FEATURED ISSUE
Food as Medicine expanding
While health and wellness professionals encourage you to consider the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices, have you noticed segments of the government and academia touting a “Food as Medicine” approach? It is interesting to review the related articles listed below to uncover the ways these latter groups present Food as Medicine and the aspects of it that each selects to focus on and support, question their value, or use what they promote as a springboard to advocate for something somewhat related they also want to promote.

Whatever the impetus, it is exciting to see that there is credible research showing how specific foods can treat or prevent chronic health conditions. Also exciting is learning that there are efforts in the works to have insurance cover the costs of healthy food items so that underserved populations can afford these foods.

But note the concerns expressed by some sources that the Food as Medicine programs are taking effort and funding away from medical research or that it might even end up that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) “follows the letter of the law, and the law says if you talk publicly about the simple notion of using a food product as a medicine, that turns it into a drug.”

ISSUE: How well informed am I about what the government and academia are doing with Food as Medicine programs?

AHHA strives to maintain a neutral position and views knowledge as power. For those interested in this month’s Issue, the following articles have been selected so that you can begin to be aware of the various programs under development, particularly if you or a loved one is dealing with a chronic condition related to diabetes, heart, kidney, liver, or hypertension. You are encouraged to delve deeper and expand your knowledge of this matter using these articles as a springboard.

Food as Medicine: A Project to Unify and Advance Collective Action (9/27/23)
Health.gov

‘Food as medicine’ on the table (12/7/23)
by Jerry Hagstrom
Outside Influences

A “Food Is Medicine” Approach to Disease Prevention (11/30/23)
by Alyssa J. Moran, ScD, MPH, RD, Christina  A. Roberto, PhD
JAMA Network

‘Food as Medicine’ Concept Starts to Catch On: What to Know (11/21/23)
by Ken Terry
WebMD

New Report Shows Food is Medicine Interventions Would Save U.S. Lives and Billions of Dollars (9/26/23)
Tufts University

‘Food is Medicine’ research is key to chronic disease care (10/12/23)
by Bridget Kuehn
Cornell Chronicle

Food as Medicine: How Providers Are Connecting Patients to Essential Nutrition (1/5/23)
by Amy Buroughs
HealthTech

Food is Medicine (12/7/23)
Alliance for Natural Health USA

You are also encouraged to go to our blog at ahha.org/blog and post your comments.

To review past ISSUES, visit the Special Updates Archives.