The personal benefits of greater health are obvious: more energy, less illness, fewer trips to the doctor, and better quality of life. Another issue, though, is the shift in financial burden, not just within families, but on a global level.

Although concerns often come up about what it costs to give those in lower-income areas access to better information and healthier food options, it’s actually much more expensive to treat illnesses related to chronic malnutrition or other nutrition-dependent conditions like obesity.

A new wave of health initiatives has come along to deal with health crises in exactly this way – focusing on creating healthy habits now, especially in younger people, in order to prevent medical costs from stacking up later in life. Different initiatives approach the the task in different ways; here are a few that caught our attention as being particularly innovative.

A new wave of health initiatives has come along to deal with health crises by focusing on creating healthy habits now

 

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Michelle Obama’s commitment to healthier, more regulated school food began four years ago, when she announced that there would be new requirements and guidelines for what could and could not be served in school meals. After a decade and-a-half of no major changes to school lunch policy, this was a huge step forward toward giving tens of millions of school students better quality foods, a wider variety of healthy choices, and appropriate caloric portions.

Quite a few startups have stepped up to help meet the new standards, in order to help children be better focused, more relaxed, and more attentive. Oakland-based Revolution Foods, for example, serves over one million healthy meals each week to students across the country. Their chefs prepare the meals with fresh vegetables and fruit, whole grains, and meat free of added nitrates and nitrites.

Oakland-based Revolution Foods serves over one million healthy meals each week to students across the country

As more of these kinds of startups come into play, more children will be given a better head start not only with nutrition, but with education.

Clinton Foundation Health and Wellness Initiatives

The Clinton Foundation has long been known for its work on various global issues like AIDS and climate change, over the past couple of years the Foundation has expanded to include specific programs for fighting childhood obesity, and improving the health of families across the United States.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, in cooperation with the American Heart Association, works with schools, healthcare professionals, and families to help reduce the incidence of childhood obesity, by encouraging children to develop healthy eating habits early on in life. In addition, the Health Matters Initiative continues the support on college campuses, where some of the poorest health choices are often made. The initiative deals with issues like prescription drug abuse, mental health and stress, and of course nutrition and fitness.

Maxwell Health

B Corporation Maxwell Health looks like an insurance company on the surface, but it’s actually a very simple yet powerful system for companies to give their employees a lot more than just financial support for medical treatments. Maxwell is a comprehensive wellness benefit system that works from a perspective of prevention, giving employees access not only to health insurance plans, but also state-of-the-art wellness tech and services.

Maxwell is a comprehensive wellness benefit system that works from a perspective of prevention

These services can include things like personal fitness training, nutrition coaching, wearable fitness trackers, and even a rewards program to help members stay motivated. The point of having these options in place is not only to help companies help their employees to be healthy, but also to save money for everyone involved, as people who maintain healthy lifestyles tend to need less medical care, and spend less time on sick leave.

GiveDirectly

The initiatives we’ve talked about so for are primarily based in the United States, but of course there are also plenty of organizations bringing about healthy change on an international level. GiveDirectly is one such organization, and its aid model is pretty simple: give money away, no strings attached, to the people and families who need it most.

The system has initially been set up in Kenya, where there are easy-to-use mobile payment systems that allow people to receive money easily. Each eligible family is given approximately $1,000, which is about the equivalent of $80,000 in the US when adjusted for cost of living.

The system has initially been set up in Kenya, where there are easy-to-use mobile payment systems that allow people to receive money easily

You might think there would be a huge risk that recipients would use the money to make unfortunate life choices, like gambling or buying handguns, but the overwhelming evidence is that most households use the money on making their families safer and healthier, buy purchasing things like roof upgrades and better quality food. In fact, the system is working so well that some are asking whether it would make sense to try to bring direct giving to developed nations like the United States.