When I worked with forecasting infant and family trends back in the 2000s there was a noticeably growing interest for nutrition among parents. Food was no longer only food, it had to be healthy, fresh, local organic, tasty and sometimes even “nutraceutical”. Mothers started breastfeeding their babies again, and for longer intervals. Busy parents turned even busier carefully…
Despite cultural similarities, there are a few crucial differences between Norway on the one hand, and the U.S. and Southern Europe on the other, which affect their citizens in significant ways. One difference is that while youth in other countries currently face austerities and unemployment Norway’s economy is still going strong. The other difference is that…
Most personal insolvencies these days are caused by expenses related to the two service industries we depend on the most in our modern society – healthcare and education. And not surprisingly some of the most disruptive technological and social innovations are happening in these two areas as well. Much of the skyrocketing healthcare costs in…
Lenore Skenazy, aka “America’s Worst Mom” and creator of the name and movement Free Range Kids is my favorite dispatcher of Onion type (but true!) news stories from Securistan. Yesterday she shared an article about the perceived threat of a sledding hill. “Paxton, a small town in Illinois, where the land is flat as flat…
A little over a year ago American Heart Association made the a projection that the obesity epidemic would reach a level where 83% of American men and 72 % of women will be overweight or obese in 2020. The percentage today is 72 and 63 percent respectively. But recent news suggest that general obesity levels…
A former co-worker sent me this link a few days ago. A few years back when we did futures research and trend watching for a nutritional company, breast vs. bottle was a big issue. The trend is certainly a return to more natural forms of child rearing where breast-feeding (or providing breast milk in BPA…
In the future will we go to the doctor as much as we do now? Will pregnant women of the New Silents still have to schedule visits with ultrasound technicians to see their growing fetus? Maybe not. The latest fad in smart phone apps seems to be within medical information sharing and monitoring, enabling people to take…
