Green Giant™ and Interactive Health Partner to Change America's Eating Habits

CHICAGO, June 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In a first-of-its-kind branded partnership, General Mills' Green Giant™ and national workplace wellness leader Interactive Health today announce their intent to increase the percentage of Americans that eat the recommended daily amount of vegetables, which hovers around ten percent.  Interactive Health will expand upon General Mills' revolutionary Go Giant™ healthy eating challenge on a national scale. The program, which has sparked dramatically positive behavioral changes in thousands of participants, will improve America's eating habits through a dynamic four-week program that inspires people to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Green Giant selected Interactive Health, a workplace wellness industry leader for more than 20 years, because of Interactive Health's expansive reach and credibility within the health and wellness arena. The company is renowned for its customer-centric wellness programs that have engaged, transformed – and even saved – lives.

Created by General Mills' Global Health and Green Giant teams, Go Giant started as an internal program to encourage employees to eat more fruits and vegetables. The internal healthy eating challenge among General Mills employees launched in early 2014. It attracted over 5,000 participants nationwide, with over 3,330 completing the challenge and reporting a 34% average increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. The initial success of Go Giant reinforces that small behavior changes can lead to Giant results, making long term healthier eating possible.

Interactive Health, with access to more than 20 million customers across the country, will build on that success as it rolls out the program nationally.

"The Green Giant team is passionate about expanding the Go Giant program beyond our walls due to its tremendous success at General Mills," says Nicci Trovinger, associate marketing manager with General Mills' Meals division. "We chose Interactive Health to lead the program's national rollout because of its longstanding reputation as a wellness industry thought leader, and its shared vision in creating lasting behavior changes in the lives of individuals through simple, achievable health programs."

Weekly challenges within Go Giant include swaps of a fruit or vegetables in place of a less desirable option, "veggifying" a meal by creatively adding fruits and vegetables to favorite dishes, trying a new fruit or vegetable, and eating different colors of fruits and vegetables.

When General Mills and Green Giant realized how successful their program was in improving the nationwide problem of declining per capita fruit and vegetable intake over the past five years, they sought to find a partner that could spread their program's success to other U.S. workplaces.

"We are thrilled to partner with General Mills and Green Giant on this initiative to improve America's eating habits," said Interactive Health's President and CEO Cathy Kenworthy. "Small changes can make a giant impact on health risks. The simple act of eating more fruits and vegetables is crucial to every individual's efforts to lead a healthier lifestyle through convenient and fun changes to daily behaviors. We are honored by the opportunity to bring to scale the concepts associated with the Go Giant challenge in the context of our existing capabilities. We intend to make a difference in the lives of every participant."

About Interactive Health 
Interactive Health (www.interactivehealthinc.com), the country's leading provider of health management solutions, creates innovative wellness programs designed to increase overall company health and actively engage employees to make lasting behavior changes. Regardless of where a company may fall on the wellness spectrum, Interactive Health has a highly personalized program to meet its needs. By offering health assessments that detect risk at the earliest possible stage, Interactive Health has the capability to immediately intervene and engage at-risk participants with a personalized course of action. Using ActiveEngine, a proprietary algorithmic-based clinical intelligence engine, a unique achievable goal is assigned to each participant based on individual results and health improvements are measured.  Interactive Health has a 20-year track record of creating the Healthiest Companies in America.

About General Mills
General Mills is one of the world's leading food companies, operating in more than 100 countries around the world. Its brands include Cheerios, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., USA, General Mills had fiscal 2014 worldwide sales of US $17.9 billion.

Tricia Johnson
Director of Marketing, Interactive Health
847-754-2652
[email protected]

Bob Musinski
CBD Marketing
312-661-1050
[email protected]

SOURCE Interactive Health

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http://www.interactivehealthinc.com