Good nutrition is essential to a healthy lifestyle

Any exercise class instructor will tell you that 80 percent of your efforts to get bulging biceps, a ramrod-straight posture and six-pack abs comes from the kitchen: It’s what you eat.

Good nutrition — eating as few foods as possible from boxes, pouches and containers and as many whole foods as possible, especially from plant-based sources — is getting renewed attention from the White House.

The Biden administration’s Sept. 27 conference on hunger, nutrition and health marked the first such high-level forum since Richard Nixon was in office 53 years ago.

Its aim was to expand access to nutrition and obesity counseling. This included broadening Medicare and Medicaid coverage so that people can meet with nutritionists.

Nutrition grabbed the spotlight again when recent studies showed that ultra-processed foods like muffins, candy bars, sugary cereals and ready-to-heat dinners are linked to higher rates of obesity, colon cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and Type II diabetes.

Until Medicare and Medicaid reforms can get under way, Chicago-area entrepreneurs have created online tools and food options to help improve diets with affordable and tasty healthy foods.

For example:

• Iya Foods (iyafoods.com), founded by Plainfield entrepreneur Toyin Kolawole, sells plant-based spices, herbs and baking mixes online and in select local grocery stores. These recipes are based on Kolawole’s unique understanding of the nutritious foods of her

native country, Nigeria.

The company’s cassava flour comes from the root vegetable cassava and is a healthy replacement for wheat flour because it’s gluten, grain and nut-free. And, unlike rice or coconut flour, cassava flour requires no binder. The fonio flour boasts three times more protein and fiber than rice and half the calories of quinoa.

• Brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson, local Peapod co-founders, have launched Sifter.Shop, a tool that lets online grocery shoppers quickly sort out off-limits ingredients in foods. Use the website sifter.shop to apply filters using “SiftTags” to weed out nuts, gluten, allergens, shellfish, added-sugar content, foods that conflict with prescription medicines, and other special needs.

Chicago is also home to a network of food-focused incubators and accelerators such as the Hatchery and FoodLab Chicago. And, there are corporate innovation centers like Accenture’s the Extract, the Mars Wrigley Global Innovation Center and Kraft Heinz R&D Center. There are also food-focused venture capital firms.

As for taking the most important step — eating healthy foods — why not try a few helpful hacks?:

• Buy a large mixed bowl of precut fruit (a bowl sells for $9.99 in most grocery stores) to easily spoon out kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and watermelon chunks onto a plate.

• Keep the plate in the refrigerator, covered with aluminum foil, so you can reach for it as an instant breakfast.

• Pre-make a fruit smoothie using a Nutribullet blender or a similar blender that keeps whole foods’ skins, pulp and fiber. Make enough to store in the refrigerator for a few days.

• After you’ve poured some of the smoothie into a cup or mug, thicken it by adding protein powder and tart-cherry powder.

• If you’re still craving sweets, stir sugar-free powdered jello into your smoothie. Take advantage of the smoothie’s thickness and sweetness to gulp down your morning vitamins.

• Think like a chemist. If you find almond butter or regular coffee bland, mix regular peanut butter with the almond butter and pour some keto-friendly Smart coffee into the regular kind.

You can even train your brain to desire healthy snacks. The path to mindfully managing your food cravings is just a Google search away.