2. About Vegetron’s Founder
Mark Berman MD
Obesity Medicine Passions
Vegan Nutrition
Lifestyle Change
Health Information Technology
McGill Physical Therapy
Yale Medical School
UCSF Clinical Research Fellowship
Harvard Internal Medicine, Primary Care & Population
Medicine
Harvard Health Publications, Obesity Medicine Consultant
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Special Assistant to
President & CEO for Childhood Obesity
Experience Keas Inc., Medical Director
3. A Massive Food Crisis
Almost 70% of US
Adults Are
Overweight or
Obese
4. What Are We Doing?
$61 Billion/year in diets, supplements, meal replacements,
cleanses, exercise equipment, etc. is not cutting it.
Bariatric Surgery is not viable for everyone.
There are no highly effective and safe drugs.
Policy change is mandatory, but will take decades.
What can Vegetron do?
5. Vegetron Flips Dieting
On Its Head
It’s the Khan
Academy of lifestyle
training
Vegetron re-imagines lifestyle change as a go-at-your-own-
pace online training game, which makes it simple, fun and
rewarding to master the essentials of a happy and healthy
plant-centered lifestyle.
For busy young adults (18-40) who
seek better health, weight loss or a
lifestyle that aligns with socially-
conscious values
6. Vegetron 3 weeks of
meals, 50 core
ingredients,
7 social
Simplifies & maps the learning curve eating
challenges, 3
30% meals are
exercise types
eaten out
Keeps food social
make them
count!
Reframes change as mastery
Change = pain. Mastery = meaningful + fun.
9. Virtual points
must educate
and contribute
to tangible,
meaningful
rewards
Rating the ‘try’
acknowledges a
Mastery is as simple as trying
step to mastery
3 highly reliable and
minimalist recipes
(1 indulgent, 1 cooked, 1 raw)
Social validation and
This is knowledge sharing
STEALTH
HABIT
FORMATION
10. One Vital Point:
Food is Fundamentally Social
New habits can NOT be SUSTAINED
if they are not SOCIALIZED
So Vegetron also guides social eating mastery
A simple platform for mastering
eating out at any type of
restaurant, and cooking for more and...
than 1
Cool fact: Typically you’ll eat 2oo-400 KCal more at a restaurant.
And another: The more people you eat with, the more you eat.
11. Vegetron Will Create a
Healthy Food Movement
Show people they are all a part of effecting change.
Together they become a Visible force.
13. Any Early Prototypes/
Experiments?
Here’s a clickable wireframe for a “food challenge”
prototype: http://invis.io/MCYDQSP
We learned that this approach resonates
widely, but it shouldn’t be the main feature of
Vegetron. However, it’s likely an important
one for community engagement and
monetization.
Here’s a “food challenge video” prototype: http://youtu.be/
GOv9o5oqF98?hd=1
We learned making videos is really fun, but
time consuming.
15. Animal consumption leads to more obesity.
30
28.8
27.3
27 26.3
25.7
24 23.6
21
18
ian
ian
ian
an
ian
g
ar
ar
ar
ar
Ve
et
et
et
et
g
g
g
eg
Ve
Ve
Ve
i-V
vo
co
on
m
O
s
N
Se
Pe
o-
ct
La
Mean Body Mass Index (kg/m2) by Dietary Pattern
Source: Tonstad S et al. Type of Vegetarian Diet, Body Weight, and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care 2009; 32:791-6
16. Obesity leads to numerous co-morbidities and
premature mortality.
17. Animal foods dwarf plant foods in their
global warming impact.
40 39.2
30
27.0
20
13.5
12.1 11.9
10.9
10
6.9
4.8
2.7 2.3 2.0 2.0 2.0
0
y
k
b
ef
se
on
en
gs
li
u
s
ce
s
ut
an
ke
co
r
f
m
Be
To
Eg
e
Po
Ri
ck
lm
N
La
Be
he
r
oc
Tu
hi
Sa
C
Br
C
ry
D
CO2 Equivalents Released Per Kg of Animal and Plant Products
Source: Environmental Working Group. Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change + Health. July 2011. Accessed at: www.ewg.org/meateatersguide
19. Unfortunately, global meat consumption is
skyrocketing.
700
525
350
175
0
1965 1980 1995 2010 2025 2050
Current and Projected Trends in Meat Consumption (in Millions of Tons)
Source: Dr. Thomas E. Elam. Projections of Global Meat Production Through 2050. Center for Global Food Issues.
20. The scale of meat consumption necessitates CAFOs
(Confined Animal Feeding Operations).
21. CAFOs employ a host of cruel animal treatment
practices, along with their severe environmental and
health impacts.
22. Why Are Games
‘Addictive’?
Like drugs, games make us feel
Positive Emotions good. Unlike drugs, they provide
all the ingredients for
Relationships psychological well-being.
Meaning
Accomplishments
(learning, achievement, mastery)
Sources: Martin Seligman’s model for positive psychology; Jane McGonigal; Seth Priebetsh; Tom Chatfield.
24. Three Factors Are Needed for Any
Human Behavior to Happen:
Motivation Ability Trigger Action!
The desire, know-how & behavioral prompt must
happen at the same time for
a new action to occur.
Sources: Fogg Behavioral Model, BJ Fogg, Stanford.
Image Model: Adapted from Michael Wu http://gamification.co/2011/06/01/the-science-of-gamification/
25. I’D LOVE TO
HEAR FROM
YOU!
Mark Berman MD
mbermanmd@gmail.com
617.877.0327