Food is medicine (FIM) programs that incorporate healthy food into health care for people with or at high risk for chronic disease show great potential in improving diet quality and food security, but additional research is needed to understand clinical outcomes, according to a systematic review of randomized controlled trials in the U.S conducted by the American Heart Association. The findings point to the need for efforts such as the Association's Health Care by Food™ initiative to address critical gaps in the research to improve understanding of FIM's impact on long-term clinical outcomes for patients.
The Association, a global force changing the future of health for all, published these findings and future directions today in a scientific statement, "A Systematic Review of 'Food Is Medicine' Randomized Controlled Trials for Noncommunicable Disease in the United States," in the Association's flagship journal Circulation.
The scientific statement underscores the growing potential of FIM programs based on a systematic review of 14 randomized controlled trials looking at the impact of FIM interventions, such as produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries and medically tailored meals. The review found great potential for improvements among patients in diet quality and food security, both key metrics for improving health. But improvements in outcomes including hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure and body mass index were inconsistent. This may have been due to factors such as small sample size and short study duration. The findings point to the need for larger, better-designed studies.
