Produce prescriptions sound good, but data to support them are lacking-that could soon change

This Medical News article discusses research initiatives to support produce prescriptions and other “food is medicine” nutrition programs in health care settings.

Becerra’s eloquence marked the launch of a first-ever summit at HHS and captured the fervor surrounding the meeting’s topic: food is medicine. The term broadly describes nutrition programs intended to treat or prevent diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Importantly, such programs are administered by and within health care settings. In just a few years, the concept has attracted the support of the White House, led to program launches at several federal agencies, and garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropic spending from organizations that see it as a possible solution to the estimated $1.1 trillion that diet-related diseases cost the US each year.