9 Food Innovations That Make Healthy Eating Easy

These creative products can help you boost your nutrition—whether you're aiming to get more greens into your diet or munch healthy foods on the go.

Courtesy of Suja

Your Mission: Start drinking a healthy juice at least once a week

It can be hard to consume pounds of plants a day (and the veggie-averse wouldn’t dare!) but the two- to three pounds of organic produce in each Suja juice make it easier. And unlike some juice manufacturers, Suja doesn’t advocate ditching all other food for a juice-only “cleanse,” recommending instead that you “add juice into your routine.”

Born as a door-to-door delivery gig, when a law student who taught yoga in her spare time and a raw food chef started swapping juices that they felt aided skin issues and food sensitivities, Suja is now at Whole Foods and online at SujaJuice.com.

Courtesy of Fenugreen

Your Mission: Keep your produce fresh longer

Wilted Lettuce Syndrome, no more! Roughly 25% of the world’s food supply is lost to spoilage; FreshPaper hopes to change that statistic. The innovative product keeps produce fresh for two to four times longer by inhibiting bacterial and fungal growth (and in turn, incentivizes you to load up your grocery cart).

Courtesy of Zoe's Kitchen

Your Mission: Grab gluten free food on the go

A fast food restaurant without a microwave or a fryer in sight? Yup! At Zoe’s Kitchen, a chain paving the way for more to follow suit since 1995, they live by the motto “if it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it’s not food today.” With nearly 100 locations and counting, their Mediterranean-inspired menu offers an entire section for gluten free entrees and sides. They also source as much as possible locally (poultry is also always fresh, never frozen).

Courtesy of HelloFresh

Your Mission: Pull off a delicous and healthy dinner stress-free

Like making dinners from scratch but hate planning a menu and then buying a slew of ingredients when the recipe calls for only a bit of each? Focus on the fun of cooking using HelloFresh, a new service that provides you with pre-measured, fresh ingredients and recipe cards featuring chef-designed dishes that can be assembled in under thirty minutes.

Courtesy of Naturebox

Your Mission: Satisfy snack cravings the healthy way

NatureBox sends delicious snacks to your door monthly— all with a nutritionist’s seal of approval so you don’t have to scrutinize labels. You can chow down on treats like wild blueberry flax granola and dark cocoa almonds knowing that they, like everything in these curated collections, have no high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, or artificial colors or flavors.

Courtesy of Happy Hemp

Your Mission: Eat more Omega 3s

You know that that polyunsaturated fatty acids, Omega 3s, can help your heart and wasitline, but you can’t stomach the thought of eating more fish. To the rescue: Happy Hemp raw and toasted seeds (grown without herbicides or pesticides), which contain more protein than fish, meat or tofu and offer the perfect ratio of Omegas 3,6 and 9. You can add them to shakes, yogurt, oatmeal or salads without altering the taste (you might detect a subtle crunch in salads).

Courtesy of NuttZo

Your Mission: Build a better PB&J

NuttZo has de-junked the sammy staple with a line of organic nut and seed butters. It started when founder Danielle Dietz-LiVolsi and hubby adopted two vitamin-deficient Ukrainian boys, and she needed to make nutritious foods for their picky palates. Mission accomplished: NuttZo contains Brazil nuts, cashews, flax, chia, and almonds, and tastes just as delightful on toast as in shakes. A two tablespoon serving of any NuttZo variety has at least 50% of the daily value for ALA Omega-3s, six or more grams of protein, and two grams or less of sugar.

Courtesy of Kind Snacks

Your Mission: Eat more whole grains

Launched in September 2013, KIND Healthy Grains Bars make the average sugar-and-additive-loaded granola bar weep. Each Kind bar provides one-third of your daily quota of heart-healthy, protein- and fiber-rich whole grains, since it’s made with five different varieties. More goodness to unwrap: KIND also introduced Do the KIND Thing: Projects — a program geared to inspire acts of kindness.

Courtesy of Jamba Juice

Your Mission: Make healthy smoothies at home in a snap

Ever in the mood for a quick breakfast or snack shake, only to find you don’t have all the fruits and veggies on hand? Jamba Juice shake maestros have created the first veggie smoothie kit, The Green Fusion, with green apple, mango, pineapple, kiwi, banana, broccoli, spinach and spirulina. Available at supermarkets nationwide, simply blend with a cup of apple juice. The smoothie boasts a full serving of fruit, along with 100% of the daily recommended value for vitamin C, 40% for vitamin A, and 25% for vitamins D, E, K, B1 and B6.

Reader's Digest
Originally Published in Reader's Digest

Perri O. Blumberg
A former food editor at Reader's Digest, Perri Blumberg is a writer and editor based in New York City. After attending Columbia University, where she received a BA in psychology, she went on to study food at a health-supportive culinary school. Her work has appeared in O Magazine, Men's Journal, Country Living, and on Mind, Body, Green, among others.