Our country faces a national nutrition crisis. Our food system is a major cause of poor health, ever-rising healthcare costs, strangled government budgets, diminished economic competitiveness of American business, reduced military readiness, and hunger and disparities. Americans of all backgrounds see these problems, and are hungry for and value leadership to create lasting solutions.
Fortunately, advances in nutrition and policy science now provide a road-map for addressing our nutrition crisis. The solutions are win-win, promoting better well-being, lower health care costs, greater sustainability, reduced disparities, improved economic competitiveness, and greater national security. Multiple sectors have important roles to play, including farmers, retailers/supermarkets, restaurants, food manufacturers, worksites, schools, universities, life insurance, media, advocacy groups, and the healthcare sector.
The Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy is collaborating with Congressional leaders, advocacy partners, and other key stakeholders on a bipartisan Food is Medicine initiative. Our goals are to raise awareness of the tremendous impact of food on national well-being, share the remarkable advances in both science and technology that inform priorities, and provide trusted science on actionable and impactful solutions.
Resources:
Nutrition Security Screener: Tufts University, Kaiser Permanente, and Los Angeles Department of Public Health have developed a 2-item Nutrition Security Screener (NSS). The NSS includes a short preamble to help characterize a common definition of healthy foods for the respondent, followed by two questions.
McGovern, Walorski, Pingree, Marshall Introduce Legislation to Pilot Medically Tailored Meals
H.R.6774 - Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meals Demonstration Pilot Act of 2020
Reps. Tim Ryan and Rosa DeLauro Request GAO Report on Food Policy and Public Health
GAO Food and Nutrition Letter 6.7.20
An Act relative to establishing and implementing a Food and Health Pilot Program
CIPR Study - Rising Health Care Costs: Drivers, Challenges and Solutions
Food Is Medicine—The Promise and Challenges of Integrating Food and Nutrition Into Health Care
Food is medicine: How US policy is shifting toward nutrition for better health
Doctoring Our Diet: Policy Tools to Include Nutrition in U.S. Medical Training
Role of government policy in nutrition—barriers to and opportunities for healthier eating
Preventable Cancer Burden Associated With Poor Diet in the United States
Role of government policy in nutrition—barriers to and opportunities for healthier eating
Want to fix America’s health care? First, focus on food
Food-PRICE: Food Policy Review and Intervention Cost-Effectiveness
Food Is Medicine—The Promise and Challenges of Integrating Food and Nutrition Into Health Care
Food is Medicine Massachusetts
Doctoring Our Diet: Policy Tools to Include Nutrition in U.S. Medical Training
For resources on diet and health related to COVID-19, please see the school's COVID-19 in Context page.
Our Food is Medicine "best buy" solutions span 6 domains:
Health systems | Economic Incentives | Schools | Worksites | Quality & Labeling Standards | Innovation and Entrepreneurship |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Electronic health record (EHR) standards, e.g. nutrition vital sign, nutrition annual physical
|
Taxes on sugary drinks, added sugar, salt |
Strong meals: strong nutrition standards |
Procurement standards for worksite cafeterias, snacks, and catering |
Limits on additives such as trans fat, salt, and sugar |
Coordinated government leadership and funding for fundamental and translational research (e.g. a new National Institute of Nutrition) |
Medical education: nutrition in physician and other provider licensing exams, speciality certifications, continuing education
|
Retail consumer subsidies or other incentives for protective foods |
Competitive foods: strong nutrition standards |
Cafeteria build-environment nudges (behavioral economics) | Marketing standards or restrictions, especially relating to children | Public-private partnerships for research and development, e.g. on optimal agricultural practices, food processing |
Healthy food prescriptions covered by health insurance | Government feeding programs: strong nutritional incentives and/or standards | Free provision of fruits and vegetables | Multicomponent wellness platforms including a strong nutritional focus | Nutrient content labels, front-of-pack icons, restaurant menu labeling | Academic convening of investors and start-ups to facilitate evidence-based, mission oriented innovation |
Medically tailored meals for highest-risk patients with complex chronic conditions | Tax incentives (agricultural, retail, manufacturing, restaurant) for development and marketing of healthier foods | School gardens with coordinated educational programming | Employee incentives for purchasing healthier foods at or outside work | Warning labels | Global pooling of research dollars for top nutrition priorities, e.g. obesity, diabetes, cancer, brain health, microbiome, phytochemicals, data science, policy translation |
Provide quality metrics and payer reimbursement for nutrition evaluation and intervention | Changes in shareholder criteria (e.g., B-Corps) and investment vehicles to reward companies for tackling obesity and diabetes | Procurement standards for hospital cafeterias and food | Health claims |
In addition, the evidence supports a need for new structures for multi-agency coordination across relevant departments and groups, including USDA, CMS, FDA, EPA, NIH, CDC, DOD, DOE, VA, Commence, and more.