Humana Inc., a major health care company is partnering with Wal-Mart to give its HumanaVitality participants a discount on healthy foods such as vegetables, fruit, lean meat, low-fat dairy products and nuts.
The program starts on October 15 and will allot more than one million Vitality customers to have a 5 percent discount on Great For Your products, which is the brand name they created last year to make it simpler for Wal-mart shoppers to buy healthy without having to do any research or read labels.
Humana's chief of product development said to NBC News that Humana approached Wal-Mart earlier this year and that the two have "a common vision."
Dr. John Agwunobi, president of health and wellness at Wal-Mart said to Reuters, "One of the biggest barriers to healthy nutrition is cost."
Wal-Mart is the largest food retailer in the United states with half of its annual sales being from food.
Humana had a similar program with a South African program that began in 2009.
The company said it was continuing its efforts to make healthier food more accessible. Wal-Mart announced a plan to lower salt and sugars on thousands of its products as well as agreed to cut produce prices by 2015.
The emphasis on healthy eating stems from the United States facing a current obesity crisis. According to Reuters, a study that was released on Tuesday predicted that half of adults in the U.S. will be obese by 2030 unless they quickly change their eating and exercise habits.
