. Kristen Holmes (Global Head of Human Performance), to analyze physical readiness and recovery in one of the most demanding environments in global sport. Insights will feed back into training and workload decisions across the team.
As Ferrari's Chief Racing Revenue Officer Lorenzo Giorgetti put it: "The partnership with WHOOP allows us to extend our data-driven approach beyond the car, to aspects more related to the human factor, by combining our expertise in high-performance engineering with WHOOP insights into human health."
Why This Matters
Elite sport is one of the best testing environments in the world, yet most sponsorship deals barely make use of it. Too often, partnerships stop at branding and hospitality rather than tapping into the performance infrastructure sitting right in front of them.
This deal does the opposite: anchoring the relationship around measurable inputs and outcomes rather than vague wellness messaging.
WHOOP has seen this playbook work before. In its landmark partnership with Major League Baseball, 230 minor league players across nine organizations wore WHOOP devices throughout the 2016 season. The study tracked 3,321 workouts, 4,407 sleep cycles, and over 350 million heartbeats. The findings were concrete: pitchers need roughly three days to fully recover from game-day strain; players need two days to recover from travel disruption; declining recovery scores preceded injuries.
That research led to WHOOP becoming the first continuous wearable approved for in-game use in MLB (2017). A decade later, Ferrari now becomes the Formula 1 version of that laboratory.
The Elite Sports Playbook
WHOOP has systematically built credibility by embedding itself in elite sport; not as a sponsor, but as a research partner.
Baseball: The MLB study remains the largest performance study ever conducted in professional sports. It established WHOOP as a serious tool for organizations managing athlete workload, not just a consumer gadget.
Tennis: WHOOP became the Official Fitness Wearable of the WTA in 2021 — and critically, the first wearable technology approved for in-match use. Players like Aryna Sabalenka have spoken publicly about how data shapes their training and recovery decisions.
Golf: WHOOP is the Official Fitness Wearable of both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. At the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, WHOOP Live brought real-time heart rate data into NBC broadcasts for the first time. The research behind it: 389 professional golfers tracked across 521 tournament rounds, revealing how stress, travel, and recovery impact performance on the course.
Athlete Portfolio: Cristiano Ronaldo (investor and ambassador since May 2024), Aryna Sabalenka, Rory McIlroy (investor and ambassador), Patrick Mahomes (investor), Michael Phelps (investor), Eli Manning (investor), LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Nelly Korda, Virgil van Dijk. Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, all wear WHOOP.
The Bigger Picture
Many sports organizations already have elite facilities, medical teams, and performance staff; yet still sell partnerships mainly through hospitality and logo placement. That's increasingly out of step with what sponsors want.
Brands are shifting toward health, prevention, and performance, not just exposure. Teams that can translate their elite environments into credible wellbeing platforms stand to unlock a very different tier of partnership value.
Just this week, UAE Team Emirates announced a partnership with Eight Sleep, embedding AI-powered sleep technology directly into rider recovery and performance programs for the 2026 cycling season. Different sport, different budget — but the same underlying idea: elite teams as living laboratories where human performance products are tested, refined, and validated under extreme conditions.
Taken together, the Ferrari and UAE Team Emirates deals show how sport can move from being a marketing channel to becoming part of the product itself.
BIG DEALS & INDUSTRY MOVES
Funding & Investments
NOBULL (Tom Brady-backed fitness apparel) landed $50M at a $1B valuation
Pomelo Care (maternal health platform) raised $92M at a $1.7B valuation
Ultra Pouches secured $11M for nicotine-free focus pouches
Lemon Perfect (hydration beverage) added $9.8M
Clue (menstrual health app) added new funding from Verdane
Healf (wellness marketplace) secured investment from Claudia Schiffer
Padel Haus secured investment from Australian Open's AO Ventures
Amped Fitness secured funding from Princeton Equity Group
BERO (nonalcoholic beer) secured funding from BetterCo Holdings
Product & Platform Launches
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health
FDA approved Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill (oral GLP-1)
WHOOP tapped designer Samuel Ross MBE as Global Creative Director
NVIDIA x Eli Lilly launched an AI lab for drug discovery
Myoform debuted precision supplement platform
January AI unveiled enterprise health intelligence platform
Eli Health added testosterone, progesterone tests
Ultrahuman x Click Therapeutics launched biomarker-driven migraine treatment
Partnerships & Integrations
Tom Brady joined eMed as Chief Wellness Officer
Momentous x Arnold Schwarzenegger partnered on supplement stacks
sweetgreen x Function Health's Mark Hyman, MD collaborated on menu
Joi+Blokes tapped BYU for clinical validation
Expansion & Growth
Neko Health (AI body scanning) plans US launch in NYC
BATHHOUSE planning 8 sites over next two years
Studio Pilates International accelerates US growth, touting strong unit performance
Regulatory & Industry Reports
New FDA guidance loosens restrictions on wearables x AI integration
WHOOP wins FDA regulatory battle: new guidance allows blood pressure insights to remain as wellness feature
Les Mills International report found exercisers prefer human coaches over AI
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