Why Growstead Exists: The Data Behind Our Mission
The Midwest Food-Related Health Crisis
The Midwest grows more food than almost anywhere in the world. But most of that food doesn't feed us. As a result, what we do end up eating isn't keeping us healthy. Today, the Midwest has the highest adult obesity rate in the United States at 35.9%.
The scale of this problem is massive. Right now, 100 million American adults are living with obesity, and 75% of them have obesity-related complications including diabetes, heart disease, joint pain and depression. Another 84.1 million adults are being treated annually for diet-related conditions like cardiovascular disease and cancer.
People living with mild obesity lose 3-4 years of disease-free life between ages 40 and 75. Those with severe obesity lose 7-8 years. These aren't just statistics, these are real people spending years dealing with chronic pain, limited mobility, and multiple medications instead of staying active and enjoying life.
Approximately one million Americans die each year from diet-related chronic diseases, and that number keeps climbing.
We're surrounded by farmland, but like most Americans, we're disconnected from fresh, local food. The solution isn't more medication. It's reconnecting people to the healthy food growing around them, and technology has finally made that possible.
The True Cost of Poor Nutrition
The U.S. economy loses $1.72 trillion every year to obesity—$480.7 billion in direct medical costs and $1.24 trillion in lost productivity. That's 9.3% of our entire GDP.
What Americans Pay
The healthcare system spends $260.6 billion treating obesity and another $334 billion treating diet-related conditions each year. Plus $166 billion for cardiovascular disease, $151 billion for diabetes and $24 billion for diet-related cancers. 20% of all cardiometabolic disease costs, or $50 billion annually, comes directly from poor diet.
For individuals, the costs add up fast. Adults with obesity pay $2,505 more per year in medical costs (a 100% increase compared to people at a healthy weight). For those with moderate obesity, it's 120% more. For severe obesity, 233% more. These costs are avoidable when people have access to the right nutrition—which is where fresh, local food makes a measurable difference.
What Employers Pay
Employers already cover most healthcare costs. The average family health insurance premium is $26,993 annually, with employers paying $20,143. But obesity adds significant costs on top of that baseline.
Workers with obesity generate 7 times higher medical claims than healthy-weight colleagues. They require 3 times more workers' compensation days (8.59 days versus 2.92). Nationally, $225.8 billion in productivity is lost to absenteeism, with 540 million workdays lost each year to chronic health conditions.
Without intervention, lost productivity will reach $794 billion annually by 2030.
What Investing in Nutrition Returns to Employers
The good news: nutrition interventions work, and there is a clear ROI.
Workplace wellness programs focused on nutrition deliver $3.27 in healthcare cost savings for every dollar invested, plus $2.73 saved in absenteeism costs per dollar spent. Johnson & Johnson saved $250 million over 10 years, a $2.71 return on every dollar. Strong wellness programs also reduce employee turnover by 25%, and employees with nutritious diets are 25% more likely to have higher job performance.
The challenge has been turning intention into action. Most employers don't have a practical way to help their teams plan meals, source local ingredients, and prepare healthy food consistently. That's the gap Growstead fills.
Why Local Food is Nutritionally Superior
Fresh food loses nutrients fast. The longer it sits, the less nutritious it becomes.
Distance Destroys Nutrition
When a vegetable is harvested, nutrient loss starts immediately. Spinach loses 90% of its vitamin C within 24 hours of being picked. Green peas lose 50% of their vitamin C in just two days. After a week, most vegetables have lost 15-77% of their vitamin C, even refrigerated.
Most grocery store produce has been in transit for 7-14 days before you buy it. By then, much of the nutritional value is gone. This matters even more when you're using food to manage chronic health conditions.
The Historical Decline Crisis
The problem goes deeper than transportation time. Modern industrial agriculture has made food less nutritious overall.
Between 1950 and 1999, the USDA tracked nutrient content in common fruits and vegetables. The results showed significant declines: protein down 6%, calcium down 15%, iron down 15%, vitamin C down 15%, and riboflavin down 38%.
Modern agriculture optimized for yield, pest resistance, and shelf life, not nutrition. You'd need to eat eight oranges today to get the same vitamin A your grandparents got from one. This is why local food matters. It's not about supporting small farms as a nice gesture. It's about getting the nutrients your body needs.
The Local Advantage
Local food consumed within 24-48 hours of harvest retains 30-50% more nutrients than food that's been shipped. When that food comes from regenerative farms that focus on soil health, the advantage grows. Studies show cabbage from regenerative farms has 46% more vitamin K, 31% more vitamin E, and 60% more vitamin B3 compared to conventional organic farms.
The challenge has always been access. How do you get fresh, local food to busy people year-round? That requires new technology and logistics systems. Many people are working to get healthy local food to consumers, but the missing piece has been the digital infrastructure to connect producers, employers, and individuals at scale. That's what Growstead provides.
The Link Between Nutrition and Health
Most people trying to eat healthier follow generic advice: eat more vegetables, cut carbs, try Mediterranean. The problem with one-size-fits-all approaches is that everyone's body is different. What works for managing one person's diabetes might not work for someone else's heart health or weight loss goals.
The research on personalized nutrition is compelling.
The Diabetes Data
Type 2 diabetes affects 15.8% of American adults and costs $336 billion annually in treatment and lost productivity. With standard medical care (medication management and occasional dietary advice) only 0.23% of patients achieve remission.
But when people follow intensive, structured dietary interventions tailored to their condition, the results change dramatically. Studies show remission rates of 46-70% depending on the approach and individual factors. The key difference isn't just what people eat—it's having a plan that fits their specific health profile and is sustainable long-term.
Beyond Diabetes
The pattern holds across other conditions. Weight loss impacts healthcare costs directly: a 5% reduction in BMI cuts healthcare spending by 7%, and a 25% reduction cuts spending by 30%.
Research shows 87% of people who achieve even modest weight loss see improvements in health markers—better blood pressure, improved cholesterol, reduced inflammation. They also report improvements in bodily pain, physical functioning, and mobility. Mental health improves. Sleep quality improves. Daily activities become easier.
The Missing Piece
The challenge is that most approaches don't account for individual health needs, family dynamics (a diabetic parent and growing teenager need different nutrition), or the practical realities of meal planning and preparation. Generic meal plans fail because they weren't built for you.
What works is personalized nutrition paired with fresh, nutrient-dense ingredients and making it all EASY to use. That requires analyzing individual health data, configuring meals for specific health needs, and adapting to individual lifestyles.
Why Growstead Exists
Personalized. Growstead's AI creates personalized recipes and meal plans tailored to the health needs of each family member. Not generic recipes. Plans built for unique households.
Local. We partner with Midwest farmers and producers to deliver food locally, creating a 30-50% nutrient advantage. Local producers get consistent demand, and your food dollars stay in the regional economy. When you buy local, $68 out of every $100 circulates back into the local community compared to $43 when buying from chain stores. That difference supports local jobs, strengthens farming operations, and builds economic resilience across the Midwest.
Convenient. Ingredients delivered complete with recipes and video tutorials. No extra grocery trips, no meal planning stress, no decision fatigue. The system makes healthy eating the easy choice.
The Vision. Growstead is a technology company with a specific goal: help get 80% of the Midwest eating 80% local by 2035. The infrastructure already exists with thousands of farms, producers, and distribution networks. What's been missing is the digital layer that makes it easy for consumers to access the right food for their health while supporting local producers at scale.
We built that layer. Technology that connects existing infrastructure, empowers individual health, and strengthens the local food economy. It's all already here. We just made it work.
