Local Restaurants Partner with Healthy Heart Network

The North Country Healthy Heart Network’s Fit Pix Program announces that Twinleaf Fresh Express and Bear’s Den Restaurant now offer more fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and lean protein on their menus.

The goal of the partnership is to make it easier for people in Franklin County to find delicious, smart choices at their favorite restaurants. Now it is possible to walk in to the Bear’s Den and order incredibly fresh entrée-sized salad with fun and tasty toppings, or to let a child choose a meal from Cubby’s Menu (their kids menu) and feel sure that they will be getting enough nutrients.

At Twinleaf Fresh Express, customers customize their own salad at the salad bar, making it easy and delicious to add some vegetables to any meal. Even the kids can order a kid-sized chef salad! They also added “Perfect Portions,” a section of the menu that offers smaller meals at a great value. For those people who want to start small, Twinleaf offers delicious sweet potato fries as a more nutritious alternative to French fries.

“The managers at Twinleaf and the Bear’s Den are really going above and beyond with their commitment to improving our communities. It is not easy to add new options to a menu, it takes a lot of energy, effort, and planning, but these places think that having great choices available for everyone is worth the effort.” Said Brittany Harris, the Coordinator of the Fit Pix Program.

The project is part of the Creating Healthy Places Program, which is funded by the NYS Department of Health to help combat New York’s alarming prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Similar projects are taking place around the state, as well as around the U.S. and in Canada.

For more information about this project or others by Saranac Lake-based North Country Healthy Heart Network, call 897-5981 or visit the website at http://www.heartnetwork.org.