With obesity levels at an all time high, the healthy food movement has overflowed beyond grocery aisles to mass and drug stores, into school lunch offerings and even into vending machine territory, making the business of better-for-you foods (BFY) as profitable as it is healthy. According to a new report titled Better-For-You Foods: It’s Just Good Business, produced by Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute, food and beverage companies with a higher percentage of their sales coming from healthy foods and beverages perform better financially. 

Using Nielsen sales data from grocery stores, drug stores, and mass merchandisers, Hudson Institute researchers found these companies record stronger sales growth, higher operating profits, superior shareholder returns and better company reputations than companies that sell fewer BFY products, such as no-, low- and reduced-calorie items, like flavored waters or diet sodas, as well as products that generally are perceived to be healthier, such as yogurts and whole-grain cereals. During the five-year study period, BFY items drove more than 70% of sales growth.
 
The researchers studied