When Jess Haghani watched her 92-year-old grandmother Lucille recover from heart surgery on decades-old, ultra-processed nutrition shakes, she couldn’t look away. As a Harvard MBA student, she recognised both the failure and the opportunity. Older adults represent 20% of the population and the fastest-growing demographic of the next decade, yet less than 1% of food and beverage innovation targets them. That gap became her business.
A Market Frozen in Time
The adult nutrition aisle has barely changed since the 1970s. Two giants — Nestlé’s Boost and Abbott’s Ensure — dominate the space through long-term hospital contracts, selling high-margin formulas that consumers are often embarrassed to be seen buying. Haghani witnessed shoppers tucking these products under their arms and rushing to the register, avoiding eye contact. The stigma, she realised, was as much a problem as the nutrition itself.
Lucille Health’s answer is a ready-to-drink shake with higher protein, five grams of fiber, and a cleaner ingredient list. Haghani assembled her team strategically — nutrition researchers from Harvard Chan School of Public Health, food scientists through Erewhon contacts, and an R&D facility in Chicago specialising in high-protein beverages.
Grandma Is the Toughest Tester
Lucille herself remains the brand’s most demanding product tester at 92. She calls with feedback on flavours, places her own orders online, and once phoned mid-bridge-tournament to flag a packaging flaw. That authenticity is priceless.
Looking ahead, Haghani envisions Lucille Health expanding well beyond shakes — becoming the go-to older-adult nutrition brand across an entire aisle, much like Japan where 30% of new food products annually target seniors. The opportunity, she says, is wide open.