How a Valley project is taking a unique approach to healthy eating

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - A new Valley-based organization is taking a unique approach to healthy food.

Steve Nickolas is the founder of The Healthy Food Project. The idea is to make processed foods healthy.

“We can actually re-engineer the foods that we primarily eat and the fact is that 90-percent of the foods that we consume as Americans are considered processed foods,” he said.

While many doctors would be skeptical, Dr. Jessie Jean-Rush was thrilled at the thought.

“You can't find fruits and veggies in some areas,” she said. “You can't find parents that have the time to buy daily fresh fruits and vegetables like we did when we were growing up.

So where do you begin? They say with the kids and the schools where many children eat breakfast and lunch.

Nickolas said, ”Working with their suppliers to begin to utilize some of this new technology to help reduce the sodium content of the foods that the kids are already eating, reduce the fats and calories that are in those foods.”

They are currently looking for Valley schools interested in participating in the program.

It’s a program that could change the way we eat, without changing what we buy.