Why Food is Medicine?

People in the United States eat a lot of unhealthy food. If there were such a thing as the average diet for an average person in the U.S., the diet would include many ultraprocessed foods and fall well short of doctors' and scientists' recommendations. At the same time, many people in the US worry about their households' ability to afford enough food. Around 13% of U.S. households in 2023 reported food insecurity at some point in the last year, meaning they had difficulty providing enough food for the household due to a lack of resources. Many of the people reporting food insecurity-and others who did not report food insecurity-would also meet the criteria for nutrition insecurity. People experiencing nutrition insecurity have difficulty consistently accessing affordable foods that promote health and prevent or treat disease.

Low-quality diet, food insecurity, and nutrition insecurity are associated with the likelihood of having diet-related chronic diseases. In other words, diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease are more common among people with low-quality diets, food insecurity, and nutrition insecurity. Diet-related chronic diseases are dangerous and expensive. They are among the leading causes of death in the U.S., and estimates suggest that the U.S. spends over $1 trillion per year treating diet-related chronic diseases., Prevention and management of these diseases has become a political, economic, and health care priority.

If food is the culprit, it can also be the cure. Food is Medicine has become an umbrella term for food-based approaches to address specific health needs. Food is Medicine encompasses several categories of interventions, including medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescriptions. Because Food is Medicine interventions are prescribed to improve the health of people with specific health conditions, they are different from-but complementary to-food and nutrition assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

The guide you are reading exists to remind readers of the broad range of community-based organizations and community champions working in Food is Medicine, to highlight the valuable contributions they make, and to explore why and how funding can flow to them.

Food is Medicine approaches show strong evidence of effectiveness, particularly for improving participants' diet quality and food security. Likewise, Food is Medicine approaches have shown strong evidence of effectiveness in improving clinical indicators like HbA1c and blood pressure. In addition, in simulations and in practice, Food is Medicine approaches have shown potential for lowering the cost of health care over time. For a deep dive summary of the state of peer-reviewed Food is Medicine research through 2024, please see Food & Society at the Aspen Insitute's Food Is Medicine Research Action Plan.

The current evidence base shown in the Research Action Plan highlights Food is Medicine's promise of improved health to participants, lowered costs of chronic disease management to society, and economic benefits to producers and distributors of healthy foods. Although a 2025 public opinion survey showed that awareness of Food is Medicine is relatively low among the US public (13% had heard of it) and among health care workers (32%), when survey respondents were provided with an explanation of what Food is Medicine is, more than 80% of the general public believed Food is Medicine could improve health in the U.S. This belief was shared across political affiliations by more than 80% of Democrats and more than 80% of Republicans. Likewise, when health care workers learned about Food is Medicine, more than 80% were enthusiastic about recommending it. These survey results suggest that now is the time to plan for how-and where-Food is Medicine is going to grow.