Retail dietetic groups across the country are continuously adapting their blueprint to fit the ever-changing needs of the healthcare and food industries.
Indeed, the junction of these two industries is where retail dietitians get to shine and bring value to the consumer shopping experience. Their knowledge of retail offerings enables them to personalize food recommendations and empower change for customers.
Retail dietitians at H-E-B Wellness BB #:106490 are taking nutrition counseling to a new level. Our dietitians tailor nutrition education to a patient’s unique needs. If a patient is struggling with their produce intake goals, we dig into the crux of the problem. Sometimes simply talking through the barriers to a goal can help bring about solutions.
Following are some of the most common concerns we hear from folks trying to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Produce doesn’t taste good. While this is painful to hear, produce is often misunderstood. To make fruits and vegetables a more exciting part of a meal, we encourage switching up the preparation method. Roasting and air frying are great alternatives to a plain steamed or boiled vegetable. Trying new flavors using premade sauces, seasoning blends, and dips is also a surefire way to fall back in love with produce. We also encourage new flavor combinations to help balance and complement other parts of a dish.
Produce can be inconvenient. For the average individual or family on the go, time is a luxury, so we work with customers to understand where there’s flexibility for tradeoffs. H-E-B offers plenty of fruits and vegetables in various levels of processing, from chopped garlic to fresh-made guacamole to cut watermelon. For snacks on the go or for getting dinner on the table in 15 minutes, we have a solution.
Produce goes bad too often. The dreaded refrigerator cleanout where spoiled produce and leftovers fill the trash bin is a relatable part of life for most folks. Food waste can be avoided by opting for some frozen and canned produce. We encourage customers to look for frozen vegetables with little to no extra sauces or seasonings to control sodium. For canned, pouched, or packaged produce, H-E-B offers a variety of products with no added salt or sugar or packed in 100-percent juice.
Produce is hard to get in every meal and snack. We like to use the 1, 2, 3 method as an easy way to remember to include fruits and vegetables at every meal. Simply aim for one fruit or vegetable at breakfast, two at lunch, and three at dinner. Fresh produce at snack time is a convenient no-cook, minimal prep option for midday. Pairing produce with a protein and a fat is a powerful, satiating snack. Something like fresh carrots and cucumbers with hummus and almonds or melon with cottage cheese and chia seeds will offer fiber, protein, healthy fats, and nutrients. Our dietitians also encourage shopping seasonal or locally sourced fruits and vegetables whenever possible. H-E-B has private label lines like Kindly Cultivated and Texas Roots to help customers enjoy Texas produce.
Our love for everything fruits and vegetables goes beyond one-on-one nutrition counseling. Dietitians at H-E-B are working to encourage consumption via H-E-B’s digital presence by curating easy-to-navigate collections of products for a variety of dietary lifestyles. The fruit of this labor will ensure we reach even more Texans with solutions to increase produce consumption and enable behavior change.
This column ran in Produce Blueprints, September/October 2024 issue
