Creating school programs designed around growing better for you foods is catching on in school.  Liberty Union High School in Thurston, Ohio is well on its way to meeting the new USDA school lunch requirements requiring schools to slash sodium, limit calories and offer students a wider variety and larger portion of fruit [...]

Food marketers have an opportunity to help consumers who are seeking healthy foods by providing easy-to-understand nutrition information on-pack, according to a new report from Nielsen.  The research company polled 25,000 consumers in 53 nations and found that more than half consider themselves overweight and even more (59%) admit having trouble reading nutrition [...]

Better4You brand managers beware of partnerships with breads and comfort foods!  Heather Bauer, an RD who writes for the Huffington Post, slams the foods as part of her new book on emotional eating, Bread is the Devil. Bauer writes: “Whether it’s happy, sad, depressed, elated, your mood can often affect your food choices.   There’s [...]

Here’s a great opportunity for a better4you brand to improve the nutrition habits of one needy state.  South Dakota’s fruit and vegetable consumption is lacking, according to the most recent research. “In fact, it’s quite dismal,” said state nutritionist Kristin Biskeborn.   According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that measured adult [...]

Blogger Jeff Wells writes in Supermarket News that MyPlate has gathered healthy momentum as a colorful, easy-to-understand reference guide. Unlike its dreadful predecessor the Food Pyramid, which flummoxed kids and adults alike for years, MyPlate centers its advice on a practical object and sets simple, actionable standards.  To supermarkets, it’s [...]

Giving consumers simple calorie equivalents can help make better4you food choices.   Showing the amount of time you’d need to jog in order to burn off the calories from a sugary drink, rather than showing a calorie count, may be more effective in dissuading you from consuming those beverages, new research suggests.    “People are [...]

What a great opportunity for a better4you brand to sponsor a clever retro fitness campaign in the schools!  NYC school PS75 recently promoted its newest health and exercise initiative by staging a double dutch demo for its students led by double dutch jump-rope championship teams from Japan. The school, which is the first in New [...]

Consumers are cooking more at home not solely because of economics but because of health, a new Mintel study shows.  Half of home cooks claim that a better for you diet is a key incentive, stating that home-cooked meals are healthier than either restaurant food or prepared foods sold in grocery stores.  Older cooks are somewhat more likely to cite health [...]

Teaching doctors about cooking is a great way to help them deliver branded health messages to consumers.  Why not create a series of cooking sessions at a corporate test kitchen?  The University of Massachusetts Medical School is now offering physicians the chance to test their skills in the kitchen, with cooking classes geared toward them. The [...]

More than nine of 10 Americans consume fewer fruits and vegetables than the daily amount recommended by the U.USDA guidelines, according to the “Fruits and Veggies — More Matters” health initiative, a national program aimed at increasing consumption of plant-based foods.  Don’t blame it on the nutritionist community.   Nutritionists have been talking to us for [...]