“I wish there were more health markets in the Quad Cities because I love eating and staying healthy,” stated Megan Murphy, a senior at Pleasant Valley High School. Fast food is a huge money maker in the United States, but the Quad Cities have opened a health section in all Hy-Vee’s and they are opening a new store where the old Ruby’s Tuesday was down by the Rave Cinema. The U.S. is progressing towards a healthier country.

“Every time I go to Hy-Vee, the first place I go to is the health section,” said Murphy. Hy-Vee placed health markets in their stores to allow people to get the same food, like chips and pasta, like they usually get, just healthier. Over the years, the health section has increased in size. A couple years ago, the health section wasn’t nearly as large as it is today.

A new store is soon going to be opening where the old Ruby Tuesday was on 53rd Street in Davenport. The new store is an organic grocery store filled with healthy foods to allow people to stay away from the junk food. Brady Bormann, a senior at Pleasant Valley High School, said, “Now with wrestling season coming up, I can’t wait for an organic grocery store to open to allow me to eat, but still maintain weight because I have to cut down this year to make my weight class.”

The level of high school kids that are obese or overweight keeps rising. “We need to open more health markets to allow kids to become healthier to help them maintain their weight as they grow in age,” stated Bormann. According to The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, in 2007, 11.1% of high school kids in the state of Iowa were obese or overweight, and in 2011, it increased to 13.2%. More and more health markets are starting to open to push kids to eat healthier and to lower the percentage of obese kids in the U.S.

With the new organic grocery market opening and Hy-Vee increasing the size of their health market sections, it will push for more people to start eating healthy. The opening of the organic grocery market will push more and more organic stores to open throughout the U.S. With these two things in full force, Iowa is trying to decrease the number of obese or overweight people.