Poor nutritional habits are associated with all kinds of health hazards, from obesity and diabetes to heart disease, sexual dysfunction, and dementia.

But in 2019, only around 12% of American adults got the recommended daily intake of fruits and only 10% got the recommended level of vegetables.

We’ve spent our lives trying to find ways to help people make smart nutritional choices they enjoy that will boost their health and happiness. And we’ve discovered many great options that can increase your motivation. Some may be surprising.

Being generous and helping others boosts your inclination to treat yourself better and helps banish depression and stress, which can fuel poor nutritional choices. 

Taking a cooking class or cooking regularly with friends and family members can also improve your food choices. This is true with kids too.

But if your motivation to upgrade your nutrition is still spotty, supplements can help fill in nutritional gaps and offer protection from disease and disability:

• A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that taking 500 mg of cocoa extract supplements daily for two years improved cognition in older people with poor dietary habits. 

• The Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that getting adequate amounts of vitamins A, C, D, and E, as well as selenium and zinc is important to reduce your risk of infections.

To discover more about what supplements can do to protect your health, check out Dr. Oz's blog at iHerb.com.