9/19/2024 –
We are what we eat, and not enough Americans eat foods that promote health and wellness. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), poor nutrition is a leading cause of illness in the United States. It’s also associated with more than half a million deaths each year.
Healthy foods can help. But they only help those with access to them, a privilege seemingly made rarer each year. Wages, housing, and even racial disparities too often determine who has access and who doesn’t.
Mass General Brigham has introduced its “Food is Medicine” strategy to make healthy foods a reality for millions of Americans facing food insecurity, or those living without enough access to foods for an active, healthy life.
“Creating a healthier America shouldn’t be limited to developing a new medication or a new medical procedure,” says Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, chief community health and health equity officer at Mass General Brigham. “Not only do we want to use what we eat to stop chronic diseases linked to poor nutrition from progressing, but we want to use those foods to prevent those conditions from developing in the first place.”
According to Dr. Taveras, Lauren Fiechtner, MD, MPH, director of the Pediatric Nutrition Center at Mass General for Children, and Priscilla Wang, MD, MPH, associate medical director of primary care health equity at Mass General Brigham, Mass General Brigham uses Food is Medicine to combat institutional barriers standing between patients and healthy foods…
