Food For Mood: How myAir helps manage stress

Rachel Yarcony, Co-founder and CEO of myAir smart food is a food and pharma expert with profound experience as executive manager in leading breakthrough innovation process at Nestle and Teva pharmaceuticals.

My personal chronic stress reviles huge unmet need:

In the past 20 years, I had a stressful career as VP Marketing at Teva Pharmaceuticals, and as Business manager at Nestle.

As an executive manager, a mother, a caregiver to my parents, stress had become a massive burden in my life. I tried to manage my stress through meditation and mindfulness, but I failed to maintain stress management in my routine,” confesses Rachel Yarcony, Co- Founder and CEO of myAir. “Good nutrition is a key to managing stress naturally. This spurred me to seek a natural solution and develop a ‘food for mood’ solution that consumers can easily merge into their daily routine to help take control of their health and manage their personal stress levels.”

Even before the COVID pandemic hit, the World Health Organization had declared stress a global epidemic. Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death in the world, and in the US alone is estimated to cost American businesses up to $300 billion each year[1]. According to the American Institute of Stress, 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress[2]. Stress is a global crisis that relentlessly beckons a comprehensive call to action.

“Stress has many facets,” says Dovev Goldstein, myAir Co-founder and COO. “In our preliminary study, based on AI, we discovered that different consumers generally have different stress symptoms that are more dominant than the others. For example, stress affects me mainly in the mornings, so my energy levels and focus are decreased. My partner feels the stress at night and occasionally has problems getting fulfilling sleep. Each of us needs a personalized solution. This is where myAir has redefined the paradigm.”

How it works

The myAir team developed a patent-pending algorithm based on physiological and psychological data. myAir’s online questionnaire creates deep profiling of an individual’s cognitive response to stress. Physiological responses to stress, including alterations in heart rate, respiration, sleep quality, and physical activity, are tracked via smart watches.

“Our algorithm can analyze the data from each person’s specific mood and stress profile, then decide what formulation will provide them the best positive impact on their stress routine,” explains Yarcony. “But our expertise is in the ability to cross the cognitive data with individual physiological aspects. It’s a game-changer in personalized nutrition.”

The company’s algorithm processes this data, then customizes a combination of myAir bars to your needs from a wide range of formulas. The personalized combinations are available through a subscription service and delivered monthly to the consumer’s doorstep.

Nature’s technology

Each bar is composed of a blend of nuts and fruits, and infused with a unique, research-based proprietary formula of bioactive botanical extracts. These include extracts from sage, hops, oats, valerian, rosemary, and others. They work synergistically to exert a specific stress-countering effect, whether to sharpen focus, revive energy, reduce anxiety, support relaxation, promote quality sleep and more.

Personalized nutrition is the new GPS

“Driving to a new location was challenging ten years ago,” adds Goldstein. “You’d have to either memorize directions or print out a paper map. Today, hardly anyone drives to a new location without using a GPS. That’s exactly what the future holds for our diets. I believe that in five years, AI technology will influence the food we eat in the same way GPS controls our navigation.”

myAir’s novel concept taps into three current booming trends: plant-based, personalized nutrition, and stress management. “Studies show that 75% of the population prefers to improve their quality of life by embracing a healthy diet rather than dosing up on prescribed medication,” Yarcony emphasizes. “Meanwhile 73% of adults snack in order to relax. Our concept effectively leverages AI technology to provide a simple-to-follow, tasty, customized nutritional solution to the global stress crisis.”

About myAir

The myAir concept was created by two founders: Rachel Yarcony, a former C-Level executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Nestlé, and Strauss Group. With a track record in CPG brands, she founded myAir in 2019 together with Dovev Goldstein, a personalized technology and media expert and seasoned entrepreneur who led three media and marketing technology companies to success. Together, with a team of experienced executives and scientists from the pharmaceutical, food, and technology industries, they are introducing to market the first personalized nutrition concept for stress management, creating a long-term health regime based on ongoing monitoring and rooted in data. myAir bars are certified vegan and kosher and gluten-free.

[1] http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/stress-health-epidemic-21st-century/
[2] https://www.stress.org/42-worrying-workplace-stress-statistics