What You Need To Know
Hackensack Meridian Health is proud to announce that it is the first health system to offer PLEZi Nutrition’s better for you products.
PLEZi Nutrition, the Public Benefit Company co-founded by former First Lady Michelle Obama, is on a mission to create higher standards for how the U.S. makes and markets food and beverages for kids, leading with nutrition, taste, and truth. The company aims to give parents a helping hand by offering healthier, great-tasting products that parents can feel good about giving their kids and – most importantly – that kids actually want.
“I’ve dedicated so much of my life to helping kids and families lead healthier lives. As First Lady, I worked to rally every sector of society toward this goal,” former First Lady Michelle Obama, Co-Founder and Strategic Partner of PLEZi Nutrition said earlier this year. “While I’m proud of all we accomplished during those years at the White House, I’ve also learned that to truly push the food and beverage industry to do better by our kids, you must work from the inside. I’m thrilled to build on those efforts through PLEZi Nutrition as we work to drive change throughout the entire food and beverage industry.”
This alliance comes at a pivotal moment as the United States is in a nutrition-related health crisis. Kids are consuming far too much added sugar—on average, 53 pounds of added sugar per year. Sugar-sweetened beverages, also referred to as sugary drinks, are the leading source of added sugar, and nearly two-thirds of youth consume sugary drinks on a given day.
PLEZi Nutrition offers products that ace the taste test but without added sugar, and with overall lower sugar content and sweetness to help adjust kids' palates to crave less sweetness. In addition to reducing sugar and sweetness, they are adding in nutrients kids need, all with the aim to replace sugary drinks and snacks.
PLEZi is a fruit drink with 75% less sugar (5g per 6.75 oz) than average leading fruit juices (21g per 6.75 oz), no added sugar, plus 2g of fiber and nutrients like vitamin C. PLEZi comes in four flavors: Tropical Punch, Blueberry Blast, Apple Splash, and Orange Smash, and is available on Amazon as well as nationwide at Target, Walmart, Sprouts, select Kroger banners, and other retailers.
By offering PLEZi, patients and team members at Hackensack University Medical Center have been able to remove 1.8 million calories and 1,000 pounds of sugar from their diets since February. This is a significant step towards improving health and well-being.
Hackensack University Medical Center was the first facility to offer PLEZi, and it is expected that PLEZi will be available in all Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals in late 2024. Patients and staff can purchase PLEZi in cafeterias.