FEATURE STORY
HOW WG CAN PUSH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO CREATE POLICY TO TREAT FOOD AS MEDICINE By Kara Timmins, Communications Manager
“We grow the best medicine in the world.” It’s a sentiment that is so important to Western Growers that it is core to the company’s philosophy. Now there are burgeoning initiatives to make this case on a federal level. Few would dispute that the average American diet is leading to illness; the research cascades like a winning game of solitaire. Diet-related disease is one of the biggest threats to health, resulting in both disability and death in the United States. Illnesses like heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension and some cancers have all been connected to diet. According to one report, “poor health arising from poor nutrition…costs the US economy $1.1 trillion each year and is a leading cause of mortality.” ( Food Is Medicine Movement—Key Actions Inside and Outside the Government , Sara N. Bleich, PhD, et al.) In one cohort study, researchers found that five servings of fruit and vegetables a day noted a significant inverse relationship with cardiovascular mortality. ( Shared Decision-Making in Cardiovascular Risk Factor Management , Sabrina Elias, PhD, MSN, RN, et al.) "Few would dispute that the average American diet is leading to illness; the research cascades like a winning game of solitaire." But like most large-scale challenges, finding and implementing a solution is far more difficult than identifying the problem. One of those key challenges is ensuring healthy food reaches people who have the hardest time getting access to it. In a report published by Tufts University titled True Cost of Food: Food is Medicine Case Study , which was created with support of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Food is Medicine initiative, authors present “Food is Medicine (FIM) interventions, which are food-based nutritional interventions that aim to treat or prevent disease, show tremendous promise for improving nutrition, reducing food insecurity, improving health outcomes, and increasing health equity.” Another case study examined by Tufts was Produce Prescription Programs: Health and Economic Impacts . This study looked to estimate the benefits of a health care produce prescription program for individuals with diabetes and food insecurity.
The study projects that “among 6.5 million eligible recipients, provision of produce prescriptions over a lifetime would prevent 292,000 cardiovascular disease events and generate 260,000 quality-adjusted life-years.” Some government organizations are beginning to roll out programs to deliver on the potential of this promise. The Biden- Harris Administration National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health supports legislation to “create a pilot to test covering medically tailored meals for individuals in traditional Medicare who are experiencing diet-related health conditions.” Another is through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Health Administration, which operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, providing healthcare services to eligible military veterans at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Through the VHA Food Security Office, the VA “supports Veteran comprehensive health and wellbeing by ensuring food security… [and] provide resources to VA healthcare systems through partnerships, data management, and research and education to support an interdisciplinary approach to ensure Veteran food security to create an environment where all Veterans are food and nutrition secure.”
28 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com May | June 2024
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