YOU MAY HAVE heard the phrase “food is medicine” bubbling up in social media, news reports, and politics. The basic idea is that by granting people more access to healthful food we can better prevent and treat disease.
Utopian? Maybe. But Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, not only believes in the power of food is medicine, he thinks there’s already strong momentum behind it. Dr. Mozaffarian has, after all, had direct involvement in building the momentum.
Since July 2023, Dr. Mozaffarian has been the director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, a research, policy engagement, and education entity. He’s also Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. In addition, he is an attending cardiologist at Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Mozaffarian has authored more than 600 papers and has been a longtime member of Men’s Health’s Advisory Board.
“The work we do at the institute, I would say we do about 60 percent research,” Dr. Mozaffarian said in a mid-May interview with Men’s Health. “We do about 20 percent convening—convening payers, convening local health systems, convening national coalitions. And then we do about 20 percent policy and advocacy, educating and providing information and evidence to the White House, to the agencies, to Congress, and states.”
