Kaiser Permanente and Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute (FIMI) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy recently launched the Food is Medicine National Network of Excellence (NOE) to accelerate food-based health interventions across the United States.
“Food is the big missing thing in how we approach our health in this country,” says Dariush Mozafarrian, cardiologist and Director of FIMI.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic diseases account for 70 percent of all U.S. deaths each year. Many of these, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer, are linked to diet. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports that unhealthy diets contribute to 678,000 deaths in the U.S. annually.
The NOE aims to assess the impact of FIM interventions, identify opportunities to optimize program design and delivery, and promote the effectiveness of FIM through industry engagement and public outreach. Other founding members of the NOE include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, CVS Health, Devoted Health, Elevance Health, Geisinger, and Highmark Health.
“We wanted a group of healthcare leaders across the nation who were really committed to improving health and reducing health disparities and…creating a more resilient healthcare system that can recognize the power of food as medicine,” Pamela Schwartz, Executive Director of Community Health at Kaiser Permanente, tells Food Tank.
Poor nutrition is not only a driver of poor health—it is also expensive. Schwartz tells Food Tank that each year, suboptimal diets cost the U.S. economy US$1.1 trillion in health care and lost productivity costs. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 85 percent of healthcare spending in the country is related to the management of diet-related chronic diseases.
“This is bad for health and bad for cost of care,” says Schwartz.
Research on FIM interventions is growing. A report from FIMI, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, finds that food-based nutrition interventions could avert approximately 1.6 million hospitalizations and save an estimated US$13.6 billion in healthcare costs in the first year alone, after accounting for implementation costs.
“By incorporating food-based nutritional interventions into healthcare, providers can address the root causes of [diet-related] conditions, leading to better health outcomes, improved quality of life, and more efficient healthcare spending,” Mozaffarian tells Food Tank.
Kaiser Permanente has been exploring FIM interventions over the past eight years through medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, culinary medicine, and nutrition counseling, according to Schwartz.
In 2021 and 2022, Kaiser Permanente conducted what was at the time the largest randomized, controlled trial of produce prescriptions. They find that diabetes patients who received healthy food boxes experienced improved food security and a significant reduction in blood sugar levels after six months.
Kaiser Permanente is now running a study that integrates patient choice, allowing patients to shop from a curated list of healthy items in a virtual storefront.
“It’s not just what disease do you have and what allergies do you have? But also, what do you cook? Do you not cook? Do you shop? Do you not shop? Do you have access to a refrigerator or a microwave or an oven?” explains Schwartz. “What we heard from our patients and members is that they want a choice.”
Research into the cost-effectiveness of FIM interventions is ongoing. “We’re seeing promising results,” says Schwartz, “but that’s part of the value proposition that we’ve been leaning into with the Network of Excellence… [understanding] how we can build the business case.”
Schwartz also notices that FIM projects have boosted team morale at Kaiser Permanente. “What is super exciting for me, is that one key to our success has been the genuine enthusiasm and super deep engagement across Kaiser Permanente,” she says. “I’ve been at Kaiser 25 years, and I’ve not seen so much enthusiasm.”
Mozaffarian notes that national enthusiasm around and investment in FIM initiatives is “rapidly growing” as well. “We’re sort of at a potential tipping point where we could actually transform the healthcare system to a holistic, caring system,” he tells Food Tank.
Schwartz is hopeful about the promise of the NOE in this respect. “I think we’ll be able to drive changes inside healthcare that have a far-reaching and lasting impact on the health of countless individuals.”
Mozaffarian hopes that the NOE can encourage widespread adoption of evidence-based FIM approaches, achieving “demonstrable improvements in health outcomes…such as better pregnancy outcomes, more controlled diabetes, better cardiovascular health, improved mental health, and higher quality of life.”
Mozaffarian says that eventually, he hopes “a doctor reaching for her prescription pad will write a prescription for healthy food as readily as for a drug or surgery.”
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Photo courtesy of Tufts University
