Masawa Minute 107
New findings explaining the rise in obesity | Why does keto diet improve mental health? | More! 🐼
This is the Masawa Minute — mental wellness, social impact, and impact investing snippets from what we’ve read and created in the last month + where you can get active.
Spring is just around the corner here in the Northern Hemisphere, and we could not be more ready! This newsletter is all about personal mental health — a topic that’s easy to overlook but is especially important in our times — after all, you have to take care of yourself first to be able to take care of the world around you. Enjoy!
🤜 Partnership Announcement 🤛
Masawa and the Hypt Venture Studio have partnered to further our mutual work! Hypt focuses on neurodiversity and neurodiverse founders and is backed by an exciting network of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial families. Check out more on the announcement over on LinkedIn!
🚂 Masawa on the Road 🚂
We are on the road again! After all, what better way to welcome spring than by making new connections and learning from different perspectives? Tomorrow, February 29th, Masawa’s co-founder Sabine will be attending the Zero One Hundred Conferences (PE & VC Platform) in Vienna, meeting changemakers in the private capital market and engaging in a bunch of content sessions on all things VC and investing. If you’d like to connect, check out her LinkedIn post and shoot her a message!
After that, we’ll make our way to Paris for the ChangeNOW conference on the 25–27 of March, where Sabine will be moderating a series of panels on alternative financing and governance structures. We’re excited to continue catalyzing change, making impactful strides in the funding ecosystem, and sharing the transformative work we do at Masawa — come say hi if you’re around!
This Week’s Story
Rethinking obesity: The metabolic connection
A recent study led by John R. Speakman and featured in Nature Metabolism introduces a critical yet underappreciated factor in understanding the rise of obesity: a marked reduction in basal energy expenditure (BEE) spanning the last thirty years. Contrary to the prevailing belief attributing obesity’s surge to diminishing physical activity, this study points to a decrease in basal metabolic rates as a key contributor, challenging existing obesity intervention strategies.
These insights are highly relevant to the Brain Energy theory, developed by Dr. Christopher Palmer, which emphasizes the fundamental role of metabolism in mental health and suggests that all mental disorders are, in fact, metabolic disorders of the brain. We are huge fans of Dr. Palmer’s book and believe his work also has significant implications for investment in mental health — if you’re curious to hear more, we outlined the specifics in this article. However, coming back to the study, given that BEE underpins vital bodily functions also critical to the brain, a decline in BEE could adversely affect mental health, potentially contributing to anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline.
All in all, this suggests a shift in how obesity and mental health are addressed, highlighting the need for interventions that focus on improving metabolic health in addition to conventional strategies. Incorporating metabolic health considerations into treatment and prevention plans could pave the way for more effective solutions to obesity and associated mental health challenges, embodying the holistic and interdisciplinary perspective advocated by the Brain Energy theory for a more nuanced understanding of health and wellness.
Beyond ‘Eat Less, Move More’: The Myth of Inactivity
What else we’re reading…
🌜Leveraging distinct states of sleep, researchers are exploring innovative ways to heal the brain, targeting conditions from memory loss and stroke to mental health challenges. Through techniques like sleep engineering, one can unlock the brain’s potential to enhance memory consolidation, reduce nightmares, and potentially ease post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression and other conditions.
⌚ While fitness trackers are flooding us with more and more data, from heart rates to stride lengths, it’s becoming clear that the endless stream of information doesn’t guarantee better health. Experts argue that gadgets should enhance, not dictate, fitness journeys and remind us that, in the end, it’s not about the wearable but the wearer, suggesting a balanced approach to wellness tech.
🛏️ Today’s youth face a mental health crisis, with more people in their early 20s more out of work due to ill health than those in their early 40s, a recent report has found. Young women are disproportionally affected, and the surging mental health issues among young people appear to be closely linked to socioeconomic factors like educational setbacks and unemployment, necessitating targeted action.
🍳 Numerous people have come forward attesting to the benefits of a keto diet for their mental health. While there are several theories trying to explain the benefits of a keto diet, the full picture remains elusive. Currently, several clinical trials are underway exploring the keto diet’s potential in mental health treatment with encouraging preliminary results.
🔥 The recent emphasis on addressing burnout to enhance employee wellbeing is great to see, but it tends to overlook a vital component: daily energy management. Our energy is linked to five key sources — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social — and identifying which are depleted is a crucial step towards effectively navigating the challenges of work and life.
