A very wise colleague (Michael Pollan) wrote in 2009 that “The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care.” Because of health care’s ability to exclude those with pre-existing conditions, or get rid of them once they were sick, “it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers,” wrote Pollan in the New York Times.
But as Pollan predicted in his article, changes in health care rules (aka – Obamacare) are now meaning that it is increasingly in the health care industry’s best interest to keep us healthy. In other words, Big Food might finally be coming face to face with an equally powerful lobby now intent on making us eat healthier.
Medica, a health insurance company headquartered in Minneapolis, has now teamed up with employers, regional grocers, large and small food companies, and Solutran (the company who developed the technology) to bring 200,000 households in the city discounts on healthier food. And although the idea is a giant leap forward, the definition of “healthy food” in the U.S. might still be an impediment in getting people to eat a better diet.
The Medica Healthy Savings program will provide members with Healthy Savings cards good for discounts on healthy foods sold at Cub® Foods, Rainbow®, Lunds and Byerly’s. Dr. Robert Jeffery, director of the Obesity Prevention Center at the University of Minnesota, consulted on the program, and products discounted have to appear on the top third of the Guiding Stars rating system (a patented system to rate the nutritional quality of food).
Silver Palate Kitchen’s Thick & Rough Oatmeal, for example, seems to fit the “healthy” bill, as does the Del Monte’s long list of frozen veggies. Rice Select has discounted couscous (original and whole wheat) and Faribault Foods, cans of beans.
But while many of the products available for discounts will clearly be an improvement over the chips and soda filling most shopping carts today, other items listed as “healthy” feel like a stretch of Big Food’s imagination.
How can Post Foods Sesame Street Cookie Monster cereal really be thought of as “healthy”? And the inclusion of Nesquick’s chocolate 4 pack has to be a joke.
The problem might lie in the fact that no matter how many nutrients a company tries to pack into a processed frozen dinner or chocolate drink, it still remains processed food. Once a raw food product is chopped and boiled and preserved and frozen – there is just so much “health” left in it.
But Medica is also currently piloting a new, potentially even more promising program – the Fresh Produce Program (FPP) – offering grocer discounts and / or employee rewards to incentivize more fresh produce purchases. Aside from selling more kale and carrots, a program like FPP also communicates to customers there is nothing more “healthy” than fresh produce.
The more things change, the more things stay the same, the saying goes. Or do they? Perhaps an unintended consequence of better health care will actually also be healthier Americans.
