Touch grass: How Gen Z stopped going outside and why it matters––The Independent
A new study reveals that most British young people stay indoors for days at a time, fueling the mass decline of mental health and the continuing rise of the age of rage. Two-thirds of Gen Z (67%) said they don’t go outside for days at a time; 57% of millennials reported the same. Only a quarter of those surveyed across all ages said they made a conscious effort to leave the safety of indoors at least once a day.
What exactly are you eating? The nutritional ‘dark matter’ in your food–The Conversation
When trying to understand what affects our overall health, most scientists concur that genetics explains 10% of the risks we face, with the environment accounting for the remaining 90%. We now know that our diet plays a huge role in the latter since it seems capable of switching genes on or off through epigenetics (changes in gene activity that don’t alter DNA itself). In this article, a professor of medicine health and life science explains that there are 26,000 distinct, definable biochemicals present in our food, but we have little idea what they do. Hence, he refers to them as “nutritional dark matter.” According to the article, “just as the cosmos is filled with hidden forces, our diet is packed with hidden chemistry.” By bringing together genomics (the role of genes), proteomics (proteins), metabolomics (cell activity) and nutrigenomics (the interaction of genes and diet), the science of “foodomics” aims to shed light on how diet interacts with the body in ways far beyond calories and vitamins.
The last days of social media: It promised connection, but delivered exhaustion––Noeme
In the early days (about 20 years ago), the purpose of social media was to help people connect with friends, family or like-minded individuals. It was therefore built on the idea of “authenticity.” No more. As the academic James O’Sullivan explains in this brilliant article, “social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.” Content production, fueled by generative AI, is proliferating while user engagement is evaporating, with the attention economy breaking any form of social contract underpinning the illusion of genuine, meaningful connections. “Whatever remains of genuine, human content is increasingly sidelined by algorithmic prioritization, receiving fewer interactions than the engineered content and AI slop optimized solely for clicks.” At the end, he makes suggestions about what must come next: “smaller, slower, more intentional, more accountable spaces for digital interaction, spaces where the metrics that matter aren’t engagement and growth but understanding and connection.”
At wellness resorts, Ozempic becomes part of the treatment menu––Bloomberg
GLP-1s, which promise relatively effortless and major weight loss results for about $500 a month, could have wiped out weight-loss retreats. Instead, they’re reinvigorating them. Resorts are embracing GLP-1s as part of their programs, offering support for guests who use the drugs, and creating new programs that focus on sustaining health and maintaining weight loss.
A Striking Stat:
For the first time, children with obesity outnumber those who are underweight. Since 2000, the number of underweight children has dropped from 13% to 9.2%, while obesity rates have nearly tripled from 3% to 9.4%. One in five children aged five to 19 years are now overweight, or 391 million globally.
Source: UNICEF report, September 2025, data from 190 countries.
