What is Healthy Eating?

You want to feel good and look great, but finding and maintaining a well-balanced diet and lifestyle may seem like a never-ending challenge. With the quick and easy availability of fast foods, processed foods and snacks, your healthy eating plan can easily get derailed. Healthy eating is getting good nutrition from high-quality, nutrient-dense fresh foods. Consuming a variety of healthy foods adds nutrients to your body, helps you maintain good health and can protect against chronic illness like heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

Fruits and Vegetables

Surprisingly, eating healthy fruits and vegetables may not be enough to get your daily recommended vitamins and minerals. Several decades ago, fruits and vegetables grown had higher levels of nutrients than the varieties available today. Today’s crops are crossbred to grow faster and produce higher yields. This accelerated growth decreases the plant’s ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients. According to USDA nutritional data, from 1950–1999, 43 different vegetables and fruits have declined up to 43 percent in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B-2) and vitamin C. Additionally, only 11 percent of Americans eat the recommended allowance of two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables every day. With the lower nutrient value and the lack of proper consumption of fruits and vegetables, taking a multivitamin and superfood supplements can help you fill the nutritional gap in your diet. At Sprouts, we want to help you achieve good health, so you feel better and have more energy from morning to night. With the right combination of healthy foods and natural supplements, you can balance the fast-paced lifestyle with the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.

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¹ Scientific American, April 2011, Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/ accessed: 11/16/2015 ² according to the Center for Disease and Prevention (CDC). 2009”was released by the CDC.