Lauren’s App of the Week: Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen

By Lauren Bensussen, Senior Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing

While this free app is not directly related to B2B sales, marketing, or careers, it is directly related to health and wellness. And if we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years, it’s that health and wellness are key determinants of one’s productivity at work and professional success.

That’s why I’m writing about Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen, an app inspired by Dr. Michael Greger, an American physician who doubles as an illustrious author, speaker, and thought leader in the realm of nutritional health. Over the past couple of months, I ripped through his first book, How Not to Die, and am currently devouring his second book, How Not to Diet.

In his books and on his website NutritionFacts.org, Dr. Greger explains the science behind nutrition, and exactly how to hack that science so that you can avoid the top 15 causes of death in the United States—all of which are chronic diseases.

The slow development of these all-too-common chronic diseases are of course detrimental to our day-to-day. Therefore, dealing with them now can help us live longer, more fulfilling lives. The Daily Dozen app can help you achieve baseline wellness and energy levels that are crucial to putting your best foot forward in your professional career, too.

I highly recommend reading Dr. Greger’s first book because it teaches you the “why” behind the nutritional recommendations in the app—and the “why” is extremely compelling! But if you trust the doctor’s review and compilation of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies, then skip right ahead to doing these 12 things every day:

1. Eating 3 servings of beans
2. Eating 1 serving of berries
3. Eating 3 servings of other fruits
4. Eating 1 serving of cruciferous vegetables
5. Eating 2 servings of greens
6. Eating 2 servings of other vegetables
7. Eating 1 serving of flaxseeds
8. Eating 1 serving of nuts and seeds
9. Eating 1 serving of herbs and spices
10. Eating 3 servings of whole grains (yay! Dave’s Killer Bread for the win)
11. Drinking 5 12oz. servings of healthy beverages
12. Exercising

These are simple rules to follow, mostly because the approach is to add items to your diet and lifestyle instead of taking any away! The app enables you to track the 12 recommendations daily. In this way, you can identify areas for improvement and continually motivate yourself to hit the total of 24 servings every day.

For example, right now, it’s noon and I’m only at 6/24 servings! I better get to work on incorporating beans, greens, other fruits, other vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, flaxseeds, and a couple more servings of whole grains into my day (plus exercise and more servings of healthy beverages).

And if you’re wondering what foods fall under each category, look no further than the app itself. It contains serving size examples, types of foods, and even links to free video content explaining the benefits of each.

All in all, what’s special about this app is that it’s simple yet highly effective. If you’re trying to improve your overall health and wellness—which undoubtedly improves your performance at work—don’t sleep on it!