Start! taking steps to decrease health care expenses, increase productivity
General Mills recognized as Start! Fit-Friendly Company at Platinum Level
04/23/2007
American employers continue to face ever-increasing health care costs and simultaneous losses in productivity of $225.8 billion a year.
The American Heart Association is offering employers an opportunity to address these issues proactively through its Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program. The program is a primary element in the association’s groundbreaking new Start! movement which launched in January.
The Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program is a catalyst for positive change in American business. It assists and recognizes companies that demonstrate progressive leadership by making the health and wellness of their employees a priority.
General Mills has been recognized as a Platinum Level Start! Fit Friendly Company by the American Heart Association Start! movement for fulfilling the following parameters:
- Offers employees physical activity support.
- Increases healthy eating options at the work site.
- Promotes a wellness culture.
- Implements at least nine criteria as outlined by the AHA in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture.
- Demonstrates measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness.
For more than 20 years, General Mills has provided programs and resources to employees that encourage healthy lifestyles. The cornerstone to General Mills’ wellness programs is a balanced emphasis on physical, mental and social well-being.
Adult Americans spend a majority of their waking hours at work, where many of them are sedentary. Their lack of physical activity raises their risk for a host of medical problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Obesity alone costs American businesses $12.7 billion per year in medical expenses. Improving this unhealthy environment is the goal of the Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program.
Program organizers recognize that employees have time constraints and responsibilities that often keep them from taking care of their health. Start! helps to modify the corporate culture by motivating employees to start walking – the exercise with the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.
Even people who have ignored regular exercise until middle age can reap significant benefits by starting a walking program. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986 found that individuals could expect to gain two hours of life expectancy for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise they performed.
Start! is sponsored nationally by SUBWAY® Restaurants, Healthy Choice® and AstraZeneca® and locally by Allina Hospitals and Clinics and the Medtronic Foundation. For more information about the Start! Fit-Friendly Companies Program and how it is helping to improve the health of Americans by focusing on an activity that is convenient, free and easy, visit www.americanheart.org/start.
About the American Heart Association
Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association today is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to reducing disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and stroke. These diseases, America’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers, claim about 870,000 lives a year. In fiscal year 2005–06 the association invested more than $543 million in research, professional and public education, advocacy and community service programs to help all Americans live longer, healthier lives. To learn more, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or visit www.americanheart.org/start.
About General Mills
General Mills, with annual net sales of $12.5 billion, is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of consumer foods products. Based in Minneapolis, Minn., General Mills’ mission is to innovate to make people’s lives healthier, easier and richer around the world. Its global brand portfolio includes Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso and more. It also has more than 100 U.S. consumer brands, more than 30 of which generate annual retail sales in excess of $100 million. General Mills also is a leading supplier of baking and other food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries.
For More Information, Contact:
Maerenn Ball or
Heidi Geller
General Mills
763-764-6364
