Turn your Home into a Haven for Healthy Food Choices

Make the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice

Your family’s health can benefit when you modify your home environment to make healthy food and beverage choices the easiest choice to make.

Set yourself up for success by having healthy foods and beverages:

• Available – Shop for ingredients that make healthy meals & snacks.
  • Set yourself up for success by keeping healthy options in the house.
• Visible – Make sure the healthy choices are front and center.
  • Put fresh fruit in a bowl on the counter and fresh vegetables in clear containers in the fridge.
  • Keep a pitcher of cold filtered water with sliced lemons/limes is in the front of the fridge.
• Appealing – Make sure the healthy choices offer a variety of colors, textures, and flavors.
  • Think about a beautiful bowl of shiny, crisp, sweet and tangy apples on the counter. It makes my mouth water to visualize it.
• Affordable – Affordability can include both cost and time for preparation.
  • Packing your own healthy snacks and meals to take to school or work is often less expensive than buying the same or less healthy food.
  • When healthy foods are quick and easy to prepare, they are eaten more often. If food preparation takes too much time and effort, you will find yourself back to old habits, like grabbing a handful of chips and a can of soda for a snack, or eating a bowl of cereal for dinner.
• Portable – We live in a society that is on the go, and so much of our food needs to be portable.
  • Perishable foods that are portable need to be kept safe.
    • Room temperature for up to 2 hours
    • Kept cold in coolers or thermal containers at 41 degrees or lower
    • Kept warm in thermal containers at 140 degrees or higher
  • Nonperishable foods do not require hot or cold holding.
  • A whole piece of washed fruit is also a good portable option. Just don’t forget about it at the bottom of a backpack, purse or briefcase.
• Convenient – Have healthy snacks that are easy to grab and go.
  • Buy single serving prepackaged nuts, whole grain crackers, dried fruit, etc.
  • Purchase in bulk and repackage in small snack bags or containers.

If you have some less healthy choices in the house consider making them less accessible by:

• Only keep on hand a few items that may be less healthy to minimize temptation.
• Position snacks so that you have to reach past a healthier choice to find them. For example, store a box of cookies at the back of the cupboard, while whole grain crackers, nuts and dried fruit are stored on the front.
• Keep sodas at room temperature so they are not very appealing. To make it cold you would need to pour it over ice, which is less convenient than drinking pre-chilled water in the fridge.
• Make sure less healthy foods require more preparation time than a healthier choice. For example, having to oven bake frozen French fries for 20 minutes is less convenient than snacking on a prepared salad or peeled and sliced raw vegetables in the fridge.