Produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals improve quality of life, cut costs, they say
Providing nutritious meals to vulnerable populations can save lives and curb healthcare costs, experts said during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security on Tuesday.
“Poor nutrition is the top cause of death and disability in the United States … causing more harm than tobacco use, alcohol, physical inactivity, and air pollution,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston.
What that means, in reality, is that the inability to access healthy food is “literally lethal,” Mozaffarian said. And while thousands of Americans know their diets are making them sick, many feel powerless to fix the problem.
Witnesses argued that food is medicine, which is why produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals, and counseling programs have been shown to substantially benefit patients with diabetes, depression, pain, and other chronic issues.
Erin Martin, MASM, a gerontologist and founder and director of FreshRx Oklahoma, a nonprofit food prescription program, said many healthy food initiatives were borne out of need.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a physician from North Tulsa discovered that even his patients with diabetes who complied with their medications and medical visits were seeing their health decline. T
