Food Is Medicine (FIM) interventions integrate nutrition into healthcare to help prevent, manage, and treat diet-related diseases and improve overall health. These interventions connect individuals with nutritious foods, nutrition education, and other supports tailored to their health needs.
Food Is Medicine interventions vary in intensity, population served, and level of clinical customization. Some interventions focus on prevention and nutrition security, while others provide highly individualized nutrition support for people living with serious or complex medical conditions.
Growing evidence suggests that Food Is Medicine interventions can improve dietary intake, food and nutrition security, disease management, health outcomes, and healthcare utilization.
Food Is Medicine Interventions:
- Population-Level Food Policies and Programs
- Nutrition Education and Counseling
- Produce Prescription Programs
- Medically Tailored Meals and Groceries
Understanding the Food Is Medicine Continuum
Food Is Medicine interventions can be viewed along a continuum, ranging from broad population-level supports (the base of the pyramid) to highly tailored clinical nutrition interventions (the top of the pyramid).
These types of programs can look different based on both the type of intervention and the population that it is serving.
These interventions work to achieve a number of outcomes, including:
- Nutrition security
- Early disease management
- Chronic disease management
- Complex disease treatment
Types of Food Is Medicine Interventions
Population-Level Food Policies and Programs
Population-level policies and programs improve access to healthy foods and create environments that support healthy eating across entire communities.
Some examples of population-level food policies and programs include:
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- The Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC)
- School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs
- Senior nutrition programs
- Healthy Food Financing Initiative
Benefits of these policies and programs vary but are often designed to ensure:
- Increased access to healthy foods
- Improved nutrition security
- Reduced health disparities
- Population-wide improvements in diet and health
Nutrition Education and Counseling
Incorporating nutrition education and counseling into Food Is Medicine interventions can help individuals build skills, knowledge, and confidence to support healthy eating behaviors.
Services may include:
- Medical nutrition therapy
- Dietitian counseling
- Culinary medicine programs
- Group education
- Virtual coaching
- Behavior change support
Nutrition education is often combined with food-based interventions to maximize impact and support long-term health improvements.
Produce Prescription Programs
Produce prescription programs provide fruits and vegetables through vouchers, debit cards, produce boxes, retail partnerships, or direct food distribution.
These programs are typically connected to healthcare screening and referral systems and are designed to increase access to fruits and vegetables among individuals at risk for or living with diet-related conditions.
Produce prescription programs may:
- Increase fruit and vegetable consumption
- Improve food and nutrition security
- Support management of chronic conditions
- Reduce barriers to healthy eating
Medically Tailored Meals and Groceries
Medically tailored meals are fully prepared meals, and medically tailored groceries are curated packages of foods and ingredients. These meals and groceries are designed by a registered dietitian nutritionist or other qualified nutrition professional to meet an individual's medical, nutritional, and functional needs.
These interventions are generally designed for individuals with serious or complex medical conditions who may face barriers to shopping, meal preparation, disease management, or consistent access to foods that support their dietary needs. While medically tailored meals provide fully prepared foods, medically tailored groceries provide the ingredients and foods needed to prepare meals that align with an individual's prescribed nutrition plan.
Medically tailored meals and groceries may support individuals living with:
- Cancer
- Advanced diabetes
- Heart failure
- Chronic kidney disease
- HIV
- Multiple chronic conditions
Emerging evidence suggests that medically tailored meal programs may improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare utilization among eligible populations. Though research is ongoing, evidence suggests medically tailored grocery programs may improve diet quality, food and nutrition security, chronic disease management, and engagement with nutrition care.
